"The Sound of Stars" by Alechia Dow

So imagine this: you're just trying to live your best life, pre-2020, with aspects like casual racism, personal and national debts, and the oncoming storm of climate change both on the forefront and the background of your day-to-day activities.

Cool.

Then, one day, out of nowhere, aliens arrive, proving once and for all that there is not just life out in the universe, but intelligent life with spaceships and advanced societal cultures and solutions for Earth's problems.

Neat.

However, Earth, being the stand-up place it is, fires missiles at the spaceships, successfully destroying the enemy before it has a chance to annihilate the human race once and for all.

Great.

Shortly after Earth sends the alien spacecraft crashing to the ground in a blaze of hellfire, reinforcements arrive by overwhelming numbers and takes over the Earth.

Awesome.

When they take over Earth, not only do they have the intention of taking over the planet, but also concentrating the human population within "centers," or centralized apartment complexes/living places, and not only dividing humans between their suited uses for the invading alien race, which can range from general labor to lab rats for a mysterious drug, but keeping human life in general on a tight, colonialist leash.

Terrific.

Now, imagine that you've somehow survived all of this, and are now trying to live your best life in this new "society," despite the fact that aliens have colonized everyone's way of life and that if you're caught with anything that is considered suspicious behavior, then you and/or anyone else that you know and love can be publicly executed for showing any signs of "resistance" that the invading alien race deems appropriate.

Fantastic.

However, despite the constant anxiety of being colonized by a different race of living being and the constant threat of watching your friends, family, and peers getting publicly executed and/or getting yourself publicly executed and having the thoughts of your loved ones watching you die, you've decided to keep a collection of your favorite books hidden in an unused basement, something that would absolutely give you a one-way ticket to the Public Execution Station. Would you continue to keep your favorite books despite this fact? Would you keep them to start a secret library system between you and your peers?

Would you continue to keep them if you knew it would one day save the world?

What's the book about?

Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the deaths of one-third of the world’s population. Seventeen-year-old Janelle “Ellie” Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. Deemed dangerously volatile because of their initial reaction to the invasion, humanity’s emotional transgressions are now grounds for execution. All art, books and creative expression are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library. When a book goes missing, Ellie is terrified that the Ilori will track it back to her and kill her. Born in a lab, M0Rr1S (Morris) was raised to be emotionless. When he finds Ellie’s illegal library, he’s duty-bound to deliver her for execution. The trouble is, he finds himself drawn to human music and in desperate need of more. They’re both breaking the rules for love of art—and Ellie inspires the same feelings in him that music does. Ellie’s—and humanity’s—fate rests in the hands of an alien she should fear. M0Rr1S has a lot of secrets, but also a potential solution—thousands of miles away. The two embark on a wild and dangerous road trip with a bag of books and their favorite albums, all the while making a story and a song of their own that just might save them both.

(Summary from Goodreads)

When did I read this?

August 18- September 7

Why did it take me so long to read this?

It took me nearly a month to listen/read to The Sound of Stars because of a couple of factors:

• This book, while entertaining and enjoyable, wasn't my usual genre, so it took me a while to get used to certain tropes and names and language structures for the alien races mentioned in the novel.

• I lost interest part-way through the story, so I took a few days off from listening to it. After those few days, I decided to pick it up again and listened all the way to the end. Again, it was partly because The Sound of Stars isn't my usual genre to read, and also because of other reasons that I will describe later in this post.

Positives:

+ Alechia uses the actual names of popular YA book and song titles, like The Hate U Give and Bohemian Rhapsody, within the story, not only providing context to where and how long the story takes place from the present, but also connecting the readers to the stories that they know and love.

+ This story has a bi/pan/demisexual main character, a non-binary side-character, and briefly mentions a homosexual couple.

+ The reader gets a glimpse of the world outside of the New York Center and how much of a post-apocalyptic war zone it is.

+ There are scenes featuring accurate representation of someone experiencing frequent anxiety attacks and their coping mechanisms. Thank you so much, Alechia Dow, for providing this representation!!!

+ I absolutely loved the short and wholesome AF scene between M0Rr1S and a little boy named Joseph. ❤️

+ The narration between Joy Sunday (Ellie) and Christian Barillas (M0Rr1S) was pretty well done, their voices shifting easily between the human characters, the Ilori, and all the other characters we meet on this road trip of destiny.

Negatives:

- As mentioned previously, I momentarily lost interest part-way through the novel, which must have been the first sign because I couldn’t really get invested in the story or the world that takes place. Even after I picked it back up again, there were a few points towards the middle of the story where I just kind of went about my own business while listening to what was going on and I didn't feel like I missed anything.

- The sci-fi names of the Ilori sometimes took me a while to get used to and I could kind of picture what they were supposed to look like. Again, this is a consequence of me not being used to reading sci-fi novels and not based on anything that Alechia has constructed.

Reality Check:

Global warming, mentions of racism, the world falling apart 2020-style/2020-lite.

Content Warning:

Two instances of public executions, frequent anxiety attacks, colonialism, one moment of near-assault in an enclosed space.

Is it a truly immersive experience?

I wouldn't necessarily say that it was a truly immersive experience for me, maybe more of a sporadically-immersive one. As I've mentioned before, I couldn't get into the story at times, more commonly towards the middle when Ellie and M0Rr1S are on the road and talking about their love of music and books and each other and how M0Rr1S's technology and culture works as their budding relationship grows. As I've also mentioned, this isn't a genre I don't typically read, so that contributed to my sporadic litassociation.

However, even though this isn't a genre I normally read, and despite the Negatives I listed earlier in this post, there were portions within the story that I did enjoy, such as:

• I enjoyed when Ellie and M0Rr1S are just hanging out and telling each other stories and songs.

• I enjoyed the fact that modern YA titles and songs are mentioned by name instead of public domain titles you usually see within stories like The Sound of Stars.

• I enjoyed the fact that we were given a chronically-anxious character and also shows an effective coping mechanism for fellow readers with anxiety to go "oh, hey, I do that!" or "oh, hey, that might help with my anxiety!", so thank you again, Alechia! :)

• The scene between M0Rr1S and the little boy, Joseph, was so, so wholesome. I would recommend this book to anyone just based on this one scene because it's adorable and it filled my heart with warm feelings and made me completely forget that things like COVID-19 and 2020 existed. ❤️

• I also enjoyed how the story ended. Without going into too much detail, it didn't end in the way that I thought a story like this conventionally would, but the ending leaves you with hope for the future of humanity and the future of Ellie and M0Rr1S's relationship.

So, with all of these points considered, I would recommend this book to anyone who's curious. If you're looking for a post-apocalyptic road-trip book, then The Sound of Stars may be the book for you. If you're looking for the latest in young adult sci-fi, then this may be the book for you. If you're looking for a slow-burn read, then this may be the book for you. I'm still not quite sure who I should specifically recommend or who I'm supposed to recommend this story to, but if you're looking for a book with warm and memorable moments, then The Sound of Stars may just be your next read.

The Sound of Stars can be found at your local library and/or your nearest bookstore.

Final rating:

"Books taught me that anything can happen when you fight for it" — Alechia Dow