Author: Kiersten White
Series: None
Pages: 288
Genre: YA Contemporary, Mythology, Retellings
Date Published: September 10th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via Edelweiss) for honest review
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Summary:
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.
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.
-Goodreads
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My Thoughts:
This book sounds epic right? White poses the question of what would it be like if Egyptian gods still lived today and were popping out babies like they popped pop corn. It's an interesting concept. It presents some really funny moments and also gives the story an extremely dramatic flare. In those ways I totally dug The Chaos of Stars, but in some ways it was nowhere near my favorite book. Sure I enjoyed it while I read it. I thought it was clever and that the characters were full of snark and humor, but something about it also grated slightly on my nerves in a way that was distracting from the heaps of enjoyment the story was giving me.
My favorite part of the book was the way that White weaved the mythology of Egypt into the book. Every chapter begins with a little history lesson of the gods in a really engaging and witty way. It makes what some would call an "info dumb" blend in with the rest of the story. Isadora always added some little insider family secret into these stories that made them seem personal to the rest of the book. It was like she just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on and then she added these little moments that only she would know about. It was fantastic!
It was also hilarious to see these ancient gods interacting with a normal human teenager, even if she was their offspring. It presented some really funny and humorous moments that I simply adored. Anubis smells like embalming fluid (I'm sure that's pleasant) and Osiris has a magical male body part that his wife Isis had to build him when she brought him back to life, cause a fish ate his real one. It's just stuff that you'd never think about, and it's great.
I enjoyed the book when we were still in Egypt, but something got a little weird when the story shifted to San Diego. I still enjoyed the Egyptian tie ins but Isadora started to be that thing I mentioned that grated on my nerves. You see she didn't understand what her immortal parents were doing for her, and she got a major case of the angst. I'm a huge fan of the teenage angst, but this teetered on being so stubborn that she was causing her own problems that weren't even there to begin with. I wish her brother Sirus would have had a chat with her much earlier in the book, cause then I don't think I would have had an issue with her.
There is also a bit of a romance, which I thought was done really well! There was no insta-love guys! But at the same time Isadora was really not helping Ry at all in the "lets be a couple thing". I liked Ry's part in the book. Gotta love a hunky Greek guy (Greek power!) and he caused some really cool conversations to take place.
All in all I really did enjoy The Chaos of Stars. I've always had a thing for mythology and I think that White has done a wonderful job in using and infiltrating this book with it. I only wish that I would have loved all of the characters as much as I loved the concept and humor filled moments. I'm definitely interested in checking out more books from White.
Rating:
3 Unicorns = I liked it a lot but it had it's issues!
3 comments:
Oy how you mentioned some of it grating on you has me really scared. White's Mind Games grated on me so badly so I don't think I will be picking this one up. Great that she was able to weave those little informational bits into the chapters without them feeling dumpy though!
I've seen so many mixed reviews for this one, and I'm so at odds with whether I want to try this one or not. I think that the cute aspect of this will definitely be appealing, and some of the scenes sound so hilarious. I'm glad that the Egyptiam mythology worked well, too, although Isadora's stubbornness does seem a little out of hand.
Fantastic review, Christianna! <33
It seems to be the consensus that this book is fun and enjoyable but lacking in some areas. I do find the concept really interesting so I hope to read this at some point but I'm not rushing out to get it or anything.
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