
2019 wasn’t a great reading year for me. Other than Daisy Jones & The Six, there weren’t really any books that I fell in love with.
So, I was ecstatic when I started reading The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes and got that feeling – that “I’m so into this book that nothing else in the world feels real” feeling.
I’ll admit I was hesitant to pick this one up because of the author. I read Me Before You and totally loved it but haven’t clicked with her other works I’ve tried, so I bought it when it came out (because it was a Reese’s Book Club pick) and then didn’t crack the spine for a few months.
But any fears I had of continuing my 2019 reading disappointments came to an immediate halt before even getting through chapter two.
First of all, if you love books – not just reading but actually love books and the magic way they bring people together and improve our lives – you must read this book. Because that’s really the central theme here.
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Quick and dirty synopsis:
Englishwoman moves to small Kentucky town where she doesn’t fit in and has unhappy home life. Finds herself, friends, and love because of books.
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Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that. We’ve got evil coal mine owners, backwoods mountain hicks, friendly southern folk, romance, gossipy townswomen, racial discrimination, manslaughter, court trials, etc.
But the thing that really sold the story for me was the characters.
I’m already partial to feminist tropes and female characters who refuse to cow to toxic masculinity, but the character development in The Giver of Stars is so expertly crafted. It’s so effortlessly woven into the story that you don’t even realize it’s happened until you come up for air halfway through the story and realize you know these women better than anybody you work with or see on a daily basis – a tricky feat when you’ve got more than one central character.
Moyes also gives us a great insight into this part of the country during Depression-era America. Throughout the story I felt like I really got a glimpse of what life was like for these people, the issues they were dealing with, and the political and personal considerations of everyday decisions.
This is a lot to accomplish in 400 pages, but Moyes does is flawlessly.
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If you can’t tell from all this gushing, The Giver of Starts got a full 5/5 stars in my book-book and I really can’t recommend it enough. It’s everything I love about books, female friendships, and feminism wrapped up into one nice package.
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