These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner Review

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

“How do you live again, knowing what waits for you in the end?”

After the Icarus, a spaceship crashes down on an unknown planet there are only 2 survivors left; Lilac the daughter of the creator of the ship and Tarver a major from a lower class background. The story follows them as they have to trek through the planet in order to signal for help however they find they’re not alone on the planet and their hate for each other doesn’t help.

This book has an interesting concept and one of my favourite aspects was the scientific knowledge surrounding the hyperspace and reflectors however I didn’t like the characters, the writing style and the plot.

Lilac is annoying because of her constant need to be projected as cold and distant and she is so self-pitying. At the start of the book there’s a hint to the ‘mystery’ surrounding a bad past experience on her behalf leaving her scarred of showing real emotion to any guy however the higher class women role is stereotypical even her back story is typical and so added with her personality of trying way too hard to hate on Tarver I didn’t sympathise with her at all. Maybe it would have been okay if she hadn’t mentioned how lovely she really was constantly and that this was all an act to keep strong. As the novel progresses her character is more bearable and becomes a strong heroine without having to be kickass which I really liked however by this point I didn’t care for her so it meant nothing to me.

Tarver is supposed to be this strong handsome gentleman instead what we get is someone who constantly complains about how he’s not suited for the higher class lifestyle – he has the nerve to say that Lilac constantly complains when he doesn’t even listen to half the shit that comes out of his mouth.  Also he underestimates Lilac to the point it’s insulting – how she was totally defenceless in this planet even when they had been there for a long time. All the sexual tension and the things he said... were they supposed to be sexy or funny? Well he came off very sleazy and creepy.

The romance is predictable from the start. But it’s so cringe worthy to read because from the start all Tarver seems to be focused on is her looks yeah he says it’s her personality but why does it seem as if every time he mentions her he comments on her looks. Their relationship wasn’t slowly built or anything it was instant love from the start even if they masked it with hate. Their interactions when they were a couple were weird to read and out of place in the story.

Plus where was the world building of this unknown planet?

★☆☆☆☆