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hagwife's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
What is an issue for me is the pacing and the kitchen-sink plotting. This book is incredibly fast paced given the complex issues Thakar handles and the story arc she weaves them through. It's a lot and its hard to get attached to certain characters or pieces because it all moves so quickly. To be clear, I don't think Thrakar needs or should have to slow down introducing the readers to the Earthly cast or the Heavenly one – I love the "deep end and swim" approach. There's just one trope too many piled on top of each other at breakneck speed.
Overall, its a great addition to YA Literature and I'm excited to see what Thrakar writes next!
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
There is a dream sequence early on that is unsettling.rc_hall's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Graphic: Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Abandonment
sssssoup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Confinement and Abandonment
Moderate: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
brookey8888's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
journeythroughthechapters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This was sadly a bit average for me. This cover is absolutely stunning and the atmosphere in the novel definitely matches the cover but this was not for me.
Things I liked
- The atmosphere: the world building and descriptions of the world was absolutely beautiful. I could visualise the world which is unusual for me. But I loved that I could picture this world. That is essentially what kept me reading
And I hate to say it but that’s about all I loved.
Things I didn’t love
- the writing: I hate floral writing and purple prose. I hate when it takes two sentences to describe one thing. And I hate when writing dances around the story. But if that is something you like then you might have a better time with this book than me.
- the plot: I don’t know if anyone else felt this way but I feel like there was so much happening but nothing at the same time. If you get what I mean…I feel because there were so many plot lines that nothing got fleshed out which was really disappointing because it is a clever idea but poor execution in my opinion
- the romance: Not necessarily the romance but the thought of romance was too much and too away from the story
With regards to the characters I didn’t hate them but I didn’t love them. As I said it was a very average book.
Representation
POC (main and side characters), Lesbian (side character)
Trigger Warning
Panic Attack, Violence, Bullying, Abandonment, Addiction
Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, and Panic attacks/disorders
taleofabibliophile's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Medical content
caseythereader's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.25
📚 It's so wonderful to read a YA fantasy that doesn't center white teenagers or build off European mythology.
📚 I wish there had been a lot more world-building in this book - there could have been so much more to the history of the star court and the palace intrigue Sheetal finds herself in the middle of, but instead she is relegated to the sidelines, finding out information secondhand. I would definitely have read a sprawling trilogy version of this book.
Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Murder
afireadsabit's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
- mythology
- glowing powerful mc
- coming into your own
- competitions
- beautiful, ethereal writing
Even if you go into this expecting a magical fantasy, you'll learn it is also about being human and not only learning about the marvelous world about gods and goddesses
Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Kidnapping
booksthatburn's review against another edition
This is my second attempt at reading Star Daughter and it just doesn’t click with me. I think the thing that’s irking me is that it’s full of pining for the status quo to be different but we don’t actually spend any time in the status quo she’s objecting to. So changes don’t feel important, it just feels like I’m getting jerked around. Almost as soon as we meet her kind-of-boyfriend we find out he knows her secret so it doesn’t feel like a betrayal to me as a reader because I don’t have the emotional weight of liking him first... I struggled so much with this book. The MC will say what she thought her state of mind was going to be and then tells us what it actually is... but when the first time we find out what she thought it would be is when it's something different it just feels confused. A minor example that shows this issue without really being a spoiler: the first time we ever hear about Little India in/near her neighborhood is when she finds out it has a magical night market. Cool, yay? But since we didn’t visit it at all or have the mundane side of it discussed previously my reaction isn’t “wow Little India has a magical night market!”, it’s more like, “oh sure, this new story location (Little India) has a particular feature (a magical night market). I’m not excited because I had zero expectations as to the existence or non-existence of this place. This really is a minor example, but it comes on the heels of several like it that are definitely spoilers.
I didn't get as far as the actual competition part of the narrative, so I can't vouch for how any of that plays out. If you want a story that spends at least the first half feeling like the aftermath for something you didn't get to see, you might like this. I like the MC's best friend, she feels so much more vibrant than the MC, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that in the second half the book reveals the MC's emotions were dampened by being on Earth or something, that's really the only thing I can think of that would make the flat characterization and lack of tension around the MC's narration feel purposeful. But, for me, I spent almost half the book waiting to care about the story and that just never happened, so I'm calling it quits.
Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Torture
CW for blood, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, violence.