Starworld is a sweet book, told from the points of view of Sam and Zoe. (And incidentally, written by two authors whose work I rather enjoy.) There were definitely wins for me, with a few reservations, so I am just going to break it down as such!
The Wins:
- •Holy emphasis on family! This is beautiful, frankly. The times I felt the most emotion while reading is while these two young women were interacting with (or speaking about) their families. Having them be able to open up to each other about struggles they felt unable to share with anyone else was really sweet. And goodness, the sheer love that radiated from their respective family units had my heart melting over and over again. I found that they were all so relatable, as they had their own problems (some very severe) but tried desperately to work together to make things better.
- •The characters were quirky and adorable and seemed really relatable. They were both trying to come to terms with so, so much life upheaval. And not just your typical "growing up" stuff, though that was part of it for sure. Sam is dealing with an absent father, a mother with a mental illness, a best friend who's starting to move on a bit without her, and well, feelings for Zoe. Zoe has a whole host of family situations from a special needs brother, a mom who's just gone through cancer treatment, and the fact that she's adopted. Not to mention, a boyfriend she doesn't seem so keen on, and friends who she has been distancing herself from. So when their worlds collide, it makes sense that they'd gravitate toward each other. Which leads to my next point...
- •Zoe and Sam leaning on each other was lovely. Really, it is incredible that they were able to find solace in this imaginary world they created. And that they could trust each other with this stuff that was both too big to handle alone, yet too hard to open up to anyone else about.
The Reservations:
- •The actual "Starworld" was a little hokey. Look, I am all for them having this cute little inside world. But I don't know that I needed to read all the texts about it? In role-play-speak no less? At first I thought it was a little cheesy, but after that wore off, I just was mostly bored and just skimmed those parts. 🤷♀️
- •I didn't really love the ending. I mean, I guess I hoped the story would go in a different direction? And maybe that's on me, but... my opinion stands. And I'll give you the least spoilery version possible, still under spoiler tags because I personally hate spoilers but... I feel like this one is kind of big for people who were hoping for certain things from the book, so. If you are here for a f/f romance... look elsewhere. Sam loves Zoe, but, well. That's about the extent of that. And I feel like Zoe handles some stuff really poorly.
Bottom Line: Super sweet in terms of family and friendships, but lacking in a couple areas as well. Overall though, I was glad I read it.