Starworld is a beautiful tale about friendship and love, and accepting one's flaws as well as other's.
The book started with the two protagonists meeting and mostly complaining about their own selves. About how they were so lonely and ashamed of their family. Which irked me, to say the least. It annoyed me so much the amount of times the two have shown this concern; they wouldn't call their friends home because their families were problematic and they were ashamed.
Anyhow, apart from all these, I did enjoy reading the last chapters of the book. Sam was a sweet and amazing friend and u loved how their friendship blossomed. The book also had amazing mental health rep, let me tell you. The OCD and Anxiety rep was brilliantly done. Also, it was the first book I've read with a character with Developmental Disorder. I loved how the character, Jonah, was portrayed, and his role and stance in the family.

Another great thing was the premise of an adopted child. As clear in the blurb, Zoe is an adopted kid, abandoned at childhood. I liked reading about her dilemmas and how this abandonment led her to her theory of original defectiveness. It was a little critical to understand, but a good one indeed.

The book is fast paced and has loads of gaming, nerdy stuff in it. I loved the little details that were mentioned all throughout. Overall, the book was a unique one in itself and the concept was good. But I do think it could've been done better; maybe with some more editing. This is a book that will not work for anyone, but still if you wanna give it a go, I would totally recommend you to try it out.

Thanks to Netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

I am not crying on a bus. I am not crying on a...

Okay fine, this book made me cry on a bus on my way to college.

With a 4/5 star rating, the only thing I can fault this book for was the beginning which I found slow but as I read on it led to much more.

A place where worries can evaporate and the real world is far away, I wish I had my own place like Starworld.

Each adventure made me smile, and the story of Sam and Zoe woven in between had me laughing (and crying) and then feeling that my heart is full.

A story of discovery, friendship and acceptance, Starworld is a perfect book for anyone trying to discover themself

A sweet tale of friendships that help you grow, Starworld is told from the perspectives of its two protagonists, Sam and Zoe. Sam is a quiet, fly-under-the-radar sort of person, and she strives to be invisible in her life; she is also trying to take care of her mother’s OCD by helping her make it manageable. Zoe, meanwhile, is the popular overachiever girl, who has a sick mother and a disabled brother and feels like she isn’t really a part of her adopted family. Both the girls have insecurities about their life, and when their friendship blooms through a shared world they built, they grow into themselves.

The story is mostly character-driven, and so the pacing feels a bit slow at times. However, it is still an adorable and emotional development of their friendship, with Sam being an emotional support for Zoe and Zoe being a cheerleader for Sam’s artistic talents. When Zoe finds one of Sam’s paintings, they start of build a fantasy world inspired by it, and sort of have a roleplay-like conversation wherein they escape to this other world and have adventures. (The actual fantasy roleplay is a bit cringe-y, if you ask me, and I skimmed most of those because they weren’t that interesting) The book covers their relationship, the changing relationship with their parents, and the change in their outlook on life, with each of them anxious about what the future holds. I won’t spoil much for the readers, so I’ll just say that romance is not the focus of this book; instead it is about how a friendship that fits so well can help people grow. The ending might not be what one expects, but I liked its realism and what it meant for the characters.

*4.5 Stars*

Since her dad left to live in England, Sam considers herself a robot, no emotion, no attachment, the only exception being her best friend, Will. She barely interacts with anyone other than him and her mother and it's not like she can have people over anyway...
Zoe's life is perfect. At least, that's what she wants everyone to believe. Her boyfriend is great, her parents love her, she's pretty much already admitted into the college her dad works at and her mother's cancer is in partial remission which means she's doing better. But Zoe hides her feelings a lot, like how she wishes she could be be in the school play, how she feel about having been adopted or what's really gonna on at home with her brother... She actually hasn't had anyone over in years.
All of that gets shaken up when, out of the blue, Zoe starts talking to Sam about a painting she did that would be perfect for the set of the play Zoe is designing. The two girls start texting, open up and fly away into their own escape world, Starworld.

