Book Review STARS IN YOUR EYES Kacen Callender

Thank you to the author Kacen Callender, publishers Hachette Books, and NetGalley an advance digital copy of STARS IN YOUR EYES. All views are mine.



As much as it is a romance, STARS IN YOUR EYES is a story about sexual assault, how we define it, and how to support a partner who has experienced it. For me, these topics trigger, but thanks to a thorough content warning in the front matter, I was able to go into the book prepared. Characters drove this one, so I was often shocked, but never surprised, about where the story traveled. Reading this story was both challenging and rewarding, traits the best books possess.


Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I respect and appreciate that the author and publishers include a content warning in the front matter. Take care of yourselves, readers!

2. The experimental form of this book is exciting and engaging. Chapters in multiple perspectives interspersed with chapters in description of multimedia. 

3. Really excellent description of ptsd resulting from early childhood stress aka child abuse or neglect. Perfection was expected of Logan from an early age. He rebelled against this need for perfection as he grew older and realized that nothing he did could earn his father’s love or approval. Logan has since come to expect a certain level of hostility which, unfortunately, so much of the world has often obliged. Logan’s growing self-awareness for the connections of these traumatic events to his current behaviors is promising, and I have already begun to observe a great deal of improvement in the level of distrust he shows me, the staff, and the other clients. He still struggles with emotional distance, which is unusual after having been a patient here for a little over a year now. loc.1261

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I'm 30% of the way through the book and I'm just not that connected to these characters. Note: once Callender started developing the charaters' post-trauma aspects, I connected more deeply.

2. So. Much. Dialog.

3. Multiple perspectives written in first person is tricky because the writer needs to distinguish somehow between the narrators. Or else, they all sounds the same and it's hard to figure out what's going on in the story.

4. Characters drive this story and sometimes the plot drifts and becomes repetitive. It's just the nature of character driven stories.

Rating: 🤩🤩🤩🤩.5 / 5 stars in your eyes
Recommend? Heck yes
Finished: October 11 2023
Format: Digital review copy, NetGalley 
Read this if you like:
🌈 Queer fiction
🩷💜💙 Bi guy rep
👤 Accurate cPTSD rep
❤️‍🔥 Complicated romantic love
❤️‍🩹 Real communication and forgiveness 

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