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crystalstarrlight's review against another edition
Bullet Review:
Book 1 of the Great Culling of the Summer of 2014.
DNF at page 48. Skimmed the rest.
Mary Sue is Speshul and Unique and Rebellious and googoo eyed for two boys - do we really need a plot beyond that?
The coolest part was how the plays came to life, but beyond that BEEN THERE DONE THAT DIDNT LIKE IT.
NEXT!!
Book 1 of the Great Culling of the Summer of 2014.
DNF at page 48. Skimmed the rest.
Mary Sue is Speshul and Unique and Rebellious and googoo eyed for two boys - do we really need a plot beyond that?
The coolest part was how the plays came to life, but beyond that BEEN THERE DONE THAT DIDNT LIKE IT.
NEXT!!
lovelyloro's review against another edition
3.0
Conceptually, quite brilliant, but I'm not so sure it translated well into a book. If you are a fan of theater, and more specifically have been involved in what happens behind the curtain, then you will probably enjoy this book. I found that I wasn't as invested in the characters as I normally like to be. I had a hard time figuring out some peoples ages and motives, even at the end when the "real story" is revealed. Sadly I was left wanting. Oh, and here's the other kicker, don't expect resolution with this book because you won't get it. Now I'm left trying to decide if I want to read the follow up book to get some closure, which will most likely end the same way! :S
trin's review against another edition
1.0
The first book I remember actively disliking was one called [b:The Chocolate Touch|88455|The Chocolate Touch|Patrick Skene Catling|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171134941s/88455.jpg|85358]. I was in first or second grade when I read it, and I remember being shocked that a book could be bad—and so very, very bad: illogical, amateurish, convoluted, unrealistic. Bad. Reading Eyes Like Stars brought that experience back in full Technicolor glory.
This book is bad in a way I can't quite wrap my mind around. The protagonist—I can get as far as identifying the protagonist—is a girl named Beatrice Shakespeare Smith, who’s spent her whole life that she can remember in the Théâtre Illuminata, which is apparently where every character from every play resides. (Although except for a few token mentions, it’s really only [a:Shakespeare|947|William Shakespeare|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1179017891p2/947.jpg] characters that appear.) The characters, I think, spend their time putting on their plays, although it's never clear who for, as it is also—and most disappointingly—never clear what type of space the Théâtre Illuminata really is. I could never get a sense of scale (though it must be vast? bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? something?) or any idea what the Théâtre looks like at all. This is where the entire book is set, and from Mantchev's descriptions, I was never able to picture anything more vivid than a blank stage.
The plot, meanwhile, is both minimal and near incomprehensible, and the characters ridiculously thin—and this is when apparently all the greatest characters ever written for the stage are available for walk-on parts! Instead there's a random pirate from [b:Treasure Island|1784488|Treasure Island|Robert Louis Stevenson|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|3077988] or something (that was a play?), an unconvincing Ariel, and Ophelia, who manages to almost be interesting when she isn't performing her drowning scene, which, ahem, does not actually occur in the play. Whoa, time for another flashback! I also had to point out the fact that [b:Hamlet|1420|Hamlet|William Shakespeare|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1158208492s/1420.jpg|1885548] does not contain a scene in which Ophelia drowns to a person in my college creative writing class, who then suggested that her actress main character could just fake-drown in the wings. RIGHT. This book was obviously written by someone with a commensurate amount of skill.
It is utterly baffling to me that this book was published as it is. I feel like I’m in first grade again and my nice, ordered world in which books made sense and were good has been upended. What the hell’s happening?
This book is bad in a way I can't quite wrap my mind around. The protagonist—I can get as far as identifying the protagonist—is a girl named Beatrice Shakespeare Smith, who’s spent her whole life that she can remember in the Théâtre Illuminata, which is apparently where every character from every play resides. (Although except for a few token mentions, it’s really only [a:Shakespeare|947|William Shakespeare|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1179017891p2/947.jpg] characters that appear.) The characters, I think, spend their time putting on their plays, although it's never clear who for, as it is also—and most disappointingly—never clear what type of space the Théâtre Illuminata really is. I could never get a sense of scale (though it must be vast? bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? something?) or any idea what the Théâtre looks like at all. This is where the entire book is set, and from Mantchev's descriptions, I was never able to picture anything more vivid than a blank stage.
