Hello, book queens, kings and non-binary royalty!
Today I bring you a review for See All The Stars by Kit Frick.
 |
| Title: See All The Stars Author: Kit Frick Pages: 320 Publisher: McElderry Books Rating: 4/5 stars |
Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.
TW: toxic friendships
TW: toxic friendships
It’s hard to find the truth beneath the lies you tell yourself.
THEN They were four—Bex, Jenni, Ellory, Ret. Electric, headstrong young women; Ellory’s whole solar system.
NOW Ellory is alone, her once inseparable group of friends torn apart by secrets, deception, and a shocking incident that changed their lives forever.
NOW Ellory is alone, her once inseparable group of friends torn apart by secrets, deception, and a shocking incident that changed their lives forever.
THEN Lazy summer days. A party. A beautiful boy. Ellory met Matthias and fell into the beginning of a spectacular, bright love.
NOW Ellory returns to Pine Brook to navigate senior year after a two-month suspension and summer away—no boyfriend, no friends. No going back. Tormented by some and sought out by others, troubled by a mysterious note-writer who won’t let Ellory forget, and consumed by guilt over her not entirely innocent role in everything and everyone she’s lost, Ellory finds that even in the present, the past is everywhere.
The path forward isn’t a straight line. And moving on will mean sorting the truth from the lies—the lies Ellory has been telling herself.
- Goodreads
I won't be saying much in this review for one simple reason: it's better going in not knowing much.
To be honest, I wasn't enjoying this book at all until I was done with almost half of it.
The story is told during two time periods: from the sophomore summer to "the accident" (THEN), and all-throughout senior year (NOW).
We learn all the events leading up to the end of Ellory's friend group in the THEN chapters. And to be honest that was my biggest problem with this novel. Of course, we needed to know what caused the group to go on separate ways. But Ellory's friendship with Ret was hard to read in my opinion.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one with Ret."
Ret was incredibly manipulative. The group of friends made me remind a lot of Pretty Little Liars. Ret was the center, the one that kept the group together. Ellory, Jenni and Bex had this idea that they were nothing without Ret.
The NOW chapters were amazing; seeing Ellory deal with the fallout of what happened and trying to move forward. We also got to see the way the other characters dealt with it. Those were the chapters I enjoyed the most.
I have to say I disliked almost all characters. I only liked Ellory and Bex from the main group of characters. The romance part of this novel was... something? I wasn't a big fan of it. It had its good moments but most scenes between Ellory and Matthias were boring.
"My mom calls what happened the fall. It's a kindness, a shortcut,
a way of taking something hard and shaping it into two little words that can slip off your tongue."
The need to know what happened in order for Ellory to be alone was what made me not DNF this book. And I'm really glad I decided to keep reading.
The last thing I have to mention is one line that couldn't have been avoided completely. During an argument, Ellory calls Ret a "slut" and a "whore". It could have been avoided by using another sentence to give the impact that slut-shaming was supposed to give. Instead of feeling the impact, I got the desire to stop reading.
Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a lot.
0 comments