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elle_ette 's review for:
Body of Stars
by Laura Maylene Walter
Celeste Morton, like every girl, was born with a set of markings on her body that predict her future, from her potential career path to if she will marry and have children. For all girls throughout childhood these markings are vague and with puberty come more solid predictions that map out their lives. During this time of change, known as a 'changeling' period, girls become near irresistible to men and the risk of abduction and shame is incredibly high; if a girl is abducted, when she returns, if she returns, her reputation is ruined and she is denied access to good education and work, shunned in many of her social circles. On the night before Celeste's sixteenth birthday, she becomes a changeling, and through her markings discovers an awful fate that has the potential to tear her family apart.
Body of Stars is an incredibly bold exploration of fate, female agency, bodily autonomy and rape culture that left me feeling a lot of emotions all at once a lot of the time. I was somewhat unsatisfied with elements of the plot however, mainly the large focus on Celeste's brother, because this is a book talking about the lack of control that women have over their own lives, their own bodies, and still her journey had to be spurred on because of a man. While I understand why Walter did this and I still enjoyed the mirroring of the brother-sister dynamic she created on a surface level, I found myself wanting more from Celeste because she could do more, not because of a male influence.
Regardless, I found it to be a beautifully written slow burn, with some endearing characters and an incredibly interesting take on what it means to be a woman in a world that has been built for men with some too-close-for-comfort parallels to the lives that millions of women actually do live. Reading this made me uncomfortable but this book is undoubtedly screaming something incredibly important, and I am so glad it has been written. Change is slow, but we will see it eventually.
Body of Stars is an incredibly bold exploration of fate, female agency, bodily autonomy and rape culture that left me feeling a lot of emotions all at once a lot of the time. I was somewhat unsatisfied with elements of the plot however, mainly the large focus on Celeste's brother, because this is a book talking about the lack of control that women have over their own lives, their own bodies, and still her journey had to be spurred on because of a man. While I understand why Walter did this and I still enjoyed the mirroring of the brother-sister dynamic she created on a surface level, I found myself wanting more from Celeste because she could do more, not because of a male influence.
Regardless, I found it to be a beautifully written slow burn, with some endearing characters and an incredibly interesting take on what it means to be a woman in a world that has been built for men with some too-close-for-comfort parallels to the lives that millions of women actually do live. Reading this made me uncomfortable but this book is undoubtedly screaming something incredibly important, and I am so glad it has been written. Change is slow, but we will see it eventually.