The plot, meanwhile, is both minimal and near incomprehensible, and the characters ridiculously thin—and this is when apparently all the greatest characters ever written for the stage are available for walk-on parts! Instead there's a random pirate from [b:Treasure Island|1784488|Treasure Island|Robert Louis Stevenson|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|3077988] or something (that was a play?), an unconvincing Ariel, and Ophelia, who manages to almost be interesting when she isn't performing her drowning scene, which, ahem, does not actually occur in the play. Whoa, time for another flashback! I also had to point out the fact that [b:Hamlet|1420|Hamlet|William Shakespeare|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1158208492s/1420.jpg|1885548] does not contain a scene in which Ophelia drowns to a person in my college creative writing class, who then suggested that her actress main character could just fake-drown in the wings. RIGHT. This book was obviously written by someone with a commensurate amount of skill.
It is utterly baffling to me that this book was published as it is. I feel like I’m in first grade again and my nice, ordered world in which books made sense and were good has been upended. What the hell’s happening?
fatima_zafar11's review against another edition
I really wanted to enjoy the series but couldn't get the idea of what was happening
lexingtonreads's review against another edition
1.5
*sniff* im so sad I wanted to love this book so much because it has such a beautiful cover and the plot was definitely different from what I have ever read in the past . I cant name exactly what it was that made this book a pass for me I just felt like the so called romance was literally out of no where . there was no build up relationship is was like hi nice to meet you I love you now ...the story was just all over the place for me and I wish we got a little bit more backstory on some of the characters . T~T
stephxsu's review against another edition
5.0
At first I thought, wow, Bertie is really immature for a 17-year-old. Then I thought, her four constant fairy companions are annoying. And then, before I knew what had happened, I was sucked into Bertie’s romantic, enthralling, sexy, and fun world and never wanted to leave. Lisa Mantchev displays enormous range with her writing: she manages to capture the ridiculousness of some characters’ behaviors (such as the fairies’ bickering and childlike desires) as well as paint beautiful, romantic passages to give Ariel that dangerously desirable edge. As a result, readers of all age can engage with this story.
Bertie is no ordinary protagonist. She may get into heaps of trouble, but her heart is pure, and that’s why she has so many friends who willingly help her accomplish her goals. She’s not afraid to speak her mind or flash her fists if necessary, and yet she still manages to look at the world with wonder and a bit of vulnerability. If you don’t want to BE Bertie in a book, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Who doesn’t want to be a kick-butt female character?
As mentioned earlier, Lisa uses such descriptive language for Ariel that you can’t help but fall in love with him, despite his questionable ethics. It’s not difficult to understand the attraction between him and Bertie, even if the romance is the tiniest bit rushed at the end.
Outstanding characterization doesn’t just stop at the main characters, however. For such tiny creatures, each one of the fairies manages to have his or her own personality, a feat that has me smiling wide. Lisa Mantchev turns Shakespeare on his head and gives important heroic action to often overlooked characters.
Not just Shakespeare fans will appreciate the new theatrical world that sets the stage for EYES LIKE STARS. And at the end of the book you’ll have no choice but to stand up and chant, “Sequel, sequel, sequel!”
Bertie is no ordinary protagonist. She may get into heaps of trouble, but her heart is pure, and that’s why she has so many friends who willingly help her accomplish her goals. She’s not afraid to speak her mind or flash her fists if necessary, and yet she still manages to look at the world with wonder and a bit of vulnerability. If you don’t want to BE Bertie in a book, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Who doesn’t want to be a kick-butt female character?
As mentioned earlier, Lisa uses such descriptive language for Ariel that you can’t help but fall in love with him, despite his questionable ethics. It’s not difficult to understand the attraction between him and Bertie, even if the romance is the tiniest bit rushed at the end.
Outstanding characterization doesn’t just stop at the main characters, however. For such tiny creatures, each one of the fairies manages to have his or her own personality, a feat that has me smiling wide. Lisa Mantchev turns Shakespeare on his head and gives important heroic action to often overlooked characters.
