Scan barcode
lucymacdonald's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
1librarianspath's review
5.0
I love that they mention that people grieve differently. I love that they mention anger being an easier emotion to deal with than sadness/pain/grief. I love that they mention the (toxic) idea that boys crying and talking about their feelings is seen as stupid. I love that they mention social media and trolling. I love that the mention the overwhelming feeling of loneliness even when surrounded by people. I love that they mention how badly wrong adults can get things when talking to teens and kids. I love that they mention how difficult it is to manage your emotions as a teenager. I love that they mention how difficult, yet worthwhile, counselling can be. I love that there are supportive, positive male friendships portrayed. I love that that just when I thought the last punch had been thrown, I read the author’s note.
This book may not be aimed at somebody in their thirties...but this person in her thirties thought it was a powerful book.
This book may not be aimed at somebody in their thirties...but this person in her thirties thought it was a powerful book.
kba76's review
5.0
Beautiful.
Set against a backdrop that many find less than pleasant, this story covers so many emotional highs and lows...and forces us to confront some pretty unpalatable truths about people.
Our main focus is Nathan, the younger brother of Al. Al was a straight A-grade student who killed himself. Nathan found him. Nathan is also having to come to terms with the guilt he feels over ignoring a call from his brother on the night he hung himself.
Alongside Nathan we have Megan, a friend of Al that few people knew about. They shared an Art class. They were close, but Megan didn’t feel able to go against her ‘cool’ friends and show Al that their friendship was important to her.
There’s no doubt this story just as I’ve recounted it would have made for a tough read. However, as Megan and Nathan become friends and start to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Al’s last moments things move up a gear.
This book made me sad, so sad. It made me angry, unbelievably angry. But it also filled me with hope.
Thank you so much to Danielle Jawando for using her own personal situation to bring to life such a compelling read, and to NetGalley for letting me read it prior to publication.
Set against a backdrop that many find less than pleasant, this story covers so many emotional highs and lows...and forces us to confront some pretty unpalatable truths about people.
Our main focus is Nathan, the younger brother of Al. Al was a straight A-grade student who killed himself. Nathan found him. Nathan is also having to come to terms with the guilt he feels over ignoring a call from his brother on the night he hung himself.
Alongside Nathan we have Megan, a friend of Al that few people knew about. They shared an Art class. They were close, but Megan didn’t feel able to go against her ‘cool’ friends and show Al that their friendship was important to her.
There’s no doubt this story just as I’ve recounted it would have made for a tough read. However, as Megan and Nathan become friends and start to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Al’s last moments things move up a gear.
This book made me sad, so sad. It made me angry, unbelievably angry. But it also filled me with hope.
Thank you so much to Danielle Jawando for using her own personal situation to bring to life such a compelling read, and to NetGalley for letting me read it prior to publication.
thewoollygeek's review
5.0
A heartbreaking read, but also manages to be uplifting and full of hope. A very emotional read, beautifully written, deals with loss and love in such sensitive and well handled way. A must read and much needed book, not just for YA but all readers. Highly recommended
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
grimmgay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
whatbritreads's review
2.0
Please note this book contains very triggering content around bullying and mental health and there is a very graphic description of someone ending their own life within the first 10 pages. Be safe lovelies x.
While I appreciate what this book was trying to do and the overall message it put out into the world, my enjoyment wasn’t there at all unfortunately and though this should’ve been a quick and easy read, pushing through it to get to the end felt like a real slog. Alongside my lack of enjoyment, I just don’t think it was overly well put together.
The writing here was very average and most of it felt very inconsistent. We had characters randomly saying some words in an abbreviated and almost slang-like manner, but most of their dialect was written normally. I understand writing teenagers who use slang and their own dialect, but at least make it a common theme throughout the book and include more of it rather than two words (wot and summat being the only two I can think that were repeated. It also confused me that not only was their speech written like that, being their internal monologue. It just confused me a little bit and made the reading experience a bit jolting for my taste.
The characterisation in here was very jumpy and I didn’t see much development taking place at all. It has a dual perspective but it was really difficult to tell the two voices apart, they were essentially the same voice. Within these two voices, we also get an unnecessary romance forming between them which just felt really odd given the circumstances the characters find themselves in and their mutual relationships. I just felt very weird about all of it and couldn’t really understand what was motivating the characters at all to act the way they were. The romance as well came out of absolutely nowhere and felt so abrupt I didn’t even get chance to process it.
The main focus of this book is teenagers but they were written so poorly in my opinion. A lot that happens feels so out of character and stereotypical of kids that it didn’t feel like a true reflection of how things would happen in this situation. A lot of actions and speech was so exaggerated and over the top that it made me cringe a little bit.
Though I can very much appreciate what this book was trying to demonstrate and educate surrounding bullying and suicide, I felt like it missed the mark a little bit in its execution of that. It all just felt so surface level that we never reach any safe conclusions or strong forward messages about what’s happened, how the characters are processing it and how they plan to move forward. It just felt like it got stuck a bit. There was also no outside help or relief for the characters and they just felt stuck inside this loop of hatred and terrible experiences. It was a really disheartening book and while the ending was supposed to be hopeful it didn’t feel very so.
All in all, this book just didn’t do it for me which is super surprising considering every other review I'm seeing of this from people I trust is super high.
novellenovels's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
myevergrowingbookshelf's review against another edition
5.0
Have you ever read a book that you could talk about for hours, but at the same time you don’t know how to put your thoughts on it into words? That’s how I feel with And The Stars Were Burning Brightly.
I honestly feel that everyone needs to read this book, especially young people. And The Stars Were Burning Brightly is on The Jhalak Prize shortlist and it is so clear why. This book addresses so many issues that can affect so many, grief, bullying, mental health, suicide and what it’s like growing up around social media. This book belongs in secondary schools. It shows the reader the importance of social media awareness, that just because you said it online, doesn’t meant that there aren’t real consequences to that. There were parts of this story where I genuinely couldn’t believe that kids would do or say something like that, but it’s true, some people out there can be that cruel.
The chapters alternate between Nathan and Megan’s perspective which was great , but what I really loved was they at the beginning of each chapter was a little bit from Al himself, which was heartbreaking, reading his thoughts knowing what was going to happen to him.
Ooh also, there was a character in this with my name which made me a little excited because you never see the name Tara in books, but then I really didn’t like Tara in this, she was not a nice person!
I honestly feel that everyone needs to read this book, especially young people. And The Stars Were Burning Brightly is on The Jhalak Prize shortlist and it is so clear why. This book addresses so many issues that can affect so many, grief, bullying, mental health, suicide and what it’s like growing up around social media. This book belongs in secondary schools. It shows the reader the importance of social media awareness, that just because you said it online, doesn’t meant that there aren’t real consequences to that. There were parts of this story where I genuinely couldn’t believe that kids would do or say something like that, but it’s true, some people out there can be that cruel.
The chapters alternate between Nathan and Megan’s perspective which was great , but what I really loved was they at the beginning of each chapter was a little bit from Al himself, which was heartbreaking, reading his thoughts knowing what was going to happen to him.
Ooh also, there was a character in this with my name which made me a little excited because you never see the name Tara in books, but then I really didn’t like Tara in this, she was not a nice person!