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A review by mea9an
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
4.0
Defy the Stars is a story about a girl named Noemi about to embark on a suicide mission for her home world, Genesis in a battle against Earth. During a practice mission, Noemi stumbles across a line ship with a mech, or artificial intelligence in a human-like body who she joins up with in an attempt to put a pause on the current war against Earth.
I will say that the romance in this book is a lot better than that in Claudia Gray’s Firebird trilogy. The romance in this story is a more natural, slow burn romance that progresses over the course of the book and never takes precedent over the plot of the novel. The characters are snarky, but each have their own personalities and the dialogue keeps the story interesting without being too much.
The character development was probably one of the stronger suits of the book. It had a lot of depth and each of the characters that were introduced had a strong beginning, middle, and end to their story. While the end up taking extremely different paths, I think it really fit each character specifically with who they were and just what they were meant to be doing.
One thing I did notice was that Gray writes each chapter in an episodic way. Similarly to FanFiction, Gray’s book reads as though each chapter has just come out weekly and if something isn’t happening by the end of the chapter, than something has to come out of nowhere and create drama or a side plot. In a way, it was nice to have this because it kept the pace moving consistently, but it also was very jarring to read at points. It’s almost as if Gray didn’t want to have any point in the book where there wasn’t something going on.
I was really excited going into this book, because Claudia Gray is one of my favorite authors and I was really happy to see her write another sci-fi series as I believe it is her strong suit. One thing I think needed to be expanded on is her world-building in the early stage in the novel. It begins with Noemi, an older teen of the planet, Genesis, attempting to pray to God. Although it was later explained how people on another planet would have the same religion, in the beginning it had me very confused and took me out of the narrative until it was fully explained.
Despite its minor flaws, Defy The Stars is a good book that I would recommend. The characters are slightly older and there are adult themes such as mechs that basically act like prostitutes mentioned many time, so I would suggest this be listed as more New Adult, rather than Young Adult, but it truly depends on the readers. If you’re looking for a thoughtful story about war, space, and interesting characters, I would suggest giving this book a try.
I will say that the romance in this book is a lot better than that in Claudia Gray’s Firebird trilogy. The romance in this story is a more natural, slow burn romance that progresses over the course of the book and never takes precedent over the plot of the novel. The characters are snarky, but each have their own personalities and the dialogue keeps the story interesting without being too much.
The character development was probably one of the stronger suits of the book. It had a lot of depth and each of the characters that were introduced had a strong beginning, middle, and end to their story. While the end up taking extremely different paths, I think it really fit each character specifically with who they were and just what they were meant to be doing.
One thing I did notice was that Gray writes each chapter in an episodic way. Similarly to FanFiction, Gray’s book reads as though each chapter has just come out weekly and if something isn’t happening by the end of the chapter, than something has to come out of nowhere and create drama or a side plot. In a way, it was nice to have this because it kept the pace moving consistently, but it also was very jarring to read at points. It’s almost as if Gray didn’t want to have any point in the book where there wasn’t something going on.
I was really excited going into this book, because Claudia Gray is one of my favorite authors and I was really happy to see her write another sci-fi series as I believe it is her strong suit. One thing I think needed to be expanded on is her world-building in the early stage in the novel. It begins with Noemi, an older teen of the planet, Genesis, attempting to pray to God. Although it was later explained how people on another planet would have the same religion, in the beginning it had me very confused and took me out of the narrative until it was fully explained.
Despite its minor flaws, Defy The Stars is a good book that I would recommend. The characters are slightly older and there are adult themes such as mechs that basically act like prostitutes mentioned many time, so I would suggest this be listed as more New Adult, rather than Young Adult, but it truly depends on the readers. If you’re looking for a thoughtful story about war, space, and interesting characters, I would suggest giving this book a try.