Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this novel

Rating: 3.5 stars

This book has been on my priority TBR since the beginning of 2019. It has everything I look for in a YA fantasy; queer rep, fae, adventure, and while I did like this for the most part, I struggled to understand the world and the plot was a bit too convoluted for me. There was also a lot of info-dumping and as this book is 500+ pages, I found myself a little bored at times.

However, I adored all the main characters and their relationships with each other, I also liked how their individual storylines came together towards the end.

While this book ended up being a mixed bag for me, it's totally a “me not you” situation and I definitely understand why people love this one, I highly recommend checking out other reviews as well!

This was a very fun, fast paced fantasy based around multiple different characters and how their lives entwine! I love that it was set in the dark underworld of Toronto with the Unseelie Court, being a Canadian I find it fun to see any settings related to Canada in fantasy novels! The Seelie Court is also set in Nevada so Americans get to see a bit of themselves as well.
Arlo doesn't want to be a hero, and those are my favourite types of characters to read. I love when characters question their purpose and their direction. Nos is a fiery character right from the beginning when she is cast out, and being a lesbian we get wonderful sapphic representation! We also have a bisexual main character who is just such a soft boy and you fall head over heels in love with him and would do anything to protect him. The characters are the star of this novel.

DNF @ 31%.

I tried. I really did. It got to the point, though, where I was actively dreading picking this up. I hate DNFing books, but I just kept daydreaming about all of the other books that I wanted to read. There's really no point in putting myself through this (even if this book is set in Toronto).

I can see how some people enjoy this book- it isn't <i>horrible</i>. It's just so confusing. More confusing than typical fantasy books. I know that this is a debut, but this is just so info dump-y. Confusion was my constant state whilst reading. So many new characters were constantly being introduced and I could never keep up. My brain felt so scattered the entire time.

Furthermore, I cannot wrap my head around this fantasy world that Shuttleworth has constructed. I think that she would benefit from introducing things more naturally versus simply throwing information at us and praying it sticks.

There were also some writing quirks that irked me in this. I am very anti-capitalization-to-indicate-yelling and this was present a lot, as well as unnecessary parenthesis.

When it came down to it, I really only liked two characters. I cannot even remember their names, though, so I think that says a lot. I'd be open to giving this another go, but I'm just not in the mood for being confused right now.

I received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This thing that pulled me in was that this book took place in my hometown of Toronto. I loved the mentions of Toronto landmarks and streets. It was so cool to be able to picture exactly where the characters were.

This story was so good!! I loved every one of the MCs. The relationships between the characters was also so great. I loved Cel and Arlo’s brother/sister relationship. I loved the growing feels between Arlo and Nos. And I just wanted Vehan and Aurelian to just tell each other that they love the other!!!

I cannot wait for the next instalment of this series because I need more of these amazing character.

This book sounded so interesting that it was on my most anticipated books of the year.

I found this book a little confusing but other than that I did enjoy the story. It has great LGBTQ+ representation .

Would I read the next book in the series? Yes I will most likely read the next book.

A Dark and Hollow Star is a new Young Adult Urban Fantasy debut set in Toronto, Ontario. We follow our main cast of four queer characters as they try and uncover the secrets of a series of murders that have begun to appear throughout the city. They must solve this murder case to help protect the secrecy of the faerie world. This book was so much fun, and I cannot wait for the next one to come out! I was highly anticipating it, and it lived up to my expectations.

At the start, I had some trouble getting into it because I found it to be quite info-dumpy and honestly, I was quite confused with the worldbuilding. Once I made it past around the 150-page mark, I got right into it. As someone from Toronto, this story absolutely warmed my heart. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that is set in my hometown before. It was so cool to know and have been to all the places they were visiting. All the references to places and things in Ontario made me so happy. On top of that, the LGBTQ+ rep in here was amazing, and it was just so unapologetically queer.

The characters were quite delightful to read about, and they all have such interesting backstories that I want to hear more about as the series goes on. I loved the dynamic of the four main characters Nausicaä, Arlo, Vahan and Aurelian, once they all worked together near the end of the book, their interactions were so chaotic and funny! Both wlw and mlm relationships were written nicely and I also really loved Arlo’s cousin Celadon, who might be my favourite character other than Nausicaä. Hopefully, we get to see a bit more of him later on.

The plot was very engaging and kept me on my toes the whole time. The use of pop culture references among other things, had me laughing out loud. Ashley Shuttleworth is a very talented writer and I really loved their writing style.

Overall, I thought this was a new and fun YA novel and I would totally recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Shadowhunter Chronicles!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Pulse for an eARC of this title.

I desperately wanted to love this book! It had so many good things. It had fae, magic, murder, banter, and LGBTQ+ representation. The culture of the fae was so thought out and the relation between the human world was thought out quite well. So many people would absolutely love this book! I loved that this book took place in Toronto. It’s not often that I see a city I know well in a fantasy book like this.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. For one thing I really understood that urban fantasy isn’t for me. Urban fantasy, the mix between fantasy elements and the real world is something that I don’t mesh with very well. Another thing that I had trouble with was the dialogue. It was just a bit off for me. I can’t say that this book wasn’t good, I think it was just really not for me. I couldn’t really get into the characters and feel completely connected to them.