I started this book and I was mesmerized. I fell for Sam instantly and really liked Zoe. This book was undoubtedly character driven because not much happens, and still, I could not stop reading. I just loved the dynamics between the two girls but also between them and their family. The entire thing just rang true from beginning to end, from Sam's mother's OCD to Zoe's family and all that entailed but also Sam's anxiety and her relationship to the world.
It just made me feel so much. I laughed, I cried, I felt the shame, the anger, the despair, the yearning, the disappointment, all of it.
I saw a lot of reviews saying this book was bittersweet and it definitely was, but I think that was part of what made it rang so true for me. And, also, I think it brings hope, even in dark times...

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was great. I love the cover art. The characters are likable.

Check this book out. It's worth the read.

I was sent an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and I was really happy when NetGalley sent it to me since both of Audrey Coulthurst books are some of my favourites.

Both of the main characters are so lovable and I felt so emotionally attached to them and I wanted to know what would happen so bad the whole time.
So often in YA families are not present so it felt so important to have them matter so much during the book.
Also the ending was surprising, not like every YA book that ends the same way.

Synopsis
Sam Jones and Zoe Miller have one thing in common: they both want an escape from reality. Loner Sam flies under the radar at school and walks on eggshells at home to manage her mom’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, wondering how she can ever leave to pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Popular, people-pleasing Zoe puts up walls so no one can see her true self: the girl who was abandoned as an infant, whose adoptive mother has cancer, and whose disabled brother is being sent away to live in a facility. When an unexpected encounter results in the girls’ exchanging phone numbers, they forge a connection through text messages that expands into a private universe they call Starworld. In Starworld, they find hilarious adventures, kindness and understanding, and the magic of being seen for who they really are. But when Sam’s feelings for Zoe turn into something more, will the universe they’ve built survive the inevitable explosion?

My musings
I wanted to like this more than I did—I was really rooting for it and hoped that my opinion would change in the end... but it didn't.

I was really excited to see that the book was handling the treatment of anxiety and OCD, but man was I let down. Sam's mom was clearly struggling with something, and Sam was not being sympathetic at all. I mean, I get it, if you have a single mom and you spend more time taking care of her than anything else, I can see you being annoyed (as a teenager), but as a really, really smart teenager, I don't know how she couldn't see that her mom would benefit from some counselling. She got there in the end, but it wasn't really because of Sam. Sam's character just seemed so immature and self-centered. (Never mind the fact that she's supposed to have this best friend, Will, who gets her and doesn't judge, and we only get one real scene with him, and it's a good one. The book definitely needed more Will.)

That same comment can be said about Zoe. Her character also has to deal with some pretty serious stuff (a brother on the spectrum, being adopted, her mom having cancer), and though her life is pretty good, she just seemed to be focused on why her biological mom gave her away. And I mean, as a person who isn't adopted, maybe that is a thing that people dwell on constantly, but the fact that she thought it was because she has a birthmark on her forehead? Really? Her obsession with needing to be perfect was just a little too out of control and, really, never really dealt with.

Now I get to actually talking about Starworld—the world that Sam and Zoe create to escape reality. I thought it was going to be way more "space" than it was, but it was really just a very underdeveloped fantasy land with a dragon named Humphrey. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not really the demographic for this book, but the way it was written was not realistic and not very appealing. *wonders whether people agree with her or not* *waits with bated breath for a response*

My final point is going to be about the "love story," because there definitely was one forming... though it was terribly one-sided. Sam was very clearly in love with Zoe, and she pretty much told Zoe many times in Starworld and with notes and messages, so when Sam kisses her, she really shouldn't be surprised. The fact that that kiss destroyed their relationship didn't sit well with me. It was handled immaturely by both characters—they really only needed to have one conversation and could have cleared the air. Though I understand they're teenagers, and young love is really tricky.

