Grade 10
Starworld delves the reader into the lives of two girls, a loner and a popular girl, who unexpectedly become friends. They find an escape in each other from their difficult and harsh lives, but feelings for one another soon develop into feelings for more.
The novel follows Sam Jones and Zoe Miller as they both struggle with family issues and school life. Loner Sam has difficulty dealing with her mother's OCD and a lack of a father in her life. Zoe has to struggle with the fact that her mother has cancer, she’s adopted, and that her disabled brother is going to be sent away to a facility. They unexpectedly become friends and they find an escape in each other and the world of text messages that they created. They develop a strong friendship that soon grows into feelings of beyond just that.
The characters within Starworld are well-rounded and thought out. For example, Zoe Miller is adopted and her entire life she tries to be a people-pleaser so that she can prove to her family that she isn’t a liability and that she belongs with them. Zoe struggles with wanting to be her complete self due to the fact that she wouldn’t make others happy if she did. Within the book, Zoe has to face difficult decisions that makes her choose between making her family happy, her friends happy, or Sam happy.
I highly recommend this book due to the fact that it has a wonderful lesson that it teaches you. Starworld’s message is that you can’t make everyone happy, but you should always strive to make yourself happy. Books similar to this are The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta and Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan.
