Review: Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood

With the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate's friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves.

Cate doesn't want to be a weapon, and she doesn't want to involve her friends and Finn in the Sisterhood's schemes. But when Maura and Tess join the Sisterhood, Maura makes it clear that she'll do whatever it takes to lead the witches to victory. Even if it means sacrifices. Even if it means overthrowing Cate. Even if it means all-out war.

In the highly anticipated sequel to Born Wicked, the Cahill Witch Chronicles continue Cate, Maura and Tess's quest to find love, protect family, and explore their magic against all odds in an alternate history of New England

If there is one book this year that I will look back on twenty years from now it is Star Cursed. I seriously don't know why I waited so long. I mean, I do know. I expected it to be good, so I saved it for later. 

And it was good. Just...WAY better than I had thought.

Jessica Spotswood keeps the action going from the first to the last page. I was on the edge of my seat/bed the whole entire time! 

And that does not only have to do with plot. Something you get really rarely in YA, I think, are shivers down your spine. And I don't mean just one little action scene at the end. No, no. In Star Cursed you have that shiver on every page, in every scene, because you have NO idea who to trust, what is going to happen, who will live, who will die. 

As I am reading more and more YA (heyo, 1.5 years of blogging, right?) it gets easier and easier to just guess plots. You just now what's coming, or at least, you have a very secure guess.

For example, I am reading Allegiant right now - one of the best YA novels ever, I am sure - but even with that book I feel like I know what's coming.

In Star Cursed everything was a surprise. And what made it even better was that those surprises were realistic ones! They fit into the plot, without feeling superficial or just randomly thrown in to keep the suspense.

Something else that Spotswood does beautifully is characters and development. Admittedly, the ongoing tension between the main characters was extremely nerveracking. BUT - well done. 

It was visible what Cate, Maura and Tess were feeling, how their lives and personalities led to their choices and to  how they treated each other. It was not some random rivalry or allegiance between some of the sisters and I felt like their relationships were ever changing. 

I have to mention Tess seperately, because I was almost proud of her. I don't know how to explain, I know it sounds weird. In the first book, I found her very bland and stereotypical. She seemed to be nessecary, but not involved.

In this book, not only her role as a character developed, she herself grew into such an opinionated, interesting girl - I was impressed by both, the author's talent of including her into the story more and at the same  time her steady, but beautiful development.

Then, of course, there is the romance. Although I find Maura's situation interesting, it wan't really the main point of the book and was - of course - overshadowed by Finn and Cate. I won't spoil anything, but just say that Spotswood is the queen of romance, as well as the queen of everything else, really.

And then the ending. The ending killed me. It broke my heart. It tore me into pieces. And I'm not just saying that. Read for yourself, really. I'm pretty sure you have never encountered an ending even a bit like this one.