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A review by labunnywtf
Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman
4.0
Read for Book Roast's OWL's Magical Readathon 2019. Subject: Astronomy - Star in the title.
I draw a picture of a girl pulling her reflection out of the mirror and holding it close to her heart.
About 100 pages into this book, I flipped to the end and read the last three or so chapters.
I don't do this. Not even while reading mysteries where the need to know whodunnit is so intense. I never look to spoil myself while reading.
But it was either spoil myself, or DNF. Because this book caused an almost irrationally intense emotional reaction in me. As a good book should do.
Kiko is a 17-year old newly graduated artist. She's passionate about painting, and about not interacting with any other human beings. She has crippling anxiety and low self esteem, and all she wants is to get away from her toxic mother and go to art school in New York.
But she doesn't get in. And she is absolutely shattered.
Then her childhood best friend, who she was half in love with and whom she hasn't seen in decades, reappears in her life and offers her the chance to go to the west coast and look at schools out there. She jumps at the chance, and through this freedom, finds out who she really is.
This story is absolutely fantastic. Kiko is this wounded little puppy who I want to cuddle and hug and wrap in blankets and make life better for. Jamie the love interest is slightly less interesting, but their dynamic is really sweet and positive. Seeing Kiko bloom as she interacts with him, and her art mentor, is just so heart warming and gives me enormous heart eyes.
The trouble, for me, is that the emotional abuse and neglect heaped onto Kiko by her mother is absolutely excruciating. It triggered something in me I didn't even remotely expect, and it just is so...well done. Yes, I'm complaining about realism in a book, I can't help it.
I knew this book was going to end up with a fluffy contemporary ending, so I skipped. I found out what the resolution was for that horrid cunt of a woman. I would've liked a much more satisfying end to her. Like death.
I kid.
Sort of.
This really is a great story. But if, like me, you have trouble getting through, just skip to the end and then come back. It helps.
I draw a picture of a girl pulling her reflection out of the mirror and holding it close to her heart.
About 100 pages into this book, I flipped to the end and read the last three or so chapters.
I don't do this. Not even while reading mysteries where the need to know whodunnit is so intense. I never look to spoil myself while reading.
But it was either spoil myself, or DNF. Because this book caused an almost irrationally intense emotional reaction in me. As a good book should do.
Kiko is a 17-year old newly graduated artist. She's passionate about painting, and about not interacting with any other human beings. She has crippling anxiety and low self esteem, and all she wants is to get away from her toxic mother and go to art school in New York.
But she doesn't get in. And she is absolutely shattered.
Then her childhood best friend, who she was half in love with and whom she hasn't seen in decades, reappears in her life and offers her the chance to go to the west coast and look at schools out there. She jumps at the chance, and through this freedom, finds out who she really is.
This story is absolutely fantastic. Kiko is this wounded little puppy who I want to cuddle and hug and wrap in blankets and make life better for. Jamie the love interest is slightly less interesting, but their dynamic is really sweet and positive. Seeing Kiko bloom as she interacts with him, and her art mentor, is just so heart warming and gives me enormous heart eyes.
The trouble, for me, is that the emotional abuse and neglect heaped onto Kiko by her mother is absolutely excruciating. It triggered something in me I didn't even remotely expect, and it just is so...well done. Yes, I'm complaining about realism in a book, I can't help it.
I knew this book was going to end up with a fluffy contemporary ending, so I skipped. I found out what the resolution was for that horrid cunt of a woman. I would've liked a much more satisfying end to her. Like death.
I kid.
Sort of.
This really is a great story. But if, like me, you have trouble getting through, just skip to the end and then come back. It helps.