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corydory's review against another edition
Slow, boring, unlikeable characters
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting
laurak483's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book had so much promise and on paper had all the ingredients for me to love it. But I was so close to DNFing, only finished it since we were reading it for my book club. The main character's complete lack of deductive reasoning, curiosity, or agency throughout the book was infuriating. By the end of the book, not only does she need all the OBVIOUS pieces of critical info spelled out to her, but she only completed one single trial of her own skill/competence and basically had someone else do the rest for her. I also felt like every 2-3 pages she did a complete 180 in both her feelings towards the mysterious love interest and whether she knew who she was or didn't know who she was. It felt like the author almost kept forgetting or couldn't make up her mind. Then when the love interest gives her more red flags than a Canadian gift shop and PLENTY of reasons for her to stick with hating him (or at least mistrusting him) she still continues to flip flop every chapter between hatred and mistrust or miplicit trust and he is the love of her life. It was exhausting. And considering how many of those red flags were also things he did to coerce, manipulate, control, and remove her agency, AND SHE STARTS THE BOOK AS A PRISONER WHO IS BEING SEXUALLY ABUSED AND DOESN'T SEE THIS AS A DEALBREAKER? Come on!!!!!
It also felt like if I had been watching this as a movie, it was missing frames and super jittery. It felt like the characters would be in one place and then suddenly another, or go from one physical position to another that was impossible unless I missed something. I doubled back and reread paragraphs SO MANY TIMES because I was questioning myself if I missed something? Like did we enter a new room and I missed it or did someone say something to pivot the conversation this way? Nope, just wasn't there. It was jarring writing and had me questioning my sanity at times. I would also deduct an entire star anyway for the main spicy scene of the book. Start spicy time WEARING CLOTHES IN A BATH and then COME OUT OF BATH ONTO BED MAKING THE SHEETS SOAKING WET and then SLEEPING IN THE SAME BED, NO CHANGING OF SHEETS???? Not sexy, cold, wet, slimy, gross.
It also felt like if I had been watching this as a movie, it was missing frames and super jittery. It felt like the characters would be in one place and then suddenly another, or go from one physical position to another that was impossible unless I missed something. I doubled back and reread paragraphs SO MANY TIMES because I was questioning myself if I missed something? Like did we enter a new room and I missed it or did someone say something to pivot the conversation this way? Nope, just wasn't there. It was jarring writing and had me questioning my sanity at times. I would also deduct an entire star anyway for the main spicy scene of the book. Start spicy time WEARING CLOTHES IN A BATH and then COME OUT OF BATH ONTO BED MAKING THE SHEETS SOAKING WET and then SLEEPING IN THE SAME BED, NO CHANGING OF SHEETS???? Not sexy, cold, wet, slimy, gross.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Rape
lizzye33's review against another edition
I found this book at my local little free library with no expectation for the story, but the appearance intrigued me, and I have not read a book of this genre in some time, so I thought, why not?
Before reading the book and adding it to my TBR, I hesitated because of the many vague and negative reviews that needed to be more encouraging. Also, this story has vampires, which I have had a bad run with lately in books. But aside from that, I wanted to give it a chance.
25% I am really glad Astrea has friends who are not only willing but more than capable of helping her if their motives are true. That being said, this book is very tense, and I don't love being constantly on edge or emotionally trampled. It's not ideal for escapism, but I do like the story's complexity, though I understand why many stopped reading, finding it confusing. I think it is fairly well written in getting into Astrea's perspective. Perhaps that is because of vaguely similar reliability on my part. That said, reviews saying it is a try-hard book with too many tropes are both true and false. It does feel like trying to put a little too much on one page without giving what we need at this point in the book, but the characters are not wanting too badly in that way yet. The premise is rather predictable; we have a clear idea of what she is, and Hecktors controls more than she realizes with her medicine and forcing her under even though they have not addressed it yet. But I'm still curious enough to see where this goes. (Nyte for the win; Hecktor, there are special places for you.)
Okay, I DNF'd!!!
I tried not to, but I could not continue!
I tried to connect with the characters and visualize the settings and their perspectives, but this story is vague in the places it needs detail, the characters lack substance, and there is very little actual chemistry.
The worst part is that I was bored. It felt like a chore, and there was no direct plot to follow. It also never really had too much clear plot or motivation aside from leaving Heckor in the first part and reeling from it. Of course, there is more after, but I could not bring myself to care, and I wanted to.
This book had potential, but it was so dark. For once, I pushed that aside to try to get into a story I wanted to like, but it was definitely not worth it!
It was a little confusing, and I did not route it to anyone. I tried to find some answers online to what was happening, and it turns out there is no real resolution!?
No one has many more answers than Astrea does by chapter 15, even in the end. I skimmed through the rest and felt disappointed in the time I spent trying to get out of my reading slump with a book that did not provide escapism but trigger warnings without anything a book should to make it worth it or able to overlook them.
The writing was also lacking the more the book continued.
Anyway, enough about my rant. I am glad some people enjoy it, but sadly, I am not among them.
Before reading the book and adding it to my TBR, I hesitated because of the many vague and negative reviews that needed to be more encouraging. Also, this story has vampires, which I have had a bad run with lately in books. But aside from that, I wanted to give it a chance.
