📗 The Weight of the Stars

To: (123) 456-7890 -- From: Asteri

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Song: [Dreams - Stevie Nicks]

Book: [The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum]

Keywords: [book reviews]

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Genre: Science fiction, YA fiction, lesbian romance

This book is life-changing. That's the only way I can open this book review; this is the third time I've read this book, and the ending is so simultaneously spectacular and emotionally wrecking that I've been putting it off for days. Let's focus on the "spectacular" bit though: the story of two high-school girls and their relationship with space.

We should probably also go back to the beginning, without giving any spoilers of course. The Weight of the Stars follows high school seniors Ryann Bird and Alexandria Macallough, whose pasts and futures are twisted together by the highs and lows of space travel. They, along with Ryann's group of friends, discover secrets about Alexandria's past and what space travel really means.

What really stuck with me in this book is the explanation of what space travel actually is. Before I read The Weight of the Stars for the first time, I knew I wanted to be an astronaut, but I didn't fully understand what I was getting myself into. And while I don't think I'll really know until I'm up in a rocket floating in dark matter, this book brought me a little closer to that understanding. 

In the book, Alexandria's mom was part of a one-way trip to the edge of the universe, or however far her ship was able to travel in her lifetime. So basically, being shot up in a rocket into space with no intention or way to ever go back. No refunds, no take-backs, no second thoughts. Just up and gone. 

And that's really... wild. Because while I'm firmly set in the fact that I don't want to leave Earth permanently, going to space still requires a whole lot of nerve and mental resolve. Because when you're in space, or another another planet or the Moon, you've got your crew and that's it. It's very lonely I'd imagine, and makes you feel very small and big at the same time. And this is what The Weight of the Stars really illustrates. That "the stars have weight". The pull of the stars is so incredibly great it's dizzying, and yet our lives are so big and important as well.

There's a lot of heartbreaking and nerve-wracking moments in The Weight of the Stars; it's a very emotional book. But I think that if you want your perspective to really shift into a more solid and clear understanding of space travel, then read this book. It reveals that space isn't just the glamour or the fame; it's also the loneliness and sadness and loss. It's the never-ending darkness outside that window, separated from you by material that's really not that thick. A vacuum, endless and beautiful.

It's heart-wrenching, it's incredible. Read it!

--Asteri