I was trying to get out of a reading rut and thought that this might help. Based on the Manhattan Project, it follows two different stories, that of Alice and Caleb, two Jewish Americans working on the Manhattan Project, and that of Haruki, a Japanese survivor of the atom bomb.

While the book was enjoyable enough, I did find the pacing to be a bit on the slow side.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for my honest review.

As a lover of historical fiction, I was very excited to read this book. It is based on the Manhattan Project and follows 2 storylines. The first is the story of Alice and Caleb, 2 Jewish Americans working on the Manhattan Project. The 2nd is of Haruki, a Japanese survivor of the atom bomb. Both stories are beautifully heartbreaking and full of love but also consequence. While I enjoyed the story, I found the pacing to be a bit off and the first third to be a bit slow.

4.5 stars! This is a very interesting and gripping book! My emotions were all over the place. Happy, sad, terrified, and empathetic. It's a story about a time in history that changed thousands of lives.

The characters are brilliantly written! I found myself connecting with all of them. They all sacrificed in some way. The ramifications of what they created and were a part of have effects even now.

I really liked the author's note! Her link to the past created this book. Her historical notes were fascinating, too!

I was provided a copy of the book from Alcove Press via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This complicated romance asks devastating questions of our past while engaging in hopeful reflections on love. The attention to historical and scientific detail is impressive, and the prose kept me turning pages. I will definitely read Rachel Robbins again in the future!

This was an unexpectedly good read, since I never heard of this author or this book. I was interested in reading it since I recently read American Prometheus, and the Jewish angle is in my wheelhouse.

The plotline follows two scientists who are invited to join the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. The story came across as surprisingly authentic and true to real life. The author certainly knew and researched her physics, but then again I am not a physicist, so I don't really know if it's all true; but it came across that way.

The writing itself is engaging, and the plot is well-paced and smooth for the most part. I found myself relating to the characters.
There's a very interesting subplot told backwards, interspersed with chapters throughout the novel. That might have been the best part. It follows a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb, and his story connects with the main story at the end.

There were a few issues I had with this book. One was the progression from a positive and inspiring story with a budding romance to what became a depressing ending. I found that jarring. I think the purpose was for the reader to see exactly that; what should have been an exciting experiment and time became something terrible unleashed on the world. But the tone was positive and turned negative. The novel lost its excitement when it lost its nuance and became too charged, and the last quarter of the book became boring and I skimmed a bit. There were some shocking tragedies toward the end, and they pulled me in and helped me feel for the characters. But the very end took that too far, in my opinion; it wasn't necessary to turn the whole plot upside down to pull the reader toward grief and make a point.

I also didn't appreciate the tropes about Orthodox Judaism being backward. It went so far as painting an Orthodox woman as illiterate when Jews are literally the people of the book. One of the top scientists in the project, Nobel prize winner Isidore Rabi, always remained connected to his Orthodox upbringing. There was an Orthodox Jewish man who won the Nobel Prize in mathematics a few years ago; there is a world full of sophisticated, educated, Orthodox Jews.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this book. I like the plot synopsis of this that was posted but the actual book I could not get into. I may try another book by this author but this one was a super slow start.

The Sound of a Thousand Stars by Rachel Robbins is an interesting WWII-era historical fiction that involves Los Alamos and the questions that one asks about their own morals and loyalties during extreme times of conflict.

I have red a few things involving the scientists and labs involved in The Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb development, and this book added a more humanistic and dramatic element and perspective to my more factual knowledge and exposure.

Stepping back and thinking about the confusion, the desperation, the fear, and the daily struggles that could rock a person to the core…it would be so confusing and scary. Questioning your own morals and loyalties: whether to your own code, country, one another…definitely thought-provoking.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Alcove Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 10/8/24.

I like the concept but thought it would be more historical fiction than romance. I didn’t like the romance element and felt it dragged the whole story down . By the end I just wanted it to be over . The historical aspect would have added so much more to the story if it had been explored instead of trying to write a romance novel

this was a beautifully done historical fiction book, it had everything that I was looking for. The characters worked with the setting and had a great overall feel to them. Rachel Robbins has a great writing style and it worked with this type of book. I enjoyed the science element of this book and thought everything worked together perfefctly

This was an interesting read.
Alice and Caleb were intricate characters who are drawn to each other in somewhat desperation but also attraction. I liked how their timelines end up crossing with Haruki.
This was a hard read at times as there is the struggle of life and death among the characters with what they are creating.


Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

While I've read nonfiction about the Manhattan Project, Rachel Robbins' The Sound of a Thousand Stars is my first fictional Manhattan Project novel. Two young Jewish people arrive in Los Alamos, New Mexico to help the United States beat the Nazis. Alice (one of the only female scientists at the site) and Caleb (a poor man placed on the explosives team) find themselves questioning what exactly they are building, as both are kept in the dark upon arrival. In the midst of technological weapons advancements, Alice and Caleb draw closer to each other in what feels like part desperation and part attraction. Interspersed in this dual narrator novel are multiple, two-page insertions from a Hiroshima survivor named Haruki, with his story told backward. The way his story intersects with Alice and Caleb's is my favorite aspect of this novel.

Robbins did a great job with the main and secondary characters wrestling with the concept of humans being God by determining who lives and dies with such a powerful weapon. There is a bit of science lingo that went over my head, but I still understood the concepts. Some of the dialogue is crass from the other males working with Alice. This novels truly feels like a novel of survival and morality. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.