Sunday, August 29, 2021

2021 book 179

 Monica Byrne's The Actual Star

Y’all. This book was so good. Like, this is definitely going to be on my list of favorite books of the year, and if it’s not on a bunch of actual year end lists, it’s a goddamned travesty. So ok, this book is set in three different time periods—1012, following three royal children (well, one child and two teenagers) in the Mayan Empire; 2012, following a young American woman, Leah, on a trip to Belize to connect with her heritage, and the two twin brother tour guides she meets there; and 3012, in a utopia built after the ravages of climate change, with a really interesting society (everyone uses she/her pronouns in honor of Saint Leah, and there is some other gender/sex stuff going on as well), but one philosophical question might unravel everything. The characters here are great, the connections between the different time periods are great, all three time periods have compelling stories, everything about this book kind of blew my mind? Also, the author is local! I am going to be thinking about this one for a while. SO GOOD. A.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 14th.

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