These Broken Stars - Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner

These Broken Stars

Title: These Broken Stars
Author: Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner
Publication Date: 12/10/13
Pages: 374
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy / Romance / Young Adult / Fiction
How I Found It: On Reserve for a while
Date Completed: 2/27/15

Summary: Two space age teenagers land on a mysterious, seemingly uninhabited planet after their spaceship city crashes. As they work to survive and hope for rescue, they realize they may not be the only sentient beings on the planet. 

What I Thought: Though I read a decent amount of young adult fiction, I am incredibly picky about it. Whether my high standards are a reflection on my own tastes or on the perceived low standards within the genre, I'll leave that to your own determination.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I didn't dislike it. Mostly, I just felt befuddled by it. 

The premise is pretty basic: rich, popular girl gets stranded with plebeian army guy. Their deserted island planet turns out to be hiding more than a few secrets. Lilac and Tarver (yeah, that's his name) slowly realize that there are other beings on the planet, beings nearly unimaginable to the human mind. 

For me, that's where things got weird. I kind of liked the crashed on a strange planet and need to survive storyline. I didn't like how these alien creatures got inside their heads and could cause hallucinations, dreams, etc. In my opinion, the book jumped the shark big time when the mysterious creatures brought Lilac back to life following a deadly explosion. 

And I'm not even going to start on how unlikable I found both of these characters. They were true teenagers in all the worst ways. 

I think this book just wasn't what I was expecting. I don't enjoy dips into the paranormal or really anything close. The whole second half of the book seemed odd to me. I wish Kaufman and Spooner had just stuck with the adventure story of surviving on an unknown planet. That would have been enough. Instead, they took it too far into the abnormal.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Will I Re-Read: Probably not

If You Liked This Try: Across the Universe / The Night Circus / Relic 

A Reduced Review: Science fiction meets paranomal meets young adult in this story of two teenagers crashed on a seemingly deserted planet. Unfortunately, what had potential to be great quickly devolves and becomes unlikable on multiple levels.