I can see so many people absolutely adoring this book. The fact that I didn’t adore this doesn’t say anything about this book, because I can see so many people absolutely loving it. I think a lot of teens will adore this book. The fact that I didn’t love it was simply because it just wasn’t for me.

5/5⭐️ to A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon Teen for an early egalley to review!

I adore and read a lot of YA Fantasy, and this debut was very impressive. From the early chapters I was invested in these characters and knew this would be a favourite series I will be seeing through the end! Ashley Shuttlework & this series have solidified their place on my auto-read, auto-buy list. Also of note is that I read the book physically along with the audiobook, which I would definitely recommend!

A Dark and Hollow Star is told in four main rotating narrative perspectives ~ Arlo, an ironborn teen who just wants to find her place in both the Fae and human worlds; Nausicaä, an immortal Fury who was banished to a life on Earth; Vehan, a Fae prince who wants to do his best for his people and prepare to rule one day; and Aurelion, sworn to guard Prince Vehan and has some secrets of his own. These perspectives were woven together so skillfully, and added so much complexity & breadth to this book. I so appreciated that each voice was distinct, which allowed me to really know the characters and be completely immersed in the story! There were also a couple short snippets of alternate side characters which were much appreciated and added understanding & intrigue. These characters felt fully fleshed out, and each character brought such an important role to the book. They contrasted and complemented each other so beautifully, and the character tensions added another amazing layer to the story! We even get an element of romance which was sweet, and I hope to see more of as the series progresses! One final note is that there is so much amazing queer representation woven throughout these characters & the book in general which is great!
The writing overall was beautiful, immersive, and lyrical. Not only did it convey the tension and emotion driving these characters and the mystery, but it totally allowed me into the story with these characters, seeing and experiencing what they were! We had a number of different settings, beings, and magical creatures which were so beautifully described - the main one being Toronto. Speaking of, I cannot express how happy it made me to have a Canadian book written by a Canadian author with a Canadian setting! I laughed and smiled at all the references we got, including Timmies, Timbits, and David’s Tea!
Finally, I wanted to talk about the main conflict/mystery of the book. I thought the speed at which was developed and how the author developed it worked so well! As the reader, I immediately knew that there was something bad going on, and cared that it was important for the characters to figure out. Then as we got more action, we found out a little more and were able to get more pieces of the puzzle. Through the short extra perspectives I briefly mentioned, we got extra information that helped us make connections the characters hadn’t made yet which made me root even more for them! Plus the way the book wrapped up in the end was excellent! We got enough loose ends ties up to be satisfying, but also some action elements that pave the way for future books. I. Cannot. Wait!!!

If you’re a fantasy fan, I would highly recommend checking out this book!

This review will not be published online, as the fault I found with this digital galley had almost nothing to do with the work itself. I've placed a purchase for a hard copy of this title because I did genuinely enjoy what I was able to read, but the formatting was so poor, particularly in regards to paragraph and chapter breaks, that the reading experience was not one I was eager to return to. That said, I'm excited to dig into the hard copy, and appreciate the chance to read ahead and confirm that this was, indeed, something I wanted to purchase. A full review will be on my Goodreads as soon as I finish!

I really enjoyed this book! It follows a cast of characters, ranging from half human-half-fae hybrids to fallen Furies, as they attempt to solve a string of murders. The plot is fast-paced and unique, and the worldbuilding is so well done. This had the same vibes as mid-2010s YA fantasy without the questionably racist/sexist/homophobic comments that seem to litter them. It made me feel wonderfully nostalgic while being so new and fresh at the same time, and I loved every minute of it. The characters are fantastic, as is the representation, and I genuinely couldn't recommend this book enough!

3.5/5

I was so incredibly excited to read this, as it has so many of the things I like to read about wrapped up in a book! Overall, I enjoyed it a lot despite some problems I had with the general flow and some writing choices, and I'd recommend this to pretty much anyone.

First and foremost: thank you for including content warnings at the front of the book. I wish that all books had this, but sadly they do not, and I appreciate it very much when I come across it.

WHAT I LOVED
• The setting - I loved all of the nods to Canadian places (Toronto, Niagara Falls, etc), and actual locations in the city of Toronto! As a Canadian, and as someone who lives about an hour away from Toronto and has visited it often while growing up, this made me feel so seen and I could picture it more easily in my mind. I know that I'm biased here!

• The use of D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) - This was so incredibly fun! As a nerd, I absolutely adored that this element was thrown into the mix and I was so intrigued with how the characters tried to use it to their advantage (pun intended!). I wasn't expecting this, and I'm really interested in how the author will continue to incorporate this plot element into the rest of the series.

• The character diversity - We love to see it! I really enjoyed reading through the lenses of these different characters and watching them try to navigate their sexualities while still being so young. I appreciate that their sexualities weren't treated as problems, or became their entire character. When I was in high school, I would have really appreciated and enjoyed reading characters like these, because I didn't have very much of that growing up. I'm glad that younger people will have a safe place to explore within this book, as I think there's something for everyone here. Furthermore, I liked that each of the characters was diverse in personality! Our main cast of four had their similarities that overlapped, but generally stood out from one another and had their own quirks. I appreciate the difference in the two main relationships as well, with the boys' relationship having history and some previous trauma to sort through, and the girls experiencing this more budding and awkward relationship that is just beginning to form.

