A review by okiecozyreader
The Same Bright Stars: A Novel by Ethan Joella

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I feel like what Ethan Joella does so well is create community from unlikely people. In this case, the story follows Jack’s local restaurant Schmidt’s on Rehoboth Beach. I didn’t know much about Delaware before this book and I have since marked this as a place I want to go on my map. Like he mentions in the book, there is a bookstore (which he lists in the credits). Throughout the book, there are pages from a visitor’s guide talking about visiting there and what it is like in different seasons.

This book takes place throughout the year (much of it seems to be in the fall/winter, which wasn’t what I was expecting. Jack has had offers to sell  Schmidt’s to a local conglomerate but he doesn’t really want to, but then again, he can’t decide. He doesn’t have a family and he has been somewhat of a workaholic. His employees and the community have become his family and he tries to sort through issues with them and his own life throughout the book.

I think this is a great book to cozy up with, when you want to feel the community love. The book is divided into two parts, the first part has a lot of difficult things but the second part pulls it together. Joella leaves you with a lot of love, as always.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Abortion

There is a child that he didn’t know about, that creates a lot of sadness.