Stella Callahan has always been fascinated with astronomy. Growing up in the small town of Torrance, she has always been able to gaze at the stars. However, on the night a comet flew over her town, Stella’s mother mysteriously goes missing. Years later, the same thing happens to Stella’s dad during a meteor shower, where she witnesses him being engulfed in light before disappearing. Stella’s love for astronomy soon turns into a fear of even being out at night, but after moving away for college, Stella is drawn back to her home town where she discovers the terrifying truth.
I’ll admit I’ve been ignoring quite a few review requests lately, but when I read Josh’s request his book immediately piqued my interest! I’ve loved astronomy since I was young, so I always love anything to do with stars and planets. Stella is a novella set in a small town in Indiana, where Stella lives in a farmhouse with her dad and her dog. However, Stella’s life is drastically changed when she witnesses her dad disappear in a ball of light during a meteor shower.
I will admit the book wasn’t what I was expecting, as I thought it would involve aliens, different planets, and Stella discovering her parents had been teleported somewhere by an alien lifeform. I was pretty disappointed that this wasn’t the case, and Stella stayed in her hometown for the majority of the book, with a chapter set in a city where she attended college. Honestly, it’s my fault for going in with certain expectations, but I couldn’t help be disappointed it wasn’t the great Sci-Fi adventure I’d been expecting.
After overcoming the initial disappointment that this book wasn’t going where I had expected it to go, I did start to enjoy it for what it was, and it made me wonder if not aliens, then what had taken Stella’s father? The big reveal only comes in the final few pages of the book, and despite there being foreshadowing near the start of the book, it managed to slip past me completely as I wasn’t expecting it at all! I loved the plot twist and even though it wasn’t aliens, I loved that it was still something out of the ordinary. However I felt as if I ended up with more questions than answers, and I really wanted to know more about Stella’s neighbors, and what Stella decided to do with her life.
The characters felt a little two-dimensional, but at less than 100 pages, it’s understandable that the characters were never fully developed. I didn’t care for the characters or find them interesting, but the story was mostly plot-driven, and was interesting enough for me to not mind too much. I loved seeing how Stella coped with the loss of her father and the interesting side effects of her becoming terrified of the stars and being outside at night. It was interesting to find out that Astrophobia is actually a real thing that people can suffer from, usually as a response to watching too many Sci-Fi movies. As a meteor could potentially wipe out all life it’s actually not that strange of a fear!
Even though the book wasn’t what I was expecting, I did enjoy it, and only wish it had been a little longer! I'm a little torn on how to rate this one as it wasn't quite 4 stars, so I'd probably actually give it a 3.5. I felt it had the potential to delve a little deeper and even be made into a full-length novel, as a few things seemed a little too rushed. I loved Josh’s writing style and brilliant plot twists, and I would love to read more from him in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment