This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Maybe Some Endings Should Be Final

by P.E.

There are some series that, after the original story is over, continue with spinoffs and movies and short stories and the like. Recently, I have come to the opinion that although I may have enjoyed the original series, I don't want any more. Let the story end. It was nice while it lasted, and it's over. Let's move on. Often, the extra isn't as good as the original series, so it feels a bit like its taking something away from the quality of the original. All's this to say, sometimes endings really should be endings. I don't want any more Veronica Mars, or The Vampire Diaries, and I'm sad to say this but the Bloodlines series has really done nothing for me.

The Power of Books

by Mari

I've never really given this much thought but it's a very big part of reading. That is, the power books can have on a reader, both negatively and positively. The power I keep mentioning can be any kind but the one I've come to identify is the emotional type. Books really know how to pull at our emotions and sometimes even settle into my mood. I'm think about all of this because of If I Stay and Where She Went. I was sitting in a dark cinema with one of my friends ecstatic to finally have the chance to see the book come to life and while I choked up quietly my emotions were nothing to the girl who was sitting down the aisle from me she was bawling. This was the movie. Fast forward to the present in which I'm listening to the Where She Went audiobook, a favourite from a couple of years ago, and I'm rushing into a sort of angry sadness. I'm in the depth of Adam's grief and sometimes it's hard to pull away and realize that, I'm not sad, it's Adam. This power is very brilliant but also terrifying at the same time.

Kiersten White Confuses Me

By P.E. 

I've written features about authors I really like. And surely, there are also authors I avoid because their work doesn't appeal to me. It seems to lack depth, it is light and shallow, and I don't think it's very much quality. There is no author that confuses me more than Kiersten White. I'm pretty much ready to write off her books, and then she writes Mind Games, and the even better Perfect Lies. These stories are dark, morally ambiguous, layered, and so engrossing. In short, they are everything I wanted from the Paranormalcy series or The Chaos of Stars. It's what I like in them that is missing from her other books. It becomes clear to me that White is perhaps using different styles, and it's a little hard to know whether I want to read books by her, because she is capable of writing stories that I love and that resonate with me and she has also written stories that I can't stand. In any case, I love her writing in Mind Games and Perfect Lies. 

-P.E. and MARI

Author: Kiersten White
Date of Publication: September 10 2013
Pages: 277
Source: Library Ebook

Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Paranormalcy, is back with The Chaos of Stars—an enchanting novel set in Egypt and San Diego that captures the magic of first love and the eternally complicated truth about family.

Isadora's family is seriously screwed up—which comes with the territory when you're the human daughter of the ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. Isadora is tired of living with crazy relatives who think she's only worthy of a passing glance—so when she gets the chance to move to California with her brother, she jumps on it. But her new life comes with plenty of its own dramatic—and dangerous—complications . . . and Isadora quickly learns there's no such thing as a clean break from family.

Blending Ally Carter's humor and the romance of Cynthia Hand's Unearthly, The Chaos of Stars takes readers on an unforgettable journey halfway across the world and back, and proves there's no place like home.

Review:

It was pretty much as expected, which isn't very much at all. I had the feeling that The Chaos of Stars would be very light without much depth. It is a standalone, after all. I was hoping I would be pleasantly surprised, and I can't say I was.

First, if you're looking for a light and sweet paranormal, you will love this book. It's just that I'm looking for more details, more emotional maturity, and more epic, rounded stories, and so "sweet" isn't really what I want in a book these days. I can't write this review as anyone other than myself, so I think it's important to note that if you like light contemporaries, then ignore what I thought because this is a good book for you.

I thought Isadora wasn't that fleshed out. She was tall, pretty, very moody, often angry, and yet I couldn't relate to her that much. She acted without a lot of consideration for the people around her, and no, I don't think that's a teenage thing. She's 16, I'm 17, and I think she needed to be called out a few times for the way she acted towards her parents. Maybe it was a fault in the writing but Isadora's background was weak. The reason she was so angry, her impermanence, is so ridiculous to humans and I don't feel like Kiersten White really showed why this was so shocking to Isadora. I mean, we have a lot of telling, but that's it.

The world building was um, open, to say the least. Due to her upbringing, Isadora doesn't know about ATMs and how to manage cellphones, yet her mother videochats with her brother, she emails her mom, and they phone each other. I didn't understand: did she grow up with or without technology? And that seems like such a nitpicky thing to comment on except there was a faint subplot of Isadora having some culture shock. It was very weak because it didn't feel real in the slightest (she has a TV but doesn't know how to text?).

The mythological world building wasn't well explained either. The reality of the Egyptian Gods was barely touched on. Apparently, they need to be worshipped so they have kids. Care to elaborate on that? Nope? Okay. Or how about one of the twists, which could be seen a mile away, and what a deus ex machina it ended up being.

Excuse me, this is the part where I stop writing my review to check if there's a sequel, and nope, there isn't. And that is kind of pissing me off because there are loose ends like the romance which is due to instalove and something else, and the reader doesn't even get an explanation of what is happening. It was instalove and even more unrealistic, the more I think about it.

The ending was not that climatic because the story was about Isadora making friends and learning how to stop hating her parents, with a faint bit about some evil danger, and of course Isadora is much more capable then anyone thought she could be. The ending is very typical, very vanilla, and it's pretty dull.

I sound very negative right now and you might wonder why I ended up finishing the book. While there was a lot I don't like about The Chaos of Stars, it's an easy, quick read that requires minimal effort by the reader. I've read Kiersten White before and The Chaos of Stars is a lot like Paranormalcy in terms of tone, although Isadora is much less bubbly than Evie. The story lacks the darkness of Mind Games, and that was my favourite Kiersten White read, which is probably why I gave this one a shot against all indications. There's a pretty cover and a readable story, but I don't think the story is very good. I think it's below average because the world building is a mess, the instalove, the characters aren't all that significant, and overall, there is a major lack of development in the story. So, if that's your thing, knock yourself out. The Chaos of Stars is pretty and can be entertaining. If you want more from a book, well, this one gets 1 star from me.

-P.E.