2 STARS

This review will be posted on https://themodestreader.com/2019/04/15/starworld on April 15th at 7:30 am.

*i was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 📚 this book.... it was so sweet, heartbreaking & magical all at once.

I loved both the main characters equally which doesn’t usually happen!

I loved Sam’s sarcasm & creative mind. I loved Zoe’s relationship with her family, especially her brother.

I have to admit, I went into this story thinking it would be quite predictable but I was so surprised with where the story went.

Both Zoe and Sam have family members with disabilities and chronic medical conditions that make both characters' lives fairly miserable and leads them to a shared escapist fantasy. This could be a powerful novel if done well, but it isn't. I stopped reading after 17% when Sam's interactions with her mom while her mom is in crisis felt like someone had read a textbook description of those dynamics and tried to imagine what it might be like.

At the point at which I was debating whether to continue reading I skipped ahead to get a sense of how this ends, and it's queer baiting. I had assumed from the book description that Zoe was going to be straight and not reciprocate Sam's feelings, and I was happy to read about an unreciprocated romance since it's important to show all kinds of queer stories. But Zoe is written like she's in the closet making it seem like the romance could happen, which is pretty appalling.

This book wasn't bad, but it didn't really live up to my expectations.

I was so ready for this to be all about a girl obsessed with outer space!! And like, it was, but also it was really more just a standard contemporary but with less romance and not much outer space in it at all.

The concept was really good though, and quite unique which I enjoyed.

The characters were okay, but neither of them felt super unique? Which I was especially surprised by, because there were two different authors I expected totally different character voices, but they just blended together a bit for me which made the first person perspective hard.

But both of their family lives were super interesting to read about, and that was definitely my favourite aspect of the book.

Here's to hoping my next read has more rockets in it!!

Starworld was one of my anticipated release of the year and it delivered ! This was such a beautiful story about friendship. I love how Zoe and Sam understand each other and stay together through whatever happens to them. They both grow as a character and as friends.
It's a heavy book and heavy topics but they were all handle with care and I cried so hard !

Do you remember the person in you had when it felt like your world was crumbling around you? Do you remember how that person helped you grow and develop into who you'd become today? The friendship between Zoe and Sam is a representation of that time in your life.

This is not an f/f romance. This is two, young teens, who become very close through text messages and form a deep bond. Very well done on themes of LGBT, mental health and disorders, and adoption feelings.

As a YA title, the ending is a little tough on being believable, but wraps up the story nicely.

*Received an ARC from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review of the title.

I have to give this book credit for dealing with realistic issues including parental mental illness, adoption, and the mixture of love and stress that severe cognitively/intellectually atypical family members can bring, and doing it overall fairly well. However, I had some fairly major issues with the story.

First, the whole startalk texting style was so cringe-worthy, so mid-2000s Livejournal, that it made me absolutely want to die. I ended up skimming most of those chunks, which might be why every time these (allegedly high school aged???) girls talked about how meaningful Starworld was for them, how they loved slipping into this amazing, magical story they were creating together, it didn't ring true to me.

I also found Sam a really hard character to like. Whether it was due to taking care of her mother and hiding her increasingly troubling behaviors or because of the robot persona that she assigned herself, her standoffishness and awkwardness frequently didn't read as introverted or withdrawn, but instead really troubling for her as well. She had something of the "I'm not like everyone else, I'm SPECIAL" attitude that it pretty common in teenage protagonists, but her dismissal and judgement of basically everyone, including Kitty and Will's group of friends, just came off as mean. Scenes like the one where she was sitting with Will's friend group at lunch and just ended up silently making fun of things like how they chewed and ignoring questions about her favorite character from a certain TV show because she didn't have the emotional bandwidth to answer didn't show her in the best light. The fact that her chapters had to stand beside purposefully perfect Zoe's narration didn't do her any favors either.

