Interesing story, pretty original actually. I've never read a book where freckles on a womans body determined her future. Seems a pretty poor society to feel they need to control half the population by devining their skin. Well written tale; engaging.

Title: "Body of Stars" by Laura Maylene Walter - A Captivating Exploration of Identity

Rating: ★★★★☆

Having had the privilege of diving into an advanced reader copy of "Body of Stars" by Laura Maylene Walter, I was immersed in a world where the secrets of our identities are written in the stars. This thought-provoking and beautifully written novel explores themes of self-discovery, body autonomy, and the power of women in a society marked by body mapping and control.

The story is set in a dystopian world where women's bodies are adorned with constellations that reveal their fates. The protagonist, Celeste, embarks on a journey of self-discovery and defiance, challenging the predetermined paths set by the stars. Walter's writing is both evocative and poetic, painting a vivid picture of a world where women's bodies are both scrutinized and celebrated. The narrative is intricately woven, with alternating timelines revealing the complex interplay of past and present.

What sets "Body of Stars" apart is its compelling exploration of the struggle for autonomy and the resilience of the human spirit. It raises important questions about societal expectations, body image, and the profound impact of one's choices on the course of their life. The characters are well-developed, and Celeste's journey from self-doubt to empowerment is both relatable and inspiring. I'm grateful to both NetGalley and the publisher for granting me access to this advanced reader copy. "Body of Stars" is a four-star novel that delivers a powerful message about the strength that can be found within, even in the face of a destiny written in the stars. Laura Maylene Walter's storytelling is a testament to the enduring power of human agency and self-discovery.

This is a great premise. I loved the book.. I felt that it really was a great way to show our own society

Sorry, just couldn't get into this book. Well written but not my style of book. It seemed a little sad and borderline paranormal. That doesn't mean the book doesn't have it's audience, but it isn't me.

Thanks #netgallery for this book in exchange for an honest revie. I enjoyed this book tremendously. Great writing and character development.

Body of stars is a book about a young girl, Celeste, who lives in a world where markings on women and girls' bodies depict their and their families' futures.

This book explores a world where females are subjected to prejudice and opression, under the pretense of being revered and protected. But when things go wrong, it is the women's fault.

The book alludes to an interesting question. If your future was known, would you try and alter it or would you resign to your fate?

And I asked myself if I would have wanted to know beforehand what my future had in store for me.

I enjoyed the book, it was an easy read and I found the premise refreshing and original.

3.5 stars

I read this book a couple months ago and reviewed it on youtube in a vlog. At this point I don't remember much about it except being a bit disappointed. I was a bit bored and although the premise of the story was interesting I just didn't care about the characters enough to get invested in the story.

Celeste was born with a set of markings on her body that can be interpreted to tell her future. Like every other girl her age, she is waiting for her changeling period to usher her into adulthood and a new set of markings that will detail her life and that of those around her. However, when it happens, Celeste finds herself wishing that she could go back to her girlhood markings, the markings that did not predict the destruction of her family as she knows it. What will she do with this information? Does she have a hope of changing it?
Walter has created an eerily similar world where patriarchy and rape culture run rampant. No female is entitled to her own body. It is seen merely a tool for everyone else to look at or enjoy, with those that eschew participating in the tradition being othered by society. Not only does the author create an engrossing story, but she also makes the reader reflect on novel's the parallels to modern day America. I loved Body of Stars and only docked a star because Walter seemed to open a few storylines that were not wrapped up. Does this mean a sequel is in the works? I hope so!

Slowly as the chapters unfold, we come to the arc of the story contained in the book. This is a different world, one where only the females have marks on their bodies that can foretell the future, of not only themselves, but others in their family, such as a brother or father. Women’s bodies are examined, at least twice a year, perhaps once they are adults not so much, but it is an invasion, and particularly when the change happens.

Our main character Celeste finds an aspect of her future told on her body which she wants to stay hidden from her family as the future is grim. This becomes a belabored point in the story. And one she has nearly no control of keeping hidden.

There were moments when it seemed the narrator Celeste didn’t know herself. She would be surprised by herself, her actions or nonaction and what she said. It was odd reading these. As she became more confident that type of writing changed as well. Perhaps it was part of being a changeling, but it kept pulling me out of the story, finding the believability and suspension of belief difficult.

The book is about women’s control over their bodies, as they have very little. It is a world I would not want to live in, perhaps dystopian, but definitely patriarchal.

I think this is a great story for women. Young, Adult, Elder all of us. This was such an interesting take on how women's bodies can be further controlled/policed. I enjoyed the main character. She never doubted herself or instincts despite being gaslighted. I loved the story of the stars and their meaning to everyone, Would definitely recommend

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

While this book definitely touched on a lot of important topics - rape culture, victim blaming, consent, sexism, etc, the execution was poor. While uncomfortable at times, I was mostly bored throughout. I don't feel like the book ever reached an apex, it just kind of trudged along. It has such a pretty cover, and the premise interesting, but overall it just fell really flat.

