Starworld by Audrey Coulthurst, Paula Garner

Starworld by Audrey Coulthurst, Paula Garner

My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Candlewick Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sam Jones is a loner intent on staying invisible and hiding her feelings. Referring to herself as a robot, she’s content with flying under the radar until she graduates and escapes her home life. Everything changes when she’s noticed by one of the popular girls at her school, Zoe Miller. On the surface, Zoe is perfect and has her life together. Sam can’t fathom why she’d even want to talk to her. What she doesn’t know is that Zoe works hard to appear perfect. Abandoned by her biological mother, she was adopted by a loving family, but she considers herself a drop-in. On top of things, she’s both stressed and worried because her mom has cancer and her younger brother might be sent to live in a facility full time. Together, Sam and Zoe let their walls down, confide in each other, and create a fictional universe that they can both escape to.

Written in rotating perspectives, we follow Sam and Zoe as they navigate the difficult patches in their lives. Through Sam’s perspective, we learn that she walks on thin ice when home because her mom has OCD and has a list of seemingly random and irrational rules that must be followed. As someone with OCD, I can understand how compulsions and random rules related to them can seem bizarre and irrational. Trust me; I know! It was interesting to see how it affected Sam, but I also felt a little offended that she thought her mom couldn’t cope without her to help with rituals.

Through Zoe’s perspective, we see that she’s not as perfect as she makes herself appear. She struggles with abandonment issues because she was surrendered for adoption, but she also feels bad because she loves her parents and knows they love her. Convinced that she is defective, Zoe does everything she can to appear perfect because she worries that she’ll be left behind if she appears anything less than flawless. At home, Zoe has alienated herself from her friends because she hates the way they look at her younger brother for having developmental disabilities. She also worries about her mom and her battle with cancer, which is in partial remission when the story begins.

When these two characters meet and become friends, they both start to learn that it’s okay to let their walls down and let people see who they are and what problems they have. I love their friendship and how much they learn from each other as well as how much it makes them grow as people. I enjoyed watching them blossom and learn that they don’t have to appear or act a certain way. They can be themselves and people will still like them.

I have a few minor issues with this book. The first one is that Sam comes off as extremely pretentious for someone who is supposed to be so different from her peers. It was a bit off putting at first, but thankfully it lessens as the chapters continue. My other issue is the way that the text messages between Sam and Zoe are written. It was cringe worthy and left me wondering where the authors got the idea that teenagers talk like that. I find it hard to believe that two people would have entire conversations, via text message, written the way that these text messages were. If I hadn’t been hooked on the story, I might’ve considered not reading the book over these passages. Thankfully, I marched along, but these passages took me out of the story every time they appeared.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and look forward to seeing if the authors collaborate on future projects. I think they work well together and the story they delivered is relatable, aside from those terrible text message passages, as well as engrossing.