A review by hamstringy
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The prose is definitely very well written, but I didn’t love it. The audiobook in particular was really well done, though. I think listening to a Trinidadian accent was much better than just reading it would have been. I think I didn’t fully connect with it (definitely more ya than I could handle), and I think it definitely didn’t live up to the summary. 

I wish that they had spent more time on the magical realism and illness. I think that it just felt really misleading, especially as someone who picked up this book for those two reasons, that we just jump from Mabel not feeling well to her in the midst of off-screen cancer treatment. I can appreciate the ending for its themes of freedom on your own terms, but I do wish that they had further built up the magical realism so that it hadn’t felt so out of the blue.
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