This was a disturbing look at a dystopian future and speaks volumes about women’s lack of agency of their own bodies and rape culture. It was a lot like the Handmaid’s tale as a young adult story. This world is eerily like our own with one big difference girls are born with the marks of their future on their skin. During adolescence these marks change and girls go through a period where they are irresistible as they blossom into adulthood. Boys and men have no marks and their future is only known through the marks on their wives or daughters bodies. While women hold the future in their skin it is not theirs alone. The government does regular inspections of the marks and when a girl blossoms to adulthood her father and mother both have a traditional need to see their entire bodies. Sometimes in that blossoming period a girl goes missing and is abused sexually. This marks her as damaged and closes doors like college and even her regular school because it is seen as her fault. This story was sad, beautiful, and depressing. It’s told from the perspective of Celeste as she changes from girl into the woman she must become.

This dystopian novel centers around Celeste Morton and her brother Miles. Celeste has a map of the future on her body. All girls are born with these mappings, and they will change as the girls go through their Changeling period. Miles wants to be an Interpreter who reads the mappings on girls, however men cannot hold that position. As Celeste goes though her Changeling period her markings reveal a devastating secret about Miles future that Celeste feels she must keep to herself. Unbeknownst to Celeste, Miles is keeping a secret he knows about Celeste’s future that will forever alter their lives. As the story unfolds, secrets are spilled and lives are forever changed. Celeste and Miles learn no matter what you plan for your future, things can always change.

Thank you @NetGalley for this ARC.

Walter uses a blend of fantasy and realism to explore a society in which rape of young women is not only tolerated but condoned. When two siblings work together to try and change societal norms, they discover allies in unusual guises. This is a beautiful story of horror, redemption, and eventually, change.

If you could discover what the future holds for you, would you want to know? If you are a girl born into the fictional world portrayed in Laura Maylene Walter’s debut novel Body of Stars, you wouldn’t have a choice. Like in many societies where choices have been stripped from women, this one is no different, but here, girls are born with their futures told right on their bodies. In the form of moles, freckles, and birthmarks, a girl’s entire future is available for all to see and interpret right there on her skin. Girls have no choice but to know what awaits them in the upcoming years as they are constantly subjected to scrutiny and interpretation of their markings. Would you want to live in Walter’s exploitative world? I know I sure wouldn’t.

Walter’s debut is a timely and important book about a world different, but also akin to our own. Women’s bodies have been on display and obsessed over throughout time, and Walters takes this fixation a step further by putting the future of society on the skin of women. Skin that is examined, scrutinized, and obsessed over.

Even more harrowing, Walter writes of the time period during which a teenage girl reaches “puberty” - when she is a “changeling.” During this time, these young girls become irresistible to anyone who is near them and are often subjected to kidnapping and rape by men who cannot keep their eyes and hands off of them. At the end of the changeling period, the girls’ “wow factor” disappears, and all kidnapped girls are returned to their families. If you guessed that the girls are blamed for these attacks and that the men are rarely prosecuted, you are right - yes, in Walter’s twisted world, women are subjected to misogyny just like they are in today’s society.

While marketed to adults, Body of Stars reads much like YA dystopian fiction, albeit with a little more meat and grit than you may find in the standard young adult fare. Therefore, this novel can be enjoyed by adults who love or grew up on the YA dystopian genre, but are looking for similar novels with a bit more substance. This book can also be appreciated by maturing young adults who are looking to move beyond the dystopian novels marketed to their age group.

Easy to read & get into with thought-provoking topics and lyrical writing, Body of Stars is a fresh take on the role and impact women and their bodies play in society.

Interesting concept, wish it was longer! I really enjoyed learning about this dystopian culture and hope the author writes more books set in this world

Body of Stars takes place in a dystopian-type world where markings (essentially freckles and their patterns) predict the futures of girls. The book includes excerpts from Mapping the Future, a handbook used to help those with the study of markings. Understanding and deciphering your markings is described as a mandatory act, in which girls going through the “change” will awake to their new bodies and permanent pattern of their predicted future. This sensitive time is dangerous for the girl or “changeling” because her body is glowing, attractive, and irresistible to men. To venture out while in their “changeling-state” puts the girls at risk to be kidnapped, violated, or harmed. The government keeps records on every girl’s marking predictions, and for those unlucky enough to be kidnapped, or raped, their reputations and futures are ruined forever.

I found the entire premise to be quite creative. It reminded me of palm-reading or fortune-telling as if it was a part of growing up. The plot surrounds the main character, Celeste, and her experience as she becomes a changeling. She struggles with her new markings and what a particular pattern predicts for her and her older brother, Miles (who she is very close to.) Celeste’s life is consumed by this fear of discovery, causing her to be secretive and distant, only complicating her ability to make wise decisions in order to protect herself. Unfortunate events occur, and there is a slight shift in the writing and where the story moves toward.

One of the things I began to notice was an undertone of misogyny throughout the book. Women are less-than and are treated as such. For those who are “careless” enough to leave home during their change, they are then held responsible for any danger that comes to them. I found myself flipping through the chapters quickly, with a sense of suspense of what may happen next. A lot occurs in the final pages, but without ruining the ending, I appreciated how Celeste ultimately doesn’t allow her markings to control her future and how she and her brother use their abilities to help others.

