The Stars Never Rise on 9 June 2015 Pages: 368
Format: eBook
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Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.
When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.
To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?
Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.
Quite fast paced, and set in a very bleak future, The Stars Never Rise is a solid start to Vincent’s new series.
My The Stars Never Rise review:
At the beginning of The Stars Never Rise, I thought the story had similarities to one of my favorite urban fantasy series Downside Ghosts. Because the it is set in the future, after a big battle, and the church now rules the remaining humans. Nina, the main character, goes to school, and wants to enter the church to become a teacher. However, she also often breaks the rules – even if most of the time that is to keep herself and her younger sister Mellie alive – and she lies by omission to keep the church away from her house. Her mother is mostly absent, out all night, sleeping most of the day, Nina and Mellie think she’s a drug addict. It didn’t take me very long to see that The Stars Never Rise is a completely different and original story, though, and I really enjoyed Nina, how crafty she was, and how loyal she was to her sister.
As the story moves forward, Nina soon has to rely on her wits firs to save herself from a degenerate – a body that’s been possessed by a demon for so long it is no longer fully functional – then, save her sister from the church, and finally, she has to save both of them from their own mother. A mysterious boy who showed up to save her from the degenerate shows up when the church employed exorcists show up to arrest Nina after she killed her mom, and this is where the plot thickens. A lot!
There is a lot going on in The Stars Never Rise, and Nina grows a lot as a character. I really enjoyed that while she thought Finn was good-looking, and he had saved her twice, she did not let her guard down with him, nor trusted him straight away. He did truly want to help her though, and with her new, strange powers, she needs to be closer to other teens who can help her fight the good fight. Even with demons involved, the lines between good and bad are not completely clear cut, and the suspense of the reasoning behind the church had me guessing for just as long as Nina did! And when she figured things out, I was just as shocked as her friends were.
Written in past tense, first person from Nina’s perspective, it was very easy to follow the actions, and with the dialogues as well as Nina’s inner thoughts, I felt connected to her. I can’t wait to see where Vincent is going to take this series, because while there is no actual cliff hanger, the story definitely ended with a lot of questions open, and many directions in which to take both the story and the characters.
Some of my favorite The Stars Never Rise quotes:
It had been more than a century since the United Church and its army of exorcists wiped the bulk of the great demon horde form the face of the earth – the face of America, anyway – yet the headlines never changed.
Then I grew up and realized that was all those stories ever were. Dreams. I lived in the real world, where Mellie was only a part-time citizen.
I knew girls who took that promise very seriously. I also knew girls who lied through their teeth. I didn’t know a single boy who’d ever worn a purity ring. Evidently, their virginity was worth even less than the stolen band of steel around my finger.
This book counts towards the COYER scavenger hunt item 73: Read a book set at least 20 years in the future (5 points)
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
WAIT WHAT THIS IS LIKE DOWNSIDE GHOSTS? *RUNS OUT AND BUYS IT* No really it sounds INCREDIBLE! I love that series!! *deep breaths*, I love the sound of Nina’s character and I’m glad there’s no insta-love here. My gosh it sounds amazing I need it now!
It reminded me of Downside Ghosts at the very beginning, because of the church, and how the main character was doing her own thing, while still being regulated by the church. However, it wasn’t like Downside Ghosts afterwards.
I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy this one, Jeann 🙂
Great to hear that she was easy to follow and connect with
Great review Lexxie! I actually haven’t read Downisde Ghosts so I didn’t see the similarities, but maybe I should give that series a try now as it sounds interesting ;). I also loved how loyal Nina was to her sister and went to lenght to make sure her sister was safe as well, I liked that. I really liked all the twists, although the one about her mom might be my favourite.
I also like how she didn’t trust Finn too soon, but on the other hand I sill felt like it developed a bit too fast and she expected what Finn did/ was a bit too soon. On the other given the world they live in, I can understand that things like romance develop a bit faster. I am really curious about what will happen in the next book and where the author will take this series.
This is on my library list for September 🙂 I think I would enjoy it too. I only read book 1 of the Downside Ghosts so I am not sure I would notice any similarities 🙂
I’m really liking the sound of this one! It sounds different from what I have read and I like that it’s fast paced with so much thrown at the main character. I’ve added it to my to-read list 😀 Excellent review!
Ooh, I’m so happy you liked this, Lexxie. I got a copy at RT and now that I know it counts towards the scavenger hunt, I may just get it read. 😉 I admit to being a little nervous when you made the reference to Downside Ghosts but I’m thrilled that Vincent has written an original and seemingly action-packed introduction to a new series. One I’m curious and eager to start.
How are you doing my dear? Enjoying some sand and sun? I hope so!! I’m sorry to have been MIA for so long. I really meant to chat last Friday but my grandma arrived earlier than I was expecting so I didn’t have time to get online. Anyway, I’m missing you and hope we can catch up this week. **BIG HUGS**
Twitter: pback_princess
Lexxie I thought I’d already commented on this post, pls delete duplicate if I did.
I’m a fan of Rachel Vincent so I was excited when I saw this new release, the synopsis didn’t really thrill me but reading your review has made it go up a few notches on my TBR pile 😀
Well done and good luck for #COYER your doing AMAZINGLY well!
Wow, after reading your review, I really want to pick this one up sooner than later. I am a fan of Rachel Vincent’s writing and bet I will enjoy this one a lot.
The Stars Never Rise is one of my favourites so far this year! I definitely agree with you over Nina not trusting Finn, it was so refreshing to read in a way. However, I absolutely adore Finn.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Sorry I’m a bit late in my comment, I bookmarked this as soon as it went up but my new job has been putting a damper in my reading, blogging, life in general lol. Anyway, this sounds wonderful and I’m happy that you enjoyed it 😀 Nina sounds like a wonderful character, I can’t wait to get to know her and share in all her adventures!
Oh – this book sounds so badass! I’ve seen it over and over on my list, but I always got it confused with The Darkest Minds series (stupid, I know).
Twitter: talksupeblog
Do you know Hex Hall? I think you’ve read that… this sounds like a better and more grown up version of that series. Which is good because I love Hawkins’ series too and I’ve read a few of Vincent’s book. This is a winner
I need to get a copy of this one as it sounds right up my alley! And darn, somehow I’ve missed reading the Downside Ghosts series as well although I’m pretty sure I own that series.