And All the Stars : 5/5 stars
And All the Stars is another great book by Andrea K. Höst. If you haven't checked out her Touchstone trilogy, you should, ok?
So,
as I was saying, And All the Starsis a survivalist science-fiction
story that will grip your heart and never release it until you finally
reach the last page. It's fast-paced, well-written and hard to put down.
In
the first pages, you're thrown right in the middle of the action - an
explosion at St-James' station and the main character, the very likeable
and very real Madeleine Cost, is miraculously saved but covered in
violet dust. The dust that mysteriously appeared out of weird towers
that sprouted overnight and no one knows what it does. Is it poison? Is
it deadly? Even if she feels like she is a dead girl walking, Madeline
never gives up and keeps on trying to survive in this brand new world.
I
can't really tell much more about the story without spoiling
everything, and that would be catastrophic because the constant surprise
and mystery of the story is one of the many good points of this book.
As
for the characters, if you've already read a book by Höst, you know
what I'm talking about when I say as usual, they are wonderful. She has
this incredible talent to make every character important, likeable and
supremely real. They are not perfect, they are just as common and normal
as you and I, but she manages to make them great, important and
likeable. They could be real people. And you'll probably fall a little
in love with every single one of them.
As
usual, the world building is also great, precise, detailed (if you can
talk about world-building if it's set on Earth? i don't know.) and I
loved the writing.
I definitely recommend this book and any book by her. She's truly amazing and you'll love her characterization.
Persephone : 5/5 stars
I love mythology and I am especially fascinated by Hades and Persephone's myth. Therefore I was really, really
excited about this book but at the same time, wary because I've already
read a few modern rewritings of this myth and they were downright
terrible (The Goddess Test, anyone? Diddn't think a book could make me feel that angry).
And this is undoubtedly the best rewriting I've read so far.
The characters were very well-written and felt real. Persephone
doesn't care for being a damsel in distress and takes matter into her
own hands. Her reaction to the whole "hey you're a goddess" is not
downplayed at all, like it usually is, and quite realistic I've found. I
loved Cassandra, with her sass and her
always rectifying Hades - she made me giggle out loud. Hades is alright
but quite different from what I'd thought : the author slightly changed
the myth. This Hades is not really the "bad guy" of the story, he
actually "kidnaps" Persephone so that she can stay safe in the
Underworld from the real bad guy, a psychopath and serial rapist :
Boreas, God of Winter. At first, it slightly unsettled me but I realised
that I am not sure I really want to read a love story with an abusive and
pedophile Hades... So that's actually for the better!
Speaking of
the love story, this one mercifully avoided the classic "insta-love"
situation. Persephone seems particularly unimpressed by Hades at first
and only learns to like him and eventually love him with time, upon
seeing how he rules on the Underworld. Also, I found quite mature how Persephone handled her own feelings for him. It was really refreshing compared to the cheesy stuff you usually see in YA.
Another
aspect of the story I really liked : the transformation of the Gods in
the modern world. Honestly, that was just GREAT. It was just as good as
Percy Jackson. The more I read about it, the more I thought "omg this is
awesome, THIS IS AWESOME.". Everything just made a lot of sense and
there were no loose ends or discrepancies.
The writing style was
clear and fluent. The dialogues were quite witty and made me giggle
sometimes and the Twilight references under the name "Dusk" really
amused me.
Another aspect of the book I really appreciated, speaking
of Twilight, is that they never downplayed the importance of the age
difference between Hades and Persephone. It didn't feel like it was just
a momentary hindrance to increase the sexual tension and anticipation,
it felt like it was a real problem that Hades (and the author) carefully
considered so that it wouldn't be creepy. Honestly, these days I've
read so much YA where seriously wrong and unhealthy relationship were
glorified that I just have to highlight how this book was a breath of fresh air compared to them because it avoided these pitfalls.
It is a great book : I recommend it to anyone. I am so glad it didn't disappoint me and I really can't wait for the second installment in the series!
