It seems as though more and more, teen books are starting a trend of confronting tough situations. Whether it is cancer, abuse, self-harm–anything that a teen can relate to is fair game. I think this is wonderful. After all, shouldn’t teens be able to find a book that they can look to as something of a confidant? I know I have done this often since my teen years. Sometimes it is nice to read a book about dragons or vampires, just to simply escape ordinary life, but sometimes fictionalized accounts of things that can happen in real life are the best way to understand what is happening in our world today.

Made of Stars was an easy read in the sense that it was a slim novel that was fast-paced and exciting, but it had a deeper message underneath all of the adventure and summer fun. A message that was dark and scary, and one that I think I often ignore. Chance, Hunter, and Ashlin have always spent their summers together. Time off from school was never hard to fill when Chance was around to make up some crazy game or story to occupy their minds. To me, Chance seemed like that friend that you always want to be around, otherwise things are just too dull. He was the “life of the party”.

From the beginning of this book I got the feeling that Chance had a story he wasn’t telling though. Ashlin and Hunter are your typical teens, and they want to believe everything is as it looks, happy and fun, but sometimes you have to dig deeper. Some of the things Chance did just seemed a little too weird and crazy for a normal teen to think up. When I got to the end of the book, I understood completely why he acted the way he did, and I think Hunter and Ashlin did too. The ending was predictable in a way, but at the same time I felt like it could have ended differently and I would have been just as surprised.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  6 religious exclamations; 11 mild obscenities; 4 scatological words; 3 anatomical terms; 8 F-Word derivatives.

Violence/Gore:  Verbal threats are made by a man to his wife and child; a boy shows bruises, abuse is implied; a character goes missing for long periods of time, no one knows where he is; a character is murdered in her home by a gunshot wound; a girl is chased by a man in one brief scene; a character is out in the cold and ends up in the hospital due to hypothermia; a character is mentioned to have been shot in the line of duty, he must go to the hospital to get the wounds treated.

Sex/Nudity:  Minors kiss a few times; sex is referred to among minors; a man is mentioned to cheat on his wife; two boys are attracted to each other; a minor boy kisses another minor boy in a romantic way; two teen boys sleep together, with some mention of intended sexual innuendo but no descriptive scene; a girl is mentioned to want to experience sex.

Mature Subject Matter:

Missing persons, murder, gender/sex identity issues, homosexuality, child abuse.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink alcohol casually.