Unfortunately Dulce Maria Cardoso's Violeta among the Stars was a rare DNF for me. I couldn't get on with the premise, the style or the story.

I picked up this book as the title intrigued me and also because the author has been described as one of Portugal’s greatest living writers.

Violeta has overturned her car and as her life hangs in the balance, all of her memories come flooding back, some recent in the lead up to the crash and some not so recent, from when she was much younger. All culminating in her realisation of her troubled life and far too late she realises she did have a choice after all.

It is told in the first-person with a pressing stream of consciousness that at times has you feeling sorry for Violeta and at other times getting angry and wanting to scream at her.

It took me a while to get into the book and in the first part of the book I found the writing style quite confusing. I persevered but was still struggling to work out who, what, why and when at times.

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus for an e ARC of Violeta among the stars in return for an honest review.

Pressing stream of consciousness that makes you hold your breath throughout the book - Violeta, an overweight sales rep, sees her life in front of her when she crashes her car. A distant mother, a crazy father, a daughter that doesn't get along with her. Not sure whether to be angry with Violeta or sad!

I picked up this book because it reminded me of the premise of *10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World*, which was one of my favorite reads of 2020. Violeta has overturned her car and her life flashes before her eyes as she meditates on her complicated relationships with others and with her own body. It is told in a first person perspective stream of consciousness style. I think if I had known it was going to be stream of consciousness, I would not have chosen to read it.

I could not get into the first third of this book and found the writing style incredibly confusing, so by the time I got to the meat of the book, I was entirely confused about who was who and what was happening. This book was not for me, at least not right now. I might give it another try in the future.