3 stars

A tender story of survival, trust, finding a place to belong, & standing up for yourself. This starts off as a coming of age story with a teensy hint of fantasy-lite, then veers into crime fiction near the end. The pacing & tone of the story aren’t consistent, & there isn’t anything particularly unique about this book, but I did enjoy it & the narration is nice.

[What I liked:]

•Nothing particularly groundbreaking or insightful here, but I did appreciate & relate to Mia’s descriptions of living with a chronic health condition & how it becomes “normal” in the sense that’s all you know, & the difficulties of having people complain or act controlling about your body.

•I liked Amelia’s 1st person narration. While I dislike how much she tells the reader instead of showing & her sometimes heavy-handed philosophizing, her character voice is smooth & believable for a young woman.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•I’m not sure what genre this is meant to be. The themes are consistent: gaining confidence & independence, & finding a place to belong. Everything else meanders: plot, pace, genre, tone.

•The “human oyster” concept was interesting, but I feel like more could have been done with it. She presumably loses the “curse”/“gift” by the end of the story, but we don’t learn how she feels about that. All the other characters’ unique features are explained with medical diagnoses, & since there are zero other supernatural elements I’m assuming the pearls are meant to be as well. It’s just that the synopsis teased me with magical realism & there really isn’t any.

•There was room for a lot more character development for Gabe, Vincent, & Peter. Especially more depth could have been added for Mia’s relationships with both brothers. Mia just tells us how things were or how people felt, & it doesn’t leave as much space for demonstrating them through character interactions.

•The story is fine, but it’s similar in plot to other books I’ve read (like the second half of Middlesex). I don’t mean that this book is a copycat, but I have read similar stories that were done better, & in comparison I’m not sure this book will be memorable for me.

CW: child exploitation, murder, assault, infidelity, miscarriage

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

Constellation of Scars starts with gripping introduction of Amelia planning to escape her mother who has been holding her captive for the past 9 years in order to use Amelia for the pearls she grows. At this point I'm thinking we're getting a Rapunzel retelling!!!

The Pearl plot seemed to be the main driver of the story, which is what made the story so enticing and unique (so excited for a Rapunzel retelling), but oddly the Pearls do not end up playing a role in the rest of the story. They could very easily be written out and nothing would change. "Young girl of controlling/abusive mother escapes and runs away to the big city, meets a man who offers. her a job" rest of the story would continue the exact same.

After the dark introduction of Amelia's life so far with her mother, the tension builds as she escapes and naively trusts people, as I am fully of dread and foreboding the story completes changes into a cheerful story of Amelia's daily life with found family absent of any conflict causing me to wonder where the plot went for the next 100 pages. There does end up being a conclusion to what would have been a great mystery had that been the plot rather than the pearls. Unfortunately since the mystery is only introduced 3/4 into the book I cannot hint at it without revealing any spoilers.

Overall this was a fun quick read, it does drag in the middle, but considering I read it in 2 hours the slow parts are over quickly. I do wish I could give spoilers because I think this would appeal to many non-fantasy thriller readers, whereas the synopsis makes it seem more of a true fantasy than is accurate.

Well that was interesting. I loved this book!

First off, thank you NetGalley for the advance e-copy to review.

I have not read a book like this EVER. I think this is a great book to just get lost in. I would have liked to have had more to the story but I am content with how everything played out. Like, did she ever respond to any emails from the jeweler? Or how did her mom turn out? Maybe searched for her father a bit. Again, loved the story. A bit more would have been great as well 😉

Book Review for Constellations of Scars
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

This book had such a unique premise! About halfway through, I almost DNF as the plot gets pretty slow. After reading other reviews, I decided to push through and I’m so glad I did! Worth the read for sure!

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Constellations of Scars initially attracted me because of the gorgeous cover - I have a thing for skulls and flowers, to that was right up my alley! And the story made good on the promise of the cover art: starting out as a survivor-story of a young woman escaping from her overbearing mother, who keeps her as some sort of money-making slave, it quickly twists into a suspenseful thriller with horror elements, as Amelia has to learn that the true monsters aren't those that look gruesome, but instead can have the handsomest of faces.

The writing flowed easily and effortlessly, and it was a pleasure to breeze through this book - if I had to criticise anything, I would say that I might have wished for it to be a little longer, to give some of the elements of the story a little bit more space to be expanded on; but saying of a book that it's too short is really not a criticism, is it?

I would absolutely recommend this for fans of YA fantasy with a darker/horror twist.

I want to thank Netgalley, Melissa Eskue Ousley, and Midnight Tide Publishing for giving me a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I find the concept of the book so fascinating and weird but in a good way. This one is so unique. I see this book as a metaphor for people who saw their oddities as cursed, but even though you see it as a cursed, it can also be hauntingly beautiful. The book was so calming to read. Yes, it does have confrontations and some things that wasn't pleasant was happening but not to the point that it will stress the hell out of you. This book shows people who are damaged that are trying to heal from what happened in their past and I found it so calming to read. Most of the characters also was so nice to each other that gives me so calm vibes.

As for the main character, Amelia, she is such a thoughtful character. Even though she knows she needs something, she still consider the feelings of other people especially her mother. But what I really admire her for is the fact that her mother made her dependent to her through the years, but she is so independent in her own way. Certain things really scared Amelia but her will to be free and have a control in her own life is so inspiring to read. I really love that about her. She may have still fear but she is so brave and it made her character so admirable.

The only thing that I have a problem in this book is the romance. I can't clearly tell which between Gabriel and Peter is the love interest of Amelia. It keeps switching and switching and i'm like, "who am I supposed to ship Amelia with?". And then when she got a relationship with one of the two boys, I thought that the romance was under-developed. I feel like the romance go from A to C, rather than A to B. But then the plot twist happen. And I kinda understand why the author didn't put so much effort within the chemistry of Amelia and this character.

And speaking of the plot twist, I find it so out of place. I can't clearly tell if I liked it and suit the concept of the book or it's just the author is trying to put a climax in this book. I really thought this book is focusing on Amelia and her shedding pearls, but that plot twist happened. And I was like, "what? What this particular detail connects to the concept of the book?".

Overall, I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars. It's true that certain details in the book makes me questions it but I think this book is so unique and worth a try. Not to mention that it has a calming effect. So, if you're looking for a low-anxiety read this one is perfect for you!

I just finished this book and my mouth is hanging open in shock. It starts out as a coming-of-age story, with a woman plotting to leave her abusive mother. Then, out of nowhere, it became a high-stakes thriller. So good. Don’t snooze on this book.

Amelia was a relatable character and I genuinely cared about what happened to her. The author did a fantastic job of keeping me turning pages.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

This had an interesting premise. I wanted more from the ending though as it felt a bit rushed. I also felt like some of the characters should have been talking to a therapist at the end to deal with past and present trauma.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely a page turner. Not exactly what I was expecting. I thought this would have had more fantasy elements, but this is more on the lines of being a survivor story. It definitely had some suspenseful/thriller moments. The writing was fairly easy to get into, and it kept me interested. I read this in a day and had a fun experience while doing so.