WHAT I HAD TROUBLE WITH
• Some of the pop culture references - I understand why they were included, but I didn't enjoy the H*rry P*tter or Tw*l*ght references. I know authors sometimes do this to make the text and characters feel more relatable, but this didn't sit well with me, not after the years we've known about the problems with these books and authors. I think that there are other ways to include your audience in on humor, or make the characters relatable. I also didn't appreciate the nod to Marineland, since we've known about the many problems with these types of zoos for a long time. I know that this is me being quite picky -- I just don't think including these types of references brings any betterment to the story, and instead dangerously puts a positive light on harmful forms of entertainment, regardless of intent.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
I think that the author did a great job at trying to incorporate many elements into one book, between the characters and the world-building especially, and in doing so laid out some really great groundwork for the rest of the story to unfold. Although this felt quite YA to me at times and that made it a bit more difficult for me to get through, I really enjoyed myself with this one, especially in the last 40% once our four main characters came together. I'm super interested in seeing where this goes, and seeing how the author's writing evolves over time.

t/w: suicide, depression

i never dnf books because i always try to find redeeming qualities or something i like, but this was beyond disappointing & boring..

the world-building was abrupt, i feel like i never really grasped the immortal realm & changelings, seelie, sidhe & all the other terms used because it was described in a way where it was assumed readers had some knowledge on what was being described. & all the characters were introduced so close together & there were so many names being thrown out at the beginning it was hard to keep track of everything.

arlo’s weighing has been postponed until she’s 28 so i’m not sure why there was so much contemplation over if she’s going to university or not because at the end of the day her status is the same as it was.. until then so she can still go if she wanted... so that whole contemplation just seemed very pointless & that’s a reoccurring issue i have with this book a lot of things are pointless.. characters, descriptions, conversations. a lot of it is like filler, it literally does nothing for the story it just wastes time because arlo's debate about university doesn't really pop up again

it’s very choppy, the story is trying to do too much (fae, faeries, folk, ironborn, sidhe, lesidhe, vampires, trolls etc.) & doesn’t do toronto justice at all. one of the reasons this book called out to me was because it takes place in toronto. BUT, the storyline was not immersed in toronto, there was no integration.. toronto was an isolated idea & is described by landmarks, but is separate from the actual story. it’s all like yeah so cn tower & this happened at ripley’s aquarium & that’s it onto the next thing. & sometimes if there is a little bit of detail about a landmark it’s like the description was copied & pasted from google/wikipedia. you don’t get a feel for what the city is really like which is very disappointing. & it’s a little misleading because the book also takes place in nevada & places like the hiraeth. i also realized the story goes off on A LOT of tangents like the smallest most insignificant things get so much explanation & then i have no idea what the story is even about anymore or even where it’s going.

the story didn’t cycle through characters evenly, there was a lot of time with arlo, i forgot about hero because almost 40% of the way into the book he had 2 very brief sections, (also why did hero change his name right at the end of the book, why was that even necessary??) it took a while to see vehan & aurelian again too, i just don’t think it was good at all.

there is literally no reason for most characters, idk why most meaningless characters have names & back stories, like why should i care about noel? why are we spending time getting to know his relation to pallas when i still don’t even clearly know pallas’ relation to nausicaä? is any of it TRULY relevant to anything? (i honestly wouldn’t have remembered them if it wasn’t for taking a break from reading to jot down my thoughts) they ended up fighting anyways & literally nothing was gained from that encounter it was so pointless.. also are anthropophagi really even relevant to mention?? they’re literally only mentioned once? & it means nothing?? why wasn’t more time being spent on things that are actually significant like the setting & making sure the world that is being created is explained & defined properly & is actually a part of the setting? & making sure the story makes sense & is captivating.
as you go along it’s like a never-ending introduction of new names & characters & things that do nothing for the plot, but it’s continuous until about 80% of the way through

lethe’s reveal didn’t surprise me mostly because i couldn’t even remember who he was at the time.

when arlo, nausicaä, vehan & aurelian meet it’s so underwhelming.. it’s just like yeah so we heard you can open doors with alchemy can you help? also a lot of transitions are poorly executed, i feel like they’re rarely in toronto, & rarely in the same place twice. at around 70% of the way through the story takes another break to talk about how bad riadne is.. & by this point it’s been a while since arlo & even hero have been mentioned. but also i find the bonds between characters to be kind of weak, like there’s a bad guy they don’t really know, arlo & nausicaä barely know each other & know vehan & aurelian even less.. also vehan & aurelian have been dealing with their lost friendship/connection & the book describes how close they used to be which we really don’t see, all we see is that they barely really talk it’s just aurelian protecting him & yet there are so many conversations that are useless & literally do nothing..

too many pointless characters & pointless descriptions... this book is focusing on all the wrong things.. like there are so many times when outfits of characters who have no significance to the story are being described in detail..

i just didn't enjoy it, definitely not for me

I’m sad to say that I didn’t enjoy this as much as I had been hoping. I’m even more sad to say that I ended up DNFing this.

It’s possible the problem comes down to this being the author’s debut novel. I feel as though it could have been edited down a great deal. With it being such a dense book I had expected at least some form of plot to develop by the halfway point.

I’m usually pretty lenient with first books in a series taking a while to get through the world building before starting the plot, but I didn’t even find the world building interesting.

But I will say, I definitely see potential for Shuttleworth to grow as an author. I’d happily give their books another try.

