In this magical, bewitching debut, Molly and Gene Myers’ marriage is on the brink of collapse. Then a child arrives, with a remarkable appearance. Will he bring them together, or tear their whole world apart?Molly and Gene Myers were happy, until tragedy blighted their hopes of children. During the years of darkness and despair, they each put their marriage in jeopardy, but now they are starting … they are starting to rebuild their fragile bond.
This is the year of Woodstock and the moon landings; war is raging in Vietnam and the superpowers are threatening each other with annihilation.
Then the Meteor crashes into Amber Grove, devastating the small New England town – and changing their lives for ever. Molly, a nurse, caught up in the thick of the disaster, is given care of a desperately ill patient rescued from the wreckage: a sick boy with a remarkable appearance, an orphan who needs a mother.
And soon the whole world will be looking for him.
Cory’s arrival has changed everything. And the Myers will do anything to keep him safe.
A remarkable story of warmth, tenacity and generosity of spirit, set against the backdrop of a fast-changing, terrifying decade.
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There’s no b***h on earth like a mother frightened for her kids. ― Stephen King
This was a different book than I expected. Yes, it definitely had sci fi elements but it was a story about the love of a mother and a father for their child foremost.
The story takes place in the 1960s mostly in and around small town Amber Grove, New York.
Molly is a nurse there and her husband, Gene, is a librarian. They have tried to have a child in the past and were heartbroken partway through the pregnancy.
A large meteor crashes in and near Amber Grove and an alien craft is discovered. The only survivor of the crash is a small child that is hidden at the local hospital and Molly takes care of the child. Military and government entities want to get their hands on the child and Molly, with help from hospital personnel, spirits the child into her and Gene’s home where they start raising the child as their own
I enjoyed this story although I think it was too wordy. It could have been pared down quite a bit and made for a better reading experience. Also, even though the author is British, he decided to set the story in the U.S. and there were quite a few Britishisms (such as petrol and tyre to name a couple) that I noticed throughout the book. That tended to be a bit distracting.
All in all, though, I enjoyed this story especially the characters of Molly and the child.
I received this book from Jo Fletcher Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
This is another book that has been lingering on my Kindle, and having now read it, I wonder why it took me so long. I would have read this book in one sitting, but my Kindle died at 92%. I raced to my back-up Kindle only to find I’d failed to recharge it. So I had to finish the last 8% book on a second day. It is a gem of a book, a quiet, emotional story filled with a low-key tension, a poignant look at the life of one particular, peculiar family. It is enchanting and hopeful.
In the 1960s, Amber Grove, a small town in New England was stuck by a meteor on what started out as a run-of-the-mill day. People were killed and injured, and fires devastated the area. Author Cox does a splendid job of recreating the tensions of the 1960s: the long-haired, pot-smoking hippies; Woodstock; the straight folks who toed the line; the Cold War; the Vietnam war; the constant fear of atomic bombs; the protest marches against the war; the marches for racial equality; the first moonwalk.
What is hidden from the people of Amber Grove is that the so-called meteor was an alien space ship, and survivors were found: an alien mother and her child. The mother dies, thus all attention focuses on the child. Several people decide to protect him, he must be sheltered from contact with all but a few humans. Despite these restrictions, his nurse, Molly Myers, bonds with him and names him “Cory” for the cor-cor-cor sound he makes.
Cox manages to capture the youthful exuberance of this alien child. The physical description is vague enough readers can draw their own versions of the boy in their minds. He is smart, curious, and adventurous—and utterly endearing. As he’s confined to the space between the four walls of the Myers household, he has no other children to play with. Thus, under this lovable appearance, lies a lonely child. Not only isolated from humans, he is from a planet in which there is communal sleeping—and communal dreams. His own kind, who is supposed to come rescue him, is millions of miles away.
Towards the end of the book, the action picks up dramatically. Cory and his family are running for their lives, trying to escape from the FBI, the American military, Russian spies, curious reporters, and thugs who want to sell him for a profit.
Our Child of the Stars is a poignant portrait of an American family, the ties that bind this family, and the strength of those ties. It’s a story of a nearly-broken couple brought back together by the random twist of fate when an alien child lands in their life. The novel looks at how far this family will go to protect the ones they love.
Due to my ill-timed slump, it took me longer than usual to complete this. Nevertheless I did find myself intrigued by the overall premise of the story. Once diving into the read, the reader is thrown into the Woodstock era where we meet married couple Gene and Carol, a troubling duo whose lives soon spin of control when dealt with death, grief, deception, infidelity, and substance abuse. Fast forward, we meet ‘Corey’, a special ‘boy’ that comes along and everything changes.
I won’t go too much into it since it’ll spoil the story but this is ideal for readers who are looking to steer off their usual route and indulge themselves with a family oriented, science fiction mixed type of story.
To close this out, “Our Child of the Stars” was a debut that didn’t particularly stand out and didn’t fall in my favor, but the concept was unique and refreshing, and I would recommend this novel if you’re looking to step out of your comfort zone. Yet be warned, it can be a hit or miss, that’s for sure.
This is my first book of 2020! I know you’re looking at the date (February 11th) and wondering what the hell’s taken me so long to start reading. Truth is, it’s only February and my days are already incredibly busy; I just haven’t been able to fit reading into my schedule. I already knew 2020 would be a big year for to-do’s, which was why I reduced my reading goal to 30 books. But anyway, let’s get into this review.
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This book neither drew me in nor revolted me. It had its bright moments, and then it had its filler chapters that could have been cut out entirely.
The story follows an alien space craft crashing onto Earth, leaving an orphaned alien child in the arms of caring small-town nurse, Molly. Molly will end up loving this child as if it were her own, and protecting/hiding him from the government.
I had two issues with the novel as a whole:
1) I’ve already mentioned this above, but there was a lot of filler content. There were scenes in which I engrossed myself in, and once they were over I asked myself “What was the point of that scene? How did this expand the story in any way? Why have I wasted my time reading it?” (view spoiler) This really, really put off the reading experience. I found myself getting very bored, skimming paragraphs and sometimes entire chapters without feeling like I’d missed a beat of the story.
2) The mother-son love between Molly and Cory (the alien boy). I understand that Molly had tried and miscarried a pregnancy, which had a massive toll on her mental health and her marriage. I understand this had a major roll in her decisions to take Cory in as her own. But it truly felt so rushed. Within only a few moments you can see that Molly sees him as a son, and there was something wrong about how her feeling developed. I feel almost–I don’t know how to word it–uncomfortable with Molly’s character. She very much disguises herself as this compassionate all-good-nurse, but I feel like she has a lot of inner demons inside of her in which she used Cory as a bandaid solution for. It didn’t feel as if she actually loved Cory; she loved that Cory needed her and could never leave her side without facing serious consequences. Like the mother that loves when her child is sick because then she’s needed and can’t be abandoned; Molly’s relationship with Cory felt similar to this. Perhaps this was intentional by the author, but as I was reading, I feel like I was trying to be deceived into believe Molly was this extraordinary, self-sacrificing human being. I was just not buying into the mother-son relationship the two of them had that was so crucial to the story.
But beyond these points, this story truly wasn’t bad. Would I pick it up again? Probably not. Would I be willing to read more from this author? Definitely. The story had its potential, unfortunately it just wasn’t the completely right fit for me.