Review by bookish_bogwitch - The Stars Are Dying

bookish_bogwitch 's review for:

The Stars Are Dying by Chloe C. Peñaranda

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book was incredible. I absolutely hate that it has as many low reviews as it does (See rant below.) The best way I can describe it is that it's like if ACOTAR and The Hunger Games had a baby, but make it vampires. Ugh, so good! You sort of figure out what's going early in the book, which is something I don't mind. I know a lot of people don't like that, but I don't know, it makes my ADHD brain feel good. You definitely figure things out before the main character does, but it's important to remember her circumstances and why she doesn't believe in herself or the things other people tell her. One of the biggest complaints about this book is that it's confusing. Well yeah, of course it is. It's in first person and the main character has amnesia and has been emotionally manipulated for years. Like come on, y'all.

I have no complaints about this book. It made me feel the feelings that ACOTAR did when I read it the first time. The story is different, but the themes and tropes are similar. I will immediately be reading the second book and preordering the third so I can read it as soon as it comes out in December. Seriously, give this book a chance before you let others who want the stereotypical fantasy romance story turn you off from it.

Rant: I'm going to be completely frank here because it's something that's been bothering me. I'm noticing a common theme that when a book has any kind of amnesia, reviews are somewhat low and a lot of people decide to stop reading it, which then influences other people to not even give the book a shot. I don't quite understand that. Sure, I look at reviews too to see what other people think, but I don't let them ultimately stop me from reading something. It's honestly astounding to me how low some of these books are rated just because the main character has amnesia. "Oh, but the writing is bad." No, it's not. A lot of people seem to want the person to figure their shit out super early in the story and when that doesn't happen, they get frustrated and just throw the book aside. Well, guess what? That's not how amnesia works, friends. I mean, even by the end of this book, Astraea STILL doesn't know everything about herself. But that's good writing. That's why this is a trilogy. Y'all give up so quickly when a book doesn't fit within the small box you define a genre by. I'm not sorry for saying that. You think ACOTAR or TOG or Fourth Wing are the ultimate and perfect fantasy stories when they aren't. They're good and all, but they aren't the end all, be all. It makes me so angry to see less popular and indie authors have their books rated low or tossed aside because expectations are set so high. The Stars Are Dying is an amazing book. I will die on this hill.

Content Warnings