Anora Silby can see the dead and turn spirits into gold coins, two things she would prefer to keep secret as she tries to lead a normal life at her new school. After all, she didn’t change her identity for nothing.
Hiding her weirdness is just one of many challenges. By the end of her first day, she’s claimed the soul of a dead girl on campus and lost the coin. Turns out, the coin gives others the ability to steal souls, and when a classmate ends up dead, there’s no mistaking the murder weapon.
Navigating the loss of her Poppa, the mistrust of her mother, the attention of gorgeous and enigmatic Shy, and Roundtable, an anonymous student gossip app threatening to expose her, are hard enough. Now she must find the person who stole her coin before more lives are lost, but that means making herself a target for the Order, an organization that governs the dead on Earth—and they want Anora and her powers for themselves
Title : When Stars Come Out
Author : Scarlett St Clair
Series : When Stars Come Out #1
Format : eARC
Page Count : 418
Genre : YA Fantasy
Publisher : Bloom Books
Release Date : July 26, 2022
Reviewer : Micky
Rating : ★ ★ ★
Micky’s 3 star review
Headlines:
Don’t be fooled by that pretty cover
Scary stuff within
Loose Eurydice/Orpheus retelling
This book was completely not what I expected. That cover made me think light ya fantasy when what is inside is dark, somewhat scary and utterly creepy in parts. If you look back at its previous cover, that definitely gives you more of a feel of what is inside this book.
The above said, I did find myself interested in the word of shifting ravens, death speakers and greek mythology links to Charon, hell hounds and all this in a high school context. Anora was a very interesting character, misunderstood, called crazy and she really had no one on her side. I hated her mum, there was some subtle abuse going on that didn’t get tied up so I hope that’s dealt with in the second book.
When I first met Shy (that full name…), I was a little leery of his interest. The Eurydice element to the story saved my investment, I liked how that part was rolled out and how they connected but I did want to see more depth with these two though. The whole organisation that Shy and others belonged to was suspect and Roth could be friend or foe; I suspect foe.
The plot was dark, really scary for brief moments and it did feel like it had horror elements. Nevertheless, I made it through and I would definitely like to see where the next book goes.
Thanks to Bloom Books for the eARC.
A Take from Two Cities 