I'm not one to read retellings. Typically, I think they're overdone and rely too heavily on the source text to stand out and become their own, brilliant thing. It really takes something special for a retelling to catch my eye and, more often than not, that requires it to be a retelling of a text I've never seen retold before.
"Scavenge the Stars" is a retelling of the classic "The Count of Monte Cristo", gender-bent and through a YA lens. While this book can technically be classified as fantasy, I struggle to fit it under that label, simply because it's not overly so. I would say this is more of a light fantasy than a full-on crazy fantastical journey. Not to say that this story isn't crazy or fantastic: it's both of these things, woven deeply into a 3rd person, dual-perspective plot-line.
You first meet Silverfish while she's aboard a debtor's ship, where she's been since she was a child working off some unknown debt. She's been stripped of everything: her possessions, her basic human rights, and even her name- Amaya. Her debt is almost up when she spies a man struggling to swim in the waters below and brings him aboard the ship in order to save him. While her sentence is lengthened, Silverfish doesn't need to worry- this man she's just saved is offering her all the riches in the world, in exchange for help in taking out a common enemy. This character is the one we follow for most of the story...
...until a little later on, when a young man by the name of Cayo comes into play. Cayo is the son of a nobleman of Moray. He's rich and reckless and rehabilitating himself from the life of partying and gambling he's been freshly forced out of by his father.
"Scavenge the Stars" is the tale of one girl's plot for revenge and one boy's plot for reconciliation.
While it took me a while to read this book, I can safely and whole-heartedly say that it was because of my reading slump, and not the book itself. This plot was engaging and held true to the original book, while also having a life of its own. Tara Sim's world-building is interesting and new in the way that she doesn't give everything up at once- each tidbit of the world, each little detail she's thought out so thoroughly, is pocketed until the perfect time. This was one of my favorite things about the book- that you were learning new things about the world of Moray organically as opposed to everything all at once.
Characters are undoubtedly my favorite aspect of any book. In many ways, you can make or break a story for me simply based on how attached I find myself to the characters. While I loved Amaya by the end of the book, with her strong convictions and her absolute need to make things right, the love I had for Cayo was instant. I found myself eager to read his sections of the story. His character inhabits things I love seeing in novels: a strong love for siblings, a high moral code, and bisexual representation. He was, by far, my favorite character.
The side characters, however, were a little lack-luster for me. I'm usually all about my side characters, but for me, the ones in this novel weren't my favorites. While Amaya is working on her plot for revenge, she is given people to aid her in her journey. Namely some of the children she worked on the debtorship with, and a few others meant to act as bodyguards. These characters weren't very memorable or interesting, unfortunately. While they had names and backstories, you never really quite felt for them. Which, I suppose, is the way many people view side characters, but it was a little bit of a low point for me, personally.
The only major critique I had with the novel itself was another character-centric issue: one of the most important characters is unseen through the entirety of the book. While this was an issue that was resolved and explained at the end, it was still something that really bothered me throughout the first 3/4s of the book.
Overall, this is one of the better YA fantasies I've read in quite a while. I'm beyond invested in this story, and excited to see where the story goes from here.
"Scavenge the Stars" is a retelling of the classic "The Count of Monte Cristo", gender-bent and through a YA lens. While this book can technically be classified as fantasy, I struggle to fit it under that label, simply because it's not overly so. I would say this is more of a light fantasy than a full-on crazy fantastical journey. Not to say that this story isn't crazy or fantastic: it's both of these things, woven deeply into a 3rd person, dual-perspective plot-line.
You first meet Silverfish while she's aboard a debtor's ship, where she's been since she was a child working off some unknown debt. She's been stripped of everything: her possessions, her basic human rights, and even her name- Amaya. Her debt is almost up when she spies a man struggling to swim in the waters below and brings him aboard the ship in order to save him. While her sentence is lengthened, Silverfish doesn't need to worry- this man she's just saved is offering her all the riches in the world, in exchange for help in taking out a common enemy. This character is the one we follow for most of the story...
...until a little later on, when a young man by the name of Cayo comes into play. Cayo is the son of a nobleman of Moray. He's rich and reckless and rehabilitating himself from the life of partying and gambling he's been freshly forced out of by his father.
"Scavenge the Stars" is the tale of one girl's plot for revenge and one boy's plot for reconciliation.
While it took me a while to read this book, I can safely and whole-heartedly say that it was because of my reading slump, and not the book itself. This plot was engaging and held true to the original book, while also having a life of its own. Tara Sim's world-building is interesting and new in the way that she doesn't give everything up at once- each tidbit of the world, each little detail she's thought out so thoroughly, is pocketed until the perfect time. This was one of my favorite things about the book- that you were learning new things about the world of Moray organically as opposed to everything all at once.
Characters are undoubtedly my favorite aspect of any book. In many ways, you can make or break a story for me simply based on how attached I find myself to the characters. While I loved Amaya by the end of the book, with her strong convictions and her absolute need to make things right, the love I had for Cayo was instant. I found myself eager to read his sections of the story. His character inhabits things I love seeing in novels: a strong love for siblings, a high moral code, and bisexual representation. He was, by far, my favorite character.
The side characters, however, were a little lack-luster for me. I'm usually all about my side characters, but for me, the ones in this novel weren't my favorites. While Amaya is working on her plot for revenge, she is given people to aid her in her journey. Namely some of the children she worked on the debtorship with, and a few others meant to act as bodyguards. These characters weren't very memorable or interesting, unfortunately. While they had names and backstories, you never really quite felt for them. Which, I suppose, is the way many people view side characters, but it was a little bit of a low point for me, personally.
The only major critique I had with the novel itself was another character-centric issue: one of the most important characters is unseen through the entirety of the book. While this was an issue that was resolved and explained at the end, it was still something that really bothered me throughout the first 3/4s of the book.
Overall, this is one of the better YA fantasies I've read in quite a while. I'm beyond invested in this story, and excited to see where the story goes from here.
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