Hm… okay... wow.

There are some books you know you are unlikely to read again, not because they are bad but because they click something inside you and then they unlock something you buried deep –something you either fought against and won or compromised with, accepted and move on, much like its main character. They touch you deep and you are not sure if you are willing to go through that again.

I am not sure I can explain what this book was about –I’m even less sure I want to- but if I had to use just one word to describe it in its essence: 

Unexpected.

See all Stars is unexpected.

By all means, do what I did. Allow your prejudice to trick you into thinking that this is just another YA book. Let your eyes roll and your heart feel grateful you are over all that high school drama and laugh at how impossibly naïve, undue -adolescent- the characters are, because this is part of its charm, part of its beauty, part of its unexpectedness.

Maybe that’s a bit arrogant on my behalf –she’ll probably never see this, anyway- but, Kit Frick, please, allow me to be one of the yeses you mention in your acknowledgements. Yes, this story is mine now and I think it’ll be for a great while. Yes, it’s written beautifully, relatable and Ellory has such a distinguishable voice. She is one of the most real and touching and honest characters I’ve recently come across. Yes, the back and forths were brilliant; they soaked the pages with a sense of doom that made me not to be able to pull away, despite the nausea it made me feel throughout. 

Thank you, for sharing your story. 

And thank you NetGallery for granting me this book (for an exchange of an honest review).

I know many people might not find this helpful. Contemporaries are not really my thing and I am not sure how to explain this without spoiling anything. But if you are debating whether to read this or not, the answer is a big YES.

Just make sure you take a deep breath first.

I can’t even explain my feelings about this book! I absolutely loved the format and the way it was written. The author has a gorgeous writing style and some of the wording that was used just blew me away. The characters are truly messed up people but I loved them anyway. The ending was what made this book for me though. Throughout the whole book the author does an incredible job building up anticipation and the twist does not disappoint whatsoever! I did not see it coming at all!!

Once there were four friends, girls so close you couldn't have separated them if you tried. Now they're like strangers. Several things came between them: secrets, deception, duplicity, and a romantic incident gone awry. These friends are now apart, something that torments Ellory, the one most affected by it all. You know what else torments Ellory? The anonymous notes she keeps getting. These notes are sinister and threatening. And detailed. So detailed, in fact, that Ellory has no choice but to face her murky past all over again.

This is one suspenseful ride! It's like 13 Reasons Why and We Were Liars, but it also has a Pretty Little Liars and an I Know What You Did Last Summer vibe that's impossible to resist. The characters are well-developed, the plot intense, and the stakes are higher and higher as you read. Downsides? The ending feels rushed. I would have liked to see a stronger finish to such a gripping tale. I also don't like the title. How many books with "Stars" in the title are out there? I think I've lost count. Other than that, I love this book. Should be a great late-summer read for fans of dark(ish) YA. Kit Frick does not disappoint. I give See All the Stars four out of five extra foam cappuccinos.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...’ 

A coming of age novel about a group of friends that are torn apart by lies, secrets and betrayals.

This story follows 2 timelines. It bounces between the main character, Ellorys’, junior and senior year in high school.

It opens with an ‘incident’ that happened to Ellory that you do not find out about until the very ending of the book. This ‘incident’ was the only reason I kept reading, I was waiting for it to reveal itself.

I felt the story was very slow paced and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I also did not like the groups fixation on their ‘leader’. The bulk of the story was about the group fighting for her attention. It got old quickly.

A stunning, thrilling, and totally addictive read with dueling then/now timelines and a mysterious secret that will keep you hooked until the very last page.

I was really disappointed by this book, especially since I seem to be in the minority with that opinion. Most of the reviews I've seen on Goodreads and NetGalley are glowing and 5-stars, but for me, it was just angst-heavy, unrealistic, and uninspiring. I struggled to find a single likable character to connect with. I was particularly frustrated with Ellory's dependency on Ret and I got a serious "mean girls" vibe from their clique. I understand this is a coming-of-age story and realizing she needs to remove certain people from her life is an integral part of that process. However, every single person in Ellory's life was horribly toxic, most of all her friends, and yet she continued to allow them to have an unbreakable hold on her. I was so incredibly frustrated with her throughout the entire story!

