I had so much fun with this one! I adored the characters and their relationships more than anything else; seeing both the Illori and the humans learn/re-learn how to feel joy again was so fun and I loved the way it was handled. This book deals heavily with the human condition, and what it means to be human, and I found those topics to be deeply fascinating. There are a lot of very important issues discussed in The Sound of Stars, like freedom, discrimination, hatred and violence, but Dow also found ways to weave a childish kind of joy throughout that was a delight to read. It made this book feel like a space opera set on earth, and I loved that aspect of it so much!

This was the July pick for the Queer Joy Book Club over on Instagram, which I had the pleasure of co-hosting this month! If you'd like to hear more in-depth thoughts on it, check out our spoiler-filled discussion here!