Urban fantasy/mystery with crime -solving Faes set in Toronto? Also, there’s murder to solve. Yeah, you sold me. 


Wow, Guys, this was a solid debut book. Also, you know I have got to highlight and support a Canadian author! So this book was high up on my tbr for 2021. I was instantly drawn to the cover. I think I let out a big old gasp when I saw the CN Tower and thought to myself, hang on, are we about to get some city of Toronto representation. 


This was great, guys, and I honestly mean it. Lots of information to unpack initially, but Ashely sets up such a fantastic world that it made it so much fun to explore. The pacing can be slow, which might detour some readers, but I didn’t find it an issue. 


Now the characters. Every single review I read for this book talked about how AMAZING these characters were, and I’m here to say, yup, they held up to all the hype. You go through four different POVs all the characters have their own strong, unique voices. With this cast of characters, you also get lots of great LGBTQIA+ representation happing throughout this book. 


I’m ready for book two, and I thought this was a great debut YA Fantasy series. Thank you to @netgalley and @simonandsch for the ARC to review for my honest opinion. 

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐬. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝.

All specific details mentioned in this review are from the first few chapters or the summary.

A Dark and Hollow Star is, to describe it in one word, chaotic. There's a lot going on with its worldbuilding: Fae courts, gods from various pantheons, figures from religious and cultural myth... Immortals, mortals, and everyone in between... Unseelie and seelie, lesidhe and sidhe... All of these elements lay the groundwork for an interesting premise that suffers from pacing issues.

Our narrators, in rotating third-person perspective, are:

Arlo Jarsdel - An Ironborn (half fae, half human) member of the Unseelie Spring Court whose story begins with a scene of life-altering decision: she can either give up her knowledge of the magical world and live as a human, or continue to live as a magical citizen with a reduced role in court politics. Arlo has a personal stake in the story's murder mystery as both an Ironborn potential target and a member of Toronto's ruling fae family.

Nausicaä Kraken - The "Dark Star" from the title and the Fury formerly known as Alecto. Nausicaä was exiled to the mortal world for an act of wrath, and her new life mission is to cause enough trouble to make the gods regret not stripping her of immortality when they had the chance. Under her flippant exterior is a deep well of grief and rage.

Vehan Lysterne - Son of Queen Riadne and Prince of the Seelie Summer Court. Vehan is surrounded on all sides by those who would use him or remove him from the line of succession - and on top of that his childhood best friend has abruptly become distant. Vehan struggles with feeling isolated and unhappy while trying to mitigate his mother's temper and serve his court.

Aurelian Bessel - An expat of the Seelie Autumn Court whose family relocated from Germany to Nevada to serve as court patissiers - and for Aurelian to train as Vehan's steward. Aurelian is intimately aware of the dark side of Queen Riadne's rule and tries to shield Vehan from the full extent of the corruption, which drives a wedge into their once close relationship.

There are also short sections from the perspective of Hero, an Ironborn youth whose memory of the magical world is restored by a mysterious figure.

These characters are drawn together by a series of gruesome murders that should be a huge deal, especially as more details come to light, but the magical side of the Mortal world doesn't seem to care, humans can't make sense of the bodies left behind, and the Immortals are by and large unconcerned by mortal problems. What these four teens uncover, however, will have major and far-reaching consequences for everyone.

On the whole the characters are interesting but easily recognizable as YA archetypes. Arlo is the most blatant example - the redhead reluctant Chosen One who insists she's not special while the plot says otherwise - but the narrators are all sympathetic and complex enough to stand out.

It's difficult to keep track of the sprawling supporting cast beyond the more memorable characters, like Queen Riadne and Prince Celadon. A reduced cast would have helped, or at least a glossary of terms and cast list, though this feels like a series that will draw in an active fandom and fanmade wiki at some point to fill the gap.

As advertised in the summary, there is queer rep throughout: this includes all four narrating characters (three who confirm themselves in text as lesbian, gay, and bisexual), plus various side characters. There are trans and nonbinary supporting characters referred to by a variety of pronouns - Nausicaä hints that the Immortals have little use for mortal concepts of gender - but the main cast and most of the major supporting cast read as cis.

There are two developing romances among the main cast and both are obvious from the start. Nausicaä and Arlo are strangers who grow closer as circumstances repeatedly bring them together. Vehan and Aurelian, on the other hand, are childhood friends who have abruptly grown apart for plot reasons, with off-the-charts mutual pining.

What initially drew me to this book was its setting. I grew up a couple hours outside of Toronto and it was genuinely fun to recognize the landmarks in A Dark and Hollow Star. I loved the little details - like the Tim Hortons in Reverdie, how Unseelie Spring is hidden in plain sight in the downtown core, and scenes featuring Ripley's Aquarium, the C.N. Tower, and Casa Loma - that gave the story a solid sense of place in spite of the fantastical elements.

One caveat, however, is that this is a tourist's view of Toronto, with many of the recognizable landmarks but little of the cultural diversity or the aspects that make the city truly come alive. This is partially because the Spring Court exists as a transplant to the GTA, adjacent but largely separate from the human world. It's also a side effect of Arlo living a relatively privileged and isolated upper-class life. Still, it feels like a missed opportunity that the areas outside of the touristed spots feel like generic city streets.

