Book Review
Lost Stars
By Claudia Gray
This book was recommended on a podcast I listen to and enjoy, Writing Excuses. I listened to them once before and was a little disappointed. Amazon had about eleven hundred reviews, with an average rating of 4.5 stars. The cover blurb says that the author is a New York Times best seller. I figured, eh, I’ll bite.
I think I am going to stop listening to the recommendations. I really should be the right fan base. I like scifi. I like writing. The podcast I listen to is engaging and useful. But, ya know, the recommendations for books are just not working for me.
The story was about as predictable as death and taxes. The characters as deep as a puddle. The fact that they were on opposing sides didn’t hold much fear or tension. The language was boring and direct.
The only slightly interesting quality was to see the events of the first three movies through the eyes of a couple of low level officers. I was hoping it would be a little Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-ish, but that didn’t work out either.
Later, after having finished the book, I read more on the author. Turns out, she writes YA fiction. So now it all makes sense. I am simply not the right target for YA novels. Then again, I’m not sure if a young adult would have liked this book very much either, but I am not really in a position to say.
B.S. Donovan 