Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is a uniquely special story. I think it’s worth reading though I’m afraid people might be afraid by the unique voices of the characters. I hope everyone will give it a chance!

It took me a while to get into this. Alice's voice was very interesting and I liked her use of words, but especially in the first few chapters and the poems were hard to understand, but after I got into it, it became much easier. It was definitely a unique voice, with a playful use of words that really showed Alice's character, that despite her struggles with words being a result of her brain injury, she has found a way to own it and make it her unique way of speaking. 

 I felt that the story was a bit lacking through most of the book. The fact that Manny and Alice didn't even meet properly until quite a way through the book meant that the first half was just them wondering about one another and not much really happened. 

I really got into the book by the end though and the finale was very good and quite gripping. I only wish that the rest of the book could have been as satisfying plot wise.

This month I had the amazing opportunity to work with Candlewick Press and review the upcoming novel The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard. The book follows the story of fifteen-year-old Alice, a mute Phoenix rising from her ashes from the after-effects of a traumatic brain injury, and young Manny a renegade child soldier. Though Alice’s speech is broken when she writes it is like the universes align. Expressing herself in the only way possible Alice leaves poems of the words she can’t say around town. When sixteen-year-old Manny, a recluses child soldier, finds himself in a new land seeking solace from his trauma and is exploring the small riverside town on foot their lives collide in an unthinkable circumstance. They quickly realize the scars of theirs past cause them to have more in common than they might like and begin to form an alliance in the hopes that two halves make a whole. With Alice reaching through a void to express herself through her beautiful broken words and Manny trying to outrun his past their only hope is to meet in the middle of the stars of Oktober bend.
A beautiful lyrical prose following the voices of two young teens. Based on the importance of blossomed love, friendship, and healing it will be a novel that will draw you in, captivate you, and change you irrevocably. After having readThe Stars at Oktober Bend I could not recommend this novel more, not only is it a beautiful contemporary piece but it is also so pertinent to today’s society and the acknowledgment of PTSD. If you are a fan of contemporary novels such as The Fault in Our Stars, Beautiful Broken Heart, and Paper Towns this is the book for you. If you cannot wait to get your hands on it and are interested in The Stars at Oktober Bend it will be available internationally on May 08  2018.

Title:   The Stars at Oktober Bend
Author:   Glenda Millard	
Genre:   YA
Rating:   4.5 out of 5

Alice is fifteen but to everyone else, she is forever twelve:  she has acquired brain injury as the result of an assault she can’t remember, and now her electrics don’t work. She can speak, but her words don’t always come out right. Instead, she writes poetry; beautiful, haunting, anonymous poetry that she leaves all over town, hoping that someday, someone will read her words.

Alice lives with her brother, Joey, and her grandmother, in a house that’s mostly hidden from the rest of the world. Alice doesn’t go to school. Instead, she writes, ties fishing flies, and takes care of her grandmother. Her family is her world, and she wants things to stay the same forever.

Then Alice meets Manny, a boy who reads her poems and wants to hear her speak. Manny was forced to become a boy soldier, and he still suffers from PTSD. In Alice he finds comfort. But not everyone in town wants Alice, her family, or Manny to be happy, and as Alice finds out more of the truth surrounding her life, she will be faced with her greatest fears.

I’m not a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing, nor with lack of proper punctuation or capitalization. The parts of this novel from Alice’s point-of-view employed this, and I initially considered not finishing this. However, I got so drawn into Alice’s tale that I stopped noticing these things—they absolutely made sense for Alice, and by the end of the book, I had forgotten they existed.

This is a book with a lot of sadness, but there is joy and hope as well. I found this very lyrical and compelling, and Alice and her family broke my heart, as did Manny and his story. The other people in town were infuriating, but typical for society, making this a highly believable book to read (even if it made me angry). A very good read, and one I highly recommend.

Glenda Millard is an award-winning author from Australia. The Stars at Oktober Bend is her newest novel.

(Galley provided by Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.)

I’m sorry but I couldn’t get into this book. The way it is written, is just a headache for me. The description sounds lovely but the writing style is a no go for me.

