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A review by taras
A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I absolutely loved this book. The beginning was very slow paced and towards the end turned into more fast paced which I loved. I also enjoyed the world building and even the info dumping was interesting to me, after a while of reading.
About the characters:
Arlo - my second favourite character, I loved her personality from the start, her insecurities, her fear, she was relatable and I just got her. I loved that she had so many POV chapters.
Nausicaä/Alecto - my absolute favourite! I adored everything about her from the start. Her pain, her revenge, her anger, depression, sarcasm and humour, just everything about her made me love her more and more. I do like the name Alecto more than Nausicaä, and it's easier to pronounce too. I just wish she got more chapters from her POV, hopefully that will happen in the next book!
Vehan - I liked him, felt like there wasn't that much about his character but at times he was interesting and charming.
Aurelian - probably my least favourite character. He had his moments where I liked him but the majority of the time I was just kind of bored with him. I felt like his 4 chapters of POV were pointless and should've been given to Nausicaä instead.
Lethe & the wild hunt- I loved Lethe so much my third favourite, he was so interesting and mysterious! Everything about him made me love him so much. I don't even care if he's a villain (or maybe he's not) but I just loved him along with the rest of the wild hunt, all of them were so interesting too. I hope I get to know more about the others in the next book.
Celadon - my precious spoiled prince, I want more of him in the next book, hopefully he also gets a POV, because he's perfect!
Riadne - THAT ENDING MADE ME LOVE HER?! I LOVE TWISTED AND EVIL WOMEN!
Urielle, Megaera, Luck - I NEED MORE OF THEM I LOVED THEM!
Hero - he was okay, I liked him at first, he got very annoying towards the end but I guess that's what greed does to you, along with jealousy.
The only thing that really bothered me about this book was the lack of racial diversity, since it's set in Toronto and someone in the story even said, the city is very diverse yet the majority of the characters were white?? Just makes no sense. I hope in the next book it'll be more diverse!
Because of that I give this a 4.5 star rating, instead of 5.
About the characters:
Arlo - my second favourite character, I loved her personality from the start, her insecurities, her fear, she was relatable and I just got her. I loved that she had so many POV chapters.
Nausicaä/Alecto - my absolute favourite! I adored everything about her from the start. Her pain, her revenge, her anger, depression, sarcasm and humour, just everything about her made me love her more and more. I do like the name Alecto more than Nausicaä, and it's easier to pronounce too. I just wish she got more chapters from her POV, hopefully that will happen in the next book!
Vehan - I liked him, felt like there wasn't that much about his character but at times he was interesting and charming.
Aurelian - probably my least favourite character. He had his moments where I liked him but the majority of the time I was just kind of bored with him. I felt like his 4 chapters of POV were pointless and should've been given to Nausicaä instead.
Lethe & the wild hunt- I loved Lethe so much my third favourite, he was so interesting and mysterious! Everything about him made me love him so much. I don't even care if he's a villain (or maybe he's not) but I just loved him along with the rest of the wild hunt, all of them were so interesting too. I hope I get to know more about the others in the next book.
Celadon - my precious spoiled prince, I want more of him in the next book, hopefully he also gets a POV, because he's perfect!
Riadne - THAT ENDING MADE ME LOVE HER?! I LOVE TWISTED AND EVIL WOMEN!
Urielle, Megaera, Luck - I NEED MORE OF THEM I LOVED THEM!
Hero - he was okay, I liked him at first, he got very annoying towards the end but I guess that's what greed does to you, along with jealousy.
The only thing that really bothered me about this book was the lack of racial diversity, since it's set in Toronto and someone in the story even said, the city is very diverse yet the majority of the characters were white?? Just makes no sense. I hope in the next book it'll be more diverse!
Because of that I give this a 4.5 star rating, instead of 5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, and Racism
Moderate: Blood and Murder
Minor: Suicide