I also found a lot of the book to be unrealistic. The biggest problems for me were the amount of things Matthais supposedly did everyday and the copious drinking by all of the characters. Before anyone says it... yes, I drank in high school and realize that most high schoolers do get away with drinking without anyone noticing. However, they tend to drink in places like parties and hangouts, a secret hideout in the woods, a best friend’s house or basement, even the bar if they have a good enough fake ID. They don’t carry a flask around with them everywhere, drink from it at school and work, and spend all day every day drunk. Someone was bound to notice. A teacher, staff member, parent, coach, boss, even the other students. Yet no one ever finds out that these characters drink (except in one way which I won't mention because it's a spoiler, but it's not really the same as getting caught drinking/drunk).

I think the only reason I stuck with the book until the very end was to find out the reason for the group’s falling out. I had my suspicions as to what it was at about the halfway point, but I hoped I was wrong. It turns out, I had predicted correctly - the ending was also very disappointing and cliche in my opinion. I’m giving this book a 2/5 score.

These are my least favorite reviews to write. See All the Stars started out strong. I was intrigued by the mystery of what happened between Ellory and her friends to cause Ellory's forced suspension and their falling out. About a third of the way through, I started to lose interest, but I decided to try and push through in hopes that the story would pick back up and pull me in again. Alas, my hopes were not fulfilled and I was unable to push through this one.

This book started off with a very interesting premise so it is such a shame I didn’t really enjoy it in the end. I could see what the book was trying to do but for me, it just didn’t work. It followed two timelines: THEN when the main character Ellory was a junior and NOW when she is a senior. It becomes clear that something dreadful happened between Ellory and her friends Ret, Bex and Jenni but it is not clear what.

The first half of the book I raced through because the mystery slowly developed and I wanted to know what happened. This book definitely starts out strong with a lot of mystery and suspense being built up. However, the second half is weaker and I started to get bored. I felt the pace slow down as the story started to feel really dragged out. The NOW chapters are lacking plot – they just seem to be filler, and I was always itching to get back to the THEN chapters to find out what actually happened. With no clues or hints to what was going on being given I started really struggling to pick it up and keep reading.

Then, three quarters in I could suddenly see exactly where it was going so when the big reveal came it was unsatisfying. There then was a further big ‘twist’ which was more of a surprise, but it was still disappointing because I found the incident ridiculous as it just didn’t seem realistic and the plot line felt recycled.

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. It has been compared to We Were Liars and 13 Reasons Why, however the mystery and the big reveal were executed better in We Were Liars and it lacked the pace of that book. The characterisation and emotional depth of the characters was not as good compared to 13 Reasons Why. I didn’t connect to any of the characters and struggled to find any of them likeable. I also found the main relationship to be a bit insta-love like. There was no build-up or chemistry so I didn’t believe in them or care about them being together.

For these reasons I have given the book two stars but all the other early readers have high praise for this book so maybe it was just me and you should give it a go yourself when it comes out in August later this year.

A moving and compelling contemporary ya novel which focuses of friendships, love, lies and secrets. 
Ellory’s narration focuses on several time lines, all of which merge to give the reader an insight into why she is feeling certain things in the present. This is really clever and means the reader gets a broader picture of her life and gets to see things from different perspectives.
It’s a difficult book to review without spoiling everything because the joy of it is to come across the truth one revelation at a time! The writing is beautiful and anyone who reads it will want to do so in one go. 
I would wholeheartedly recommend this to fans of E.Lockhart and John Green.

I really enjoyed See All the Stars. I was a little concerned going into it that it would be another cliched teen drama but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not. I felt like the characters were well written, believable, and worth reading about. The storyline kept my interest and was well paced.

Well, nothing really interested me. Although I am a teemager but when I like contemporary books it has to be something that I don’t see being written about everyday.

Here is mostly romance, school and all the usual things we go through. But I find that boring. I don’t like it. I rather young adult books tackle complex issues which affect us now and has been present for decades.

Such as mental illness, racism, prejudice, the nature of being a teen in such an era. Sadly, this just doesn’t get to me. It’s mostly teen drama in this book, which may work for some but has always eluded me.

But you can give it a try, it simply wasn’t for me but maybe it might be for you. I just prefer books which makes me think.

So, it's kind of like this:

You go see a short film called, "The Car Crash."  The synopsis says, "In this film, a car will crash, and as a result, the driver will never walk again."  With some morbid curiosity, you go in.  The film begins with the driver leaving their home.  They get in the car and begin driving.  And all you can think is, "the driver will never walk again."  Maybe the driver begins to sing along to the car radio, happily tapping their fingers against the steering wheel.  All you can think is, "the driver will never walk again."  You don't know how.  Maybe the driver is too busy singing, so they drive through a red light and get t-boned by a truck.  Maybe, completely faultless, another car swerves into them and causes the car to wreck.  You don't know.  You keep watching, though.  You can't look away.  Because you need answers, and all you know for sure is that the car will crash, and the driver will never walk again, and you won't find out how or why unless you keep going.  And there's another question rolling around in the back of your mind: will the driver be able to recover?

