Star Bright Review.

A few weeks ago I found this book sitting in my school cafeteria. If you missed that post you can find it: here. And after a little contemplation, I decided that I would do a review of this book, and here it is: Star Bright by Andrew Greeley.

To be totally honest, I didn't have a lot of hopes for me liking this book. It is very Catholic as well as being a Christmas story. But I wanted to give it an honest try anyway, it was super short, and I had nothing to lose. And as much as I wished I wasn't, I was right, I didn't really enjoy this book. The book is about Jack a young Irish American and his story about falling in love with a girl. Nothing really original, but there are parts of the book that are heart warming I will admit. 

In my opinion the characters are very unrealistic, especially Odessa the girl Jack falls in love with. She is very flat, and boring. The most interesting thing about her is how pious she is, and even that gets annoying at times. She is described as being stunningly beautiful, and having no real flaws. Other than the fact that she apologizes a lot. 

There is one other big problem I have with this book, and its the 'instalove." I read this a lot in young adult books, so I am used to it. But that does not mean that I like it. Jack seems to fall in love with this girl instantly, and after knowing each other for only 2 months he thinks about marrying her. Now, I understand that scenarios like that happen in real life. But it's so rare, and when I read it, quite frankly I don't find it very realistic. If you and your partner got married within two months of knowing each other, and are still together, I applaud you.

Setting wise, the book takes place in the states, in December. But even so, I feel like the settings could have been described better. I'm pretty sure the book described almost all of Odessa's clothes or beauty better than some settings. It was hard to immerse yourself in a world that a writer scarcely provides you with.

There are a lot of really cute scenes in the book, I will give it that. I enjoyed reading Odessa's interactions with kids, and with Jack's family. And I find Jack's family to be really interesting as well. I honestly cared more about Jack's family than I did about Jack. 

If you are looking for something light and fluffy, this book is great for that. It reads fast, there are a lot of cute moments, the writing is really pleasant, simple, but pleasant to read. All in all, this is not something I want to read again. It feels like to me it's one of those books you keep on your table, and you just kinda have. 

So, I have released the book back into the wild, and hopefully it finds a reader who will really enjoy it. It just was not a book for me.