The Stars Around Us Burn by Allie Martin

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Title: The Stars Around Us Burn
Author: Allie Martin
Series: Modern Fairytales, #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: January 8, 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 308
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, Coming of Age, Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »suicide « Hide Spoiler
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Retellings Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

In this modern day Rapunzel, a sheltered girl looks for answers to her brother’s suicide, what she ends up finding is herself…

Nicole Knight believes that if she finds her brother’s donated organs she will finally get the closure she desperately seeks. Her obsession even lands her in therapy and drives a wedge between her and her brother's best friend, Jeremy.

When Nicole finds a list written by her brother with only two tasks on it, she decides to complete it for him.

1. Tell Ally I love her2. Drive the coast with Nik

Her parents forbid her from the road trip but Nicole soon discovers she's not the only one hiding things. With this discovery she might be able to use her parents secrets against them to get exactly what she wants.

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3.5 stars — This was a very hard book to read at times…one that brought out a lot of emotions for me.  LOTS of feels for sure (some “trying to be quiet because my husband’s sleeping” bawling too), but also frustration.  Teenagers are SO FRUSTRATING!!  Which basically means that Nicole was very authentic to me.  It’s so easy to write about teenagers that make adult decisions, but I think it’s much harder to capture teens being erratic and irrational and yet still make you feel for them in the end.  And Ms. Martin definitely achieved that for me.

I was actually surprised at how much I did feel for Nicole, even as I had a hard time liking her for most of the book…though I think I was supposed to have a hard time.  Which is not to say she’s unlikable, but she does spend a lot of it behaving badly and making bad choices, so it’s hard.  I will admit, I’m not as forgiving as I’d like to be with character’s decisions sometimes.  But in the end I think it made her journey a bit more realistic, and I truly felt invested when it all came to a head…thus the aforementioned bawling.

From a mental health perspective, it was fascinating to see suicide from the “left behind” perspective.  It was interesting to hear them describing Jon and the things he would do that truly make me think he was maybe bipolar actually.  Definitely a lot of manic and deep depression phases.  What I appreciate about this story is that it shows how differently people grieve…and how there isn’t a right way or a wrong way, or a prescribed amount of time.  It was very heartbreaking, but also really thought-provoking.

The romance wasn’t the main story, but it was a fairly major player, and it was swoon-tastic.  Seriously.  Jeremy is not without his faults, but he was so unbelievably adorable, I can’t even.  I loved the way he loved her, and how once he got over his chickenshit ways, he was just all in.  While I appreciated the serious topics this book delved into, I adored the fun and light moments in the romance the most.  I’d also like to claim Jeremy for a book boyfriend.  Dibs have been called.

As for other characters, I loved that Nicole’s parents were good parents, but also parents struggling with the aftermath of a tragedy.  Lana was super intriguing, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s going to get her own book, b/c I have so many questions.  And Cranston was not at ALL what I was expecting, and I want to learn more about him too!

The fairytale retelling part was EXTREMELY loose in my opinion.  I mean, I don’t really know the Rapunzel story that well, but if I hadn’t been told it was a “retelling”, I wouldn’t have guessed it.  Just because Lana kept telling Nicole she was like Rapunzel trapped in her tower does not make it a retelling for me.

So why not full 4 stars?  I will admit that it felt a bit drawn out at times.  I was expecting a road trip book and the road trip didn’t start until like 65%.  And the writing style is not quite a match for my tastes…which is not to say it’s bad, just not quite a match you know?  It’s not enough to prevent me from reading more from this author though.

I can honestly say that while reading this book, it reminded me a LOT of Ginger Scott’s great YAs.  Lots of emotions, great realistic characters, tackles tough topics.  I would definitely recommend it for fans of Ms. Scott.  And I so need to go back and read Evan’s book now!!