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A review by bookgoonie
Starcrossed City by Josephine Angelini
3.0
Greek mythology wasn’t my favorite in school, but it sure can provide for a lot of drama in a YA novel. Meet Helen…The World History teacher goes to what famous Greek Helen? Yes, Helen of Troy…oh so tragic. Well this Helen is a teenage girl being raised by her single dad on the island of Nantucket. Her mother disappeared when she was too young to even remember her. Helen feels like a freak. She is too fast and too strong for a normal girl. She is trying to fly under the radar. But she has the spunkist 5’2″ friend, Claire. Claire will not go quietly into the night….love her. Her word choice is epic. She even weaves in a Monty Python reference to the “holy hand grenade.” lol. If this is a Greek tragedy, we need way more drama…
,,,Then Helen saw Lucas for the first time.
The sky outside finally exhaled all of the winds that it had been holding for two days. Gusts of stale, hot air pushed through every open window into the sweltering school. It caught loose sheets of paper, skirt hems, unbound hair, stray wrappers, and other odds and ends, and tossed them all toward the ceiling like hats on graduation day. For a moment it seemed to Helen that everything stayed up there, frozen at the top of an arc, as weightless as space.
Lucas was standing in front of his locker about twenty feet away, staring back at Helen while the world waited for gravity to switch back on. He was tall, over six feet at least, and powerfully built, although his muscles were long and lean instead of bulky. He had short, black hair and dark end-of-summer tan that brought out his white smile and his swimming-pool blue eyes.
Meeting his eyes was an awakening. For the first time in Helen’s life she knew what pure, heart-poisoning hatred was.
Whatcha talking about Zeus? Well apparently the Furies want Helen to kill this druelilicious demigod of Apollo. Bummer. Well there is some romantic moments–the hand holding is even good–and more Greek tragedy.
It’s almost as if we don’t need to live our lives or feel our feelings at all, because someone already told us what the ending was going to be,”…
Will these charcters be able to escape their fate and write their own story OR are they doomed to repeat thousands of years of history again?
What I liked…the characters. Helen is definitely one of those girls you know that is always trying not to stand out or fully show her talent. You can sympathize with her never really having a boyfriend before, strong connection with her father and best friend and good old high school anxiety. Dare I do this? I am going to make some cross book comparisons. The dialog between Helen and Claire reminds me of Max from Maximum Ride. The demigod situation is similar to Percy Jackson. The love that shouldn’t be and Lucas’ family and how they interact reminds me of Twilight. There is a City of Bones aspect that I won’t elaborate or allude to.
What I wasn’t sure of…Greek mythology can be confusing. YIKES!!! Now it isn’t necessary to follow every tidbit to follow the story, but I felt a little off. Somethings or event may seem a little rushed or convoluted. But again, I just kept on reading. Lucas is beyond understanding and sensitive–kind of Edwardesque. Now that didn’t stop me from reading all of that series, but wanted to give you the heads up.
,,,Then Helen saw Lucas for the first time.
The sky outside finally exhaled all of the winds that it had been holding for two days. Gusts of stale, hot air pushed through every open window into the sweltering school. It caught loose sheets of paper, skirt hems, unbound hair, stray wrappers, and other odds and ends, and tossed them all toward the ceiling like hats on graduation day. For a moment it seemed to Helen that everything stayed up there, frozen at the top of an arc, as weightless as space.
Lucas was standing in front of his locker about twenty feet away, staring back at Helen while the world waited for gravity to switch back on. He was tall, over six feet at least, and powerfully built, although his muscles were long and lean instead of bulky. He had short, black hair and dark end-of-summer tan that brought out his white smile and his swimming-pool blue eyes.
Meeting his eyes was an awakening. For the first time in Helen’s life she knew what pure, heart-poisoning hatred was.
Whatcha talking about Zeus? Well apparently the Furies want Helen to kill this druelilicious demigod of Apollo. Bummer. Well there is some romantic moments–the hand holding is even good–and more Greek tragedy.
It’s almost as if we don’t need to live our lives or feel our feelings at all, because someone already told us what the ending was going to be,”…
Will these charcters be able to escape their fate and write their own story OR are they doomed to repeat thousands of years of history again?
What I liked…the characters. Helen is definitely one of those girls you know that is always trying not to stand out or fully show her talent. You can sympathize with her never really having a boyfriend before, strong connection with her father and best friend and good old high school anxiety. Dare I do this? I am going to make some cross book comparisons. The dialog between Helen and Claire reminds me of Max from Maximum Ride. The demigod situation is similar to Percy Jackson. The love that shouldn’t be and Lucas’ family and how they interact reminds me of Twilight. There is a City of Bones aspect that I won’t elaborate or allude to.
What I wasn’t sure of…Greek mythology can be confusing. YIKES!!! Now it isn’t necessary to follow every tidbit to follow the story, but I felt a little off. Somethings or event may seem a little rushed or convoluted. But again, I just kept on reading. Lucas is beyond understanding and sensitive–kind of Edwardesque. Now that didn’t stop me from reading all of that series, but wanted to give you the heads up.