Stardust

01/11/2018
Quickie review: Didn't like the portrayal of female characters, didn't care for the writing style, disliked the main character. On the plus side, it was a quick read and parts of the story were interesting.

01/15/2018
(This review can also be found on my blog.)

Two stars always feels like such a negative rating, but it really just means I “didn't like it.” This book could hover around a 2.5 for me, but I think 2 is slightly more accurate. I know Neil Gaiman is a beloved author and I have enjoyed several of his works (although, don't get me started on Anansi Boys), but Stardust just wasn't for me.

I didn't care about Tristran and I hated that he was just an unremarkable boy who got remarkably lucky and saved the day and got the girl even though his plan until almost the end of the book was to essentially enslave her and give her as an offering to another beautiful girl that he covets (I wouldn't call what he feels love).

Besides the star (who doesn't really count as human) and perhaps Tristran's biological mother, every woman in the story is made out to be either unimportant or awful. Victoria is the whole reason for Tristran's quest, but only because she snubbed him and didn't tell him she was engaged. He literally forgets about and could not care less about his adoptive mother and sister. And there are plenty of evil witches, as well as a female merchant who had enslaved Tristran's mother.

Whew, I didn't mean to rant like that, but it all just really got to me. On top of that, I just wasn't a fan of the writing style in this one. There are parts of the story that I found intriguing, so it wasn't all bad. And it is a quick read, very easy to get through. So all-in-all, if this sounds like your jam: go for it. It just definitely wasn't mine.