Eyes Like Stars

"Wow, this is more than I wanted to write for a book that I'll probably forget I read in a few weeks (at the end I even realized I read this when it first came out!), so to make a short story shorter: This book had a really cool premise and setting. Lisa Mantchev was not skilled enough or ready to write this story when they did. That's okay, we all start somewhere. But I am disappointed we will probably never get a better version of this idea. On to the rest of my review: I tried to like this. I wanted to like it! I probably would have if it was written as juvenile fiction instead of YA. There is so much beauty and creativity in the setting but that doesnt make a good book. I cant even blame my years of professional theatre for why I didnt like this because it really made the IDEA of the setting that much more special for me. But everytime something romantic or sexual happened I had to go back and check that our MC was not a 12 year old but 17. I had to convince myself that these fully grown characters of fiction that she grew up with were not grooming this incredibly selfish, wishy-washy child-in-a-17-year-old-body. I honestly kinda loved that Bertie was the villain of the story. I did not love the misappropriated story of the Inuit goddess Sedna or that the book celebrates toxic relationships. Imagine someone begging and fighting for freedom for over 300 pages then putting a literal collar on them, and reminding them they are a slave. But they forgive you because you're the MC and they are but a lowly love intrest. Now imagine a claim of a theater filled with every play ever but only actually cares about Shakespeare with an honorable mention to *checks notes* Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, and Les Mis. All the plays ever and the author couldn't bother to spend a Google search finding any plays that would fit the theme of her book better than the stuff she read in high school or saw on Disney Channel. Now imagine taking characters that are rich and 3 dimensional from your favorite story and stripping them of their personality till they are whittled down to one thing. Maybe that one thing isn't even something they ever did on stage in the play they came from... Mantchev couldn't seem to decide if characters spoke in their original style or in modern slang. The 3 midsummer fairys would have been amazing in childrens fiction or family animation but in this they were so bad. So so annoyingly. I'm gonna stop here because this book really doesn't warrant this much of my time."

"I don't know anyone who has heard of this book except for me. I named my dog Bertie after the main character. The book takes place in the world of plays where all of the characters have been given life of their own. Beatrice "Bertie" was abandoned at the theater as a newborn and has been raised there ever since, rumored to be the child of one of the many interesting characters from the Book. It's a coming of age story along with a beautiful whimsical tale."

"I honestly loved this book and reread it at least once a year "