Title: Star Daughter
Author: Shveta Thakrar
Type: Fiction
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mythology
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Date published: August 11, 2020

A digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If the night sky holds many secrets, it holds Sheetal Mistry’s secret the closest. A secret that explains why her hair is the silver of starlight, or why some nights the stars call Sheetal by name.

Stars like her mother, who returned to her place in the constellation Pushya years ago. Since that day, Sheetal has been forced to hide.

But as her seventeenth birthday draws near, the pull from the sky is growing stronger. So strong that Sheetal loses control, and a flare of starfire burns her human father—an injury only a full star’s blood can heal.

Sheetal has no choice but to answer the starsong and ascend to the sky. But her celestial family has summoned her for a reason: to act as their human champion in a competition to decide the next ruling house of heavens.

Desperate to save her father, Sheetal agrees. But nothing could have prepared Sheetal to face the stars’ dark history—or the forces that are working to shut the gate between the realms for good.

⤖ My Review ⬻

This hasn’t happened in a while…but I’m really struggling to think of what to put in this review—I’ve mulled things over for quite some time. I guess I’ll start off with saying that having Star Daughter compared to the works of Roshani Chokshi and Laini Taylor may have caused my expectations to be a little too high. I really liked the premise, and a lot of the things that the main character, Sheetal, would think about were very teenager-y and believable. I was pulled into the story. I thought that Sheetal’s hair being silver added an interesting spin to the story (plus it makes the cover stand out all the more because it would make people wonder why the depicted character has silver hair).

I also remember being most excited for when Sheetal would ascend into the sky because I was curious to find out what this place in the sky looks like and what the people and culture are like. This is where things got a little bit messy in my opinion. I’m not sure if the world was completely fleshed out before “pen was put to paper” so to speak and it kind of showed in the way the writing would be flowery and descriptive one minute, to when it would kind of become flat the next. Maybe the author was rushed? One never knows. I will remind myself, and whoever is reading this, though that this is a debut and I definitely see potential here. Therefore, I look forward to seeing what Thakrar writes next!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Shveta Thakrar is a writer of South Asian–flavored fantasy, part-time nagini, and full-time believer in magic. Her debut novel Star Daughter is out now from HarperTeen, and her short fiction and poetry have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. When not spinning stories about spider silk and shadows, magic and marauders, and courageous girls illuminated by dancing rainbow flames, Shveta crafts, devours books, daydreams, travels, bakes, and occasionally even plays her harp.

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⤖ Let’s Chat ⬻

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS!