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theknightswhosaybook 's review for:
Star-Crossed
by Barbara Dee
What a great book! It took a little while for me to readjust to middle grade reading level, but the moment I got over the slightly rocky start I was hooked. Friendships that have realistic complications, addressing how parents can be hard to talk to but still giving the main character a guide in the form of her older sister, over dramatic middle school drama that charmingly parallels the plot of Romeo and Juliet while still having a happy ending, talking about how crushes and who you like changes and how that's ok, and a girl crushing on another girl!
Mattie's a sweet bookworm who suddenly finds her life full of secrets and complications when she starts crushing on the new girl while her grade begins to put on a drama — that is, drama as in a play, and drama as in drama. There are crashed costume parties, miscommunicated letters, kept secrets… and yes, that's both in R & J and in Mattie's life. Then Mattie has to step into the role of Romeo, opposite the girl who may or may not like her back, and keep her cool through on-stage nervousness and off-stage worries. Can she pull off both Shakespeare and middle school? Well, duh, yes, because if this had a bad ending it wouldn't have five stars from me. But read it anyway! It's fun!
This story was both positive and very relatable, re: confusion over Crush Feelings. There were some things I thought could have been better — for example, for a book where so much plot is focused on putting on a play, we see very little of the actual final performance. Maybe the stuff that happened on stage then wasn't very important plot-wise, but it would have been nice to have a little more page time about Mattie playing the role of her lifetime and being awesome at it!
There's also some spoilery stuff:I don't mind how Lucy privately confronted Mattie about her feelings for Gemma; I can see how middle schoolers wouldn't be the most tactful about telling someone "hi, friend, you're not straight!". But I did mind the pressure on Mattie afterwards to tell Tessa about being bi, as if not trusting her friends with that information made her a bad friend. I think it might be slightly tone deaf to teach kids that not telling everyone about their sexuality means they aren't being a good friend — it's ok to want to protect yourself from potential jerks by not telling anyone, and it's definitely ok to want to process your feelings yourself before coming out! It strikes me as a little selfish that Tessa was angry for not knowing about Mattie's crush as soon as Lucy figured it out. And a little selfishness may be realistic for middle schoolers, but no one in the story reassured Mattie that she'd done nothing wrong. There was just a scene about how she should have trusted Tessa more and told her sooner, and now Tessa is upset but she'll forgive Mattie because they're best friends. It could have been worse, but I feel the need to point out that nobody is entitled to know your sexuality; Mattie should have told Tessa that she did trust her, but she had to process her feelings on her own, so Tessa should stop being grumpy about it. Just a thought for an otherwise great book!
But anyway, this was a five star book in spite of a few complaints, because I just loved reading it.
Mattie's a sweet bookworm who suddenly finds her life full of secrets and complications when she starts crushing on the new girl while her grade begins to put on a drama — that is, drama as in a play, and drama as in drama. There are crashed costume parties, miscommunicated letters, kept secrets… and yes, that's both in R & J and in Mattie's life. Then Mattie has to step into the role of Romeo, opposite the girl who may or may not like her back, and keep her cool through on-stage nervousness and off-stage worries. Can she pull off both Shakespeare and middle school? Well, duh, yes, because if this had a bad ending it wouldn't have five stars from me. But read it anyway! It's fun!
This story was both positive and very relatable, re: confusion over Crush Feelings. There were some things I thought could have been better — for example, for a book where so much plot is focused on putting on a play, we see very little of the actual final performance. Maybe the stuff that happened on stage then wasn't very important plot-wise, but it would have been nice to have a little more page time about Mattie playing the role of her lifetime and being awesome at it!
There's also some spoilery stuff:
But anyway, this was a five star book in spite of a few complaints, because I just loved reading it.