That's how reading See All the Stars by Kit Frick felt.

Here's the description, just so you can see what I mean:

It’s hard to find the truth beneath the lies you tell yourself.

THEN: They were four—Bex, Jenni, Ellory, Ret. (Venus. Earth. Moon. Sun.) Electric, headstrong young women; Ellory’s whole solar system.

NOW: Ellory is alone, her once inseparable group of friends torn apart by secrets, deception, and a shocking incident that changed their lives forever.

THEN: Lazy summer days. A party. A beautiful boy. Ellory met Matthias and fell into the beginning of a spectacular, bright love.

NOW: Ellory returns to Pine Brook to navigate senior year after a two-month suspension and summer away—no boyfriend, no friends. No going back. Tormented by some and sought out by others, troubled by a mysterious note-writer who won’t let Ellory forget, and consumed by guilt over her not entirely innocent role in everything and everyone she’s lost, Ellory finds that even in the present, the past is everywhere.

The path forward isn’t a straight line. And moving on will mean sorting the truth from the lies—the lies Ellory has been telling herself.

The novel switches between the Then and the Now, a Then when Ellory had it all and a Now where it's been taken away.  Somewhere in the middle: the car crash, the Thing that happened to totally overturn Ellory's world.  Like for the characters, past and present events seem to blur—you don't know you're back in the present until one of the characters says or does something, and you're forced to stop and go back.

I seriously could not put this book down.  I found myself gravitating back to it in my spare time, needing to know what happens next.  Desperate to unravel the mystery.  And as I started to pull at the knots, to connect the dots, I became physically nauseous thinking about what most likely happened.  No exaggeration, there were points my stomach churned.  I wanted to grab Ellory and scream at her.  I wanted the book to go a different way.  Her pain became mine.

Ellory is brutally honest—her inner thoughts, both good and bad, are on display, ready for the reader to make the final judgement.  But her account of the story is layered.  She has a secret she's keeping from you, and page-by-page, layer-by-layer, the secret begins to be revealed.

As far as the writing, Frick has a keen ear for real dialogue.  Dialogue that's messy, halted, where the characters don't always say exactly the right thing.  She easily pulled me into her story, and I could hear each character's distinct voice in my head.  That being said, the characters themselves were a little flat, falling easily into tropes.  You have the moody, mysterious, troubled-past-with-a-soft-side love interest; the best-friend-turned-enemy-classic-Regina-George; the main character is a blend between the popular insider and the artistic outcast.  But, at least for me, I found the trope-y-ness of the characters bothered me less the more I read.

The next Great American Novel* it is not, but if you're looking for a page turner that will suck you in from page one and never let go, this is the book for you.  It was a great foil for all the heavy literature I'm reading for school, and it felt nice to let the book sweep me up and carry me along.  I had this book hovering around three, three and a half stars, but the ending kicked it up a star because holy shit.  It's crazy, lemme tell you.  Or, I guess, find out for yourself?

See All the Stars will be available in hardcover and eBook August 14, 2018.



* In my opinion, it doesn't exist because taste is subjective.

The app isn't allowing me to read this book. For some reason it isn't working correctly BUT I will be requesting it from my local library as soon as it is available. Based on summary, I think it will be very popular with my students.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I . . . 

I chose to follow her.

Ret, Ellory, Jenny and Bex.  They were four friends, inseparable.  Ellory was the artist, Bex, the dancer, Jenny the grounded one and Ret the center of their universe.  Each girl lived to please her and be noticed by her.  They sought out her approval in all things.  For her part, Ret knew the power she held over them and reveled in their competition for her affection.


I lied to myself.

A coming-of-age story, See All the Stars is also a mystery that shifts between two time frames.  Then and Now – before the fall and after its devastating effects.  Ellory’s delusion and her release.  Frick takes us on a journey of coming to terms with the lies we tell ourselves.   Lies that serve their purpose for the meantime.  Lies that allow us to believe that everything is okay.  As the layers of the story are peeled back the reader is offered glimpses of the truth and slowly uncover the event that leads to Ellory’s ruin.   


