Scan barcode
A review by utopiastateofmind
A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth
3.0
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
A Dark and Hollow Star features four queer teens who find themselves involved in a series of murders destabilizing their world, as they know it. It's been a while since I've read an urban fantasy with Faeries. A Dark and Hollow Star is set in Canada and bites off a huge chunk with epic and broad world building. It's a world of multiple courts, magical creatures, and banned magics. My main issue with A Dark and Hollow Star was how slowly it unfolded.
I'm all for slow burns and unfurling worlds, but by about 20% I was still not really grasping the crescendo of action and still a bit confused about the backstories of the characters. Since I'm normally a fan of multiple POV novels, I'm not sure if it's a combination of the fact that the switches sometimes made the narration feel a bit slower, or the combination of the slowly unfolding intrigue, but I wasn't as invested as I wanted to be as early as I wanted.
A Dark and Hollow Star features four queer teens who find themselves involved in a series of murders destabilizing their world, as they know it. It's been a while since I've read an urban fantasy with Faeries. A Dark and Hollow Star is set in Canada and bites off a huge chunk with epic and broad world building. It's a world of multiple courts, magical creatures, and banned magics. My main issue with A Dark and Hollow Star was how slowly it unfolded.
I'm all for slow burns and unfurling worlds, but by about 20% I was still not really grasping the crescendo of action and still a bit confused about the backstories of the characters. Since I'm normally a fan of multiple POV novels, I'm not sure if it's a combination of the fact that the switches sometimes made the narration feel a bit slower, or the combination of the slowly unfolding intrigue, but I wasn't as invested as I wanted to be as early as I wanted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide