Review: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on September 2, 2013 | 10 Comments


Review: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten WhiteThe Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White
Published by HarperTeen (9.10.2013)
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
288 pages
Source: Edelweiss
Buy on Amazon


4 Stars

Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.

Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.

Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.

My thoughts

This book was adorable! It was a cute and fluffy feel-good read. I can always count on Kiersten White’s stories to make me feel happy warm fuzzies!

“I can be whole without depending on someone else, thank you very much.”

And that is how I like my leads to be! Isadora and I would be great friends in real life. I loved that she didn’t immediately attach herself to Ry, despite his interest in her. She was capable of standing on her own two feet and codependency was so not in her vocabulary. Even when she finally stopped fighting her feelings, she was still independent. There needs to be more of those kind of female protags!

The romance was cute. It wasn’t forced and it wasn’t instalove. In fact, Isadora fought it tooth and nail at first. All of her inner arguments cracked me up! It sounded so much like something I would have done in her situation. She kept deliberately looking for reasons why she didn’t like him, I loved it and it made me giggle!

He’s still writing in his stupid notebook. He’s rude and arrogant. And I don’t like the way one of his curls flops down on his forehead. It’s stupid. I want to push it off, back into the rest of his hair. No, I don’t. I don’t want to touch him. I don’t care to find out if his hair is as soft as it looks. Why can’t I drink this smoothie faster?

I add show-off to my list of reasons I will never like Ry in a way that would be dangerous. And then I’m mad that I even feel like I need to have a list, which is another thing to put on the list I wish I didn’t have to have.

He’s wearing a heather-gray tee today, and I like it but I prefer him in blue. I mean, I have no preferences. I don’t care what he wears. Just the aesthetics, that’s all.

Despite Isadora being slightly – very slightly – immature, I really liked her and had no problem connecting with her. In fact, she reminded me so much of the old me at times that it was scary. (My notes went like this: Sounds like me. Wow, that REALLY sounds like me. Holy crap, she reminds me so much of myself!) She was so against attachment because she had been burned so many times, and pushed people away to keep herself safe at all costs.

“What is wrong with being attracted to someone? It’s a natural thing.”
“Yes, well, cancer is a natural thing, and we try our best to kill it.”

Those feelings have no place in my life and I will not let myself be a fool in love, with love, let it take over and destroy me.

I love that Isadora felt like she was better off without anyone in her life, then as the story progressed she slowly began to realize that sometimes people can make your life better. Some risks are worth taking. Isadora grew as a character and learned a lot from beginning to end. All in all, it was a pretty relationship driven story.

Oh, and I looooooved the purpose behind Orion! LOVED!

Random thought: I really liked how each chapter started out with a mythology lesson! At the start of the chapter there was a little snippet about certain gods or goddesses, and it always ended in sarcasm. Maybe that’s why I liked them so much!

quotes

If he laughs, I will disembowel him. And I won’t even put his guts into ceremonial jars for embalmment – I’ll scatter them across the dirt. I’ll toss them into the garbage disposal.

There’s a reason cats were near deity in ancient Egypt. Dogs may be loyal, but cats are smart.
YEAHHHHH. Cats FTW!

I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we’d choose anyway. And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 4/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4.5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 4/5

Jessi (Geo)

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10 responses to “Review: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

  1. This ond sounds really cute. I’m a big fan of mythology, so I love to give this one a try. It’s fun when you find a character that reminds you of you.

  2. Ahh, I’m SO torn!
    Your review made me ridiculously excited about the book, but…I have to make a confession…I have not liked a Kiersten White book yet.
    It’s difficult, because in the two books I’ve read, Paranormalcy and especially Mind Games, the writing was so fantastic! But I did not like the characters at all.
    And now you come around and tell me the heroine was so great! What’s a fanatic reader to doooo???
    I know, I’m weird. I guess I’ll continue this debate in my head…
    But thanks for this review! I probably wouldn’t even have thought about reading this book if you ´hadn’t made it sound so good :D

  3. I agree about this book. It was so fluffy and cute, it made me smile and I really liked Isadora too :) The information we get at the beginning of ever chapter was so well-done and it made the story interesting. I do wish it had a bit more plot.

  4. I’ve heard some mixed things about this one so far, but from what you said I think I’d be on the spectrum that’s going to love this one. I really loved Mind Games, and I think some of the same qualities from there are in here, especially the really cute inner dialogue. I’m glad that Isadora was an independent character, too, despite her immaturity at times.

    Fantastic review, Jessi! <33

  5. This looks like such a sweet read. I’m pretty much sold on anything that doesn’t have teenage instalove. When I first read the summary I thought the concept was iffy — the excuse for absentee parents is right there in the flap copy. But the reviews seem to indicate that the good outweighs the questionable.

  6. So glad to see you enjoyed this book! I’ve been hearing only positive things about this book and I can always count on White’s books to be light and fluffy and sarcastic. It seems like Isadora is a character that I would like, too! Fantastic review!
    Cheers!

  7. I’m very glad you liked this. I’ve been seeing so much controversy, and I honestly love Kiersten’s books that going into it soon, I want to LOVE it to death!!! Yay! Happy is me. I’m glad there are so many awesome cats for you! Haha! Woot!

    <333 Inky

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