The worldbuilding has a lot of potential. A Dark and Hollow Star lays the groundwork for a much larger conflict: war is imminent between the Immortal and Mortal realms, blurring the lines that divide the realms, the various fae courts, and everyone who lives on the fringes. There's conflict and tension at every turn and antagonists who complicate the whole in pursuit of their own goals.

Shuttleworth's world draws heavily from Western fantasy and mythology, including many concepts that would have been catnip to me at the age of the target audience: the seven deadly sins, alchemy, the four horsemen, gods of various pantheons, fate versus choice versus luck, and more. There are lots of fun pop culture references and snappy one-liners. To be fair, my reading notes are full of groaning comments like of course it's a magical katana, but I can honestly say that teenage me would have been all over this book, the same way I was deeply into Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments.

The downside is that the pacing suffers for the amount of explanation required to pull off a world where all of these things coexist; a lot of scenes get sidetracked by exposition and lose their tension or emotional punch.
An excessive amount of physical description further bogs down the pace. Your mileage may vary, but I'm not a fan of overlong and repetitive physical character descriptions unless clothes and appearances are directly relevant to the action. While I expected to skim through at least a few "here's what everyone wore to the club" scenes (because YA urban fantasy), this book takes it to a frustrating level for major and minor characters. It felt like the physical description could have been cut to a fraction of what made it into the final book, for the sake of narrative flow and overall length.

The end result is a weird combination that feels overlong in some ways but underdeveloped in others. Maybe everything would gel together better with a second read-through, but all of these elements combined - huge cast, worldbuilding that draws in many external influences, exhaustive descriptions of characters and places - makes for a confusing and stilted first read that might put some readers off.

Final thoughts: A Dark and Hollow Star is the first entry in a series that struggles with pacing but nonetheless sets up an interesting world and cast of characters. I'm excited to see where the next book takes the story and I'm invested in the characters and their individual struggles.

This was a three-star read for me but I could see it resonating more for readers in the target age group or fans who are more into urban fantasy and its tropes. Still, it was a fun read.

I unfortunately ended up DNF-ing this book which was really disappointing as it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. However, this will not stop me from recommending it to others as I do think this book gives you exactly what it promised! A dark and hollow star gave me the queer rep I needed as a teenager. You get a diverse range of sexual identities, including characters that are questioning, which I think is super important. So often we are presented with queer teenagers who seem to have known their sexuality since they popped out of the womb, which while this is definitely representative of some peoples experience, it isn't representative of mine and thousands of others experiences, so I appreciated the way this was handled! My issues were mainly with the writing style. From the first page, it felt very juvenile and as time went on, I just realized that as much as I was in love with the concept of the story, I couldn't bring myself to love the writing. It was info-dumpy at points and often felt clunky and difficult to get through in a fast and enjoyable manner. Overall, I'm happy this book is out in the world but it's not a new favourite of mine.

No one is more shocked than me at how disappointed I am with my most anticipated read of 2021.

I’m heartbroken. But I am also allowing myself the space to be ambivalent about a book.

I mean, I can’t even begin to describe my euphoria when I first heard the premise of A Dark and Hollow Star. (Though if you want some idea, please scroll to the bottom of my review and take a gander at my yelling and spluttering!)

“Queer ownvoices urban fantasy set in Toronto with serial killers” felt like someone had reached into my bookish soul and made every last one of my wishes into reality. It was surreal. I was rooting for this book with my whole heart.

Which made my dismay all the more profound. But before we get into why, here’s what I want you to know off the bat.

I feel SO strongly—so passionately—about speculative fiction set in Toronto, and Canada more broadly. We are a city, land, and many cultures and communities that deserve representation (beyond the white eurocentric norm). We are rife with magnetizing stories and settings.

Moreover, I feel just as—if not even more—strongly about publishing and reading ownvoices queer stories. It is SO IMPORTANT that we read and support queer authors, and queer spec-fic holds an infinitely soft space in my heart.

For these reasons, I think you should read A Dark and Hollow Star. The queer rep was fucking fantastic. As Ashley Shuttleworth says in their review, the four leads are all LGBTQIA+.

Arlo, the half-fae/half-human ironborn girl, is questioning and later confirmed to be pansexual. Nausicaä is lesbian, a centuries-old former-immortal who has been banished to the mortal realm, where she’s been stirring up trouble. Aurelian is gay and a member of the Seelie Summer court; he keeps watch over kind-hearted Vehan, who is bisexual and sweet as heck.

And if that hasn’t convinced you, then I have two words for you: Sapphic. Faeries. 🧚🏻‍♀️


Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster Canada for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to read my most anticipated 2021 release as an advance copy.


◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️

The primary reason I felt so let down by this book is its lack of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity.

How to tell a story of Toronto without grappling with its history of colonialism and diasporic migration? How to write Toronto without including the Black folk, Indigenous peoples, and people of colour at this city’s heart?

I'm not sure. I don't think the story would be complete.

What makes Toronto such a fucking magical city in real life is its incredible diversity—of people, cultures, communities, identities.

Toronto’s one of the most multicultural cities in the entire world. It is a space that is defined by the interweaving of peoples, a place that resonated so deeply with me for its expansiveness.

