Review: These Broken Stars

Title: These Broken Stars
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: December 10th, 2013
Series: Starbound #1
How I Served It: Hardcover
How I Found It: Purchased (work book sale)

Summary (From Goodreads):
"It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. 

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help. 

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it."

Review So at work they have this big quarterly book sale (to get rid of all the free books the hosts acquire).  They basically give books away, $8 for hardcovers that have never been opened, less for kids books (more for cookbooks).  It's a poor post-grad's best and worst nightmare. And it's where I found this book.  I bought it solely for the cover - I do that.  I judge books by their covers.  I know it's a bad habit but, I mean, it's steered me pretty well so far! It found me this, after all.

I've had These Broken Stars on my shelf since early September (and by shelf I now mean floor since I've moved out of my parent's house and am holing up in Bushwick at least for the month).  I would pick it up, read the description, shrug and put it back down.  SO MANY WEEKS WASTED!  On Saturday night at like 10 I was like, I'll read a chapter and then go to bed (let's not talk about what I do with my Saturday nights, 'kay?).  One chapter turned into the entire novel and suddenly it was 1 AM and I was staring at my ceiling half crying, half beaming because this novel was beautiful.


The plot of These Broken Stars is pretty simple.  Lilac is the daughter of a technology/industry/space-liner tycoon (the most powerful man in the universe).  Tarver is a soldier who has recently saved a very important lab/base/not quite clear but it's in the novella that follows this book, and has been decorated as a hero.  Both are in their late teens and both are travelling on a big, fancy spaceliner.  Through the forces of plot, the spaceliner crashes and the two are the only ones able to get a rescue pod to work (thanks to Lilac's more-than-a-Mary-Sue knowledge of electronics and computers) and take them to the nearest planet.  It's quickly established that, in addition to being the only survivors, they're also the only two humans in the area... but they're not exactly alone.

I honestly couldn't tell you what it was about this book that made it so great.  Maybe it was the love-hate-love relationship.  I love it when romances stem from a place of hatred/sarcasm.  Don't know what that says about me...  But anyway, Lilac and Tarver's story had all of my favorite things.  A bratty rich girl (with secrets!), an army hero (with secrets!), literally the only two people on the planet...  And even though it was set in the future you didn't really need to be a sci-fi aficionado to understand what was going on. It was incredibly accessible.

Spoiler!
Okay well, maybe some of the stuff at the end with the whispers and reincarnation and rifts and stuff wasn't fully accessible.  Maybe I'm still a little bit head-scratch-y over that.  But it's okay! You really don't need to be able to wrap your head around it to get the gist.  Lilac's dad is a big butthead, some supernatural force saves Lilac, and everything is going to be fine (for now...).  I'm thinking the sequel might require a bit more thinking, but I'm also thinking that if I don't read it at 12AM, it'll be easier to understand haha.

SO anyway, back to reviewing.  I feel like both Lilac and Tarver were really strong characters.  They had interesting back-stories and shared the screen-time pretty evenly.  I honestly couldn't say that the book was more one character's story than the other and I really liked that.  They both grew exponentially as a result of the situation and each other, and just the little details made me so happy.  Like how the ship crashed in the middle of a party, so Lilac was stuck with stilettos and a ball gown instead of anything practical for wilderness hikes.  I feel like a lot of times in these types of stories the girls are just able to miraculously overcome/ignore the fact that they're completely inappropriately dressed, but in this book it was an actual issue.

And I liked the way the story was told, how it alternated between Tarver and Lilac's point of view and how each chapter started with a snippet of the 'present day' interrogation between Tarver and Lilac's father's minion.  The dichotomy between what Tarver was telling the minion and what was actually happening in the story served as a constant reminder that the ending (especially in terms of their relationship) was uncertain 

The Final Noodle:
Read this.  All of the spoons up, seconds please, I can't even explain what it is about this book, but everyone needs it.  If you like romantic wilderness adventures, or quirky sci-fi, or just need to feel happy about something for a while, this is the book for you.