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A review by carissatheluca
Made of Stars by Jenna Voris
1.0
I received this as an ARC.
I don’t think science fiction is a popular YA genre because it always comes out like Made of Stars. Awkward world building and bad pacing is far more easily excused when your world is medieval- a lack of technological or socioeconomic details in a science-fiction novel can and will break it. Made of Stars is broken.
I think when Jenna Voris sat down to write MoS, all she knew was that she wanted to write a space Bonnie and Clyde. it’s obvious that she built a plot around a tagline and it doesn’t work. most of the action in the first half of the book happens off page. Most of the relationship building between the important characters happens before the events of the book. The first half of the book toes between introducing the characters and setting the stage for the rest of the book but that’s just not interesting. Even the romance between Shane and Ava is told in backstory. There are honestly very few interactions between them on the page.
They aren’t even Bonnie and Clyde, they aren’t a couple! It’s false advertising.
The pacing was awful. I was constantly trying to figure out how much time had passed and where characters were. I don’t understand why there is an enormous time jump halfway through the novel that skips everything more interesting than the crap from the first few chapters. Why is the prison break, at the VERY beginning of the novel, told from the POV of someone who isn’t even present?
And finally, more than anything else: Shane and Ava aren’t the protagonists. Cyrus is. Most of the story revolves around Cyrus and his very boring stomping around military ships instead of actually following the thieves actively blowing up bases and stealing ships. If you’re going to tell a story about Cyrus, don’t pretend it’s about a romance that isn’t even in 80% of the book.
I don’t think science fiction is a popular YA genre because it always comes out like Made of Stars. Awkward world building and bad pacing is far more easily excused when your world is medieval- a lack of technological or socioeconomic details in a science-fiction novel can and will break it. Made of Stars is broken.
I think when Jenna Voris sat down to write MoS, all she knew was that she wanted to write a space Bonnie and Clyde. it’s obvious that she built a plot around a tagline and it doesn’t work. most of the action in the first half of the book happens off page. Most of the relationship building between the important characters happens before the events of the book. The first half of the book toes between introducing the characters and setting the stage for the rest of the book but that’s just not interesting. Even the romance between Shane and Ava is told in backstory. There are honestly very few interactions between them on the page.
They aren’t even Bonnie and Clyde, they aren’t a couple! It’s false advertising.
The pacing was awful. I was constantly trying to figure out how much time had passed and where characters were. I don’t understand why there is an enormous time jump halfway through the novel that skips everything more interesting than the crap from the first few chapters. Why is the prison break, at the VERY beginning of the novel, told from the POV of someone who isn’t even present?
And finally, more than anything else: Shane and Ava aren’t the protagonists. Cyrus is. Most of the story revolves around Cyrus and his very boring stomping around military ships instead of actually following the thieves actively blowing up bases and stealing ships. If you’re going to tell a story about Cyrus, don’t pretend it’s about a romance that isn’t even in 80% of the book.