And queer BIPOC have long been at the heart of Toronto's queer community and activism. This is true in spite of their historic lack of visibility and representation in mainstream discourse. For example, Prof. Beverly Bain, a Black queer scholar, talks about how Black queer folk shaped Pride in Toronto by standing at the forefront of grassroots movements in the 80s, when Toronto police cracked down on the gay community via bathhouse raids. Meanwhile, Richard Fung and Gay Asians of Toronto were one of the first organizations to advocate for queer POC in Toronto, and their efforts as "pioneers of diversity" are integral to Toronto's queer history.

I’m not saying Toronto is perfect—far from it. Canada has major issues, like all settler states, with systemic injustice and discrimination against BIPOC, queer folk, and other marginalized communities.

But I am saying that the pockets of happiness, resilience, and resistance that I found in Toronto changed my life. In this city, I learned that I didn’t have to conform myself to an ill-fitting—no, painful—white and heternormative default. It was a momentous revelation for me.

And this book didn't capture that diversity, that richness, for me.

Not all of it, at least. Despite the fantastic queer rep, there was no diversity in the ethnicities or cultures represented in A Dark and Hollow Star. There was no acknowledgement of the Indigenous lands on which Toronto was constructed, no recognition of the Indigenous peoples and cultures who are the rich, inextricable foundation and fabric of this city.

From what I could tell (and PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong), all of the major characters in A Dark and Hollow Star were white or white-coded.

The protagonists were all fae/faeries of European (mainly English) descent. There’s one scene where the book describes how the fae and their Courts moved from England and “settled [in Canada] a little over a century ago.” I know this must've been unintentional, but it just sounded so eerily colonial.

And if some minor characters were described as having darker skin or ethnic-sounding names, this was ultimately arbitrary. Because there was no meaningful incorporation of non-European cultures into the world-building and magic system in this novel. There was no discussion of Middle Eastern, African, South Asian, East Asian, Latin American epistemologies, to name but a few, even though the majority of Toronto’s population (51.5% in 2016) belongs to a visible minority group. In fact, just under half of all Torontonians are immigrants.

This book did not reflect that.

And I felt profound grief at the loss of this opportunity to represent, celebrate, and champion Toronto’s intersectional diversity in a hyped-up mainstream YA novel. But at the same time, I think this just further highlights the need for more YA fiction, speculative fiction, queer fiction—more stories, period—set in Toronto. The responsibility of representing this incredibly multifaceted city should not solely be on the shoulders of Ashley Shuttleworth or A Dark and Hollow Star (or any other single author or novel).

We should be allowed the space for stories like A Dark and Hollow Star—as well as stories that feature characters of diverse ethnicities, races, and cultures.

🧚🏻‍♀️ TLDR; While I am disappointed by the lack of diverse racial/ethnic rep in this novel, I don't mean for this to be a scathing criticism of A Dark and Hollow Star. Rather, I write this as a call for publishers like Simon & Schuster Canada to publish more queer and Torontonian stories—to afford queer Torontonians the array of literature and representation that is deserved.



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Besides the lack of racial/cultural diversity, my other gripes with this book have to do with the actual prose and storytelling.

➟ Confusing, convoluted worldbuilding.

There were WAY too many info-dumps in this novel. And the irony was that even with all this explicit explanation, I still couldn’t grasp the magic system at the centre.

This was partly because the world-building was neither intuitive nor presented in an easy-to-comprehend manner. For example, "fae" and "faerie" refer to two different types of supernatural beings in this novel (the former resemble humans, while the latter have animal/plant-like characteristics). In all of the fae-related novels I've read so far, the two terms have been used interchangeably, so it was hard to get my head around the idea that in A Dark and Hollow Star they were now two separate entities.

Also, the lore of A Dark and Hollow Star is an erratic mish-mash of legends from disparate (European) cultures. Greek gods, Titans, Furies, faerie (Seelie, UnSeelie, lesidhe, sidhe), trolls, vampires, something called the Wild Hunt—and a Chinese dragon thrown in for good measure…? None of it made sense to me.

➟ Overused YA fantasy tropes and clichés.

This echoes some of the issues I had with Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn. A Dark and Hollow Star relies heavily on YA fantasy clichés, including Capitalization of Everything to Do With World-building (including Maturity, Matured, the Weighing, Sight, Gift, Destroyed, Tracker… the list goes on). There's a dash of the Chosen One trope with Arlo, and an overuse of italics that made the text feel more melodramatic than anything.

➟ Prose doesn’t flow very well for me personally.

The tone of the writing in this novel didn’t really fit the urban fantasy setting imo. It reads with the cadence and diction of high fantasy (formal constructions of phrase etc.) when this is urban fantasy. As a result, the the prose came off a little stuffy when I would’ve rather it flowed more smoothly, like contemporary speech.

I also found the banter/dialogue weirdly juvenile. For example, when Nausicäa says things like “What the shit” and “W-T-Fuck” and “Miss Sassypants,” it felt to me like she had the maturity of a preteen human and not a 300-year-old immortal being.



BOTTOM LINE: To my disappointment, this book didn't do justice to Toronto—or its diversity of cultures and peoples—like I"d been expecting. NONETHELESS, I still think it’s extremely important to read and support queer ownvoices stories, and A Dark and Hollow Star will surely be a trailblazer for queer spec-fic to come.



