Reviews

Lone Stars by Justin Deabler

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hoosgracie's review

3.0

This was OK but felt a little forced. I also didn’t love that it kept jumping in time.

4.5, because of a slow start for me, but unreservedly giving this book 5 stars. I had been looking forward to this book since long before it came out, and once I finally had a chance to start reading it, I was mildly disappointed, as the language felt "off," a bit underdeveloped, perhaps? I was feeling a bit underwhelmed, and I wasn't sure if I would continue, but I did, and very soon, whatever the voice and tone that I was somehow being put off by disappeared, and I started to really enjoy this book. By the middle of the book, I was very much "in," and by the last quarter of the book, I felt that my enthusiastic wait for this book had been justified.

disconightwing's review

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5.0

When Julian finally has a baby of his own, his husband, Phillip, asks him what he’s going to tell their son about his family. One night while soothing the baby, Julian spends some time thinking about his past and his family’s past in order to find the answer to that question. This novel is really the story of Julian’s ancestors, starting with his grandparents in Houston and Midland and ending with Julian and Phillip in New York.

This family goes through so much change. It’s sweeping and knocks you off your feet and even though it’s sometimes very hard to feel any strong emotions one way or the other for a multigenerational family because you cycle through them so quickly in just 300 pages, I genuinely thought that every character had such a unique voice and displayed so much personality and emotion that I got misty-eyed more than a few times reading this. They were all flawed and while I was thrilled to see the character growth in some of them, it all still made so much sense that everyone reacted the way that they did.

There is a lot of history covered in this book: from Eisenhower to Obama in presidencies! And it all felt authentic and genuine and fortunately not rushed at all.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

cook_memorial_public_library's review

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4.0

This 2021 staff favorite is recommended by Andrea and Marianne. Read Andrea's review on the Cook Memorial Public Library blog, Shelf Life: https://shelflife.cooklib.org/2021/06/08/andreas-pick-of-the-week-lone-stars-by-justin-deabler/

Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Slone%20stars%20deabler__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold