Sing your truth. Defend your dream. Defy your stars.A month has passed since Iris joined an underground rebel group to save Dámiul from the brutal prison he was sent to for fighting back against his world’s oppressive system. Here, conformity and compliance are enforced through telepathy, and Earthling performers are brainwashed into absolute obedience.Word of a merciless crackdown on those who … a merciless crackdown on those who sympathize with their cause leaves both Iris and Dámiul yearning for action. Determined to liberate her kind, Iris volunteers to return to her former patrons and covertly recruit supporters.
A raid on their hideout catapults her plan into action sooner than expected and forces her to leave Dámiul behind. After persuading the authorities that she’d been telepathically manipulated into helping him, Iris assumes the role of a dutiful musician while secretly spreading whispers of a possible uprising among her fellow performers. But the authorities always seem to be one step ahead, and anyone who defies them is swiftly mind-wiped.
Soon, Iris is forced to confront a horrifying fact: there’s a traitor among them. Desperately clinging to her cover, she races to find out who before her true loyalties are discovered—and the search leads her to an unthinkable answer.
more
After reading Starswept a little more than a year ago, I was immediately chomping at the bit to find out what would happen to the characters I had grown to love and the incredible world the author created. Wayward Stars proved to be a worthy sequel to that first book and was everything and more than I could have hoped for. The story gets off to a quick start as Iris is almost immediately thrust back into action, striving to help a rebellion whose goal is to free human Artists enslaved on an alien planet. The stakes are higher than ever before, as is the risk of discovery. Sometimes with stories like this, it’s easy for suspension of disbelief to be shattered as we watch characters somehow miraculously get themselves out of one bad situation after another. That’s not the case in Wayward Stars as author Mary Fan never shies away from putting her characters through the wringer, and the unique world she has created allows the story to take many unexpected turns. It makes for an incredibly emotional journey that had me fully invested in the story from beginning to end.
One of the things I loved so much about Starswept was the way art—especially music—is woven into every fiber of the story. It makes sense, given the nature of the world and the societal interactions between humans and Adryil. But it also ends up being central to certain plot elements and conflicts in unexpected ways, and that just made everything feel so much more real. It also gives Iris a distinct narrative voice, the lack of which is always one of my biggest qualms about books with first-person narrators. With Iris, however, I always felt like I was actually seeing things through her point of view, like everything was distinctly colored through her own unique experiences, values, and understanding.
Many of the secondary characters I loved in Starswept reappear here and become even more fleshed out, which I appreciated. Cara remains one of my favorites, but I was also glad to see Damiul’s character develop to a point where I felt like I could connect with him more than I had previously. I became a lot more invested in his relationship with Iris as a result. I also loved learning more about rebel leader Atikea and will look forward to seeing how things play out for her in the end. The ending felt a bit abrupt to me, but it provided what I’m sure will be a good transition leading into the next book.
This is such a great series and I absolutely love it. So much of Iris’ love for her music resonates with me on a personal level as both a writer and an artist, and that connection is further reinforced by the fact that she feels very much like a real, three-dimensional person. The journey she goes on in this book is at times thrilling, at other times heartbreaking, but always incredible. If you enjoy YA science fiction, dystopia, and/or romance, you definitely need to pick up this series.
“You will not destroy me”
“Once upon a time, I fell in love with a beautiful boy from another world. The forces of darkness tried to take him from me, but I found him. Then they tried to erase him from my mind, but I found him again. As long as I love him, I will always find a way. Even if I’m scared, even if I’m powerless, even if I’m small…”
I’ve read my fair share of alien romance in the past. However Wayward Stars (as well as Starswept of course) concept and storyline was so unique and cleverly written that it felt like it’s very own genre. I am amazed how Mary Fan came up with the idea (especially the glowing colorful eyes) and how she executed it so well with such complexity and detail. She even found a way to use different points of views in a story with only Iris as the point of view and it was made to complement the alien mind reading well. This story pretty much leaks cleverness. I am especially impressed with the character Soraï Ydaya as well some other characters in the book where it was never fully clear what side they were on. It was refreshing seeing characters in a YA that was neither good nor bad, black nor white, but grey. Attentional by the author I could never tell if she was against or for the ka’risil treatment. Because while she treated them as below her class and almost like pets she did and opinionated some things that contradicted it as well. She and her unclear stand is one of the many reasons as to why I am excited for Sieze the Stars.
As in every book there are aspects that I don’t fully agree with, one being Milo. While I liked his character plenty I did not understand one thing. It was explained that his and Cara’s situation (trying to keep it spoiler free) was too dangerous, but why did he then think it fine to try it with Iris? Why was that even a thing? It didn’t seem to have a point and that is why I don’t understand it. I am however hoping it will be explained in the next book.
Another thing that disagreed with me was their age. This may just be my personal preference, but I would have liked the main characters a bit older than they were. One reason is for the romance. While I loved the relationship and how well Iris and Damiul worked together, it felt like you perhaps are a bit too young at 15 to feel such a strong and serious connection to another. And the other reason is just that in general the characters was too mature and insightful for their age. If they had been just a bit older, around 19 or 20 I feel like it would have worked better. Considering how everything else worked so perfectly however, these issues were minor.
I love the fact that the author didn’t feel the need to end with a cliffhanger. While I don’t necessarily have any problems with cliffhangers, to not use one honestly gives it a much more confident and professional vibe. It tells me that the author knows how to keep the readers intrigued and emotionally invested to the entire story to keep going through the series without “tricking” the reader in the end to continue. And boy did she know exactly what she was doing writing the book, because she kept me on my toes the whole time. The book was cleverly and beautifully written with both emotional highs and lows, compelling romance, tragedies, humorous moments, melancholic moments and a original thought-out storyline. As a reader there’s just no way that I could ever stop reading the series with all of that. However I am disappointed. After such a thrilling and captivating read I now have to wait for over a year for the next installment and I know it will feel like forever. Mary Fan really knows how to end a book with a bang and I am now so so hyped for what will happen next!