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June 29, 2020:

Y'ALL. MY JAW LITERALLY DROPPED. IT'S LIKE ASHLEY SHUTTLEWORTH TOOK ALL THE THINGS I LOVED AND MASHED THEM INTO THE STORY I'VE NEEDED ALL MY LIFE

Cruel Prince? CHECK. ✅
City of Bones? CHECK. ✅
Set in the 6ix? CHECK. ✅
Serial killer creepiness? CHECK. ✅
Queer author + cast? BOOYAH, CHECK. ✅

I am SO hyped for this I'm shaking

I received an e-galley of A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth from Simon and Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

A Dark and Hollow Star is a fantasy novel set in Toronto (yes!) and features a vast array of magical creatures and beings who have made this city its own. Living amongst all the mere mortals are the fae, fairies, and other beings who have been coexisting with the humans for years. But things have gone astray as humans have been disappearing and the ironblood are now being hunted and murdered. Amongst all of these beings, individual fae and members of the magical community are trying to get to the bottom of this as the High King seems to be ignoring this growing concern.

A Dark and Hollow Star alternates between four diffeerent perspectives with the occasional point of view from a side character or two. For about half of the story though, I was having trouble following along between these different perspectives as it felt like everytime I was starting to understand the world built in the story, it would switch perspectives and bring in a whole new cast of characters in a different court or even to a different time frame. These transitions were quite jarring until I had a good sense as to this world of the fae - which like I mentioned, did not happen until I was about halfway through the story when I felt like I was finally able to start making connections between the characters, their stories and what was happening. It could have been a choice of the author to add to the mysterious theme of the novel as they were trying to get to the bottom of the murders. I did eventually start to really enjoy and feel invested in the story.

My favourite character would have to be Nausicaa who is just so cool, even in her murderous and threatening ways. I think there is a lot to her character that will have a chance to be developed as this story continues and I look forward to her growth and learning more about her story. While her past has been revealed to a certain extent, there is definitely more to her and I’m excited for that to develop., As for Arlo, she is definitely the reluctant hero type and while she has all good intentions, she is resistant to becoming the hero that others want her to become. As she continues down her path, her struggles with becoming who she wants to be while not following the whims of the greater powers will be interesting. I think that there was not a lot of development for Vehan and Aurelian - many secrets and revelations are still in store for this duo.

A Dark and Hollow Star has definitely been set up for what can be an epic fantasy series and I am looking forward to many of the character’s developments and also the plot progression that has been hinted throughout the novel. The world building in this novel was good, though a little overwhelming and confusing at first, with all the alternative perspectives but I think that there was a purpose served in doing so as well. I am looking forward to continuing this series and the subsequent book cover designs that I would assume would be as gorgeous as this one.

Well, I've never been so disappointed with myself for being disappointed.

It truly hurts me to write a negative review about a read I was so excited for, but this novel was unfortunately too... much. At a glance, it has everything I ever wanted. Fae, multiple POVs, a murder mystery, and a setting in Canada!! Toronto!! As a Canadian who is very familiar with Toronto, this was especially exciting.

And then the novel began....

THE CHARACTERS

From page one, this book suffers from far too many characters syndrome, to the point where I began taking notes of all the names because I couldn't keep it straight. By chapter 2, we had Hero, the Hunter, Alecto/Nausicaa, Urielle, Arlo, Celadon, Larsen, Sylvain, Siegel, and Thalo. It only gets worse from there, as each new character introduced has a wild and magical appearance that gets at least a paragraph, if not two, of exposition. Add to that 5 POVs set in very different parts of the world (one in a different timeline), and you have yourself a recipe for confusion.

The author does not handle these POVs well, unfortunately - outside of Nos, most don't have distinctive voices. I could not tell Aurelian and Vehan's POVs apart for the life of me, and their names are so similar I couldn't remember which one was which for a good half of the book. The characters are also VERY deep in their own heads/emotions, to the point where I found myself wanting to grab them and say "get on with it!" while they ruminated on their emotions for paragraphs, in ways that left me confused as to what the author was trying to convey. This might appeal to people who enjoy deep POVs, but one of this novel's best aspects is the plot, and it took a criminally long time to get to it because of the excessive introspection.

On the positive side, I did really enjoy both Arlo and Nausicaa. They have great chemistry and I loved their relationship. Arlo especially really clicked with me, I related a lot to her struggles and I loved how intrepid and spunky she was, especially around Nausicaa. If the novel had been JUST Arlo and Nausicaa's POVs, I think it might have been an easy 4 stars for me (assuming the worldbuilding was cut back, more on that later) but as it stands I had to trek through way too many other POVs to get to them.

THE WORLDBUILDING

My second major gripe is the worldbuilding. As a premise, I really like the idea of combining a City of Bones-esque urban setting with classic fae lore, but again I did not think it was handled well. This novel suffers from over-worldbuilding, where Shuttleworth feels the need to expand on every. single. worldbuilding. aspect. ever. to the point where each dialogue scene will be broken up by paragraphs of info dumps. This felt strange to me because most YA readers have a basic understanding of fae, since they're so prevalent in the genre, and the novel's versions felt extremely convoluted and overcomplicated. Some aspects are needlessly fleshed out. Fairy banks? Fairy schools? Do they really need that much explanation? I think Shuttelworth may simply be an over-writer, and this is stuff an editor should have caught and fixed,

THE PLOT

My biggest gripe was that the plot doesn't start until about 45% of the novel, when Nos and Arlo finally start to work together. It takes even longer then that for all 4 of our main POVs to converge. Until then, it felt like slogging through a muck of exposition and over-indulgent prose, trying to catch but a glimmer of the plot before it flitted away. I do enjoy books that are light on plot if the characters keep me intrigued, but Nausicaa and Arlo only truly became interesting once they started working together, and as I already mentioned I never felt anything for any of the other characters - they just blended into one for me. The plot DOES eventually pick up and I found myself invested enough to finish the novel, though I do not think I will pick up a sequel.