I learned to forgive.

By the time the mystery unfolds Ellory has become more introspective.  She is a year older, a little wiser and learning to be honest with herself.  Instead of laying blame elsewhere she is cognizant of her motives and the impact of her behavior.  She learns that in order to move forward in life she must first be able to forgive herself.  


See All the Stars is Kit Frick’s first novel.  The plot was fast paced, the characters relatable, yet there was a certain depth to it that I find uncommon in most YA novels.  I look forward to hearing more from this author.  Job well done!
  

Much thanks to Net Galley, Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books and the author, Kit Frick, for receiving a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The suspense and spot-on depiction of the inner workings of teenage friendships make this a tense, gripping read, perfect for fans of We Were Liars. As readers alternate between Ellory's two timelines (junior and senior year of high school), the story works toward revealing what happened *then* that left split her world and friendships apart *now.* This is definitely one that merits a second read to absorb everything; it perfectly, painfully captures how teen girls can get caught up in the love/hate web of relying on each other for validation of their identity.

This book is written extremely well about a just too used topic. It is a good YA read that keeps readers interested thanks to its sequence of order and air of suspense and mystery. Young YA enthusiasts still in middle and high school will connect well to the characters and situations. I am not a huge fan of the plot twist that this book uses, mostly because I have read it time and time again and I have found it to become tiresome. However, Frick's writing is so well thought out and beautiful that I am still very impressed. Had the ending been a little different, I think I would've been more won over. Still a good and worth-while read, nonetheless.

It's not very often a book stays with you long after you've closed the last page - or in my case - clicked the last page. This is one of those books, and I was lucky enough to get it early.

Where do I even begin? 

I'm shocked. 
Sad.
Heartbroken. 
Grieving.
Crushed.

I really should start writing sense... Okay.
So you have Ellory. Kind, easily influenced Ellory. Then you have her friends Ret, Bex and Jenni. I loved how the book jumped from what happened before and what was happening now. This format really kept the pace going. Really pushed the reader to keep reading, wanting to find out what happened. I honestly did not want to eat or sleep or do anything other than finish this book!

Then you have Matthias. Ellory and Matthias. Such a sweet, unexpected couple. I loved the sweetness, the high school love that is so new and fresh and tender. 

"Then his fingers were laced through my fingers. Our hands were the beginning of a spectacular, bright promise."

"His lips moved light and quick across my cheekbones, my lips, my hair. It felt like I was being covered by a kaleidoscope of butterflies."

But there's a bigger depth to this book. It's not about the love story between Ellory and Matthias. Please don't mistake it for a high school romance because there's a bigger love story at play. One about infatuation. Jealousy. Possession. All this between friends. It's bigger than I first expected. 

If you had a group of friends at school then you will know that you have one friend in your group who seems to gel the entire group together. Because without them, your group doesn't make sense. That is Ret for all the girls. She's the life and soul of the party. Ret is the sun, the centre of their universe. Jenni is the Earth, always bringing the girls to her house, their centre. Bex is Venus, headstrong and free. Ellory is the moon. 

The Moon and Sun. Such a dynamic relationship between the two. 

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one with Ret."

This story has so many twists and turns I actually did not know what was going to happen until it happened! And then you see how the characters deal with the consequences of their actions. 

"Running away means not dealing with the truth. Running away means giving myself an easy out, and I don't deserve an easy out."

And those actions are HUGE. 

To quote something from the book - and adding in my own words: this book, the pages in this book are filled with reasonings and offerings, it's filled with pretty words and ugly situations. It leaves you aching from loss and heartbreak that any reader who has read THAT book will fully understand.

It takes from you. It stays with you. It's beautiful.  

I WISH I could turn back the time and read this book for the FIRST time again!

In this book, Ellory's small group of girl friends are much like the ones you'd see on a show like Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars.  Barely there parents serve as bank accounts and basically nothing else.  The teens are free to hang out when/where they want, drink alcohol, have sex...whatever floats their pretty little boats.  The big "twist" at the end wasn't a huge surprise, but I got the impression that the twist wasn't the author's goal. Instead, Ellory's journey of being comfortable in her own skin seemed to be the ultimate end.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for the ARC!

Nice book! A must read for fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars.

I feel like I've already read other similar stories before, so it didn't bring anything new to me. I liked it, but didn't love it. Still, for being a debut novel, I must say it's really good. Congrats to the author. Hoping to read more from her soon.