With such an original portrayal of objectification and misogyny, I was fascinated by the many metaphors of rape-culture that shouted from the pages. This was a solid 4-star rating for me. My only complaint was a desire for my action, more rebellion, however there is a lot to be taken-in here and I applaud the author for her imaginativeness and skill.

TW: rape, sexual assault, molestation

Thank you to #netgalley and @duttonbooks for the advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Scheduled to post 4/13/21.

I think I got this book as a freebie from the publisher for filling out a survey or something. They gave me a choice of books to choose from, and this one I was the most interested in. Although, full disclosure, I wasn't THAT interested in it initially. Just interested enough. But when I started reading it, it was like a kick to the teeth. This book screwed me up. It messed with my head and made me want to rage-stomp all over my house. In the best possible ways.

So it's an alternate universe where women are born with prophetic maps of markings on their bodies and men aren't. The markings don't just pertain to them but to the men in their lives, potential future children, employers, and possibly larger circles of individuals in their lives. As a result, women's bodies are not their own and are subject to touching, scrutiny, and judgment at the whim of men who so need it. If your hackles are rising, they should be.

Girls enter into a changeling period, basically puberty, where their juvenile markings shift into their adult markings. This period lasts for maybe three weeks, but during this time girls/women are ultra-susceptible to being taken and basically trafficked. See, during this time men and post-pubescent boys just can't help themselves. It's not their fault, you see. Changeling girls are just irresistible. So it's on the girls to make sure they don't get taken, by doing things like not going out at night, dressing modestly, being polite, not drawing unwanted attention to themselves. Because good girls don't get taken.

Are you frothing at the face yet?

BODY OF STARS is not thinly veiled anything. It is our society laid bare for how we protect men at all costs and how we blame women, creatures who have no power, for having ensorcelled men and brought ills upon themselves. It's how we try to shove binary gender conformity onto people, and heterosexuality. How we remind women, constantly, that they exist solely for the pleasures of men and the only people who can protect them from men are other men. And their own chastity. But not too much chastity.

I could not think about a moment in the book, in this fictional world, where I wondered why they didn't do X, when I immediately thought WHY DON'T WE DO X. Because this is the world. BODY OF STARS is a roman a clef for our society. It's fiction, but not really. Any woman who has existed in this world will read this book and relate to it on a visceral level, to a point of discomfort. I was so angry and so uncomfortable reading this book, yet I couldn't put it down. Even at the end I wanted to scream IT'S NOT ENOUGH YOU MUST RAGE. But we don't rage enough either, do we?

I've worried that I wouldn't be able to articulate myself for this review, and I still don't think I've done that great of a job with it. It was just so impactful and so REAL and so disturbing that so many women were just okay being touched and observed by men and how this world was basically okay with wide-spread sex trafficking of underage girls but THIS IS OUR WORLD. It's ours. It's not fiction. Women may not have maps of the future on our bodies, but that's pretty much the only piece of fantasy in this novel. Everything else is far too real.

5

4.5 stars and I will preface with a TW for sexual assault, rape, abduction -- there are parts of this novel that could be retraumatizing for anyone who has experienced this.

What if your freckles could tell you your future?

For Celeste Morton and the rest of the women in this novel, they can. Celeste has eagerly awaited her passage to adulthood. Like every girl, she was born with a set of childhood markings--the freckles, moles, and birthmarks on her body that foretell her future and that of those around her--and with puberty will come a new set of predictions that will solidify her fate. The possibilities are tantalizing enough to outweigh the worry that the future she dreams of won't be the one she's fated to have and the fear of her "changeling period" the time when women are nearly irresistible to men and the risk of abduction is rife. If a girl is abducted during this period, she is returned with her reputation destroyed and future prospects ruined -- no matter what has been foretold in her markings.

This novel is a stunning allegory and exploration of rape culture, bodily autonomy and agency, and gender identity and expression. In beautiful and lyrical prose, this novel offers a nuanced takedown of the misogyny that lives in the undercurrent of our culture. While this is not a world grounded in reality, it feels like it could be, which is equal parts thrilling and terrifying. I especially enjoyed that the novel did not just focus on gender discrimination against women, but explored how this impacts men, transgender folks, and non-binary folks as well.

Equally strong is the theme of identity and choice. With their futures already fated, the women in the novel often were faced with the paradox of forging their own path when it has already been laid out. Celeste's interactions with her mother, the women of the mountain school, her childhood friends, and Julia were especially strong.

Without spoiling any plot points: this is a gripping, though-provoking, and incredibly well written story. I was engrossed from start to finish, and wanted to order a physical copy as soon as I was done reading.

Thank you to the publisher for the provided copy of this novel!

Exquisitely rendered, tautly told, and throughly engaging and thought provoking. Walter has created a rich and believable world which raises essential questions about our own while unfolding an engaging tale which keeps the pages turning and never feels stale or didactic. A fabulous debut and and a wonderful triumph! I will be recommending this book to my friends and students!