Wednesday 22 January 2014

GoodRead - These Broken Stars

As you are probably aware, I am doing a bit of an audiobook blitz, thanks to the lovely ladies at Mystical Lit Lounge who, this month, is book clubbing Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz & Michael Johnson (my review's here and the Mysterical Lit Lounge's here!) and These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Now, the ladies will have their podcast review up at the end of the month but here is mine. And the reason why will be shown in a second...

On the spaceliner, the Icarus, there is Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsent. Lilac LaRoux is the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the universe while Tarver Merendsen is a nobody, a war hero. They shouldn't meet, but there do. And then the Icarus falls suddenly out of hyperspace and plummets into an unknown planet. Lilac and Tarver are the only survivors and if either of them want to survive, they need to rely on it each...

I think I'll stop there because if I go any further, I might enter spoiler-area and I try not to write about spoilers in my reviews.

Now, before I go any further, I must say something. I am not a great lover of YA space books. I got around 50 pages into Across the Universe by Beth Revis and just couldn't "click" with the story. 172 Hours of the Moon by Johan Harstad I liked but I didn't love. The same with A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix. And while I did request this on NetGalley (and got rejected - my first EVER NetGalley rejection [which I am oddly pleased about!]), I did have my doubts on whether I was going to like this. I mean, from the synopsis, it's sounds like Titance in Space (I have seen reviews using Jack & Rose GIFS) or the Doctor Who episode, Voyage of the Damned.

So, my reactions... I ADORE THIS AUDIOBOOK!

I actually got a little obsessed with this, if I must be honest with you. The action happens super quickly (within the first 5 chapters!) and then the tension is kept throughout the story. There was always something happening - whether that be something action-packed, character-development or something quite creepy. It never felt dull and, because of this, I was always thinking about it and trying to find time to listen to more. I would listen while driving to my other half, while in the shower, late at night when I should have been sleeping, early in the morning while I was getting ready for work. I couldn't leave this story alone!

And because I was always rushing to get back to it, I got emotionally involved in this book. Which is SUPER rare for me. A book that can do that to me is like stardust (pun intended!). There was one chapter where something happened where I literally starting shouting at my iPhone. I am being serious about this fact and then, from that point onwards, my emotional state in my brain was like this (the clip is taken from this YouTube video from polandbananasBOOKS on her Clockwork Princess booktalk)



Sorry about the audio. Not used Vine before on my blog so... yeah... MOVING ON!!!

I adore the audiobook production. It was FAULTLESS!!! The voice who did the "Interviewer" as I called him (Sarge Anton) made me hate him, even though we knew NOTHING about this character, and the voices who did Lilac and Tarver - Cynthia Holloway and Johnathan McClain - were perfect and made the characters more fleshed out and made this two-hander of a story more gripping than it actually was.

And the story - hats off to both Amie and Meagan. Just hats off to you both.

My only fault (if you need me to nitpick) is the last chapter - it felt a bit wet - but it had to be that way, seeing as the other books in the trilogy are companion novels where Liliac and Tarver aren't our main characters (a bit like the Anna and the French Kiss trilogy by Stephanie Perkins). But it gave me the ending I wanted and needed so I can live with that!

I need the sequel. I need This Shattered World. I need this series to have a UK publisher (Why doesn't this series have a UK publisher?! WHY?!).


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