The Chaos of Stars, Kiersten White

I'm gonna start off with the disclaimer that this was a total cover buy. 

Good morning, dragonflies! 

I just finished reading The Chaos of Stars, by Kiersten White! 

Oh my gods the cover!

"Isadora's family is seriously screwed up—which comes with the territory when you're the human daughter of the ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. Isadora is tired of living with crazy relatives who think she's only worthy of a passing glance—so when she gets the chance to move to California with her brother, she jumps on it. But her new life comes with plenty of its own dramatic—and dangerous—complications . . . and Isadora quickly learns there's no such thing as a clean break from family."









First thing's first, I walked into this book thinking it was going to be about the importance of family, artfully crafted along the tales of ancient Egypt. I was all in for it! I've always loved Egyptian mythology and thought it sounded a lot like something I would love. 

Sadly, this wasn't so much the case. I'm going to go through everything that stood out to me point by point, as I find that that'll be the best way to review this. 

1. The plot
When you think 'ancient gods', you tend to think 'plot of epic proportions' - after all, these gods used to be combined with some of the greatest myths of all time. 
I could not find the plot of this book until about 80% through. Then, by the time a bit of plot did appear, it was resolved in about five minutes. The rest of the book seemed to be purely about Isadora, our main character, complaining about family and resisting everything good in life. 

2. Isadora
You guys know how important characters are for me - they're usually even more compelling than the plot. But Isadora was the most annoying teenager I've read about in a long time. Sure, she had reasons to be mad at her family - I would also be if I grew up thinking I was immortal but then was taught how to prepare my tomb - but only in the end did she ever admit that maybe her mom did care for her. The entire book was her complaining. 

I must say I also didn't understand her absolute refusal when it came to love. It got to the point where she would feel the butterflies and the love and even the lust when she was with Ry, but would get mad at him for having such feelings in return. I did not understand that resistance. 


3. Ry
Ok Ry, also known as Orion, was kinda cute in that sweet, head-over-heels in love kind of way. He came up with the cutest lines to express his thoughts, and seemed to be the most genuine of all of the characters in the book. 

I just don't get how he ended up having a private jet in the end? Too easy, if you ask me. I thought it was hilarious. 


4. Supporting Characters
In general, I found the supporting characters to be much more interesting than the main ones - they really were the points that made me want to continue reading, for the most part. 


5. The culture
As I said, I grew up loving ancient Egypt, its stories and culture. It was like the Renaissance for me - completely fascinating. 
I get that Kiersten wanted to use Ancient Egyptian culture and put it in modern day, with a teenager 'stuck' with ancient, godly parents. But I feel like with that came a lot of disrespect for the ancient culture... 
Every chapter started with a little tidbit of mythology, always combined with disapproval from Isadora, or a sarcastic comment, or a sense of disgust. Sure, some aspects were nicer (bringing an exhibit to a musem with accurate stars, explaining the magic behind amulets etc), but I found that the book as a whole did not bring a sense of respect to the culture. A book that did this better was The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. 


That's all I'm going to cover for this book, unfortunately. I was really disappointed by it, but I have heard that Kiersten's other books were incredible, so I'm not casting her aside as an author, for sure :)

I'm giving The Chaos of Stars 2/5 feathers. 

Have you read The Chaos of Stars? What did you think? Let me know! 

Stay bookish!