A review by sungmemoonstruck
Starglass by Phoebe North

3.0

Terra is on the starship Asherah, which has been heading towards a distant planet for 500 years after the predicted collapse of Earth. She's struggling with her alcoholic father, and hoping to be able to pursue a career as an artist, when she witnesses a member of the captain's guard shoot a man. I wanted to love this book so very badly but the book chemistry just didn't click. It was well written, with a beautifully drawn and complete-feeling world, a wonderful and complex depiction of the friendship between Terra and her best friend Rachel, and a whole host of surprising plot twists in the second half of the book. But the beginning was incredibly slow, with only North's engaging writing keeping the book going, and Terra herself is quite difficult to warm up to. She's often easily manipulated, sullen, and angry without ever doing anything about it for most of the book. Her relationships with the two different boys she became involved with were also quite troubling.

Spoiler

Her relationship with Silvan just made me so uneasy, especially what it did to Rachel (probably my favorite character in the book), and her reaction to Koen's being gay and later outing of him were quite frustrating.

Of course, North deserves credit for daring to create such a flawed heroine and the complicated and excellent supporting cast, especially Terra's mentor Mara, make up for it somewhat. Recommended for readers of serious sci-fi.