The Name of the Star (Shades of London, #1)

by Maureen Johnson

[girlinthepages]

There’s so much to love about The Name of the Star, and right from the beginning it sets the stage in one of the most popular settings for a good YA novel- a boarding school (and a British one at that)! For a paranormal thriller type book, I found that the British boarding school setting coupled with protagonist Rory’s Louisiana roots made for the merging of two perfectly gothic backgrounds (the Southern Gothic and the ancient, English eeriness). I found The Name of the Star to be a wonderfully atmospheric read for Halloweentime, suitably unsettling without being keep-you-up-at-night-scary (at least for me).

The premise of the novel finds Rory, our protagonist, attending a year of boarding school in London as her parents are professors on a sabbatical in the UK. While Rory adjusts to her first semester abroad, someone is committing copy cat murders in the vein of Jack the Ripper. Throw in some paranormal shenanigans and a tight knit group of friends and The Name of the Star becomes a compulsively readable YA novel that balances on the knife’s edge of being just too creepy (at least when you’re reading it home alone at night during the fall, as I was).

One of my favorite things about this book was that the events didn’t feel insular, as oftentimes they can in a YA novel. The murders that were happening were being acknowledged on a global scale, and the media played almost its own character in the novel, being used as a tool by Rory and her friends at times and serving as an important catalyst to propel the events of the novel forward, as the characters waited with bated breath for the next anniversary of a Jack the Ripper murder to see what would transpire on the same evening of modern day London. The character writing in and off itself in this novel was so on point, as the characters felt so rounded out as though I had spent several books getting to know them, not just one. I loved them all for different reasons, from Jazza’s quiet loyalty to Boo’s spasticness to Alistair’s sass (more info about him, please)! I also have a ship that I am desperately hoping sets sail (mostly because I think Jerome is a dope and I picture Stephen as Cillian Murphy in my head, lol).

Overall: I was addicted and chilled reading The Name of the Star, and it got me in the perfect mood for fall! This story contains some tried and true successful tropes of the YA genre with pop culture’s fascination with true crime and historical scandal and packed it all up in a thrilling and intelligent narrative that isn’t afraid to capture a darker note than a lot of other YA paranormal books. I immediately ordered the next two books in the series upon finishing this one, and I hope Maureen Johnson finishes the series one day!