Book Review: Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

Title: Girl Made of Stars
Author: Ashley Herring Blake
Release Date: May 15, 2018
Pages: 304
Format: ARC Paperback
Publisher: HMH Book for Young Readers
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary

       

"I need Owen to explain this. Because yes, I do know that Owen would never do that, but I also know Hannah would never lie about something like that."
Mara and Owen are about as close as twins can get. So when Mara's friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can the brother she loves really be guilty of such a violent crime? Torn between the family she loves and her own sense of right and wrong, Mara is feeling lost, and it doesn't help that things have been strained with her ex-girlfriend and best friend since childhood, Charlie.
As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie navigate this new terrain, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits in her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.

 

Content Warning: This book contains sexual assault and rape.

This book absolutely wrecked me and I applaud Ashley Herring Blake for including several topics which were not romanticized in any way. In fact, it'll make you angry at how honest it is because it is a raw reflection of what happens in society and how girls v. boys are perceived. This book explores both dealings with gender identity and rape, and how it affects relationships and what it means when you're still searching for your place in this world.

Mara and Owen are twins. They are closer than any two people could be. They both relate to each other in the stars and the twin constellations and they are always there to hold each other up when the other is down. That is, until the day Owen is accused of raping Mara's friend, Hannah. It's easy to take sides when you hear of the accused and the victim - no one truly knows the facts. But there are the fabricated facts and the real ones and the question becomes, who do you believe? And the bigger question this book poses is, who do you believe when you are pitted between your twin (someone who is so sewn into your being it hurts) and your best friend in the entire world, who you know would never lie?

And here is the genius of this poignant book. The topics are handled expertly as Mara struggles with decoding the truth because she herself has a story to tell, and she also is dealing with her sexuality, as she is bisexual and her ex-girlfriend, Charlie, is genderqueer. The best part is that everything is handled in a subtle way and doesn't make one topic more important than the other. It's just one jumbled beautiful mess and I was so emotional over these characters from start to finish.

This is such an important read and even more so when there's so much hatred in the world and that hatred is so confusing to kids who are still trying to figure it all out that they're scared, terrified even, and this book might just make them feel a little less so.

Brilliant and I loved it! Thank you, Ms. Blake, for this beautiful, important, and necessary book.