A review by bookishjd
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

3.0

man. the stardust thief was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022, so I'm bummed that i didn't enjoy it more. 

I'm sure there are plenty of readers who will love this book. but i just found myself not caring about the characters or what they were doing. i think some reasons for this are: 

1. all the characters had similar voices. i mean this literally, in that their dialogue with each other could be interchangeable, and although we are told these characters are distinct, they didn't actually feel that way. which leads me to...

2. sooo much telling instead of showing. 

the "showing" of the magical elements of the world is where this book shines, but it gets so bogged down in what it's telling you. it left me feeling very disengaged and detached from the characters. 

the plot also gets away from itself. many times, i found myself thinking "what's the point of any of this? what are they even trying to do?" which is never a good sign while reading a book centered around basically one quest, lol. 

i gave it 3 stars for the worldbuilding, but tbh my enjoyment was a 2.