tabatha_shipley's review
3.0
What I Did Like:
-Emotional. I love poetry. I love being able to connect with raw emotions of the poet by reading their words and analyzing line breaks and white space. This book reads like a poetry book, so I LOVED that.
-Formatting lends to fast reading. This one is formatted to move you through the story quickly. It reads like a journal or notes from the author herself coming to terms with a damaging past. The formatting sets the pace for the story in an expert way.
-Connections. You feel like you really connect with the Avery/the author in this one through the emotions and the scenes that are shared.
Who Should Read This One:
-Fans of emotional contemporary stories will like the quick connection to a real person they get from this one.
-Readers who enjoy poetry anthologies, like I do, will adore this one.
My Rating: 3 Stars. This will appeal to all readers at that niche of poetry works with nonfiction/memoirs.
For full review (including what I didn’t like): https://youtu.be/oYwk5QI7wvI
-Emotional. I love poetry. I love being able to connect with raw emotions of the poet by reading their words and analyzing line breaks and white space. This book reads like a poetry book, so I LOVED that.
-Formatting lends to fast reading. This one is formatted to move you through the story quickly. It reads like a journal or notes from the author herself coming to terms with a damaging past. The formatting sets the pace for the story in an expert way.
-Connections. You feel like you really connect with the Avery/the author in this one through the emotions and the scenes that are shared.
Who Should Read This One:
-Fans of emotional contemporary stories will like the quick connection to a real person they get from this one.
-Readers who enjoy poetry anthologies, like I do, will adore this one.
My Rating: 3 Stars. This will appeal to all readers at that niche of poetry works with nonfiction/memoirs.
For full review (including what I didn’t like): https://youtu.be/oYwk5QI7wvI
rachdadams_writer's review
4.0
With Map to the Stars, Ashley Hutchison takes us on a roller coaster ride the likes of which I've not seen since The Princess Diarist or Moon Tiger. She hops around from age to age, giving us both a story and a first-person viewpoint of the pent-up emotions a child carries into adulthood when they come from a broken home wherein they have endured trauma. The novella is raw and powerful in that refusal to abide by rules. It definitely reads more like a flow of consciousness journal in some places, actual contents of text messages in some, while in others it seeks to tell the story of the protagonist and how the world changes her. Some of the language used in this book is breathtakingly haunting while at other times, the rage leaves us with repetitive lines of anger lashing out at people; people who refuse to comprehend that the actions of a few people can mold a human being for the better or for worse.
dharmlost's review
5.0
Holy schnikes I didn't expect to have my heart broken tonight but that happened. I mean I knew it was going to be a haunting tale but wow.
Wow.
Wow.
tjazz's review
5.0
Raw and poignant. Ashley maps out Avery's very difficult life across several constellations in a powerful expression of chaos and quiet strength.
alwaysteatime's review
5.0
This was heartbreaking to read, in a way I knew it would be but still did not expect. I found the pages to be a mirror and a dream, but so incredible in the most real way- to see such rawness and emotion in just a few pages really took my breath away. It was personal, emotional poetry even when it wasn’t. The format it was written, from the echoing stanzas to the parallels in some parts, adds not only to the story but to the voice of every character and what certain topics meant and felt like in such a way that if it were written in any other way, it wouldn’t be conveyed the same. I feel very lucky to have been able to read this.
imjustamanda's review
4.0
There are books that woo you and draw you in leisurely, but that isn't A Map to the Stars. It is raw and pulls you into the devastating plunge of Avery's hopes and dreams torn away into the shadows by the loss of everything precious. When those things are ripped from her, Avery turns to the stars and she endures.
ltwardwriter's review
5.0
I won't say I enjoyed 'A Map to the Stars,' because the content is not something to enjoy. However, I'm grateful for having read Hutchinson's work as it was intimate and insightful into the pain caused by complex trauma.
Like Kerouac with his expansive sentences and Carver with his clipped style, Hutchinson utilizes an experimental structure to apply visual heft to her words. The shift in narration from first- to third-person is only one means in which the reader gleams the inner struggles of the protagonist, Avery.
A heartbreaking, but worth it read from Hutchinson. I highly recommend reading 'A Map to the Stars.'
CW: child abuse, sexual abuse, neglect
Like Kerouac with his expansive sentences and Carver with his clipped style, Hutchinson utilizes an experimental structure to apply visual heft to her words. The shift in narration from first- to third-person is only one means in which the reader gleams the inner struggles of the protagonist, Avery.
A heartbreaking, but worth it read from Hutchinson. I highly recommend reading 'A Map to the Stars.'
CW: child abuse, sexual abuse, neglect
whistberry's review
5.0
A howl from a wounded soul. A meditation on the ephemeral and slippery nature of memory. A painful reminder that our experience of our lives is uniquely our own, unable to be shared or fully understood even by those who should know us best. Rather than a linear attempt at retelling her story, in this stunning memoir, the author gives us snapshots into her mind at critical points both in a childhood cut short by parental neglect, lies, and betrayal, and as an adult, looking back and trying to make sense of tumultuous events long past. Written with a mix of poetic prose, poetry, and even that most prosaic form of communication, text messaging, each short passage is another window into the depth of hurt, anger, and lasting damage of a chaotic childhood governed by unreliable parental figures.
The title of this remarkable book comes into play in the fairy tale of a girl longing to belong somewhere, to escape to anywhere, who climbs a tree to get closer to that sky full of distant stars where she wishes she could live. Full of beautiful imagery and a haunting ending, it is in some ways the emotional heart of this window into a soul seeking understanding if not peace. As the author herself tells us on the last page, there are 14,121 words contained in this work - not enough to tell the whole story, even if the author should wish to let us in to that extent or understood it all perfectly herself, but more than enough to hear a fragile soul sharing what they’re able. A moving, unique, and poetic work of art. [Note: I was provided a free advanced reading copy of this work from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.]
The title of this remarkable book comes into play in the fairy tale of a girl longing to belong somewhere, to escape to anywhere, who climbs a tree to get closer to that sky full of distant stars where she wishes she could live. Full of beautiful imagery and a haunting ending, it is in some ways the emotional heart of this window into a soul seeking understanding if not peace. As the author herself tells us on the last page, there are 14,121 words contained in this work - not enough to tell the whole story, even if the author should wish to let us in to that extent or understood it all perfectly herself, but more than enough to hear a fragile soul sharing what they’re able. A moving, unique, and poetic work of art. [Note: I was provided a free advanced reading copy of this work from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.]
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