A review by kelsyer
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

... it must have fit the narrative in your head - Chapter Sixteen, Esek

After I got to this qoute, I have been thinking about it often, as I was reading. Am I the problem? Am I forcing the narrative in my head to the story, specifically, judging the characters by my own moral code and find them lacking?


The first ever thought I put online about this book was after Chapter 1: 'I define myself as an open-minded person, who prefers to inspect, theorize and empathize first, ask questions second. I never had an experience where I hated a character right off the bat. I don't know how I feel about this.'

I have been a reader for a long time. I know myself as a person and as a consumer of content as well, so if immediately I wrote off a character, because that is so clearly the point, the author is painting her deliberately in a stark, brutal light, my hackles are raised.

I still had hopes for the book, because what little I knew about the book (it came highly recommended from somebody, who got it on good authority that the book is great) was promising and the gender roles* (more specifically that you can choose - or as we later on learn, switch - and that's just a part of reality).

Unfortunately, I am left feeling disappointed.

A worldbuilding this size would be ambitious for anyone, especially a debut author.

I was so excited at the first 1/3 of the book, because worldbuilding is my favourite (closely followed by complex characters) and we got so much from Jacobs. I love to get dropped into a whole new universe, seeing how and why this world works the way it is:

I am here for the unique, mundane details
- what products do you use?
- what type of food are you eating?
- is school mandatory? etc.

the religious ones
- is there only one god or a pantheon, multiple deities?
- are we worshipping them because of tradition or is it more of a geographical conclusion?
- do they show up in some capacity?

If you bring them up, I want to have a meaning for it. Otherwise it's not going anywhere, it's just a filler that could have been great, but isn't and it's taking the time away from things that would have been interesting to know)

the language
- do we have a common tongue?
- are there unique ones?
-translators, diplomats - where do they learn the language?

Oh, gender roles*. It came up pretty early, in Chapter 1. I was fascinated and horrified at the same time (admittedly, unconsciously I sat on the Stanger Things-Holocaust train, a rather interesting connotation from the start). Back to the topic at hand: we have a character that we meet at different times and they have changed their gender marker. Okay, cool concept, but what does it mean in practice? Does it matter at all? Do you have to use different words now, besides the pronouns when you are referring to them, or that's just it?

Sadly, where I am standing, both religion and gender where only used by some powerful characters as a tool to put down and ridicule others.

And the characters? I love exploring the relationships between characters, getting to know their hopes, dreams, motivation, fears and how the author is using these against them.

It worked great with Jun and Liss (I loved their relationship), but not well for Chono and Esek. 

Why not? 

Chono is a person that I supposed to resonate with (Well, her and the Smart guy, Ilius.) She has her moral compass that she is standing by, but as we went along with the story, she used it as a jumprope rather than a compass. 

I am surprised that others described Esek as charming or complex. The way I read her, she only did good things out of calculation. She does have her shades of grey, I give you that, but for me, she moves in a very simplistic 'I do what I want to do, whether it's brutality-sex-violence-or torture'. Oh, but she is also ambitious! Is she though? For somebody that is as sure of herself and in her power/abilities, who is the youngest and best etc., she should have done whatever it needs to be done in order to achieve her goals. They don't play fetch or tag with their little murderous frenemy. 

While I like Jun the most of the POV characters, she felt stuck to me in her growth as a person. Possibly as a trauma response. I am sure Liss also helped her during their relationship, but I can only assume, as we haven't seen a lot about their past.

By the time I got to Chapter 18, half of my brain checked out of the story. I noted to myself that 'WE GET IT, even future space in not safe from corruption and Powerful Families going to greath length for wealth. I really hope that we will see them all burn under these stars, an everlasting fiery death.' At that point I was just waiting for the merciful end of the book. 

I feel that the way the story was built, the whole point was to get to the "big twists" and that I should have got whiplash because of them. My issue is, very early on I knew that 2 out of the big 3 will happen (except I was thinking that we will get to see more of Alisiana, not Six) and by the time we got to the last one, because I didn't connect with them, I couldn't care less.