Book Review: Sky Without Stars

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Authors: Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 579

Categories: Space Opera, Young Adult, Retelling, Romance, Sci-Fi

Book Blurb:

A thief. An officer. A guardian. 

Three strangers. One shared destiny . . .

When the Last Days came, the planet of Laterre promised hope. But five hundred years later, it’s now a place where an extravagant elite class reigns supreme; where the clouds hide the stars and the poor starve in the streets; where a rebel group, long thought dead, is resurfacing.

Whispers of revolution have begun—a revolution that hinges on three unlikely heroes…

Chatine is a street-savvy thief who will do anything to escape the brutal Regime, including spying on Marcellus, the grandson of the most powerful man on the planet.

Marcellus is an officer—and the son of a traitor. Groomed to command by his legendary grandfather, Marcellus begins to doubt the government he’s vowed to serve when he discovers a cryptic message that only one person, a girl named Alouette, can read.

Alouette is living in an underground refuge, where she guards and protects the last surviving library on the planet. But a shocking murder will bring Alouette to the surface for the first time in twelve years…and plunge Laterre into chaos.

All three have roles to play in a dangerous game of revolution—and together they will shape the future of a planet.

Power, romance, and destiny collide in this sweeping reimagining of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece Les Misérables.

MY REVIEW

I really wanted to love this book and maybe in the right mood and a second reading I might feel different? The writing is good and it is told between three perspectives: Chatine, Alouette and Marcellus. Each chapter is short but I think it helps keep the story moving or else it would have just dragged on much longer.

Though it was well written and the world building is detailed, I was bored. The fact that it’s a space opera Les Miserables retelling though is really cool and I think the authors did a good job with it. I could feel the desperation of Chatine and the poor people in The Frets. And the divide between the working people and the upper class sets the stage for a rebellion like in Les Miserables.

Chatine is my favorite character, she is the street urchin making ends meet not so much for her family, but for herself. It’s a harsh world out in The Frets. She’s trying to get passage to leave to another planet and leave The Frets and her family behind. Chatine gets caught up between her dreams, her family’s blackmailing and the General’s plans for her to spy on his grandson, Marcellus.

Marcellus is an officer of the Regime but the son of a traitor. It’s a stain on his past that will never go away in his grandfather’s eyes. He does his duty to the Regime, follows orders but starts to be conflicted about his feelings for his father. Will he join the rebellion? They need a face to give them hope to fight the regime.

Alouette has been raised in a refuge with her father. She doesn’t know much about the world around her but one day she escapes the refuge and helps Marcellus after seeing him get hurt. This starts her education on what is happening in Laterre and how sheltered she has been. She starts to wonder why. Alouette eventually finds out things that throw her world into upheaval.

I connected most to Chatine but unfortunately the story didn’t wow me or grab me. I appreciate what it tried to do with the space opera/Les Mis mash-up though. I caught the references to Les Mis and noticed the twist on the story, which was nice. The world building of Laterre is my favorite part of the story, I just wished I loved everything else a little more.

Get it here: Amazon

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