Novel Review: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)

Release Date: September, 2013

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Wishlist Thursday. Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

The Cover:

I love the cover. It's beautiful. The colors are warm and eye-catching, the design is intricate; it looks simple but detailed and just lovely. It fits the book perfectly, as well.

Quote:

• "'I didn’t fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. 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.’” (Hardback, pg. 258) YES.

Review:

I really, really enjoyed this book. I don’t think it had quite as much oomph as White’s other books have had, but I still really liked it, and found it a bit adorable. It was definitely an easy read.

I also really liked the ideas about family, and mortality versus immortality, and destiny. I agreed with a lot of it, and I enjoyed seeing it being portrayed like it was, and how it pushed Isadora.

I liked Isadora. She was fun to be in the head of, if a little angsty. I enjoyed seeing her relationship with her family grow, and how that progressed. As well as how she grew as a person. I liked her relationship with her friends, too, and with Ry.

I thought her and Ry’s relationship was quite adorable, and just really sweet. They were very cute. I liked Ry as a person, too, and enjoyed his similarities to Isadora (which were easy to guess, but I’m not going to spoil).

The ending was very nice. A bit surprising, too, and I like how it all wrapped up at the end. 

Overall, this one wasn’t quite as intense as her others, and I don’t have much to say about it, but it was still very enjoyable, fast, and cute. I enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to White’s next book.

Manga Review: Olympos, Omnibus, by Aki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: June, 2012

Volumes: 2 (1 in omnibus)

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Desperate to make his dreams come true, a young man named Heinz appeals to the heavens for divine intervention. But he wasn't expecting a beautiful ginger-haired boy to appear before him in the midst of his prayer... Apollo, the god of the sun, brings Heinz to a realm beyond reality - an endless field of flowers beneath an infinite expanse of stars. There, Heinz meets Ganymede, prince of Troy, who has remained here for hundreds of years, bound by his own uncertainty and despair. At Apollo's bidding, Heinz attempts to convince Ganymede to leave with him in exchange for having his own wish granted, but can anyone free Ganymede from the trappings of his mind?

Quotes:

• "'You’re the only one here. Thus what you’re looking at is truly the one and only reality. To be insane in an insane world is to be sane. Do you understand?’” (Volume 1, Chapter 2)

Review

I mainly only picked this up because it’s just so pretty. The art is gorgeous, and there are these pretty colors pages, and it’s a nice big, one-volume edition. It just looks to nice and feels so nice in my hands. The story was not quite as good as I was hoping it would be, but it’s still so pretty.

I don’t know how accurate the story was to actual mythology (although I don’t think very, given the little blurb at the back of the first volume), but that isn’t too important to me. I don’t mind an author taking well-known characters and taking a different path with them. That isn’t to say that I would mind a remake of an old mythology story, though, because that would have been nice, too.

I enjoyed the stories in this book, and I felt for Ganymede several times, because the poor guy has been put in such a bad spot. The Gods are rather horrible to him. Apollo in particular, who I was rather interested in how his story progressed. The ending was rather open, not much of a conclusion, which bothers me a little.

It bothers me that several of the male characters look like girls. I did find the look of several of the Gods really intriguing, and liked what Aki did with them. As I’ve said, though, the art was really pretty. 

Overall this was a pretty good read. It was intriguing, short, not particularly intense or with a lot of character depth, but thoughtful and sweet. I enjoyed it, and am glad that I picked it up.