Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - The Sound of Stars

CW: racism, genocide, colonization, mental illness, alcoholism, death, violence

decent beginning, meh middle, slow ending. essentially, it was a fun time through the first half of the book, then a time travel aspect was added at some point that took me right out of it. this is wholly a me-not-you situation for the story. i do not like time travel the majority of the time and the paradoxes that often come with it just ruin things for me. if some light time travel might be your thing but also you dont want a whole book to revolve around it, then you may enjoy this more than i did.

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tahsintries's review against another edition

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3.5

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caelinsullivan's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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tina94's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

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paperbrownies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.0

- lgbtqiap+, ya, sci-fi, dystopian, alien invasion, star crossed lovers trope, books and music, queer normative society, your favourite musician with thirteen grammys can be an alien, just saying
- f|m
- bi/pan oriented demiace fat mc with anxiety, possibly demiace love interest, bi/pan sc, nonbinary sc using they/them pronouns

cw: colonization, alcoholism, confinement, execution, vomitting, gun violence, blood, hp references, racism, panic attack, genocide

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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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nytephoenyx's review

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hopeful slow-paced

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

2.75

The cover of this book is really pretty. I really like the neon pinks and blues. The cover has a cool, almost retro aesthetic that is extremely tempting as a cover buy. And The Sound of Stars was mostly a cover buy for me because, well… I was bored.

I’ll start off by saying that my boredom is not necessarily the result of a poorly written book, flat characters, or an uninteresting plot. The thing that threw me off the narrative the most was the writing style. In novels, there’s some level of balance between dialogue, description, and introspection in the writing itself. Depending on the author, there may be a little more of one or the other. In The Sound of Stars, there was a lot of introspection. I felt like I spent more time in Ellie and M0Rr1S’s head pondering things than I spent anywhere else, and I struggled to continue the book.

Depending who you are, you may love this quality. It just so happens I do not.

Other aspects of the descriptions irked me as well. Dow leans toward over-explaining, information dropping. and informative lists. After a while these are more exhausting than helpful. I felt too much of The Sound of Stars was explained to me as the reader rather that allowing me to experience it.

Ellie and M0Rr1S came into the story fully developed, but they did not reveal themselves slowly and let the reader get to know them. As such, motivations and behaviors and relationships were a little hazy. Links between the characters and others were dropped like twists and felt less surprising and more unplanned, which was a little frustrating. This book wasn’t written for me – I’m too old and even then I’m white and Ellie is Black – I don’t need to relate to this character, she exists for someone else. But I struggled to get invested when I felt we were following the same thought cycles over and over and getting nowhere.

Despite the alien invasion setting, The Sound of Stars is a very quiet book. It focuses on character development and the love story. Please know this before going in – it’s not going to be a high-action sci-fi. This book is about M0Rr1S and Ellie and their relationship. It is romance first and science fiction second.

Readers seem to be extremely torn on The Sounds of Stars. Folks either are bored like me, or they head-over-heels loved the book. So, knowing that, I’m going to encourage you to read it! Give it a change and if the first few chapters grip you, you’ll likely enjoy the whole thing. Even if I didn’t love it, I encourage you to give it the benefit of the doubt. It may end up your next favorite.

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