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A review by mrpitmansgranddaughter
Body of Stars by Laura Maylene Walter
4.0
This is a book full of deep deep sentiment but written with a such a flowing plot that even in overwhelming moments you continue moving along the journey, wanting to keep it going, wanting to stand by the characters. Then finally, you close the book and you can process it. The emotion of the book and the characters that you have been alongside. But mostly and overwhelmingly, the meaning how it is just a step away from our reality, that combined with the events of the last few months this book took me back, added to that ball of emotion that has been sitting inside so many of us.
What you have here is a book that poses the question, what if all female futures are mapped on our bodies? Simple markings could tell you how the rest of you life turns out. Thats the premise of a really interesting story. Throw in a version of 'puberty' that makes women utterly irresistible and fascinating to other humans and well things get even more interesting. Then what Walter does is trickle in a reality that shares so many similarities to our own, the treatment of women, the risks women face everyday, the blame and responsibility women carry and bring them to the forefront of a society led by men and well you have quite the book... that any skeptic can see is very much a play on our society.
It would be easy to throw this into a feminist dystopian category and be done with it and while it has those elements, I don't think that does this book justice. It needs to be recognised for, how brilliant the author has been created a world close to out own and using tiny tweaks to make it feel more dystopian. Don't write this off because of that categorisation, and I will say it again for the people at the back. Stop comparing all feminist dystopia to The Handmaids Tale... it's ok to not just be another version of that.
It is beautifully written, carefully and cleverly explored and thought provoking. You will feel so many emotions and you will feel anger, anger for the world that Celeste lives in and anger when you realise just how close to our own it is. It might not be on any lists right now but it absolutely deserves to be at the top of your pile.
Some powerful words from this book that struck a cord with me ‘I viewed abductions as I did my own morality: they were an indisputablefact of life and yet unfathomable, too fast and horrific to hold in my mind for more than a few seconds.'
What you have here is a book that poses the question, what if all female futures are mapped on our bodies? Simple markings could tell you how the rest of you life turns out. Thats the premise of a really interesting story. Throw in a version of 'puberty' that makes women utterly irresistible and fascinating to other humans and well things get even more interesting. Then what Walter does is trickle in a reality that shares so many similarities to our own, the treatment of women, the risks women face everyday, the blame and responsibility women carry and bring them to the forefront of a society led by men and well you have quite the book... that any skeptic can see is very much a play on our society.
It would be easy to throw this into a feminist dystopian category and be done with it and while it has those elements, I don't think that does this book justice. It needs to be recognised for, how brilliant the author has been created a world close to out own and using tiny tweaks to make it feel more dystopian. Don't write this off because of that categorisation, and I will say it again for the people at the back. Stop comparing all feminist dystopia to The Handmaids Tale... it's ok to not just be another version of that.
It is beautifully written, carefully and cleverly explored and thought provoking. You will feel so many emotions and you will feel anger, anger for the world that Celeste lives in and anger when you realise just how close to our own it is. It might not be on any lists right now but it absolutely deserves to be at the top of your pile.
Some powerful words from this book that struck a cord with me ‘I viewed abductions as I did my own morality: they were an indisputablefact of life and yet unfathomable, too fast and horrific to hold in my mind for more than a few seconds.'