Thank you to NetGalley and
It had the things i want. The description drew me in. It was set in Australia. There were aliens.
The beginning of the blurb: Come for the apocalypse. Stay for cupcakes. Die for love. How can that not draw you in?
But I was bored, even with the author trying hard to make it work. Pacing was off. Structure was flawed.
Perhaps the author's later books are more well balanced?
I don't know but it wasn't for me.
Up side, it's short.

Excellent YA SF. Madeleine Cost thinks she is in Sydney working on a portrait to become the youngest person ever to win the Archibald Prize. But then the Spires suddenly appear in all the world's major cities. And suddenly dust is everywhere, and she has an enormous load in her lungs. Millions die, and those who don't... change. And she is one of those. Figuring out how and more importantly, why, is the major focus of the story and it's quite an adventure. Very exciting, fast moving, great characters. Highly recommend.

Sadly a DNF for me. I have this two tries and and several chapters each time - the writing itself isn’t bad but is prone to tics that I personally don’t enjoy.

Decent characterisation, intriguing premise and high stakes situation - and in Australia, to boot! Not bad, not bad...

<i>And All the Stars</i> is a book I got from NetGalley many moons ago but actually never read. I was looking through my backlog of missed books and curious if I could clear any, and this one had a good audio available on Scribd, so heyo here I am. <i>And All the Stars</i> felt to me like <i>Tomorrow, When the War Began</i> with aliens.

Choosing to read a book with a pandemic-adjacent plot maybe wasn't my best idea? Though thankfully the circumstances are disparate enough I only had a few minor twinges about that. The book opens with a mysterious attack, which leaves all major cities covered in this weird dust, which ends up turning people who breathe it in either green or blue (not fully, but like marbled, and they kind of look like they have galaxies on them?). I couldn't help laughing to myself about how this books theme song would be Eiffel 65's Blue.

The plot's weird. Like, all the way through, it was weird. Not bad! But weird as hell. It actually made the book really fun and unpredictable most of the time, but the blue, velvet-feeling skin was not something that ever felt anything but weird to me. There's also the way the alien stuff works, which is also very odd (because I was starting to feel like weird wasn't a word anymore). It reminded me a bit of Hank Green's books, though obviously this came out first, so that's a terrible comp, but whatever it's my life and my review.

The characters form up and manage to hide out during the initial wave of the danger, forming a group they call the Musketeers, doing their best to learn and plan for how to defeat their invaders. But also there's romantic drama and moments of friendship as well. This, really, is what reminded me of <i>Tomorrow</i>. While I didn't really emotionally invest in the characters and few felt multi-dimensional, there was enough here character-wise to keep my attention throughout. And I did really like how messy and fucked up it got in the end, mostly anyway. <spoiler>Fisher was an alien all along DUN DUN DUN. Except the alien really loves her and is willing to sacrifice itself for them and also gives them the knowledge they need to defeat the aliens, which absolutely felt a bit cheat-y in terms of plot, but also I was going WAT, so that was fun. And I do like the commitment in the fact that Maddie still has feelings for him, and that her feelings for Fisher are also kind of present and it's all just weird and messy.</spoiler> The epilogue felt a bit Shakespearean comedy in the way it paired people off into HEAs, but maybe that was intentional given all the Shakespeare references?

This was a fun listen. It's nice to read a book that takes me out of my head, and this did that. I'm glad I ventured into the old NG review fails for this one.

I loved this book so hard, I am still thinking about it days later. It went in directions I hadn't expected and ultimately moved me when I wasn't expecting to be moved.

A large part of the story seems like wish fulfillment -- of course a group of teens would find each other once aliens invade, take residence in a hooked-up, abandoned hotel, and maybe a few would even fall in love with each other. But once I read the secret at the beginning of the third act, I was hooked. It instantly became one of my favorite YA love stories, embedded here in this strange blue and green stardusted ailen book.

I have lost interest in this and I am trying to clear out some old galleys in my account. I will not be reading and reviewing this book at this time but may do so in the future.

Not a favorite by a long shot. I wanted very much to like this story but it managed to provide no actual world building while trying to be inventive. Characters often feel like stock types.

This is an amazing story about friendship, aliens, and Australians. One reason why I loved this story was because I recognised the locations and I knew these places. The other was because I was enthralled by this story, There were surprises, there was mystery. I loved the concept Host had because it's grand but simple at the same time. Don't let the sci fi nature deter you, there is a lot more focus on people and their situation that anything outlandishly "alien". This was also a great dystopia without it being a dystopia. I loved it from start to finish, I read it in one sitting and I couldn't put it down.

Sorry, but this title did not hold my interest. Therefore I never read it completely and never truly reviewed it because of that.

Was not able to read this book before it expired. I believe I would have liked it based on the synopsis.

I ADORED this book!!

Right up my alley and I stayed up half the night to finish it.

*I never got around to reading and reviewing this title.*