I was pretty disappointed by the way a lot of the different plotlines wrapped up, too. There's one obvious thing: the romance plotline. I didn't like Sam enough to want there to be a romance between them, but I think I would be really disappointed if I had been misled by the promo materials in this respect. I didn't think that Zoe's whole pathological perfection issue was really solved, and the fact that after all that concern (and all the times that her parents apparently shut down discussion of her adoption) her mom is apparently totally chill about it seemed either too pat or too open-ended. I wish, too, that there had been some kind of wrapup/closure with Zoe's friends: half the time they seemed perfectly nice and, in fact, really attentive to someone who kept spending friend time texting someone else, and the other half they were heavy drinking Mean Girls who Zoe couldn't connect with and who made her uncomfortable. I felt like either their appearances in the narrative needed to be smoothed out, or there needed to be some conclusion.

There was something of a conclusion to the Sam's mom storyline, but the piece about her seeing a therapist was basically buried in a paragraph. Is the implication supposed to be that talking about her miscarriage was somehow cathartic for her and helped her begin to heal? Because if so that doesn't seem a particularly accurate portrayal of OCD - in my understanding, it can be escalated by a major life event, but was always going to present (based on factors such as genetics) and isn't helped by "getting over" the specific preceding trauma. It also didn't seem likely that she is so intensely overcome with her compulsions (counting, repetitive "checking" of doors and appliances, catastrophizing scenarios) that she has basically destroyed her home life, but that at work she is absolutely fine and no one has any idea that she might need help.

Might be worthwhile for a particular reader/type of reader, but I found the book had too many flaws to count myself among them.

This was such a beautiful and wonderful book, full of magic (of the imagined variety) and oh so much love and affection. I love the friendship between Sam and Zoe and how they both helped one another understand that their lives could be better if they were just willing to stand up for what they wanted. I love the magical world of Starworld they created and the adventures they went on with Humphrey, that was all so adorable and perfect.

I really loved all the great friendships, and the beautiful families we got to see through these two amazing women. It was an absolutely lovely book <3

Okay. This book made me speechless. Loved everything about this. The plot,the characters. The ending was really good. Can't wait to have my own copy on my hands

Honestly, I almost DNFed this book early in. The role play aspect was almost to much for me. But I pushed through and came to really enjoy the story line, if not the characters. Both girls were dealing with so much, this book a great job dealing with such touchy subjects. I wish though, that we could have seen Starworld in a different way. As it is, reading the Starworld sections was my least favorite part of this story. It felt clunky and childish to me. I get it though, that’s how role play is, a lot of asterisks and imagination. I just wish that it would have delved into more, maybe starting out as a regular role play conversation and fading into something real, something to make us forget our real world as well. That’s what I wanted but I just didn’t get it.

What I did really love about this book, however, is the friendship that blooms between the two girls and the surprising ending. Honestly thing did not go how I expected. In the end, I had a lot of thoughts throughout this story but I’m glad I read it, and I ended up giving it 3 stars. Starworld hits shelves on April 16th!

I received an ARC of this through NetGalley, and have to admit, I committed the age-old sin with books:

I judged it by its cover.

In this case, that was a good thing. I thought it was intriguing. So, too, with the title. I know this is YA, but I will forever champion the YA cause - especially non-dystopian YA. It's some of the best storytelling taking place today, and under the right circumstances it can be really important. I was one of those kids for whom books were a refuge, and to read something featuring characters my own age - say 15-19 - going through some of the same problems I was, and finding a way through? That would have been huge. I hope more and more teens continue to find YA novels, because if a crusty, mid-30s dude can find inspiration in them, surely they can. And that gives me hope.