If you want a book to rip your heart out and wring out every last drop of emotion, you need to pick up this book NOW.
Alice is different, Alice is special, and you will never forget her. She is fifteen, but may always be twelve because of an acquired brain injury, she struggles to speak, but my word can she write...her only real way of expressing herself is in the snippets and fragments of poetry she carries around with her, and occasionally gives to those she cares about. Living with her elderly Grandmother and her brother on the edge of town, while she rarely mixes with other young people, but still manages to catch the eye of Manny, 
A new comer to Oktober Bend, Manny does not know about the tragedy in Alice's past , but his own past has been far from easy, as a child soldier in SIerra Leone, he has witnessed things that no child should see. When these two damaged souls find each other, they being to bring about a mutual healing that will change them both forever. 
This book is simply beautiful, from the powerfully observant poetry of Alice, to the beautiful way the story is slowly allowed to unfurl and draw the reader in, and draw me in it did. I was so captivated that I read it in a single sitting, getting a little choked up as I did so. Alice may not be a kick ass warrior or a superhero in tights and cape , but she is a hero in her own way, and strong too. She may be one of my favorite new characters, and  I feel both she and her story will stay with me for a long long time. 
The use of a first person narrator may not be to everyone's taste but I think it works spectacularly well here, really evoking Alice's daily struggles for the reader.

The Stars at Oktober Bend is a great emotional young adult  book that you won't be able to put it down.

I'm excited to share this book with my students and teachers. We are using this book as part of a novel in verse unit for next school year and I'll be purchasing multiple copies for my high school.

This book was soul abrasive. Poetic and scarring. Something you know you're honored to have visited but never wish to return to.

For some reason, reading this book made me think of an ocean shore. One that's cold and yet also refreshing when it's scorching outside. That feeling when you're coming out, waves still crashing against your knees...you're almost there, you can almost feel the sand under your feet BUT then a new wave comes and nearly sweeps you off your feet and you realize you're not that close to the shore as you thought.
(and if you're not careful, it might swallow you alive - or break your heart in case of the story in this book)

I loved the writing in Alice's narrative. Though, it's much more short story way to go about the story. And I can see why so many people have a problem with it - it gets old very fast and you just want to know what happens but because of the style it drags and there's a lot of jumping in time even when told in the same person's point of view, that's afterwards repeated by Manny...so distracting and sets you off the track easily.
The mood is there for sure, but the story doesn't flow.

There is a part where Alice writes in her poetry:

<i>but i cannot forget how both the scared and the sinful slipped so easy from his tongue. light and dark together. fire and ice. i loved the way holy howled like a hymn up the back of his throat, how shit hissed and spat like hail on the fires of hell. perfect opposites. the one made the other deeper, richer, more terrible, and true.
later, much later
when manny and i found one another when
we met and touched
skin and breath and soul the only way we could
unpick the stitches
that locked our secrets inside was to use words
the way faulkner did</i>

It kind of sums it up how I felt reading their story.

However, I do agree with the others who found their narratives to read more like pre-teens than late teens. Which would be fine given their traumas etc. BUT then how come their attraction builds like normal teenagers in their age. This aspect of this story hadn't really been worked out. It just felt like a fabricated romanticized way of talking about war and family tragedy. Which is still fine in my eyes - only this is the kind of YA book that's written ONLY for YA audience, not so much ABOUT them. I think this is a perfectly soothing language for those who're actually in that age dealing with something similar.

All that being said, Glenda Millard is a terrific writer and I'm going to look into her children's books for my son. Happy to have discovered her!

Thank you Netgalley for a cope in exchange for my honest review.

This story was very powerful. Reading the Alice parts in her broken syntax helped me get into that character's mindset and added to the feel of the story. My heart really went out to both her and Manny. They had tough things in their past and were trying their own ways to deal with them. I fully recommend this book.

Alice is a fifteen year old girl stuck at twelve. Not by any fault of her own, but because of something terrible that happened to her. Her brother, Joey, is always by her side. Never forsaking, as Alice would say. But Alice is also "the girl that Manny loves" and she suddenly wants to have Manny be part of her life. In this beautiful story, Alice must decide who she can trust, what defines her, and what she wants from this life.

I admit that it took me a little bit to get into the style of writing, but I don't think the writing style choice made the story worse. If anything, the style chosen by the author was a huge piece of the story. Since Alice is the primary narrator, it is told using the broken sentences that she able to create after her "accident." Being able to understand how her mind works is a big thing, and to be able to pull off an amazing story in this fashion is no small feat. While the world in the book is small and less detailed, it was focused on the sheltered life of a young girl who didn't see things like others did. Everything about this book was simplistic, but it functioned well. I liked the simple way of writing that this story had because it allowed me to focus on understanding Alice.

written in small caps and in a tone and style that made me go wtf-is-happening and am-i-dumb?