kirstyreadsblog's review
4.0
Did I get hyped about this book from the cover alone like everyone else? Yes, I absolutely did and it was one of my most anticipated releases. But the cover isn’t the only beautiful part of this book!
Star Daughter follows Sheetal who is half star and half human living in New Jersey. When her father becomes sick she decides to go look for help in the skies and asking her mothers side of the family. They say they will help but only if she competes for them in a competition to decide who will be the next ruler of the sky.
The main stand out in this book for me was the wonderfully descriptive writing. I felt like I could really imagine the places being described and my mouth watering when there were scenes with food. There is something really magical about the way Thakrar sets a scene. When Sheetal is first exploring the home of her mother’s family I was so immersed in Thakrar’s illustrative imaginings.
On the whole, I enjoyed this novel, however, I found the middle parts to be a bit slow I honestly found myself zoning out at times, but when I zoned back in I could still follow it because not a lot had happened. I would honestly have rathered there be more around the actual competition as opposed to the day to day lives leading up to it.
Continue my review on my blog: https://kirstyreadsblog.com/2020/10/05/star-daughter-by-shveta-thakrar-review/
Star Daughter follows Sheetal who is half star and half human living in New Jersey. When her father becomes sick she decides to go look for help in the skies and asking her mothers side of the family. They say they will help but only if she competes for them in a competition to decide who will be the next ruler of the sky.
The main stand out in this book for me was the wonderfully descriptive writing. I felt like I could really imagine the places being described and my mouth watering when there were scenes with food. There is something really magical about the way Thakrar sets a scene. When Sheetal is first exploring the home of her mother’s family I was so immersed in Thakrar’s illustrative imaginings.
On the whole, I enjoyed this novel, however, I found the middle parts to be a bit slow I honestly found myself zoning out at times, but when I zoned back in I could still follow it because not a lot had happened. I would honestly have rathered there be more around the actual competition as opposed to the day to day lives leading up to it.
Continue my review on my blog: https://kirstyreadsblog.com/2020/10/05/star-daughter-by-shveta-thakrar-review/
missrenn's review
4.0
Happy Saturday lovelies! I hope you all dominated your work weeks (I know I feel like I really didn't). This weekend my friends and I are being rebels (sort of) and going to Vegas as a last big hoo-rah for my friend before he leaves for law school (Disclaimer: MASKS WILL BE WORN). But before we left I wanted to tell you guys about my latest read! I received an e-arc of this novel from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Star Daughter follows Sheetal, a half-star/half-human child as she discovers what it means to be a star while keeping the things that she loved on Earth. That's the briefest of summaries, but to say a little bit more about it, Sheetal is forced into this cosmic talent show by her grandparents (the ruling couple of her nakshatra (the royal house/constellation) who are, essentially, holding the one thing that could save Sheetal's mortal father's life. The blood of a star. Of course there are also family secrets that are uncovered and things are drastically changed for the stars and Sheetal.
Before I dive into the review, let's take a moment to gush about how beautiful this cover is! The lotus, the outfit, her hair! It's all beautiful and really ties into the story itself.
Now. Onto the main event.
I'm a lover of mythology, especially the myths and folklore of cultures vastly different than my own. I especially love the complexities of Hindu/Indian mythology. Shveta does a beautiful job of weaving in tales of gods and stories we may be familiar with from school (if you guys learned about Indian mythology, I took a few classes in college about different cultures), but the idea of anthropomorphizing stars is not something I really learned about in school in regards to Hindu/Desi/Indian mythology, but I loved it! And it made sense to the story itself. What I'm trying to get at is that the mythology is so rich and well written in this story that, if you're a lover of that sort of thing you'll definitely enjoy this story.
One tiny...minuscule thing that irked me about this tale, though, is that the last half of the story felt sort of rushed. There was supposed to be tension between Sheetal and some of the other contestants and, honestly, we didn't get to see much of Sheetal's interaction with these characters soooo the animosity was solely because she was half star and they didn't think she should be allowed to compete. I thought there would be more interaction between them, so I felt it was lacking in that respect.
To make up for it though, the author made family the focal point of the story. I really liked this because it's not something we see very often in YA, let alone YA fantasy. It really encapsulated the Desi/Indian culture very well. It was kind of reminiscent of my own half-Latinx culture.
Overall this story was very fun. I had fun reading it. I had fun getting to know Sheetal and seeing her world through her eyes and through music (which also plays a big role in the story). I think you should definitely check this beauty out when it comes out on August 11! It's perfect for fans of mythology, stories where the parents are alive and kicking, and generally if you like coming of age stories.
