Star Daughter / Shveta Thakrar / Review

STAR DAUGHTER

Silver-haired Sheetal, half-human and half-star, has a star-song in her soul. The daughter of a star who came to earth and fell in love with an astrophysicist, Sheetal has spent her life torn between two worlds: the heavenly realm above and the not-quite-so-magical world of her Indian American community in New Jersey.

On the verge of her seventeenth birthday, Sheetal feels more than ever before the call of that celestial realm and the mother who abandoned Sheetal and her father ten years ago. At the same time, Sheetal longs to belong, longs to be an ordinary girl living an ordinary life on earth.

When a terrible accident leaves Sheetal's father in the ICU on the verge of death, Sheetal knows there is only one thing that can save him: a drop of a pure star's healing blood. She must make the journey to meet her celestial family above for the first time in her life, her father's life hanging in the balance.


STAR DAUGHTER


PROS

Blending Magic and Reality Like the main character herself, this book straddles two distinct worlds. One is a world of magic, where living stars and apsaras walk in the presence of gods. The other is New Jersey. These two worlds are at once distinct and interconnected, conjoined by a magical Night Market brimming with wonders from both sides of the divide. Shveta Thakrar beautifully combines the two realities, the two halves of her character Sheetal, in a way that reflects the character's ultimate desire and creates a compelling world at once familiar and unfamiliar to readers.

Non Eurocentric Fantasy It is always refreshing to read a fantasy that falls outside of a vaguely-medieval-England sphere of worldbuilding. Star Daughter is a novel rooted in Sheetal's Indian-American heritage, and Thakrar's writing brings to life a mythology, a culture, and a heroine new and exciting in the fantasy realm. Star Daughter stretches the bounds of what fantasy has been while hopefully laying the foundation for what fantasy could be in the future.

Regular Girls in Extraordinary Circumstances Sheetal may be half star, but in many ways, she is just a regular girl struggling to fit in. She worries about her studies, wrestles with her family's dating expectations ("not until you're thirty!"), fights and makes up with her kind-of-not-so-secret boyfriend, and loves hanging out with her best friend Minal. It is refreshing to find a character like Sheetal in YA--a character who wants to be like other girls and often is. With her fully-human best friend at her side through a whirlwind trip to the celestial realm, Star Daughter is ultimately the story of a regular girl (with a magical heritage) facing extraordinary circumstances and wrestling with who she is and who she wants to be.


CONS

The magic of Thakrar's work is overwhelming. Sometimes this is a good thing, creating an absolutely immersive experience for a reader. Other times, this whirlwind of wonder and mystical charm can be overpowering. Characters, ideas, transitions, and even plot points can get a bit lost in the magic. Overwhelming Magic

The celestial realm that Thakrar builds is beautiful--overwhelmingly magic in a good way. Her descriptions are lyrical and enchanting. Each description builds the exciting, new fantasy realm of Star Daughter, but these descriptions don't always feel as exciting or important as they should. Descriptive passages are not always woven into the narrative itself, feeling as though they are outside of instead of integral to the novel. Ultimately, this makes necessary descriptions feel a bit burdensome--and even a bit skippable. Overly-Descriptive

I felt that the plot of Star Daughter develops too quickly. A lot of potential was lost in the quick timeline. The entire book takes place over the course of three or four days. So much happens in that short span of time! The secondary characters feel underdeveloped as the novel progresses because of the time crunch from which this novel suffers. There isn't much time for getting to know people when so much plot has to be crammed into a few days! Quick Timeline


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7/10

Fans of the magically-down-to-earth protagonist of Tera Lynn Childs's Forgive My Fins will enjoy the not-quite-average Sheetal and her fight to claim her own identity. Those who enjoy the dark and yet fantastical tone of Cecil Castellucci's Tin Star should also give this off-genre book a try.

FORGIVE MY FINS TIN STAR

Details
Publisher: HarperTeen
Date: August 11, 2020
Series: N/A
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