First things first--Höst is one of my top five favorite authors. She has not, to date, let me down at all in any of her books I've read. And I've read practically all of them. As such I'm a bit of a fangirl when I talk about her to my other reading friends. That said I am as completely unbiased as I can be given the above statement.

This is definitely a powerful novel.

I've always felt that Höst's main characters are relatable. Cassandra from the Touchstone books wasn't this all-powerful super-ninja--she had to learn everything just like anyone else and learned from the mistakes she made. Medair fouled up; both in her role as a hero and in her prejudices, and in the end she still wasn't fully 'okay' with the situation, but she was willing to learn to adapt. And Soren (from Champion of the Rose) was an emotional cauldron most of the time, unable to really untangle herself from things at times. Their emotions, their fears and happiness, these things all felt real.

But Maddie felt the most real of all. Part of that may be because she exists in a not so distant future, and while she's obviously in Australia (and I've never been), her concerns are all immediately understandable. Is her family safe? What does the dust mean? Can she trust these people? Can she trust herself? What is the world going to be like post-dust? What about her dreams? Everything about Maddie--minus the scifi stuff--was grounded in reality. And that made this a powerful book.

This is also a book that should be read at least twice--there's a couple of twists involved that change how certain interactions break down once revealed. Maddie is not your typical main character sort; if at all possible I fully believe she would have struck out on her own and stayed on her own if that had been at all practical. And likely not suffered too greatly for it. The other characters as they are introduced--Noi, Pan, Fisher, Gavin, Tyler, etc--are easier to get along with possibly or identify with. Though as Maddie notices, they're all very good at keeping things close to their vest (at first at least).

The near-future feel to the story works to its advantage, there's nothing so far out from what we have now or are proposing technology wise to make this feel so alien. I think this is important for when the Moths attack (or invade, since there's little attacking going on at first) because it grounds the story in enough reality for the reader to wonder 'Would I be able to do that? Do I know someone who can do that?'.

For spoiler reasons I can't explain how much I really loved this one character. After everything goes down, I went back and re-read about this character and was like 'That is so well done.'. Höst lays out a mystery within a mystery within a survival game that at its reveal makes perfect sense and bolsters a few of the other plot threads that would have been mildly problematic.

To be fair this book has exciting moments, but its not action filled. Its largely a character driven plot with a lot of potential to be heart breaking depending on which character's story you invest in. The end isn't sunshine and rainbows--its a compromise and acknowledgement that nothing can be cleaned up perfectly.

Overall this is my favorite book of Höst's--the pacing is well handled, the twists are well choreographed, and there's enough to think about in how the Moths act, how humanity acts because of the Moths and how determination and sacrifice can bring about change, that it should get a reader to think.
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Full Review on NetGalley
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I received a copy of this novel from Net Galley in return for an honest review.
It's been such a long time since I requested this book, that I'd completely forgotten what it was about (sorry about the delay Net Galley!!). However I actually really enjoyed picking up a book without having any idea what the story was about.
This novel is the story of Madeleine, an aspiring artist, and how she copes with an alien invasion, and her developing powers, from her home in Sydney.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed this novel. It was an alien invasion story with an excellent group of characters and an intriguing alien invasion set up.
The novel begins with Maddie in an underground tube station where she has gone to meet her cousin. There is what appears to be some sort of explosion or bomb which knocks Maddie unconscious. Having no idea what the premise of this novel was, I must admit this beginning reminded me quite a lot of the 7/7 bombings in London. I was more than a little grateful to find out it was actually an alien invasion. This beginning was action packed and did an excellent job of drawing me in to the novel and keeping me intrigued, even if it was a little confusing and disorientating at first.
I also enjoyed the fact that that this YA novel was set in Sydney, Australia. It made a pleasant change from most of the YA I read which is set in the USA.
In my opinion this novel has one of the most enjoyable group of main characters I've read about in a long time. They were diverse in terms of Nationality, Sexuality, Gender and personality. They were all enjoyable, and gelled well together, but were different enough to mirror real life. They had humour, sarcasm, anger, brains and they were just a really perfect set of characters. The main character Maddie was a really good main character too. I am trying to think of something that I didn't really like about her but I can't actually think of anything. She was caring and thoughtful but also shy and socially awkward, which I thought was a nice touch, I don't read enough novels with a character who doesn't just charm their way through any social situation they find themselves in.
There was a nice element of romance in the novel between a couple of characters, which didn't feel rushed, and actually felt like real feelings between the characters. Although I feel the story didn't really require this romance, it was a nice addition, which made the epilogue at the end a nice touch.
The plot of this novel is action-packed, there was a lot of fighting, running, hiding and puzzling over the aliens, but it moved at a fast pace which meant I was able to speed through it in a couple of days.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this novel is, it was exciting and intriguing, and I definitely recommend it for a fascinating take on the alien invasion genre! ( )

And All the Stars is one of the better YA apocalyptic novels I’ve read. Towers have sprouted from cities around the world, spreading a strange dust. Those who encounter the dust either die or transform… Madeleine Cost is a fifteen year old artist who’s skipping school to go paint a portrait of her cousin. She winds up right next to Sydney’s tower and gets absolutely coated in the dust. She teams up with some other teenage survivors to face the new world and what they’ve become.

I almost quit reading And All the Stars six pages in. Why? The protagonist makes a stupid and completely pointless decision. She’s trapped in an abandoned subway, dead bodies around her, and when her mom calls her on the phone she lies about where she is! Wow, priorities! This feels like typical behavior from a YA novel, but I find it very worthy of an eye roll. Thankfully, I did continue reading and the rest of the book improved.

One of the things I liked about And All the Stars was that while it was an apocalyptic novel focused on survival, it was more about friendship than people being nasty and horrible to each other. The group she falls in with and don’t turn on each other or (as one character puts it) reenact Lord of the Flies. I like this brand of optimistic apocalypse novels. It reminds me a bit of On the Edge of Gone that way.

While I never exactly fell in love with any of the characters, I can still remember some of their names over a week later, which is always a good sign. As I said, I wasn’t super connected to any of them, but it can be hard to flesh out such a large group of characters, especially in a book only 200 pages. Also, I liked that the group roughly gender equal and notably diverse.

I wasn’t a huge fan of how the romance subplot went down, but it wasn’t super annoying and didn’t consume the entire book. Mainly I worry about what a reveal means for consent issues with a sex scene. I don’t feel like the implications were really addressed in the text. I also wasn’t a fan of the “five years later” epilogue that showed the end result of everyone’s lives and romantic prospects. It just didn’t feel necessary.

I’d recommend And All the Stars for anyone looking for hopeful apocalypse novels or well written self published books.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. ( )

This book has raving reviews on amazon. There is no review lower than 3 stars so I thought I would be in for a treat but I was not.

I hated the writing style, very confusing in times and how the people behaved was so ridiculous and unrealistic I had to quit. Hero young adult girl has just crawled out of a very severe accident site but still lies to mum and dad even though she might never see them again. Hero is too cool for school.
People's bodies begin to turn blue and suddenly stars appear on their body and they get very hungry but they are not scared at all. Have fun and make jokes. yes right. These people are also young adults and are not scared even though their world is contaminated and many people died or are still dying.
I tried but no.

This is not for me. ( )