The Stars Never Rise ARC Review

THE STARS NEVER RISE
Series: Untitled Series
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Release Date: June 9th 2015

Book Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: ARC, Goodreads 
Review: 3/5. *Review to come soon.

Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her. 

IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME

So cliché but so so true in this case. I’m not sure I have read the same book as everyone else with their 5 star reviews, oops! It’s not that this book is bad, it’s really not it’s just not for me. When I read a book I usually get fully absorbed and my enter my own world where I block out everything around me but when it came to this book I found myself skimming or re-reading pages because I wasn’t focused and that to me is a major bad point. It was not able to hold my interest for long enough.

The book is set in the future where the Church rule all in order to protect the people from unwanted demonic possessions. The church the police, teachers, government basically every role and provide strict rules to follow. The town is completely closed off to the demons so nobody is allowed to leave. In order to prevent overpopulation the Church implements rules such as Parenting License’s in order to have children but that’s not all, they also get to pick who is ‘fit’ to bear children and having something a minor as a runny nose can lead to sterilisation.

The writer creates a rather chilling world where the Church rules all and any type of non norm behaviour is seen as a sin and means the person has been possessed and the only way to save them is to burn them alive. The book is action packed, full with interesting characters and this new religion and consequences but it just failed to keep my attention. The romance was a little rushed for me and confusing as hell.

The concept is unique and thrilling but I just couldn’t connect with the book. There was faaaaarrr too much focus on the Church and it’s dealings which I understand is needed for background but at about 70% I felt the book was just retelling itself. The book throws a lot at you with a struggling heroine, complex love interest, the bad guys and the twist you ‘never saw coming’ but this just wasn’t enough for me. If I can't connect with the book before the 50% mark then it won’t happen at all. It’s such a shame as I was so intrigued to read this and there was a lot of interesting points. I guess we just wasn’t meant to be!