Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Sound of Stars

When I was reading the first few chapters of this book, I thought I would like it a lot. The setup and worldbuilding were compeling.

However, by the end, I felt it was too tropey, too focused on romance, and relied too much on deus ex machina

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zoepagereader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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my_forest_library's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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jazdono's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.0

In part 1 of this book, I was really skeptical that I would finish it. The beginning dragged on, and the world building took quite some time. On top of that, it seemed that the author did not subscribe to “show, don’t tell.” Every bit of symbolism and representation was spelled out in a way that seemed like the author just didn’t trust her audience to get it.

However, once I hit Part 2 and the plot picked up, I found myself continuously wanting to keep reading. This was the first time I’d seen this type of representation in books for a lot of the identities that were in it, and I fell in love with the story for that. It was still predictable and there was a lot of telling instead of showing, but the plot and the characters were so heart warming and hopeful that I didn’t really mind.

I did choose this book after doing an online search for “LGBTQ Black stories”, because I have really been searching for diversity as the norm. This book did pretty good normalizing diverse characters without making the diversity the entire story. There were lots of current events and popular media referenced, from police brutality to Love, Simon, giving the book a grounded feeling to accompany its “head in the clouds” premise.

I would recommend this book especially to any middle schooler and high schooler out there who feels a bit lost—like they don’t fit in or like they don’t have a role to play in the world. I wish my younger self had had this book. If you’re older than that, I’d say this book is still worth giving a chance, but expect there to be parts that seem predictable or cringey. Those parts didn’t stop me from enjoying the book and its good moments, though.

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reading_between_the_trees's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

For me, this was right book, right time. I needed an escape, and a fast-paced space alien invasion with spot-on social commentary and my favorite trope: fictional music so good you with it were real, was perfect.

I loved the pacing and the characters had some serious flaws that were balanced out by redeeming actions and dire circumstances. That made for an intriguing development of the central relationship. There was ace rep within the relationship too!

The best part of the book though was the secret library! It exactly what would happen if a bookworm went through an alien invasion, and I loved that! It was also such a creative way to have an intertextual conversation with other great books, namely The Hate U Give.

I definitely recommend this one, especially if you're looking for something fast-paced to pull you out of a reading slump.

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really, really, really, really wanted to like this book more than I did. Don't get me wrong, I did like it. I just wanted to LOVE it. And I did not, on the whole. I loved aspects of it: that asexual panromantic rep, those literary references, that plot twist at the end. And the concept is high key intriguing, and I felt like Alechia Dow's writing was CLOSE to doing it for me. But overall it just won't stick in my mind. Morris felt a tad too juvenile for me. I really liked Ellie as a character, and her arc is pretty strong, but I just wanted more from this one. Womp wompppp.

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princessnomi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

Some parts were extremely like The 5th Wave but the music and book references were good!

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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