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A review by jillybean357
A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth
4.0
This book was a lot of things.
Parts of it were completely fantastic, and parts of it were questionable and quite unfantastic. I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of depth and motive behind certain characters; I wish that every single main character got the kind of depth and development that Arlo did. I also wish the romances and character relationships got a bit more development. In retrospect, the plot seemed slow and fairly monotone for the first half of the book and consequently rushed in the second half. However, these criticisms aside, I ADORE this book.
(I know that list of critiques may seem like a lot but it most of these aren’t a big deal when you are reading for the first time. Those flaws rather make the difference between rereading the book and not).
We need more books like this. Normalize diversity in all genres of fiction. Personally, I feel there should not be a genre reserved for books that represent LGBTQ+ identities, instead there should be LGBTQ+ representation in every genre. I often underestimate how powerful it is to see somebody you can identify with in the media you consume, especially when there is so much controversy around who you love.
If you can get past the slow plot in the beginning, the plot holes, and the seemingly half baked characters, I would highly recommend this book. We need more casual representation of all identities. This book did so many things right that it is worth it to look past it’s flaws. I have a feeling if I reread this book my opinion of it would go down considerably, but that is an issue for another day.
Parts of it were completely fantastic, and parts of it were questionable and quite unfantastic. I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of depth and motive behind certain characters; I wish that every single main character got the kind of depth and development that Arlo did. I also wish the romances and character relationships got a bit more development. In retrospect, the plot seemed slow and fairly monotone for the first half of the book and consequently rushed in the second half. However, these criticisms aside, I ADORE this book.
(I know that list of critiques may seem like a lot but it most of these aren’t a big deal when you are reading for the first time. Those flaws rather make the difference between rereading the book and not).
We need more books like this. Normalize diversity in all genres of fiction. Personally, I feel there should not be a genre reserved for books that represent LGBTQ+ identities, instead there should be LGBTQ+ representation in every genre. I often underestimate how powerful it is to see somebody you can identify with in the media you consume, especially when there is so much controversy around who you love.
If you can get past the slow plot in the beginning, the plot holes, and the seemingly half baked characters, I would highly recommend this book. We need more casual representation of all identities. This book did so many things right that it is worth it to look past it’s flaws. I have a feeling if I reread this book my opinion of it would go down considerably, but that is an issue for another day.