Star Daughter follows Sheetal, a half-star/half-human child as she discovers what it means to be a star while keeping the things that she loved on Earth. That's the briefest of summaries, but to say a little bit more about it, Sheetal is forced into this cosmic talent show by her grandparents (the ruling couple of her nakshatra (the royal house/constellation) who are, essentially, holding the one thing that could save Sheetal's mortal father's life. The blood of a star. Of course there are also family secrets that are uncovered and things are drastically changed for the stars and Sheetal.
Before I dive into the review, let's take a moment to gush about how beautiful this cover is! The lotus, the outfit, her hair! It's all beautiful and really ties into the story itself.
Now. Onto the main event.
I'm a lover of mythology, especially the myths and folklore of cultures vastly different than my own. I especially love the complexities of Hindu/Indian mythology. Shveta does a beautiful job of weaving in tales of gods and stories we may be familiar with from school (if you guys learned about Indian mythology, I took a few classes in college about different cultures), but the idea of anthropomorphizing stars is not something I really learned about in school in regards to Hindu/Desi/Indian mythology, but I loved it! And it made sense to the story itself. What I'm trying to get at is that the mythology is so rich and well written in this story that, if you're a lover of that sort of thing you'll definitely enjoy this story.
One tiny...minuscule thing that irked me about this tale, though, is that the last half of the story felt sort of rushed. There was supposed to be tension between Sheetal and some of the other contestants and, honestly, we didn't get to see much of Sheetal's interaction with these characters soooo the animosity was solely because she was half star and they didn't think she should be allowed to compete. I thought there would be more interaction between them, so I felt it was lacking in that respect.
To make up for it though, the author made family the focal point of the story. I really liked this because it's not something we see very often in YA, let alone YA fantasy. It really encapsulated the Desi/Indian culture very well. It was kind of reminiscent of my own half-Latinx culture.
Overall this story was very fun. I had fun reading it. I had fun getting to know Sheetal and seeing her world through her eyes and through music (which also plays a big role in the story). I think you should definitely check this beauty out when it comes out on August 11! It's perfect for fans of mythology, stories where the parents are alive and kicking, and generally if you like coming of age stories.
jennhillmeow's review
3.0
This was a very different culture than I am used to reading about (which isn't a bad thing) but I had to look a lot of stuff up to understand what I should be visualizing.
Sheetal's story was a fun one about a young woman coming into her own.
Sheetal's story was a fun one about a young woman coming into her own.
meghann_shannon's review against another edition
4.0
While I enjoyed the story, I found it confusing at parts and the pacing seemed a bit off.
I gave it an extra star because the cover is AMAZING! I probably won’t reread this but I’m seriously keeping it as display piece
I gave it an extra star because the cover is AMAZING! I probably won’t reread this but I’m seriously keeping it as display piece
tiffani_reads's review
3.0
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book but then it just became this drama filled nonsense that seemed like a whole different book. It really took away from the fantastic story that was built in the beginning. By the end of this book, I didn’t really care about the characters. First half was 5 stars, second half was a 1 star.
shecantcomplain's review
2.0
Tl:dr beautiful cover leads reader to story that expands cultural horizons but not much else
Beautiful book, gorgeous artwork on the cover. I fell deeply in love with all the vocabulary being thrown around that I had to hunt for, which only further drew me in and helped with the imagery. It was refreshing to not have the author giving me a mini history or culture lesson every time something culturally specific came up.
There were some problems for me with dialogue and action occasionally. Placement of characters being closer or further than I'd thought making the next sequence of events highly impractical if not improbable. Natural human reactions to fire being left out completely (I'm sorry, if there's fire then a person's going to back up) and adding to the placement issues. Also I didn't feel like anything was actually resolved in Sheetal's favor?
Beautiful book, gorgeous artwork on the cover. I fell deeply in love with all the vocabulary being thrown around that I had to hunt for, which only further drew me in and helped with the imagery. It was refreshing to not have the author giving me a mini history or culture lesson every time something culturally specific came up.
There were some problems for me with dialogue and action occasionally. Placement of characters being closer or further than I'd thought making the next sequence of events highly impractical if not improbable. Natural human reactions to fire being left out completely (I'm sorry, if there's fire then a person's going to back up) and adding to the placement issues. Also I didn't feel like anything was actually resolved in Sheetal's favor?
lauren1512's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
neera_exlibris's review
4.0
"...there was something I didn't see, because I'd been looking at all the wrong parts, all the shadows between the stars. I didn't yet know how to find our light."
I loved this book!!
I loved this book!!