THE GOOD STUFF

First, I do want to say I really loved all the LGBTQ+ rep in the novel. That is something Shuttleworth does very well, it's very organic the way it's woven in and it was refreshing to see. Secondly, there is some beautiful prose in here, with some breathtaking descriptions of scenery, Toronto especially. It's the first time I've encountered a city that's familiar to me in a novel and I did get really excited whenever locations I've been to were mentioned, so I really appreciated that.

IN CONCLUSION / TLDR;
With too many characters, confusing worldbuilding and a snail's-pace plot, A Dark and Hollow Star was really not for me. Regardless, a huge thank you to to Simon & Schuster for giving me the opportunity to read and review the ARC.

My rating: two stars, one for Nausicaa and one for Arlo *blows them a kiss*

Strong 3.5 stars or 4 stars, I am not sure.

<i>A sidhe prince, a lesidhe guard, an ironborn girl, and a former Fury – they seemed less like a serious investigative team and more like the lead-in to some terrible joke.</i>

This story revolves around 4 main characters:

<i>“You mistake my meaning,” Alecto drawled. “I freely admit to all crimes you accuse me of. I did it, yes. I simply don’t feel guilty about any of it.”</i>

Alecto is one of the three Furies tasked with the upholding of the Three Principle of Magic. She is the daughter of Urielle, Goddess of the Elements and Lady of Chaos, and was condemned to live forever among the mortals, after exacting revenge for her sister’s murder and killing 11 mortals. She had to assume a new identity and had been known as Nausicaä Kraken for the last 116 years, or, as some like to call her, the Dark Star. She has been a plague to the magical community. She is fierce, blunt, confident, sassy, and I really like her.

<i>"What if I don't want to be a hero?"

She couldn’t help them.
She wasn’t special, wasn’t brave.
Arlo was just a girl with fancy connections and no real magic of her own, regardless of what Nausicaä thought she knew about her. She was no hero, no chosen savior, nobody but Arlo Jarsdel, ironborn human.</i>

Arlo Jarsdel is an ironborn (half-human) teenager in the pure-blood fae royal family. Not deemed fae enough by the elitist High Council because of her weak magical abilities and her “impure” blood, she lives as an outcast, her only real friend being her cousin, High Prince Celadon (who I wished was one of the main characters because I really like him, he’s the best). She is an introvert, not believing that she is anything special, but she is fierce when comes the time to defend the ones she cares about. She is not the most original YA character, but I still enjoyed her chapters.

<i>"It eats at me, because feeling that?
That soul-crushing hopelessness that drowns everything else inside you and tells you you're totally and completely alone, that you're nothing but a tool, a means to an end, a burden, and no one will really miss you when you're gone?
I know exactly what that's like."</i>

Vehan is the prince of the Summer court, he is sweet, valiant, and noble, but he loves too much and too deeply for a Fae prince. He spends almost all his time with his steward and childhood best friend, Aurelian (aka, Mr. I-pretend-I-don’t-care-but-I-do-care-way-too-much). Together, they are trying to investigate the series of ironborn murders that have been happening lately. Their path will cross Nausicaä’s and Arlo’s, and it will be up to them to figure out what is happening because the High King of the fae keeps on insisting that the culprit is a human serial killer, that there is nothing he can do, that there is no need for the magical community to investigate.

The dynamic between the 4 main characters is a good mix of wariness, friendship, sarcasm, and even love. They are trying to trust each other and help each other even though they just met for some of them. They go from strangers to a unit built on shaky trust, but they still have each other’s back. Each character is vulnerable, and insecure, even though they try to hide it, and it makes them so much more relatable. They are doubting their worth and their feelings, wondering what awaits them in the future and what there are destined to become. This self-doubt is so human and so real (especially considering that they are teenagers), it made me appreciate this little band of misfit more than I thought I would.

<i>“No, no, no – we’re not on the same team,” Nausicaä interrupted. “I’m no hero! Just because I’m not running around turning kids to stone doesn’t mean I’m a fine upstanding citizen like Red and Prince Charmless here, and… I don’t know, what fairy-tale character do you want to be, Aurelian?”
Aurelian cut her a deadly glare.
“And fucking Grumpy.”</i>

The murders are part of a complex scheme that is revealed one tiny step at a time. There is still a lot of intrigues left to be discovered and resolved in the next book. I would have liked it if the characters got together earlier, the first half of the book is a little slow, with lots of details that are not always usefull in the story. I will most probably read the next book when it comes out, but since this book does not end with a cliffhanger, I am not in a hurry to read it.

On a side note, I also really liked how the Seelie and Unseelie courts are determined by our geographic frontiers. The Canadian territory belongs to a court, western Europe to another court, and so on, and the fae and fairies live among the humans using glamours. The pop-culture references (Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring, Pokemon, Super Mario, etc.) are also very funny and help us connect even more with the characters and the story.