*Review* The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

The Chaos of the Stars is a standalone novel by Kiersten White, the author of the Paranormalcy trilogy and as well as the Mind Games duology. The story is told in the first POV by 16 year old Isadora, a human daughter to Isis, the goddess of motherhood and Osiris, god of the underworld, who just wants to be relevant and not treated like she doesn’t really matter.

After having had a plethora of feels and emotions for Mind Games when it was released last year, The Chaos of Stars didn’t make me hate it. I liked the twist on the whole Egyptian Mythology of gods having human children in order to continue being relevant. I liked the fact that White provides her own blend of humorous Egyptian history as well as a bit of Isadora’s dream state at the start of each chapter. I liked the fact that there is no insta-love, or 3 way love triangles. I even liked the secondary characters in Ry (Orion), Tyler, Scott as well as Sirus and Deena.

Now comes the hard part. While The Chaos of Stars isn’t necessarily a mind blowing, world stopping, holy crap did you just read that, kind of book; it does have its moments. It has a barely there plot line, a main character who has to be sent out into the real world in order to understand her relationship with her parents and supposedly to protect her from impending darkness, and an ending that just didn’t work for me. It was wrapped up into a nice little ball without much of an overall confrontation or fight scene with those wacky villainous gods. For those expecting more of a romance, I would advise you to look elsewhere.

As for Isadora, she’s a feisty and sarcastic character who I tend to have feels about and she’s not entirely likable all the time. Then again folks, she is a HUMAN TEEN! There are some teens that you just want to shove into a corner somewhere until they learn respect for their elders, and understand that not everything is about YOU! Plus, not every teenager is wrapped up in luxury and is able to jump on a plane and escape from what they feel is overbearing and uncaring parents. Hell, had that been the case when I grew up, I would be living in Italy, or someplace fancy drinking Ouzo and feeding my face on pizza.

Then there’s the fact that she doesn't like the fact that her parents have a new child every 20 years while barely noticing her or her other human children, or the fact that they apparently don’t really care if she lives or dies. She felt as though if she really mattered to them, then why didn’t they make her immortal? She doesn't like the fact that her mother has decided to have a new child early and wants nothing to do with the evil troll living within her mothers belly. She calls her brother Horus (WHORE-US) and doesn’t much care for his wife Hathor (goddess of beer and sex) either. When given the chance to hi-tail it out of dodge and head to San Diego where her human brother Sirus lives, she jumps at the chance but doesn’t understand that there are expectations that she needs to abide by and not just run around scot-free without a care in the world.

Overall, I believe that readers will have to make up their own minds whether or not White has done a good enough job explaining her overall concept of gods, and humans, or if this book ends up being a resounding flop. They will have to put themselves into Isadora’s shoes and try to understand her feelings towards love and not getting close to anyone for fear of being let down. 

*Recvd via Edelweiss 04/11/2013* Expected publication: September 10th 2013 by HarperTeen

Author - Kiersten White
Title - The Chaos of Stars
Publisher - Harper Teen
Releases - September 10, 2013
Genre - Young Adult
Received via Edelweiss from publisher