For readers of Girl in Pieces and The Way I Used to Be comes an emotionally gripping story about facing hard truths in the aftermath of sexual assault. Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn’t know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn’t help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.

• Girl Made Of Stars, by Ashley Herring Blake

This book is rated for ages 14 and above.

Warning: This review may discuss sensitive topics related to sexual assault, altercations with the judicial system, sexuality and anxiety and panic attacks.

“Even girls made of stars are captives, bound at the wrists and traded like property. Even girls made of stars aren’t asked, aren’t believed, aren’t considered worth the effort unless they can offer something in return.

Even girls made of stars buy into those lies sometimes”

This book…destroyed me. It was emotional, it was poignant, it was a harsh slap of reality to the face, reminding me that we live in a world where issues like this rage on rampantly with no foreseeable end, at times.

The story follows Mara, twin sister to Owen. From the very beginning, Owen is painted like a hero in Mara’s eyes. He’s likeable, he’s got a girlfriend, Hannah, who’s head over heels for him, he’s that best, supportive twin that shows up in those American sitcoms when they talk about “twin magic” and being able to feel everything your other half can. They’ve always had each other’s back and nothing’s changed. Ever.

With a devastating twist comes the chapter when Hannah accuses Owen of raping her. This puts Mara in a situation where she has to choose between supporting her family, or her best friend. On top of this, she’s in a difficult position with Charlie, her ex-girlfriend, where they’re unable to figure out what, exactly, their relationship truly is.

• I think what Blake did brilliantly was portray how even the most likeable individuals, even the people who seem like they’d never commit such a horrendous crime, are fully capable of doing so. This hits really hard, carves open the ugly truth of society, where we realise that monsters could be hiding in plain sight. And no one would know it.

• For most victims, our default for any situation is to offer compassion. To attempt to empathise with something that’s so unimaginable and so far out of our nightmares. However, I could almost feel the pain slashing Mara’s heart when she was confronted with the harsh reality of the perpetrator being her own twin brother.

• There are so many complex sides to Owen shown, and as Mara begins to see differently, at times in extremely condemning ways, his entire personality shifts. It’s a masterful, amazingly executed three-dimensional shift that displays him in a completely different, almost terrifying light.

• My heart broke for Hannah, who struggled so, so hard. Even at the end, she was struggling to make claims against Owen, even doubting her own experience to attempt to downplay what she faced. It shows us the extent of the damage that can be done when society regards victims with suspicion, instead of lending a listening ear and acting against the crime committed. It tells us how millions of women out there, afraid to speak up, afraid to acknowledge what has happened to them in fear of stigma and disgust, live in this silent torture every single day, while males out there walk free without consequence. My heart shattered when she apologised to Mara for “bothering” Owen and destroying his life, for something that wasn’t her fault at all. It makes you think, “but what about her life? Why does no one care?”

• The book explores extremely heavy topics, including rape, sexual assault, misogyny, biphobia and male privilege. It opens our eyes, as a community, to the amount we have to progress, to learn that horrors like this take place and it’s important to take them seriously instead of resorting to slut-shaming and disregarding the victim’s experiences entirely. What we don’t know, we shouldn’t preach, for it could cause irreversible damage.

• Mara and Charlie’s relationship is so, so beautiful, and I love how they continue to support each other even while trying to figure out their own identities and sexualities.

• Blake doesn’t sugarcoat life after abuse, narrating it with love, grief, hope and healing. It relayed an extremely powerful, empowering, hauntingly heart-wrenching message, emphasising how they Hannah, and others like her, aren’t just victims. They are survivors.

• Mara’s own experience brought tears to my eyes, with her emotions and character development written in such an honest, vulnerable, RAW way that it was impossible not to feel the hardships she went through, almost like they were my own.

• Girl Made Of Stars doesn’t live in a Disney world, with a happy ending where everyone who did wrong is punished and everyone lived happily every after. It doesn’t preach, doesn’t overly focus on Owen and what he did, but instead, focusses on how the Hannah, Mara, Charlie all vehemently fought for what was right, rising up against the wrong done to them. Life isn’t black or white, but it’s important to keep fighting for what your morals are, for what you know is right.

• It asks us a very important question, truly. If someone in your family committed such a heinous act, what would you do? Who would you support? The way Mara’s feminist mother was so quick to bury herself in denial and stand by her son no matter what is an example of that dilemma we would all face. It’s not flowery, it’s not lyrical or magical, it’s unflinching reality.

• Even the love triangle was portrayed in a logical way, instead of a pathetic, pandering manner. That’s when you know the book is amazing.

Lessons to be learned:

• The importance of consent: The book emphasises on the devastating ripple effects that come with sexual assault, and the importance of preventing something as heinous as this from happening to anyone out there.
• Relationships: It explores the forgiveness, betrayal and struggle that can come with friendships or romantic relationships, not shying away from the actuality of hardship that comes along with emotional attachment of any kind.
• Individuality and identity: It explores how gender, sexuality, mental health and race intersect to form a person’s identity, and every identity out there must be respected and accepted, even if they don’t conform to the oppressive societal expectations that could be faced in certain situations and cultures.
• Support: The importance of solidarity and support during a difficult time, the importance of speaking out for not only your own justice, but for those thousands, millions of women or girls out there who need to be empowered to be strong enough to speak out alongside you, even in the face of crushing resistance and victim-blaming.
• Reconciliation and healing: This isn’t just a book about sexual assault, it’s a book about self-acceptance after trauma, of emerging as a survivor after a traumatic experience. It relays a crucial lesson, teaching us to find our own voice and self-compassion, and learning how to forgive ourselves to emerge stronger, united in the end.

An absolute masterpiece, a shining example of YA fiction, I would highly recommend this book to everyone out there. A highly impactful and thought-provoking novel, be careful, it’ll make you cry.

“To heal, you must first confront the pain”

Signing off…