Reviews with content warning for Death - A Wilderness of Stars

Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw

9 reviews

sxl04260's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

2.0

Not a “magical romance” as the book description states.

Slow paced. Finished feeling… confused. The entire book reads as a mystery, where even though the plot isn’t all that engaging, you need to solve this bizarre mystery (because it makes no sense). So I swallowed this book in < 3 days, the “need to know” being the only really driving force for finishing it.

Some thoughts…

It is extremely slow paced, and is hard to gauge how much time/distance has passed as they trek through the continent. A map might’ve been helpful… without further context, I was imagining something like the US, huge and virtually impossible to trek on foot & on horse.
Too much italics, and too much repetition, both within scenes and overall in the story. Such as variations on “Out of time”, “running out of time”, “hurry”, “theres not enough time”, but thru the whole story. It was definitely a sense of urgency in the beginning, but this constant state of urgency made it seem absolutely unattainable and I lost the excitement.
on this note, the most important component for a story is its believability~ if I cannot follow the events, or if everything seems ridiculously unlikely, I lose the story. This includes
growing up isolated from anyone else, but knowing how to be around others; trekking for literal days/weeks without proper equipment or provisions and not dying??; no water walking thru the desert for days, and the sun hadn’t burned your skin off?;
.
Plot vs romance. I did not understand the romance at all. Perhaps it was a ‘mates’ sort of situation, destined to be together, but I was having trouble buying into that. I feel the story would’ve been identical if it was a strong platonic, sense-of-belonging relationship. I just could not get behind the kisses.
The planet is about to explode.
Further regarding believability- I don’t like the plot line of
the Theorists chasing after these kids.
It was hard to follow, popped up just when you were starting to focus on something else, and was kind of irritating. And it was hard to believe that a large group of adult men with food and horses were unable to catch/had to keep trailing behind them?
You’re telling me (and all of it was unrealistic, here’s just one) that harrowing mountain pass experience ( no one should’ve survived anyway), the men were just right behind them? Where? We didn’t see any fires?
Finally, though I have many thoughts, the characters seemed flat. Some of them were dynamic and dimensional, but not the main ones. Constant secrets, esp kept from the reader, makes it harder to connect with you and encourage you to survive. I didn’t care all that much what happened to anyone.
And, stop doing stupid stuff. Some of the main characters actions made no sense- even if she acknowledged some of them.

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maregred's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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2.5

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tessvosper's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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phoenixlovesbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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nerdyforbooks_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

YA really isn’t my favorite genre, nor does it always manage to keep me totally engaged. After getting past a somewhat slow paced start - I constantly found myself wanting to know ok what next.

This book is definitely more sci-fi than fantasy. It also has some weird pacing issues at time & super long chapters (nothing that super bothered me). I can understand the issue most critics have with this book as well - they do exist & they could be problems for some people. However, a lot of them didn’t bother me. Maybe it was the writing, maybe it was getting invested in the FMC, or maybe it was just wanting to know what the twist was (I mean c’mon - you just know starting this book there’s something that’s gonna happen). This was an enjoyable read with an interesting story.

Are you left in the dark quite a bit? Yes. Is there insta-love that kinda makes no dang sense? Yes. This is definitely one of those books that will either make you love it or hate it.

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youarethelibrarian's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I wanted to love this one. The cover is gorgeous, and so is the naked hardcover and chapter headers, and I loved two of Ernshaw’s other books. But this one didn’t work for me, probably because I’m not a fan of long-journey books, and the Insta-love was really annoying. The main character’s reactions to things didn’t make sense, because her relationship with the boy was barely developed. I did like the portrayal of grief, though.

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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

this book. This Book. THIS BOOK.

It zigged when I expected it to zag. It swerved between genres. It used metaphor and language in a way that shook me. I understand why the author repeatedly said she could barely talk about it without spoilers.

In terms of “vibes”, I think of the movie, Book of Eli, where the MC is hunted across a desolate Western-like landscape for the knowledge that only he, or in this case, Vega, possesses. There are clues that something sinister and vast is at work, but resolution doesn’t come until the VERY end.

But also… Vega, honey, just wear a bandanna around your neck or a high collared shirt or something!! Could have solved so many problems.

Content notes: violence, death, sickness/death from sickness, cults

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