Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
All her world’s a stage.
Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
That is, until now.
Enter Stage RightNATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.
COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE’S sidekicks.
ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie’s weakness. The symbol of impending doom.
BERTIE. Our heroine.
Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.
I participated in theater throughout high school, and I absolutely loved it. I worked backstage (I can't sing or act), and I fell in love with the people and the absolute chaos that is the theater. That's probably part of the reason why I loved Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars so much. It reminded me of how it felt to be in the theater, surrounded by people who become a second family.Bertie's life is chaotic to say the least. She's grown up with constant scene changes, without the knowledge of how she came to live in the theater, and with the fairies from A Midsummer Night's Dream as her best friends. Needless to say, she gets into a lot of trouble.
The characters in the book were great. Bertie was a strong, confident, sometimes stubborn lead. She never took no for an answer, and even during absolute chaos was able to improvise. The supporting cast was what was most spectacular to me. Many of the characters were from various different plays, and none of them seemed out of character. I imagined that's just how they would act if they were living in the real world (especially the fairies). I think I should also mention Ariel, from The Tempest, who ended up being my favorite character from the book. I was intrigued by his character, then I hated him, I pitied him, and I loved him. I ended up understanding his motivation to bring down the theater, and also saw him grow as a character.
Fans of the theater will enjoy seeing their favorite characters outside of their respective plays, while other readers might be inspired to go read those plays to find out more. I loved this book, and can't wait to read the sequel.
Eyes Like Stars
By Lisa Mantchev
Published by Feiwel and Friends
352 Pages
Rating: A
9 comments:
I'm not a fan of theater but the cover is so enchanting.
Everyone is raving about this book (in a good way)! Can't wait to get my hands on it. Great review!
I haven't decided if I should read this one yet, but I'd never heard it was about theatre. I guess I'm a little burnt out on fairy books, which is why I've sort of ruled this one out, but I also participated in theatre for awhile and had a boyfriend who was in theatre for years, so that makes this more intriguing...have to decide, do I add this to the monstrous tbr pile or not...
I'm going to have to read this one :)
-Briana
I bought this the other day but I haven't had a chance to read it. It sounds so good.
i really want this book. It makes so jealous that everybody has read it and i haven't yet. I'm sooo tempted to buy this book but I'm saving me $$$ for the hollow.
I can't wait to read ELS! I wish I wasn't ridiculously behind on my reading - so many great books came out this summer.
And a huge THANK YOU for putting the Cinderella Society countdown widget on your blog!!! That's so sweet of you, Lizzy. In fact, if you email me via my contact page I have something you might think is kind of fun. :-)
http://www.kaycassidy.com/about/contact-kay/
I love this cover, great review! I'll have to see about getting it, thanks!
Everybody seems to LOVE this book so I can't wait to read it! Great review!
-Marisa
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