A Dark and Hollow Star Review
Hi friends! I hope this week has been treating you well. I have a pretty busy weekend ahead, but I’m super excited to be posting my A Dark and Hollow Star Review! This urban fantasy was a fun read, but I have some issues with it. Let’s hop in!
Title: A Dark and Hollow Star
Author: Ashley Shuttleworth
Rating: 3 Stars
CAWPILE: 5.8/10
Genre: Fantasy, NA, urban fantasy
Content Warnings: Death, murder, slight gore
Format: eARC
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date Published: February 23rd 2021
Goodreads Description: The “ironborn” half-fae outcast of her royal fae family.
A tempestuous Fury, exiled to earth from the Immortal Realm and hellbent on revenge.
A dutiful fae prince, determined to earn his place on the throne.
The prince’s brooding guardian, burdened with a terrible secret.For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world.
Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a war brewing between the Mortal and Immortal Realms, and one of these teens is destined to tip the scales. The only question is: which way?
Wish them luck. They’re going to need it.
I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
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A Dark and Hollow Star Review
Characters – 6/10
I wanted to like this book. It was full of queer characters and it has an amazing urban fantasy setting. Those are some of my favourite things. And yet. I didn’t particularly feel for any of the characters. I started off feeling neutral about all of them, but by the end, they just annoyed me. Except for Celadon, I would die for him. Why did he not get a bigger part in the book?
Atmosphere – 7/10
I really liked the setting. There’s just something about a magical world underneath our noses that’s really attractive. My one complaint (and really an overall complaint of the book) is that it’s way too dense. The world is a lot to take in at a time. Especially since all of the characters are already in the world. We don’t have a “new” person in the world that acts as our proxy to the world. If that makes sense?
The characters are moving through a world they know, so we often get terms and rules thrown at us from nowhere. It’s not bad, it’s just a lot to take it in.
Writing – 6/10
As I said, it was really dense. I found myself skipping over large pieces of text because I just found it too tedious to read. The writing wasn’t bad, but it needed some more editing.
Plot – 6/10
The plot moves really slowly. And honestly, most of the plot is just three teenagers whining about how they need to save the world because the adults won’t do it. It was annoying. A Dark and Hollow Star was also mostly set up. The first 100 pages could have been cut to get us to the mystery faster.
A Dark and Hollow Star Review
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Intrigue – 5/10
I was rooting for Hero as a villain tbh. He turned out to be a total pill. I think that’s wasted potential in a villain. As for the conflict, I was only really invested around the 80% mark. A Dark and Hollow Star was also our April Book Club Pick, so I really enjoyed our discussions. That always somehow makes the books better.
Logic – 5/10
I’m not a big fan of “soft” magic systems. I like hard and fast rules. However, the magic system in this book is supposed to have rules, but we’re never told the rules until a character breaks them. It makes it feel like the magic is just a plot convenience, rather than a part of the story.
Enjoyment – 6/10
Overall this isn’t a bad book, it just lacked a certain spark for me.
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A Dark and Hollow Star isn’t the sort of book I’d immediately pick to read but overall sounds like it was good.
“He turned out to be a total pill.” – when characters let us down 😂
I might check this out just because it features queer characters and I love fantasy geared towards this age group.
Not my jam but glad you got something out of it even if it was a bit disappointing
Not really my kind of book so I think I would give it a pass. Sorry it didn’t fully work but at least it wasn’t all bad. Great review.
This isn’t the first review I’ve read about this book that sounded like this, honestly. It seems like a lot of people had similar thoughts. The characters weren’t particularly likable and the story was just so much. It’s a bummer because it had such potential to be awesome. The synopsis certainly makes it sound cool!
The synopsis and cover of this book looks wonderful! It’s unfortunate to hear that the story itself fell short. A soft magic system can be confusing so I can understand why it might’ve been frustrating to read!
Not the one I usually pick but the story had my interest. Sorry it didn’t work that well.
Ahh no I was really looking forward to this one! I’m sorry you didn’t like it that much and I definitely agree with what you’re pointing out, I just hope I won’t feel that way about THIS book haha! Great review either way!!