Reviews - The Stargazers: The Utterly Engaging Story of a House, a Family, and the Hidden Secrets That Change Lives Forever

53 reviews for:

The Stargazers: The Utterly Engaging Story of a House, a Family, and the Hidden Secrets That Change Lives Forever

Harriet Evans

3.73 AVERAGE

becca_t's review against another edition

4.0

inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

niaadavies's review against another edition

3.75

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

kiwij96's review

3.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The prologue was excellent and then the main story started and it just immediately fell apart for me. The first 5 chapters were honestly painful to get through - every character was just unbearable and established themselves in Sarah's life without her permission. As soon as you get into the tragic childhood and backstory that is Part 2 and onwards, the story becomes so much more enjoyable and layered. The foreshadowing is well-written and when it comes full circle, you are fully engaged as a reader.

You really do feel for Sarah as a character, no one really stands up for her the entire book except for Monica, and it was really quite sad and incredibly frustrating. Her husband immediately starts the book with wanting her to give him children, and then when that happens he wants her to go back to playing music for him. By which point she's pretty much decided to give up her entire life and personality in the name of childhood trauma.

This story absolutely could have been shorter and could have been edited a bit more. Some sentences were too long, wordy, repetitive, or lacking in punctuation. Paragraphing was the same. Sometimes the way things were worded just didn't make sense either - as though it was written to be revised and then completely forgotten about.

Also that whole thing with Lara being criminally obsessed with Sarah, everyone knowing about it and when it all kicks off Daniel is like "oh yeah, we knew she was nuts, and potentially dangerously obsessed with you" but yOU STILL LET HER BABYSIT YOUR TODDLERS AND BEFRIEND YOUR WIFE????

Content Warnings