The Chaos of Stars
By Kiersten White
About:
Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.
Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.
Source: Goodreads
My rating: 4.25/5
My Thoughts:
I'm glad to say that this book has lived up to the hype. Very quick to get into and fairly easy to follow. It was a little weird at first, trying to relate to the daughter of two Egyptian Gods, but Isadora has an interesting way of talking that you can't help but enjoy her company. Isadora's parents are immortal and so she always assumed she was going to live forever too. Imagine her surprise when she realises that she is just another mortal, and she has been decorating her own tomb! She can't forgive her parents for not caring enough that they would make her immortal too, so she goes to live with her mortal brother for a short while. Her rebellious nature, especially the cutting off her hair, doing things deliberately just because her mother would disprove, was definitely something I could relate to!
Isadora has a very man-hating relationship and won't get involved with anyone purely on the basis that nothing lasts forever. Her self-resolve begins to dissolve when she meets Ry...and their friendship changes her perspective in a number of ways. I want to know what this weird connection is between the greeks and the egyption gods....there appears to be a lot else going on!
My family always believes dreams are another way of the universe sending messages or signs, which is similar to what Isadora's family thinks. I really liked the concept, especially how her nightmares shaped the darkness that was actually coming into her life.
This is definitely one of my recommended reads, and I look forward to the sequel.
Zed (:
Favourite Quotes:
"Did you pray?" she asks.
"For the last time," I say, narrowing my kohl-lined black eyes at her, "I refuse to pray to my own parents. It's ridiculous."
"Don't be so dramatic, Isadora. You can help me with the baby! It'll be good practice for when you have your own in a few years!"
Oh, death, anything but that. There are enough statues of nursing miniature pharaohs everywhere I turn that I vowed long ago never to have kids of my own.
I roll my eyes. "No. It's a joke. Sometimes people tell them to each other."
"Dreams are not a joking matter, Isadora."
"Absolutely. Your brain firing off random images while you sleep is dead serious."
"As long as we are agreed."
"Umm, I've barely even ridden in cars. I don't exactly know how to drive them."
"We can work on that. In the meantime, Deena has a bike she's not using."
"Thanks." I don't know how to ride a bike, either, but that has less potential for killing innocent bystanders.
He waits for a few seconds. "You aren't going to ask me what I'm writing, are you?"
I shrug. "Nope."
"I like that. I like your hair, too. The green is a nice contrast."
"Wanted something different."
"I declare it a success."
I roll my eyes. "My life is complete."
I can't help but notice him, and-oh, idiot gods, I am definitely attracted to him. This is how it starts. This is how I set myself up for pain and tragedy and endings where I want eternities.
I refuse. I refuse it all. I will never attach myself to someone else. I can end everything before it starts and be free and alone and perfectly happy.
"So, I'm not strange anymore?" he asks.
"What?"
"You're riding in my car, which must mean I'm not a stranger anymore."
"Actually, the more I'm around you, the stranger you get."
"You started a bit late this morning," my mother says.
I whisper Thoth's name, tracing it without looking up at her. My stomach twists guiltily. I slept in five minutes past dawn. "I'm sorry."
"We must always have order in this house. Everything has a time and a purpose. If we maintain order..."
"We never leave chaos an opening to creep in," I finish, and look up at her.
"For the love of these idiot gods, anything but that."
"This song. 'Oh, hey, it's okay that I slept with you and left the next morning without a word, because someday someone will love you.' Seriously?"
He laughs. "I dunno, it has a nice message: we'll all find love eventually."
"That's not the message at all! That's the excuse! He's saying it's okay he used her because someday someone will actually love her, unlike him. Dude deserves to be castrated if you ask me."
Love isn't magic. Just like my family, just like my place in the universe, it's something that I can't keep, can't make last.
I would rather lose Ry before I ever have him.
"Stop it!" I gasp.
"What?"
"That thing you're doing! With your eyes!"
"Um, opening them? Or blinking? Should I not blink?"
"Just-make them less blue or something."
He laughs, oblivious to my drowning desert. "It's pitch-black out here. You can't see what colour they are."
"But I still know, and they know I know. So just-point them somewhere else."
"...And then I found you, and I didn't fall in love with you."
What the crap? I raise and eyebrow at him, and he grins.
"I didn't fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we'd choose anyway. And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you."
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