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lisashelves 's review for:
Defy the Stars
by Cathrina Constantine
⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 3 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via BookOfMatchesMedia in exchange for an honest review!
Defy the Stars is a young adult fantasy book about Crew and Sage. Both need to survive and escape from the wizard’s wicked plans.
“Be wary of the stars foretelling your destiny…”
I was really intrigued by the idea of a circus being the background and playground for this book and story. I was curious to see how the magic of a circus would complement the story.
The story started off with an introduction to both main characters, Crew and Sage, and their lives before all the events start. It is a nice way to get a feel for both characters. One thing I did notice from the very beginning were the many different creatures in the world and it was a bit hard to keep track of them all. I think the story would’ve benefited from less creatures being in the story. I also think that because so many were thrown in, the important ones such as Dolorans weren’t really explained, which left some confusion.
The worldbuilding left a lot to be imagined. Everything seemed really vaguely descripted and I couldn’t get a good feel of the world and it’s magic system. I feel like the idea was really good, but the execution wasn’t. The circus, which I had expected to be the main backdrop, wasn’t and I don’t really feel like I have a good grasp on the circus, it’s acts and everything.
The plot as well was really hard for me to follow along and to understand. While the dual POV was nice and complementary, the story itself was confusion. While having read around 1/3th of the story I still didn’t really understand where the story was going and was confused at what was happening and how it would/was contributing to the overall plot.
The writing style was nice to follow along, but the formatting sometimes was really hard to distinguish between what was happening. At a certain point a memory of flashback happened at the very start of a chapter, after some sort of cliffhanger on the chapter before. Since the formatting was exactly the same and I didn’t understand that it was a memory/flashback, which left me feeling like I missed something while reading. Only when at the end it was mentioned that a memory was told it became clear why it didn’t continue the story. This happened a few times and it would’ve been better if the formatting was different to better distinguish that happening and to easier follow along the story.
The characters themselves were a bit forgettable and seemed quite childish. They didn’t feel the ages they were said to have. Sage in particular really seemed to have mood swings which were giving me whiplash and often didn’t seem appropriate or unbelievable. Due to these mood swings or sudden hostility, the chemistry between her and Crew was unbelievable and seemed non-existing.
Overall, I feel like this book has very good potential, but it needed to be fleshed out a lot better. Because the confusion I kept having and the characters I didn’t really like I feel quite indifferent to this book, it being neither good or bad.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book via BookOfMatchesMedia in exchange for an honest review!
Defy the Stars is a young adult fantasy book about Crew and Sage. Both need to survive and escape from the wizard’s wicked plans.
“Be wary of the stars foretelling your destiny…”
I was really intrigued by the idea of a circus being the background and playground for this book and story. I was curious to see how the magic of a circus would complement the story.
The story started off with an introduction to both main characters, Crew and Sage, and their lives before all the events start. It is a nice way to get a feel for both characters. One thing I did notice from the very beginning were the many different creatures in the world and it was a bit hard to keep track of them all. I think the story would’ve benefited from less creatures being in the story. I also think that because so many were thrown in, the important ones such as Dolorans weren’t really explained, which left some confusion.
The worldbuilding left a lot to be imagined. Everything seemed really vaguely descripted and I couldn’t get a good feel of the world and it’s magic system. I feel like the idea was really good, but the execution wasn’t. The circus, which I had expected to be the main backdrop, wasn’t and I don’t really feel like I have a good grasp on the circus, it’s acts and everything.
The plot as well was really hard for me to follow along and to understand. While the dual POV was nice and complementary, the story itself was confusion. While having read around 1/3th of the story I still didn’t really understand where the story was going and was confused at what was happening and how it would/was contributing to the overall plot.
The writing style was nice to follow along, but the formatting sometimes was really hard to distinguish between what was happening. At a certain point a memory of flashback happened at the very start of a chapter, after some sort of cliffhanger on the chapter before. Since the formatting was exactly the same and I didn’t understand that it was a memory/flashback, which left me feeling like I missed something while reading. Only when at the end it was mentioned that a memory was told it became clear why it didn’t continue the story. This happened a few times and it would’ve been better if the formatting was different to better distinguish that happening and to easier follow along the story.
The characters themselves were a bit forgettable and seemed quite childish. They didn’t feel the ages they were said to have. Sage in particular really seemed to have mood swings which were giving me whiplash and often didn’t seem appropriate or unbelievable. Due to these mood swings or sudden hostility, the chemistry between her and Crew was unbelievable and seemed non-existing.
Overall, I feel like this book has very good potential, but it needed to be fleshed out a lot better. Because the confusion I kept having and the characters I didn’t really like I feel quite indifferent to this book, it being neither good or bad.