I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Of Scars and Stardust by Andrea Hannah Published by Flux on October 8, 2014
Pages: 336
Source: the publisher
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After her little sister mysteriously vanishes, seventeen-year-old Claire Graham has a choice to make: stay snug in her little corner of Manhattan with her dropout boyfriend, or go back to Ohio to face the hometown tragedy she's been dying to leave behind.
But the memories of that night still haunt her in the city, and as hard as she tries to forget what her psychiatrist calls her "delusions," Claire can't seem to escape the wolf's eyes or the blood-speckled snow. Delusion or reality, Claire knows she has to hold true to the most important promise she's ever made: to keep Ella safe. She must return to her sleepy hometown in order to find Ella and keep her hallucinations at bay before they strike again. But time is quickly running out, and as Ella's trail grows fainter, the wolves are becoming startlingly real.
Now Claire must deal with her attraction to Grant, the soft-spoken boy from her past that may hold the secret to solving her sister's disappearance, while following the clues that Ella left for only her to find. Through a series of cryptic diary entries, Claire must unlock the keys to Ella's past—and her own—in order to stop another tragedy in the making, while realizing that not all things that are lost are meant to be found.
Of Scars and Stardust is probably the most weird, confusing, intriguing mind-twist of a book I have ever in my life read. Never have I been so torn between wanting to DNF and wanting to get to the end and finally get answers. Never have I been so torn with how to rate a book. A book that manages to confuse and intrigue a reader as much as this one did deserves to be read.
I couldn’t stand the characters in this book. They all annoyed me so much and in so many ways. I think that was the first thing that made me want to DNF. I never connected to Claire, at all. She made stupid decisions and was very immature and disconnected. But knowing what I know now that I’ve finished the book, I understand why. I still did NOT like her, but I understand why she was the way that she was.
I absolutely hated Rae with such a passion. I don’t think I’ve ever hated a character as much as Rae. She was a horrible friend, a mean person and, at times, down-right nasty. I never understood her motives for any of the things she did. I don’t feel like we got any closure with her story.
Ella was annoying. Probably the most annoying younger sibling character in the history of annoying younger siblings. She was a stubborn tag-along who refused to listen. But she also had Claire for a sister, so that couldn’t have been easy. I was really confused by the plot because of something that happens early on – it didn’t mesh with the synopsis. It takes a few pages to realize what we THINK happened, didn’t actually happen. But it still threw me.
Grant was.. Odd. And annoying and I was always suspicious of him for various reasons. I didn’t feel the chemistry between him and Claire at all. I couldn’t picture them together. It felt like he was just humoring her most of the time. They also seemed to enter into a relationship very suddenly and with no warning, explanation or discussion. I definitely didn’t expect what happened in the end and I feel like we were left hanging with some things.
About half-way through reading, I came up with several theories. Both turned out to be partially correct. I think the twist at the end, what the truth ended up being, was my favorite part of this book. It explained a lot and made me look back at a lot of what had happened with a clear mind. I think this is the kind of book you need to read twice in order to fully appreciate it.
The ending was incredibly twisty and crazy and mind-blowing and I’m still not sure I fully understand what happened. I mean, I do.. But I don’t. I know that doesn’t make sense, but it goes back to my theory that this is the kind of book that has to be read twice in order to fully understand and appreciate it.
Despite my desire to DNF early on, this book was riveting and refused to let me go. I was confused and flabbergasted and had no clue what was going on, but I knew I would go crazy if I didn’t read every single page until the very end to get some answers and get my theories confirmed or denied. I’m incredibly impressed by Hannah’s ability to pull off multiple epic plot twists. I’m a pretty good guesser and even I couldn’t fully comprehend what was going on until the very end. Because every time I thought one of my theories was correct, Hannah threw a wrench in the story and did something that made me doubt said theory. She did a mind-blowing job of playing cat-and-mouse with my head – I STILL can’t stop thinking about this book, what happened and how it ended. Despite my many complaints, this is the type of book that will keep me up at night, pondering WTF just happened.
So yes, I gave this book 3-stars. But yes, I absolutely, 100% fully insist (nicely, of course!) that you get this book from your local bookstore, library, Amazon – wherever you shop – ASAP and read it. Even if, like me, you don’t enjoy it at first, I implore you to push through until the very last page. Because this is the kind of book that will stay with you for a very long time, whether you enjoy it or not, whether you want it to or not. And personally, I’m hoping there’s a sequel because I feel like so many things were left unsaid and I’m curious to see what happens next.