Not just Shakespeare fans will appreciate the new theatrical world that sets the stage for EYES LIKE STARS. And at the end of the book you’ll have no choice but to stand up and chant, “Sequel, sequel, sequel!”
aggressive_nostalgia's review against another edition
A fantastic story! The backstory was imaginative; the entire premise of the Theatre was - while perhaps not the absolute most original concept - very well played out and developed. It had me completely hooked from very near the beginning. And the characters! The whole diverse cast of them (no pun intended, my advance apologies if I make any more) really made the story come to life, as did the tension that builds up around Bertie as she tries to balance out: her growing attraction to her friend/protector, the gallant piratical Nate; the whimsical advice of her mischievous partners-in-crime, the fairies; and the advances of Ariel, her childhood playmate turned magnetically-drop-dead-gorgeous faery villain (and may I say I love that name? To finally see it used as a guy's name, outside the actual Shakespeare, made me pretty excited). This quadrangle, as it were, was the most compelling aspect of the story for me. Bertie's struggle to find her place in the Theatre she's always called home versus her need to find out where she came from in the outside world made for an engaging classic-fantasy basic storyline. My one real complaint with the novel is that it was sometimes a little bit hard to tell what was going on, once the story began to get more chaotic, and I felt that some parts of the Theatre's magic weren't explained thoroughly enough to lend understanding of some of the plot twists. Nonetheless, I completely loved this book, and will be on the lookout for the sequel I'm assuming must be coming after that ending!
katiepercha's review against another edition
5.0
5 stars bc this used to be one of my favorite books as a kid. the nostalgia got me.
juliettechihyu's review against another edition
2.0
Eyes Like Stars follows a 17 year old girl, Bertie (short for Beatrice), who lives in a strange, magical theatre where all the characters are actually real. The plot follows Bertie as she tries to find her place in said theatre.
Going into the book, I didn't quite know what to expect. From reading the synopsis, I could already tell that there was going to be a love triangle and if there's one thing that depletes the entertainment value of a story for me, it's love triangles. Well, that and present-tense narratives.
While I still did not enjoy the 'romance' parts of the story, it fortunately wasn't the dominant theme and instead, we follow all the chaos that ensues in the theatre when something goes horribly wrong. I would say that the whole novel reads a bit like a cartoon movie, if that makes sense. A lot of the dialogue and the actions of the characters feel very well like they could have been taken from an animated Disney movie, particularly when it comes to Bertie's sidekick fairies, who offer the most comedic lines.
As a heroine, Bertie is feisty and determined but she can come off as rude and inconsiderate. She frequently gets into trouble and, despite claiming she will amend her ways, she never really tries hard to make things easier for those around her. I feel like authors always write teenage characters as headstrong rebels but, as a 'teen', even I thought Bertie's 'rebellious nature' to be somewhat disrespectful.
Another problem I have with the story is simply the setting. Bertie wears jeans and there's technology and whatnot but there are also carriages and somewhat old-fashioned clothing and language in this world. I can't, for the life of me, figure out what time period or what sort of world this novel is set in.
Overall, this story will pique your curiosity (magical theatres and all) and there are some funny dialogue and a stunning cover, but the lack of specifics about the setting and the strange, unnecessary romance is definitely a downside.
Going into the book, I didn't quite know what to expect. From reading the synopsis, I could already tell that there was going to be a love triangle and if there's one thing that depletes the entertainment value of a story for me, it's love triangles. Well, that and present-tense narratives.
While I still did not enjoy the 'romance' parts of the story, it fortunately wasn't the dominant theme and instead, we follow all the chaos that ensues in the theatre when something goes horribly wrong. I would say that the whole novel reads a bit like a cartoon movie, if that makes sense. A lot of the dialogue and the actions of the characters feel very well like they could have been taken from an animated Disney movie, particularly when it comes to Bertie's sidekick fairies, who offer the most comedic lines.
As a heroine, Bertie is feisty and determined but she can come off as rude and inconsiderate. She frequently gets into trouble and, despite claiming she will amend her ways, she never really tries hard to make things easier for those around her. I feel like authors always write teenage characters as headstrong rebels but, as a 'teen', even I thought Bertie's 'rebellious nature' to be somewhat disrespectful.
Another problem I have with the story is simply the setting. Bertie wears jeans and there's technology and whatnot but there are also carriages and somewhat old-fashioned clothing and language in this world. I can't, for the life of me, figure out what time period or what sort of world this novel is set in.
Overall, this story will pique your curiosity (magical theatres and all) and there are some funny dialogue and a stunning cover, but the lack of specifics about the setting and the strange, unnecessary romance is definitely a downside.