Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Series: Starcrossed (#1)
Pages: 528
Publisher: Macmillan's Children's Books
Published: June 3rd, 2011
IBSN: 9780330529730

Destiny brought them together. The Gods will keep them apart.

When shy, awkward Helen Hamilton sees Lucas Delos for the first time she

 thinks two things. The first: that he is the most ridiculously beautiful boy she has seen in her life. The second: that she wants to kill him with her bare hands.

With an ancient curse making them loathe one another, Lucas and Helen have to keep their distance. But sometimes love is stronger than hate, and not even the gods themselves 

can prevent what will happen...

When I first saw Starcrossed, I had three thoughts on it: (1) I was pleased the characters fell in insta-hate rather than love; (2) that the Greek mythology premise sounded unique; and (3) that I really wish they hyphenated the title.

Angelini's writing style never struck me as particularly note-worthy or eloquent. There were some really odd similes, needless tangents, and awkward, convenient perspective switches. But it wasn't hard to get through; in fact, due to the simple language, it was quite easy and fast to read, despite the mammoth page count.

Third-person narration, however, made it hard for me to care for the main character. Though she was fairly likeable, even if devoid of a memorable personality, the way her voice was (or rather, wasn't) evoked left me reading more for the plot than the people.

The mythology was woven in well, and spun into an interesting new premise. I've read so many books lately based on Greek mythology, just hoping for one that didn't make me want to cringe, and Starcrossed might just have been that one.

The plot was fast-paced and full of twists, though it didn't feel especially organised. Though the main problem was rather straight-forward, other sub-plots were constantly popping up and waiting to be addressed. However, I admired the way the author could leave room for the further books in the series without ending on a cliffhanger.

The romance aspect was threaded in well, not a main complication but one that took a back seat to the real plot, but ties in with it. A lot of the book was spent with the characters gradually developing feelings for each other which gave the coupling a realistic feel and also helped to create chemistry between the two of them.

I'd recommend Starcrossed to people who want more depth to their mythology that other similar recent releases like The Goddess Test didn't offer.

I give Starcrossed a 3 out of 5.