The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes
Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)
A ‘spirit’ is visiting a town house in Dublin in The Brightest Star in the Sky. What is this ‘spirit’, does it have good or bad intentions, what is it doing in Dublin, and why does it care about the residents in this town house?
The Dublin town house at the center of this novel has a variety of residents and the reader gets a ‘fly on the wall’ perspective into everyone’s lives through the perspective of the ‘spirit’. Through celebrating birthdays, navigating relationships, and dealing with family and roommate challenges, the reader gets to know each resident and the ups and downs of what the residents go through. Keyes brings them all together in different ways and doesn’t reveal the identity of the ‘spirit’ until the end of the book.
I have enjoyed novels by Marian Keys in the past. She is a witty author who blends humor with realistic and serious situations. The characters in The Brightest Star in the Sky are a combination of angry, calm, young, old, oblivious, passionate, sad, happy, and all kinds of mixed up and confused. The reader can tell there are things going unsaid that have characters teetering on the edge of different precipices.
I am giving The Brightest Star in the Sky 4/5 stars. As a reader, I liked having a subjective view of the characters. The ‘spirit’ sees things the characters probably want to go unseen and this view provides great insight into their true selves. I felt that in the middle things seems to hit a few bumps that slowed down the momentum of the story and I found my mind wandering a little while reading. I had the identity of the ‘spirit’ wrong throughout the whole book but thought things came together rather nicely in the end. In addition to The Brightest Star in the Sky, I would also recommend the following by Marian Keyes: Sushi for Beginners, The Other Side of the Story, and Cracks in My Foundation.
Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Reviews, Book Suggestions, Fiction
