EARLY REVIEW: Starcrossed (Starcrossed,#1) by Josephine Angelini

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Publication Date: May 31st 2011

Publisher: HarperTeen

Hardcover, 496 pages

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How do you defy destiny?


Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.


As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

I was beyond excited when I was granted with this galley,since Starcrossed was among this year's publications that I was dying to read!The premise sounded beyond intriguing and the cover is plainly gorgeous,not to mention that most early reviews are very positive!And once more,I was disappointed...I know,most people who have already read an arc of Starcrossed will disagree with me,but,I just couldn't bring myself to be excited about this book,as soon as I finished it...

To be honest with myself,Starcrossed is among those books where I don't know exactly who to blame for the outcome,the author's writing style or the poor editing,and for once,I actually tend to believe that maybe if I waited and read the final copy my opinion of this book would be much different.As soon as I started reading this copy I had a very serious problem: the way the sentences where structured.The way the narration flowed was pretty much that: "Helen did that..." and soon or immediately after :she did the other..." followed by "her...whatever...".And were talking about paragraphs and paragraphs in that exact structure where names were thrown all the time and for a variation they were changed by the occassional "she" or "he".I'm not professional in English grammar or literature,far from it,but I only think that could have been avoided or if not there should be a significant reduce in the details,or who am I to judge,done something nevertheless.'Cause that fact just caused me to be completely distracted the whole time not to mention tired of the narration.So, here comes my apprehension,that should I read a finished and not an early copy of this book,my opinion would be different.

It's the first time I ever get distracted by such a thing,thus I say that it could have been avoided somehow,although I'm not the expert to pinpoint exactly what should have been changed.

Anyway,apart from that the story of this book was pretty decent,although again,the so many details tired me a bit.Plus,the fact I was taught first hand Greek mythology didn't exactly help me get sucked in the plot.And I'm not saying that because I mind whatsoever any alterations to myths or anything.Far from it...It's just the fact that the writer took way too many myths,blend them together in what was a very ambitious project,that just failed to appeal to me through the intricate blend.This books takes the Trojan war plus the Iliad and Odyssey,Aescylys' Oresteia,the myth of Fates and Erinyes,something of the Orpheus and Eurydice (which I presume as a myth will be more evident in the next book to come) and I'm guessing another one or two myths I fail to remember right now,blend them all together in a mix,I just failed to see the connection between them.Granted,that may not be the intention of the writer,but still,I felt that it was too much.But that didn't bother me as much as it made me wonder constantly about a possible connection,thus taking my mind of the actual plot.

Among all those things,needless to say I was a bit tired while reading this book,and I considered more than once to put it down,but,I'm glad I didn't.Cause at least,the last part of this book,kind of made up for everything.After a point the twists are constant,and since things kept happening I didn't mind the narration style that bothered me so much in the first part of this book.I really liked the ending but still,that couldn't make up for the lack of development of most of the characters of this book,just made me feel a bit compensated for not giving up on this book.

I won't say if I recommend this book or not for two reasons mainly:One,the finished copy may be completely different from the early one I reviewed and two,because I catch myself being a bit peculiar when Greek mythology is being concerned.And I have to point,that this fact is not deriving from any inner will for the myths to be used unaltered or anything,on the contrary,but just because let's face it,I don't think that many others would try to find a connection between all those myths used...And my three star rating is given only because of those two reasons.Should it not,it would be a two star cause I really struggled to finish this book.