Starcrossed (edition 2011)

Using the Greek mythology story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War as inspiration, Josephine Angelini has made an impressive début with Starcrossed.

Angelini has blessed us with two strong lead characters in Helen Hamilton and Lucas Delos. Helen is a shy, reserved teenager who hates to draw attention to herself. Since she is 5’9″ and beautiful to boot, unfortunately attention is just what she gets. At over 6′ and leanly muscled, Lucas is more than Helen’s match in the looks department. Thankfully, they have brains as well and a strong love for friends and family that make them bearable. I really liked the way Angelini took her time to develop these two characters, especially Helen and her nightmares. These nightmares are significant to the story, but they don’t overwhelm it – they are placed nicely throughout the book and the revelation of their importance is handled well.

The first meeting between Helen and Lucas is probably one of the most original I’ve seen yet in a novel. When Helen first sets eyes on Lucas she is driven by the Fates to try to kill him against all rhyme and reason. Thankfully, Lucas has enough control to stop her, but Helen is absolutely mortified by her incomprehensible desire to commit murder. The antagonism between them is strong and only when they find themselves almost killed after a confrontation do they manage to calm the Fates enough to get to know each other. And there is a lot to learn about their ancestry, skills and powers. As Lucas and his family work with Helen to strengthen her fighting skills and discover who her missing mother might be, Lucas and Helen begin to fall desperately in love. But Lucas has knowledge involving Helen that makes it impossible for them to be together, no matter how much they desire each other. And when Helen finds out a family secret of her own she realizes how starcrossed their love really is.

Secondary characters are just as strong, with two of the stand-outs being Helen’s best friend Claire and Lucas’ cousin Hector. The introduction of Claire is brilliant: “Claire Aoki, aka Giggles, was a badass. Anyone who took a look at her five-foot-two frame and delicate Asian features and failed to recognize her inherent scrappiness ran the risk of suffering horribly at the hands of a grossly underestimated opponent.” (Chapter 1) There is so much information given in just a few lines that you feel immediately like you know this character – and she doesn’t disappoint. Claire IS scrappy and determined and everyone needs a best friend like her. On the opposite side we have Hector who is described thus: “…he looked like a blond version of Michelangelo’s Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, newly released from the plaster…Helen had never been so afraid of anyone in her entire life.” (Chapter 4) Hector is a fighter and one of the toughest, most protective characters in the book. I loved both Claire and Hector; they are intelligent, strong-willed and loyal. They will jump in where angels fear to tread in order to protect friends and family. Interestingly enough, these two do NOT become romantically involved and I think it is a good choice by Angelini. While they have a lot in common, they are definitely destined for others. I can’t wait to see what is in store for them next.

Starcrossed is a third-person narrative, but I always felt connected to the story. I find it refreshing once in a while to get outside characters heads and see how everyone is relating to each other without the filter of only one point of view. The style also allows Angelini to branch out and give us a look at the Hundred Cousins (Delos relatives), especially the villain of this story – Creon. Seeing his actions in his home environment makes the reader realize how dangerous he is before he ever steps foot on Nantucket.

I can’t help but laugh at reviews I’ve read that point out how Angelini’s take on Greek mythology bears little resemblance to the stories written by Homer and other authors. The story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War is the inspiration for this story – it’s a novel, fiction, fantasy! To these critics I would have to point out that Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series is taking some fairly large liberties with Greek mythology as well, and are spectacular books. Angelini has come up with a really wonderful Greek tragedy of her own playing out in Nantucket (of all places) with two lovers meant to be together but torn apart by the Fates.

With action, drama and loads of romance, Starcrossed is a wonderful story of two teenagers who start by trying to kill each other and end up in an epic love story that has been playing out for centuries. Characters are well-developed and interesting, while the story itself catches you right up and drags you along for the ride. ( )

Helen Hamilton has always felt different. She's too tall. Too beautiful. She can run too fast. Strange things tend to happen around her. When a new family comes to town, she suddenly is overcome with an uncontrollable desire to attack the unbelieveably gorgeous teenage son of the fsmily, Lucas. Why does she wake up at night more tired than when she lay down? Who are the three strange women who are haunting her both day and night? Why does the Delos family seem to know more about her than she does herself?

The target audience (junior high and high school-aged girls) will probably really like this book. My students will probably really like this book. I wanted to really like this book--it's Greek mythology given a modern twist, it's got roots in the saga of the Trojan War, it has main characters with the names of some of my favorite family members--but I didn't. The three stars are more for the storyline and the idea behind the story than for the actual novel itself.

Although it had a lot of promise, the way this novel was written just drove me crazy. The characters spend a lot of time yelling and screaming at each other ("yelled" and "screamed" being two of the very few subsitutes for "said" in the book), and much of their conversation is just too stilted to be believeable. There is way more "telling" in this book than "showing", and at times it was downright painful to read. Helen constantly jumps back and forth between knowing nothing about herself to understanding more than should be immediately possible for her to know, and it's almost dizzying. One glaring plot hole will drive me crazy for quite some time (how can a major lie not be detected by a Falsefinder, especially when it so closely involves him?), and I'll be looking for it to (hopefully) be resolved in the second book in the series. I will be looking for the second book, and hoping that the author will brush up her technique between now and then, because I really do think she has a lot of potential which clearly isn't realized in this book. ( )

What do you get when you put the Percy Jackson, Twilight and the Mortal Instruments series in a blender? Um, this book.

All it needs is a good match of quidditch and it would be the direct result of all the teen-lit mega hits of the last decade smished together. Smart. But lacking any shred of originality or ingenuity.

But, at the risk of sounding inconsistent, the book had its enjoyable moments--I stayed up until two last night reading, so that has to count for something. ( )

What do you get when you put the Percy Jackson, Twilight and the Mortal Instruments series in a blender? Um, this book.

All it needs is a good match of quidditch and it would be the direct result of all the teen-lit mega hits of the last decade smished together. Smart. But lacking any shred of originality or ingenuity.

But, at the risk of sounding inconsistent, the book had its enjoyable moments--I stayed up until two last night reading, so that has to count for something. ( )

Oh, Starcrossed. I started you so innocently, thinking I'd get a few chapters in before bed. 4 hours later I was putting you down after a marathon reading session. What a fun, exciting romp through island life and Greek myth.

Now, I'm sure many of you have read the reviews, calling Starcrossed a mix between Twilight and Percy Jackson. And these are completely valid.

However, Starcrossed does manage to stand on its own, I think. I really liked the character of Helen, who stands up for both her friends and family - and apologizes when she realizes she's been selfish. Lucas' character was a bit...cardboard. I'm hoping his role in things is a bit more fleshed out in the later books. I adored Claire, Helen's BFF. Her revelation toward the end was both spot on and funny.

Was the writing amazing? No. Did I think some of it was predictable? Yes. The pacing of the book, though, was at top-speed and there were (and still are) some good mysteries to keep the reader guessing and those two things completely overshadowed the problems I had with the book.

Really looking forward to Dreamless next year.

( )