Anyway, Starworld. Man, what didn't this book touch on. It could have been such a by-the-numbers story, with Zoe, the seemingly picture perfect teen queen befriending outsider and artistically-minded loner, Sam. But there is so much beneath the surface. You deal with issues of first love, the pressures young people face to rush toward life's big moments before they're ready. And that's just the start. While Coulthurst is wonderful at weaving the story of this budding friendship through the background of high school, it's really about mental illness, perception, sexuality, adoption, rejection, family, responsibility, loss, and the bridge these unlikely friends build to be able to escape it all, which they dub "Starworld."

Starworld will be familiar to any teen, I suspect. It's essentially memespeak. Like...well...like this:

*bites lip and stares into the distance for a moment, while thinking of what to say next*

Maybe memespeak is the wrong term, but this is a language teenagers understand. It can get a little cringey at times, but it's so heartfelt, it cannot help but draw you in. It is its own story, and you can tell how much it means to both Sam and Zoe, both of whom need reasons to escape to their phones, to their text messages, where Starworld awaits. A narrative of their own design.

I was surprised how touched I was by this book. It's heavy, make no mistake. But it's hopeful. And it's real. And it should be read by so many teenagers who feel as if they can't find their place.

The relationships in this book were very important and well built, but the ending seemed to flop for me. It was so much build up for nothing. Besides that, I just wasn't interested in the "starworld" aspect of it. But, enjoyed the representation of LGBTQ+ as well as disabilities.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book after around 150 pages. The way mental illness and disability were described was really upsetting to me. Not only was one of the main characters pretty hateful towards her mother's struggle with OCD, the mother was also portrayed as really toxic and this kind of trope - of parents mistreating their children as a result of mental illness - is really horrible to me. All in all, I just felt like the mentally ill mother, the disabled brother and the mother suffering from cancer were really just there to provide hardship for the main characters. All of this made me really uncomfortable, to the point where I had to decide to stop reading the book because finishing it would do me more harm than good.

I can't really reflect on the other aspects of the story, as I didn't see much of a personality for either of the main characters so far (they seemed defined by their "difficult" families) and there wasn't much of a plot otherwise. Maybe that picks up later on, I wouldn't know. In any case, I wouldn't recommend this novel. It really is a shame, because I was drawn to it because of the wlw rep. I hope that aspect of the book was done well, but the part that I read only alluded to it.

Actual Rating: 2.5

Hm. I’ve got mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I absolutely LOVE the premise and the idea of all the characters. On the other hand, actually reading the book was a lot less enjoyable for a number of reasons.

First though, a blurb. Starworld is written in two main perspectives. There’s Sam Jones, who lives an invisible life at school and relies on her one and only friend, Will. Her mom has OCD, and after her parents' divorce, it only got worse—Sam has no idea how she could ever leave home and pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Then, there’s Zoe. Zoe is popular and loved by everyone, but her life isn’t as great as it seems to be. She was abandoned as a baby, her adoptive mother has cancer, and her brother is being sent away to a facility. As Zoe and Sam’s lives collide unexpectedly, they find themselves creating a whole new universe where they can escape from the real world, and they dub it—Starworld.

So, I LOVE the idea of Starworld. I jumped into the story imagining flowing colors and adventures and excited to read outlandish descriptions. Unfortunately, the way Starworld was written in the same way I used to roleplay in Harry Potter forums. Like this: *hugs* *coughs on dust* And by being written this way, Starworld just seemed unremarkable and amateurish; I found myself cringing too often—the texting and writing style was reminiscent of what I typed as a ten-year-old.

Other than that, the plot seemed a little flat. There were some ups and downs, but once again, it felt very childish when they were based on silly misunderstandings.

I also think the characters could have been explored more in general; Will was a character that I already loved. Yet, even as the best friend, he barely got any screen time! Overall, I think more intimate interactions between Sam or Zoe and OTHER characters could have helped this book a lot and given us a clearer picture of how these characters lived in their environment, not just with each other.

Overall, this was still a fun little read, and giving it two stars definitely feels really low, but it was the writing style of Starworld itself (in its texting format) that disappointed me so much I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving it a three.