this was a great scifi novel, it was a lot of elements that I look for in this type of book. The characters were wonderfully done and I want more in this series.

This was ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

Celestine follows the story of Cel, a teenager from the 80's who has traveled to space and back; except she comes back to a modern Earth, due to the speed of light traveling. Dealing with the grief of loss, unanswered questions, Covid, new technology, and old acquaintances that are now old enough to be her parents, Cel finds herself in quite the position. Fear of all the unknowns, naturally, proves to be the breaking point for her.

While this book is listed as a sci-fi novel, I would consider it more of a psychological thriller. There are some elements of science fiction introduced at the beginning; however, the book focuses more on the paranoia and depression of a confused teenager. The questions on how this scientific advances work are never quite explained, which makes these elements more like aiding secondary characters who never influence the primary plot.

I did enjoy the way the author portrayed depression and anxiety, as well as grief and PTSD; while it does not look the same for everyone, he did portray it very well.

As for the things I did not like,

- It seems the book could've used at least two more rounds of proofreading for grammar mistakes and typos on the second half of the book.
- The scenes with Jackson in the cabin seemed to drag a bit longer than needed. I found myself struggling to focus.
- The topic of Cel's discovery of her sexuality was nicely introduced, but it wasn't really explored; it would've been best to not add it to the story, as it didn't add anything other than new questions.
- The ending was rushed; in a matter of two chapters, all the issues were solved with the snap of fingers, making the characters lose some credibility.
- The Epilogue isn't actually an epilogue, but an Author's Note. It would serve a better purpose at the beginning of the book, prior to starting the narration.

Overall, it was an entertaining read that was easy to relate to, given the times we are living currently.

The story is about Celestine, who departed earth in 1984 together with her parents as part of a secret mission into space. However, just months after their departure, a virus ravaged the ship’s crew, killing nearly everyone aboard. They return to earth, where Celestine becomes one of six survivors—her parents not being amongst them. Even though for them just two years have passed, almost forty years have passed on Earth, and Celestine comes back as a 17-year-old in the year 2022. In addition to the same teenage angst, every other teenage girl faces, Celestine has to adjust to all the new technology and deal with the public who—in the aftermath of COVID—still fears that she’s contagious, even though the government says she’s not. She also has to deal with her survivor’s guilt, therapy, and fear of becoming sick.

I really loved the premise of the book. Celestine was an intriguing story, where we get a first-hand experience on how she deals (or rather doesn’t deal) with her mental health issues. For instance, we get sucked into Celestine’s paranoia. We believe that there may be something bigger going on because that’s what Celestine believes. Is there some government conspiracy? Are they lying about them no longer being sick?

Another interesting thing was the contrast between the current worldview against the one Celestine grew up with during the ’70s and ’80s, which was apparently more optimistic. There are some nice ideas in there, for instance, how weird it actually is that we have all these ‘friends’ on Facebook, who can see what we do, but none of these ideas are fully explored. Pretty much all the social media stuff is strange if you think more deeply about it. The same goes for reality tv shows. However, I think the author wanted to put in a bit too much, so we actually barely scratch the surface on the oddities of present-day society.

I didn’t connect to Celestine as a character, though. It was natural that she lashed out to the people who tried to help her; it’s something most people do when they struggle with their mental health. Celestine spends a lot of time even resisting the fact that she has issues. I felt this denial went on a bit too long. There’s also a climactic part in the middle that felt off to me. I think it wasn’t set up well enough for it to really pay off. So, it didn’t have nearly as much of an emotional impact on me as it could’ve had.

Other than that, I also found Celestine to be very judgemental of the people around her. And very convinced that she’s right. This made me like her less.

While it was disappointing that I couldn’t relate to Celestine, it was still an interesting story. Especially after you get through the beginning (which I felt dragged on for a bit too long), it’s a story that makes you think about today’s society, health, and the way we treat others. Especially those we consider to be different or in any other way ‘unsafe,’ even if we don’t have proof of it.

So, if that sounds like your cup of tea, be sure to check it out!

Very good read. Solid characters, interesting story and good amount of emotions. On big plus - easy to follow writing style, not a word too much.

Just completed Celestine by Kevin St. Jarre. This was ARC provided to me by NetGalley for an honest review. I rated this as 3 stars but this is closer to 3.5. I was excited to read this. It was about a teenager who in 1984 goes on a secret space mission with her parents. Two years into the mission there are complications due to crew members dying and the mission is aborted. Upon the return to earth we find that almost 40 years on earth has passed. The story is about an 80s girl coming to grips with the future. My thought was how fun will this be! I was a teenager in the 80s and loved that decade the best. I wondered how I would assimilate to the current wonders of this decade. There was some of that, but this went a LOT deeper. There was some of that but this kid lost her parents, came back to no friends, and had very limited family options. There was also the fact that she arrives back to earth after COVID and some people assume she will be the harbinger of another pandemic due to the ‘space virus.’ I liked this kid. She was brave. But this was a bit more grim than what I expected. I would recommend the book to others as it is definitely worth the read.

Just okay. The premise was interesting, but it didn't feel fully fleshed out. It was interesting that the author updated the book before publishing in order to include references to COVID, although at times they felt like they had been tacked on as an afterthought.

The premise of this book was very promising, and I really enjoyed the writing style of Kevin, however I wasn't able to connect with our protagonist, Celestine Tolland, and found her to be a tad bit annoying. I think that is due to her age, and I just cannot connect with a 15-year old.

If you're into YA, or are a teenager yourself, this book might be a good fit!

This coming-of-age novel is about a girl who left earth on a spaceship in the 1980s, returned to earth in the 2020s, and tries to fit back into normal life. The book really has nothing to do with space travel; the catalyst could have easily been time travel, coma, or a number of other scenarios. The book however does have everything to do with the age old problem of fitting in.

The writing is acceptable, but I found the story to be bland and generic. The story resembles a run-of-the-mill after school TV special and would appeal to that audience (young teens), but I don’t think it has enough depth to cross over to a more mature audience.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC to review.