Title: The Chaos of Stars
Author: Kiersten White
Series: Stand Alone
Pages: 288
Published: September 10th 2013
by HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780062135926
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Description: 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.
I Give This ...
I had high hopes for this. I'm not super familiar with Egyptian Gods (preference towards the Greek) and I though the author would be able to spin this in an interesting way. It wasn't quite what I was hoping for.
I was conflicted on Isadora. I couldn't quite tell if it was the typical teenage angst or if things were really as bad as it seemed. But, she really does blossom when she moves to San Diego to live with her brother. I think its her first chance to experience so many things we take for granted. There's sheltered...and then there's Isadora. But for someone who felt ignored her entire life, I found it really odd that she was constantly pushing people away. Its like she wanted the buzz of society around her but none of the connections.
I adored the romantic interest, Rh. He seemed so in tune to what Isadora needed. He didn't push, but he also never backed off. He was truly a swoon worthy character. However, I pegged who he was way before our character figures it out. There was a lot of back story though that I was not expecting though. And it really pulled the story together.
The mythology was a little confusing to me. There seemed to be some "true" Egyptian mythology woven in with some fabrication to fit the story. It didn't seem to flow very well to me and I think it would have worked better had it been done in a different manner. I also truly did not care for these characters. They may not be a vital part of the story, but they make Isadora who she is. So, it made the story fell lop-sided.
A surprising element to the story that I truly enjoyed was Isadora's designing abilities. It's a talent I lack, so I enjoyed reading about it. She transformed the museum for the exhibit, redesigned the theater room at Rh's house, plus the chatter throughout the book about what she would do to change the look of a room. I think it really brought Isadora's character to life.
I'm not giving up on Kiersten White obviously. She has way to much to offer us dedicated readers!
I had some problems with Isadora as well. At first I thought her problems were justified and that her mother didn't love her, but after a while I realized she was kind of immature and it was an overload of teenage angst, the kind that was a bit grating, not endearing. Love the review, Page :D
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