[2020] - IV

45 5 15
                                    

Star Bright by charkelley

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Star Bright by charkelley

Premise/ Summary

Trapped in a web of lies, a young singer allows her publicity-hungry father to exploit her pain in order to protect a dark and horrifying secret.

* * *

Gabriella Oakman fell apart the day her best friend was killed in a drunken car accident. The kind-hearted and spontaneous girl she loved like a sister was now no more than a memory. One year later, Gabby is trying to let go of her grief and enjoy her last few months of high school. But when tragedy strikes on the anniversary of Ronnell's death, feelings she has tried to bury resurface with a vengeance. And Cameron Luis, Gabby's egotistical father, and famous television host, decides that now is the perfect time to re-enter her life--for all the wrong reasons.

How far will Gabby go to protect her darkest secret?

Review Proper

A. Blurb

I loooooove the blurb! It summarizes the feel/conflict of the story and prompts a well-built character with real-life struggles and real-life emotions as well as the not-so-real-life circumstance which constitutes the whole point of this book.

I love how it introduces the MC and the villain all in one paragraph which is amazing. Good job!

The sense of mystery surrounding the last line is also well done! I love it!

B. Setting

The setting alternates between LA and San Francisco which is fine and all but it appears that the book assumes that the reader knows what these cities look like and how the characters fit in them. For me, I didn't really feel like they're in these cities because they aren't described enough.

I mean, I'm not looking for Tolkien-ish description, but at least, give us some hints here and there that the characters are in LA or in San Francisco without telling us that they are in LA or San Francisco.

Other than that, the way the places closest to the characters are described is done quite well. It features just the right amount of details that don't sound info-dumpy and not too much that it overwhelms the reader. Well done!

C. Plot

The plot is an interesting jumble of events, in my opinion. Trust me when I say that your story is one of the unpredictable ones that I've gotten my hands on. I'm never a plot-analyzer but I still get my hands on some books where I predicted the next events and stuff. Yours caught me off-guard at every turn.

This book is also the reason I've been spaced out in class or sleeping too late in the night on a school day because that's just how interesting this is.

From the start until finish, the book takes us to the arduous journey Gabriella underwent in her fight both in the competition featured and the internal emotions inside her (we'll get to that in the succeeding subsections).

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