Reviews with content warning for Blood - Star Daughter

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

24 reviews

thealmightykatt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I felt like at times, the book spent too much time on things that were not interesting or actually relevant to the plot. The diversity of the characters is well needed in the YA and fantasy sphere, so it was interesting to see the interpretation in that area.

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jvbook_reader's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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? Yes

3.0

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sophie42's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

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hagwife's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

Star Daughter is an incredible portrait of family, history, and becoming. I am also deeply in love with the fact that Hindu culture and mythology is front and center.

The magical library whose location system relies on music to find books and everything is ordered according to the asanas is divine, no pun intended.

I love Thrakar's treatment of generational trauma and the core friendship between Sheetal and Minal is beautiful.

This is especially so given their differing secual orientations; Thrakar gives an amazing platonic friendship between the two and gives readers a delightful romance subplot between Minal and Padmini. Usually, I feel we get one or the other or some conflation of the two, and here we get both!

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.

(Her boyfriend knew she was a star because someone asked him to keep an eye on her, one parent is divine and one isn't, the divine nature hurting someone as we hit the coming of age, familial trauma causing a rift between two worlds, a competition where suddenly the brand new divine being has to master their talent to save everything, etc.)

Overall, its a great addition to YA Literature and I'm excited to see what Thrakar writes next!

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picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

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00phantom's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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kbairbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Would have DNF‘Ed if I didn’t have my reason.

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sssssoup's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

I really wanted to like this book, and I think it could’ve been interesting, but ultimately it just wasn’t for me. It had a lot of really pretty description, but the characters and plot fell flat for me. Sheetal’s internal conflict was intriguing and well written, but she often came across as whiny when she interacted with the other characters, though I did appreciate her complicated feelings about her family members. I was also confused by a lot of the terminology and I think the author should’ve included a glossary. Overall, it was pretty mid and I think the right person could really enjoy it, but I know that wasn’t me.

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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adventurous informative 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? Yes

3.0

Sigh I really wish I enjoyed this more. I just felt like it was no big deal going to the star world and it was like normal? I don’t know how to explain it. I did find the myths interesting. I also loved the diversity! If this sounds interesting or you want to read a diverse fantasy I do recommend you try it.

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thenovelmaura's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful slow-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

3.5

3.5 stars! We chose this book for our #ViolentQueensBookClub and it was a great read! Huge shout out to Thakrar for coming to our meeting and discussing this magical story with us. I loved the complexity of Sheetal's feelings toward her half-star, half-human heritage. And her loyalty to her father was so lovely to see, even though he wasn't super present in the book for plot reasons. This book was full of lavish descriptions of food, the star palace, and Hindu mythology.

While I liked the characters and setting, the pacing of this one left a bit to be desired. I couldn't believe how long each day was; it felt like I would read hundreds of pages before Sheetal actually got to go to bed. And maybe I'm just a stickler for rules, but

I agreed with the others in the court that it was cheating to have Sheetal in the competition. I mean, it's a competition of humans and she's half star. So it was funny because I was kind of rooting against her, and I really wish the puppeteer had won the competition.

Anyway, I love the representation here and that it's a standalone contemporary fantasy! If it sounds like it's up your alley than it probably is.

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