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A review by thewordslinger
When Stars Come Out by Scarlett St. Clair
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I'm struck by this feeling that she's the embodiment of my heart, and she's walking around outside my chest, and I'd do anything to protect her, no matter the cost.
Ugh, shut up. That's so friggin' adorable.
I've officially read everything Ms. St. Clair has ever written at this point...and I have to admit, as much as I like the A Touch of.../A Game of... saga, and as wild as King of Battle and Blood was, and as much as I adored Mountains made of Glass, this sort of murder mystery, spooky YA fantasy is probably the best of them all, writing wise. Maybe that's because it's not filled with smut? I dunno--but I thoroughly enjoyed this.
It's got all the great fantasy elements you'd expect to see in a book like this--it reminds me a lot of JLA's earlier works (particularly her Harbinger series). Hell-hounds, Raven shifters, evil dark smokey entities that like to possess people, mysterious, dubiously moraled shadow-governments, creepy graveyard witches, and a girl with the ability to turn ghosts into pocket money? Say less!
I will say I don't think the book needed the Greek Mythology references. I've read that this is supposedly an Orpheus/Eurydice re-imagining, but frankly, I don't see it. And the plot stands pretty well on its own without all of that.
It's not perfect, perhaps. It took me a little longer than I might have liked to figure out what was going on in the beginning (the intro to Shy's character POV was a bit of a shock, because the reader's thrown head first into the battle-training shape shifter world without any warning. I was like "wow okay so this is THAT sort of book, lol). But the action and intrigue builds nicely, the stakes are reasonably high...frankly, I couldn't stop reading this.
Ugh, shut up. That's so friggin' adorable.
I've officially read everything Ms. St. Clair has ever written at this point...and I have to admit, as much as I like the A Touch of.../A Game of... saga, and as wild as King of Battle and Blood was, and as much as I adored Mountains made of Glass, this sort of murder mystery, spooky YA fantasy is probably the best of them all, writing wise. Maybe that's because it's not filled with smut? I dunno--but I thoroughly enjoyed this.
It's got all the great fantasy elements you'd expect to see in a book like this--it reminds me a lot of JLA's earlier works (particularly her Harbinger series). Hell-hounds, Raven shifters, evil dark smokey entities that like to possess people, mysterious, dubiously moraled shadow-governments, creepy graveyard witches, and a girl with the ability to turn ghosts into pocket money? Say less!
I will say I don't think the book needed the Greek Mythology references. I've read that this is supposedly an Orpheus/Eurydice re-imagining, but frankly, I don't see it. And the plot stands pretty well on its own without all of that.
It's not perfect, perhaps. It took me a little longer than I might have liked to figure out what was going on in the beginning (the intro to Shy's character POV was a bit of a shock, because the reader's thrown head first into the battle-training shape shifter world without any warning. I was like "wow okay so this is THAT sort of book, lol). But the action and intrigue builds nicely, the stakes are reasonably high...frankly, I couldn't stop reading this.