25% I am really glad Astrea has friends who are not only willing but more than capable of helping her if their motives are true. That being said, this book is very tense, and I don't love being constantly on edge or emotionally trampled. It's not ideal for escapism, but I do like the story's complexity, though I understand why many stopped reading, finding it confusing. I think it is fairly well written in getting into Astrea's perspective. Perhaps that is because of vaguely similar reliability on my part. That said, reviews saying it is a try-hard book with too many tropes are both true and false. It does feel like trying to put a little too much on one page without giving what we need at this point in the book, but the characters are not wanting too badly in that way yet. The premise is rather predictable; we have a clear idea of what she is, and Hecktors controls more than she realizes with her medicine and forcing her under even though they have not addressed it yet. But I'm still curious enough to see where this goes. (Nyte for the win; Hecktor, there are special places for you.)
Okay, I DNF'd!!!
I tried not to, but I could not continue!
I tried to connect with the characters and visualize the settings and their perspectives, but this story is vague in the places it needs detail, the characters lack substance, and there is very little actual chemistry.
The worst part is that I was bored. It felt like a chore, and there was no direct plot to follow. It also never really had too much clear plot or motivation aside from leaving Heckor in the first part and reeling from it. Of course, there is more after, but I could not bring myself to care, and I wanted to.
This book had potential, but it was so dark. For once, I pushed that aside to try to get into a story I wanted to like, but it was definitely not worth it!
It was a little confusing, and I did not route it to anyone. I tried to find some answers online to what was happening, and it turns out there is no real resolution!?
No one has many more answers than Astrea does by chapter 15, even in the end. I skimmed through the rest and felt disappointed in the time I spent trying to get out of my reading slump with a book that did not provide escapism but trigger warnings without anything a book should to make it worth it or able to overlook them.
The writing was also lacking the more the book continued.
Anyway, enough about my rant. I am glad some people enjoy it, but sadly, I am not among them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Rape, and Self harm
sandra_ruttan's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-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? It's complicated
3.0
It took me a while to get into The Stars Are Dying. I found the unusual phrasing Peñaranda used distracting, as I often had to re-read sections or sentences to clarify the meaning. In some cases, it wasn’t just the phrasing that was the issue; there were fragments or statements that didn’t make sense. I also found some of the dialogue felt disconnected, like people talking over each other, about different things, because some of the responses didn’t make sense in the context of the conversation.
After a rough start, the story and writing settled some. I was hopeful for a strong growth arc for Astraea and I was interested in her story. While her real identity seemed obvious early on, sometimes, the intrigue is seeing how a character discovers their truth, and I was hoping for satisfying developments and revelations.
Ultimately, the story didn’t deliver the way I hoped. While Astraea learning who she is and discovering her purpose is a worthy arc on its own, there’s a goal post change when her friend dies and she decides to compete in her place. Unfortunately, decisions like this underscored issues with Astraea. Yes, she’s been sheltered, but she was also rebellious enough to sneak out, make friends, and acquire skills behind Hektor’s back. These actions suggest independence and willfulness and an awareness of the threats around her. And throughout her friendship, she had plenty of exposure beyond Hektor’s confines. However, she never seems very alert or aware, and she doesn’t seem to consider risks. For someone who had to plan carefully to sneak out and avoid detection, she jumps into risky decisions with no forethought later.
It can be very hard to write a compelling character who starts out naive and who makes impulsive decisions without having them seem erratic. And when it comes to Nyte, Astraea bounces back and forth more than a ping pong ball during a ping pong championship game. Ultimately, it felt like some of her decisions were more about serving the plot than organic character growth.
There were other issues, such as developmental contradictions, that a good developmental edit would have addressed. And in truth, since I read this before its re-release, some of the word level issues may have been addressed, so I wasn’t factoring those into my ranking. It’s less likely there were developmental corrections, but still possible.
Therefore, what I focused on when ranking this book was how I felt about the story and character arcs.
The competition was frustrating. While I can appreciate the guts it requires to do things differently, having the competitors competing against themselves and working at their own pace towards a general deadline eliminated a lot of potential for tension and drama. Instead, we had competitors doing things that didn’t make sense, such as starting fights with other competitors. Truly, what was the point, given that they weren’t allowed to kill each other, and they all had bodyguards assigned to them to prevent harm? It felt like distracting chest-thumping so we remembered some of those characters were around.
Several of my biggest issues center on the ending, so this is where I’ll warn you to stop if you want to avoid spoilers. The ending went on forever; having a notable chunk of the book continue after the competition ends isn’t easy to pull off, and it felt like momentum floundered. A lot of the revelations that followed confirmed things already suspected, and felt anti-climactic.
My biggest complaint had to do with Hektor and Astraea’s arc. I’d hoped she’d grow into a strong, independent character. Killing Hektor at the beginning certainly paved the way for this growth arc. However, then we learn during the competition that she didn’t kill him. At first, I hoped it was an illusion (like other things we’d seen during the competition) and she only thought she was confronting him. And then, after a late-in-story Astraea-Hektor confrontation to bring resolution to their story, Hektor was back in the next stage of the competition. Hektor resolution redux. And to top it off, since we now know Astraea didn’t kill him, we don’t even get the satisfaction of her correctly eliminating her captor and abuser. Instead, one of Astraea’s many protectors had to kill him. Ultimately, I found this book dissatisfying and frustrating. I really wanted to like it, and I remained hopeful until near the end of the competition, but it floundered and never really recovered for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Kidnapping
babwans's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and War
Minor: Rape