A review by stardustandrockets
These Broken Stars by Meagan Spooner, Amie Kaufman

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

With interview pages between each chapter, These Broken Stars is kind of a precursor to The Illuminae Files. A massive luxury ship crashes out of hyperspace onto a seemingly deserted planet with only two survivors—Tarver and Lilac. This two POV story was basically what I expected a YA sci-fi novel about two teens crash landing on a seemingly deserted planet to be like. I was really enjoying it until things got extremely romantically involved in the last bit. Tarver kept referring to Lilac as "his girl" and being very possessive of her and it put me off. I was initially going to rate it a 4, but that dropped it down half a star for me.

It's an enjoyable read, but nothing groundbreaking. Looking forward to book 2.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Death of parent