The Chaos of Stars

Kiersten White blends ancient mythology and the life of a modern day teen in a way I’ve never seen before. I’ve read modern day retellings of myths and continuations but never anything quite like this. I simply could not get enough!Isadora is the mortal daughter of Egyptian gods. However, she didn’t always know she was mortal. Talk about a rude awakening! I was so fascinated by her life and how her heritage affected her. Seeing her family and their actions through her eyes was a treat. I have to admit, I’m not nearly as “up” on the Egyptian pantheon of gods as the Greek or Roman. The made the excerpts at the beginning of the chapters really helpful. Also, Isadora “tells” them and, as White bestowed her signature humor and wit upon Isadora, each one had me laughing.The story itself kept me engaged and trying to figure out some of the more mysterious aspects of the plot. Having some familiarity with mythology helped me pick up on a couple things but others took me by surprise. Part of it was I just kept getting so distracted by the endearing characters that I forgot I was trying to piece something together! This is certainly not a complaint. I loved the characters and their idiosyncrasies. I was also impressed with how easily I was able to relate to a character who was raised by deities. The overarching theme of family (and trying to find ones place in their own) is something readers can connect with.In the case of The Chaos of Stars, the pleasure you get from the gorgeous cover only hints at the enjoyment to be found in the story it contains. A fun and delightful book. I can’t wait to get the library copy in to share with my students!

Life as a teen is hard enough, but when you are the daughter of Egyptian Gods, your life comes with a special set of issue. But for Isadora, life as a normal teen is like a fantasy more fantastical than actual mythology. In The Chaos of the Stars, Kiersten White combines modern day teens with ancient mythology for a fun and mystical story.Isadora lives an easy enough life, if you don't count her goddess mother, dead, but undead, father, awkward brother and strange half-brother. As the mortal daughter of immortal God parents, she knows her time with them is limited. But time amongst the immortal is tricky. They live years as moments and she is tired of being ignored because her life is fleeting. When her mother chooses to get pregnant again, a necessary part of keeping herself alive is to produce heirs who will worship her, Isadora is almost happy when it means she is being sent to America to live with her brother. When her mother is pregnant, she is most vulnerable, so it would be safest for Isadora to be squirreled away someplace.Her brother Sirus is welcoming, but she was shocked to find him with a wife- a pregnant wife. To make matters worse, her mother's arms reach far from Egypt and get Isadora a job in a museum curating an exhibit of none other than Isis herself. Isadora wishes she had more distance from Egypt and everything in it, but at the museum she meets some great people- including a mysterious boy who writes epic poetry. While Isadora makes herself quite clear that she has no interest in romance, she can't help but think about Ry (Orion). Isadora starts to think she might just be able to have a normal life away from Eygpt... until Egypt finds her in San Diego.Kiersten White has a way of writing stories in a very middle reader/YA hybrid kind of way. I don't think they follow into either category, but somewhere in between. For instance, they sound kind of young and feel kind of young, but I can picture young adult readers still enjoying their stories (in a much different way than they enjoy the books of Rick Riordan, for instance). It makes them both versatile and hard to place in an equally strange way! Some YA readers find them childish and some middle readers aren't ready yet. But they do have fairly good cross-over appeal, and make for fantastic reads for older, low-skilled readers or younger, high-skilled readers.I like White's stories, but in the Paranormalcy series, she lost me after the first book, which was really, really good. I am looking forward to the next project White works on, and would have loved to see where Isadora's story went, but at the same time, I am happy White plans to leave it as a stand-alone. I think it will do the story justice to not drag it out unnecessarily. For me the big reveal was not terribly surprising, but it was satisfying, nonetheless. This was a fun, interesting tweak on Egyptian mythology!

Imagine the ancient Egyptian gods are still around and have mortal children. That's the opening premise of Kiersten White's new novel. Isadora is the 16 year old daughter of Isis and Osiris and has been raised in a hidden community of gods and goddesses in Egypt. Now, she's ready to get out.Luckily for her, Isis has been having troubling dreams that indicate danger coming for the family. With a little outside persuasion, she decides to send Isadora to live with the brother that is closest to her in age in San Diego for the summer. There, she finally makes some friends her own age, including the impossibly dreamy Ry--he of the gorgeous blue eyes.But, of course, trouble follows Isadora to the other side of the world, and in the end she and Ry have to come to the rescue of her family back in Egypt.That's the structure of the plot, and it's really well done. However, the thing I always love most about any novel, and especially Kiersten's books, are the characters. What's the character motivation behind what's going on in the plot?For the first 13 years of her life, Isadora thought she was immortal just like her parents and half brothers and sisters. She got a rude awakening when they cremated her cat for her to keep in the room that would eventually become her tomb.Every teen has a moment when they realize their parents, or their relationship with their parents, isn't what they thought it would be. We might not discover our parents have had us decorating our own tombs for our whole lives, but something happens that changes the way we view them. How we deal with the new reality shapes who we will be as adults. The background story in Chaos of Stars is really about Isadora deciding who she wants to be, in light of the fact that she's actually mortal.Ry plays a huge role in her realizing she doesn't want to close herself off from the world. I'd love to tell you more about who he is, but there's a secret there that's best discovered at the same time Isadora learns it. Suffice to say, just like she did with Lend in the Paranormalcy series, White has created a hero worthy of her heroine.On a humorous note--and there is always a humorous note in a book by Kiersten White--my favorite part of the book were the introductions to each chapter, explaining a bit of Egyptian mythology. They were written in Isadora's voice, and they were always hilarious.I highly recommend this for anyone looking for either YA fantasy with mythology, or a good teen girl coming of age story.

This book contains one of my favourite quotes. I was rather confused at times - it took me a bit of time to remember all the Egyptian mythology I had learned in school, but by the time the main character goes on her journey and arrives in “modern civilization” I was hooked!I loved the friends she made and how she tried to find herself - both in her look and in her interests. And Orion, he was just the icing on the cake!This book was full of plot twists that kept me engaged.I enjoyed it in the end and I recommend it.

I enjoyed the book. Kept me intrigued and couldn't out it down wish there was a bit more at the end but that may be me saying that because I wish the book was longer. Good read for sure!

It was a good read and put me in a very good mood. Thank you!

Habe das Buch in 2 Tagen durchgelesen. Eine wunderschöne, süße Geschichte. Bin total begeistert.

Awsome book !! I've read it again and again!First time I read Kiersten White and I'm sure I will be reading more books by Kiersten White! Again ,this is an awsome book !!! I recommend it.