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A review by carleneinspired
See All the Stars by Kit Frick
5.0
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4.5 Stars
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I . . . "
Yes, I read this super early, several months in advance of its release date, but I couldn't get it off my mind once I saw the cover and read the blurb. When a book like this is sitting on your Kindle, you read it, publish date ignored. Within a handful of pages, I knew this was the sort of book that required my full attention. Kit Frick's beautiful prose pulled me into the solar system made up of Ellory, Ret, Bex, and Jennie, with me flickering on the sidelines as a star, watching their natural rotation unravel. With Ellory as our narrator, we see the friends in the past and in the present, known only as Then and Now. We know the friendship was rocky and dependent on Ret, we know now that they are no longer friends, we know that something happened in the summer of junior year, and we know that all Ellory wants is to get through her senior year unseen and unheard.
"Somewhere, there's an alternate reality version of Ellory. . . . I think about that girl sometimes, until the wanting gets too big, and I have to stop."
I don't want to ruin the novel for readers checking out reviews in advance of See All the Stars' release date, so this review will be as broad as I can make it. I'll try not to gush endlessly, but really, I want to, and I want to post the 29,803 quotes that I highlighted. A coming of age story that belongs with the best of them, See All the Stars takes you back to the high school halls filled with drama, friendships, and first love. The alternating storyline allows readers to become a part of the story, reliving Ellory's junior year experiences and floating alongside her while she hides from everyone during her senior year. With a large cast of secondary characters, we visit parties, river banks, classrooms, and bedrooms, each character and scene proving to be pivotal to the story line.
"Our hands were the beginning of a spectacular, bright promise."
Then, we recognize her naivety in her willingness to submit to her friend Ret, the self appointed leader of their group, and in her desperate hope to make her first real relationship last. We learn that though Ret and Ellory call themselves best friends, they're held together more out of necessity, they need each other, just as they need the other two to balance them out. We watch her downward spiral as she accepts the use of alcohol and drugs around her, how she lets things slide that as readers we scream at her to question, and how she becomes a puppet to a friend's desperate need to have her all to herself. Now, we praise her complex development as she ages another year, but we also ache with each lie she believes and each lie she tells herself. As Now reaches the last chapters, we rejoice as Ellory learns to face the thing that left her friendless, boyfriendless, and alone. The style of writing, and the alternating time frames allows readers to experience the then, while also uncovering the truths that the friends didn't know at the time, revealing us the details of the fall. The accident, something we don't know understand until the end, pulls the friends in two directions and Kit Frick's decision to only write from Ellory's perspective forces us to choose her side.
"My mom calls what happened the fall. It's a kindness, a shortcut, a way of taking something hard and shaping it into two little words that can slip off your tongue."
See All the Stars is the sort of novel that shouldn't be limited to only readers of the Young Adult genre. It's too complex, too big of a story to be ignored by readers of New Adult, Adult, and Contemporary Fiction. The depth of See All the Stars makes it feel very real, making me not only empathize with the characters, but also reevaluate my own personal experiences, putting myself in the same shoes. The focus on relationships, lies, truth, and forgiveness made for a very compelling story. The characters are very well developed, made up of layers and flaws, their emotions ruling their decisions. I was able to guess at some of the plot, but the final chapters of the book proved that the true reveal was one worth waiting for. The shock factor was huge and unexpected, but perfect for a novel that makes you care so much for the main character and the hurt that she had gone through. I was incredibly impressed to find that See All the Stars is Kit Frick's debut novel and I really hope to see more from her.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one with Ret."
ARC provided via Netgalley.
4.5 Stars
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I . . . "
Yes, I read this super early, several months in advance of its release date, but I couldn't get it off my mind once I saw the cover and read the blurb. When a book like this is sitting on your Kindle, you read it, publish date ignored. Within a handful of pages, I knew this was the sort of book that required my full attention. Kit Frick's beautiful prose pulled me into the solar system made up of Ellory, Ret, Bex, and Jennie, with me flickering on the sidelines as a star, watching their natural rotation unravel. With Ellory as our narrator, we see the friends in the past and in the present, known only as Then and Now. We know the friendship was rocky and dependent on Ret, we know now that they are no longer friends, we know that something happened in the summer of junior year, and we know that all Ellory wants is to get through her senior year unseen and unheard.
"Somewhere, there's an alternate reality version of Ellory. . . . I think about that girl sometimes, until the wanting gets too big, and I have to stop."
I don't want to ruin the novel for readers checking out reviews in advance of See All the Stars' release date, so this review will be as broad as I can make it. I'll try not to gush endlessly, but really, I want to, and I want to post the 29,803 quotes that I highlighted. A coming of age story that belongs with the best of them, See All the Stars takes you back to the high school halls filled with drama, friendships, and first love. The alternating storyline allows readers to become a part of the story, reliving Ellory's junior year experiences and floating alongside her while she hides from everyone during her senior year. With a large cast of secondary characters, we visit parties, river banks, classrooms, and bedrooms, each character and scene proving to be pivotal to the story line.
"Our hands were the beginning of a spectacular, bright promise."
Then, we recognize her naivety in her willingness to submit to her friend Ret, the self appointed leader of their group, and in her desperate hope to make her first real relationship last. We learn that though Ret and Ellory call themselves best friends, they're held together more out of necessity, they need each other, just as they need the other two to balance them out. We watch her downward spiral as she accepts the use of alcohol and drugs around her, how she lets things slide that as readers we scream at her to question, and how she becomes a puppet to a friend's desperate need to have her all to herself. Now, we praise her complex development as she ages another year, but we also ache with each lie she believes and each lie she tells herself. As Now reaches the last chapters, we rejoice as Ellory learns to face the thing that left her friendless, boyfriendless, and alone. The style of writing, and the alternating time frames allows readers to experience the then, while also uncovering the truths that the friends didn't know at the time, revealing us the details of the fall. The accident, something we don't know understand until the end, pulls the friends in two directions and Kit Frick's decision to only write from Ellory's perspective forces us to choose her side.
"My mom calls what happened the fall. It's a kindness, a shortcut, a way of taking something hard and shaping it into two little words that can slip off your tongue."
See All the Stars is the sort of novel that shouldn't be limited to only readers of the Young Adult genre. It's too complex, too big of a story to be ignored by readers of New Adult, Adult, and Contemporary Fiction. The depth of See All the Stars makes it feel very real, making me not only empathize with the characters, but also reevaluate my own personal experiences, putting myself in the same shoes. The focus on relationships, lies, truth, and forgiveness made for a very compelling story. The characters are very well developed, made up of layers and flaws, their emotions ruling their decisions. I was able to guess at some of the plot, but the final chapters of the book proved that the true reveal was one worth waiting for. The shock factor was huge and unexpected, but perfect for a novel that makes you care so much for the main character and the hurt that she had gone through. I was incredibly impressed to find that See All the Stars is Kit Frick's debut novel and I really hope to see more from her.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one with Ret."
ARC provided via Netgalley.