Review: Above the Star (The 8th Island Trilogy #1)

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Rating: ★★★½

I received this book for free from the publisher (SparkPress) as part of a promotional blogger unboxing campaign.

This is probably the most unique book I have read so far this year.

Up until I got about halfway through the book I thought it was weird. It was odd and bizarre, kind of in a Roald Dahl way, but stranger. It took me a while to get used to it and the world. I’ve never encountered a world quite like this one before, so there was definitely a learning curve.

One thing that really threw me for a loop early on was the amount of death in this book. I wasn’t expecting there to be so much of it and for it to be somewhat gruesome.

But once I got used to the peculiarities of the book, I started to really enjoy it. This book follows the typical quest storyline, but it was still a lot of fun.

As for the characters, it was interesting to see a grandfather as a main character in YA book. You don’t see that too often. I think my favorite character was Lady Sophia. She was a supporting character but she was so funny!

I also really liked the illustrations in the book. There is a hand drawn map of the world and various sketches that the character, Ella, draws dispersed throughout the novel.

The glossary at the end was a nice touch. It was super helpful in figuring out how the world worked.

Even though it took me a while to get into it, I’m really excited for the rest of the books in this trilogy!