Scan barcode
A review by ecath
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
As my mother's illness deepens, she often doesn't know where she is. Nothing around her is familiar. She remembers better times more clearly. She remembers other houses. She always comes back--but she also always goes away.
As my mother's illness deepens, I find myself awake more often than asleep and so it was last night, I was reading the final chapters of this beauty in the wee small hours. It was the perfect time, when the house was quiet and the world dark, and I could imagine myself away into the cave. It all felt so familiar, this place I have never been to and probably never will--and yet I was there, because of this book, because of the writing that put me there. I went away, and then I came back.
I first met Monica's writing when we bought a story from her for Shimmer. I feel like I've watched her career for a long time now--her first book sale, and the moment her second book didn't sell. Her second book--that's this book--took years more work, and you can feel it in every sentence. The care that went into this one, the love that Monica has for a world her mother traveled to. The Actual Star is glorious; the last section of the book is perhaps some of my favorite writing ever, the way the stories and characters all come together. There's no good way to convey how I felt reading those lines in the middle of the night. It was a little prayer. It was, maybe, the way my mom feels; nothing around me was familiar, I was in another place, but then I came back.
I hope you will take this journey, too. This is a book I never could have written, but I'm so pleased to have been able to read it.
As my mother's illness deepens, I find myself awake more often than asleep and so it was last night, I was reading the final chapters of this beauty in the wee small hours. It was the perfect time, when the house was quiet and the world dark, and I could imagine myself away into the cave. It all felt so familiar, this place I have never been to and probably never will--and yet I was there, because of this book, because of the writing that put me there. I went away, and then I came back.
I first met Monica's writing when we bought a story from her for Shimmer. I feel like I've watched her career for a long time now--her first book sale, and the moment her second book didn't sell. Her second book--that's this book--took years more work, and you can feel it in every sentence. The care that went into this one, the love that Monica has for a world her mother traveled to. The Actual Star is glorious; the last section of the book is perhaps some of my favorite writing ever, the way the stories and characters all come together. There's no good way to convey how I felt reading those lines in the middle of the night. It was a little prayer. It was, maybe, the way my mom feels; nothing around me was familiar, I was in another place, but then I came back.
I hope you will take this journey, too. This is a book I never could have written, but I'm so pleased to have been able to read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm