The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes | Book Review

Welcome to 66 Star Street . . . In the top-floor flat lives music exec Katie. She spends her days fighting off has-been rock stars and wondering how much cheesecake you'd need to eat yourself to death. Below her, a pair of muscular Poles share with a streetwise cabbie named Lydia, who has a sharp tongue, an even sharper brain but some unexpected soft spots. On the first floor is Fionn - a gardener who prefers the company of parsnips to people. But he looks like a fairy-tale prince and when he's offered his own television show, he's suddenly thrust into the limelight. And at the bottom of the house live Matt and Maeve, who are Very Much In Love and who stave off despair by doing random acts of kindness. But a mysterious visitor has just landed at 66 Star Street, bringing love, friendship and heartbreak, and a new-found optimism. Old secrets are working their way to the surface and all their lives are about to change in the most unexpected of ways

Blurb taken from: Good Reads 

Is there anything better than spending a wintery morning reading under the duvet with a big mug of hot chocolate in hand?

No. 

No there isn't.

 

What an incredibly strange book.

The whole while I kept on asking myself, 'who the hell is this narrator?!' 

 I couldn't figure out if it was some spiritual being - a ghost??? 
Was it 'Karma,' or 'Fate,' in word form? 
I couldn't even figure out if the narrator was creepy or not.. spying on people's lives and particularly interested in their sexual relations with one another.

It took me a while to click on (perhaps why I recently dyed the blonde out of my hair....) but when I eventually realized who the narrator was it made much more sense to me!!!

After 2013 being my year for spiritual growth and enlightenment, I have decided to blunder back into the world of chick-lit this year - and how better to do that than with the likes of Marian Keyes? 

She is one of the most successful chick-lit author's around and I have enjoyed many of her books in the past - even though I've noticed it does take me a while to get into them.

Admittedly and unsurprisingly, it took me a while to get into this book too - I struggled to understand the concept.

I hated getting to know a certain character and learning their story-line then as soon as I was starting to enjoy it, I was whizzed off to another characters story in a new chapter.
It follows each different tenant in the flat and explains their story throughout the different chapters.

The chapters were short and counting down days until Day One, but I didn't understand what we were waiting for? What would happen on Day One that was so special? Nothing really led me to believe that I was reading up to some dramatic high spot...  perhaps until so near the end it was almost ridiculous.

But then... BOOM! I couldn't put it down. I had to know what was coming.

It was hard to keep up and follow. I found myself forgetting the characters and needing to backtrack to remember certain elements from past chapters until a good halfway through.

Although I was still uncertain of the story-line as I reached the halfway mark and had no idea where the story would go, I was starting to enjoy it a little more - even though I found it incredibly 'dark.'
I had started to bond and connect with each character and found myself falling in love with each one of them for different reasons.

Why are we following these flat residents of 66 Star Street though?? That is the question that bugged me a bit. Yes, it was a good read but I saw no reason as to why I should be reading about their lives until I got deep into the book. Then, slowly (very slowly,) small snippets of mysterious events and emotions were portrayed which lead me wanting to keep turning the pages.

Why was Mauve so miserable? What had happened in her past that made her rigid and afraid and suffer from panic attacks? Who was this man that she and Matt secretly stalked?
I think I enjoyed their story the most. Something about it grabbed me - I was also able to relate to it a lot more than the other people's stories in the flat.

I also thought Lydia had something deeper. What would happen with her and the muscular Polish man?? The two detested each other yet their was clearly strong sexual tension there. And what about her mum with her illness? We were led to believe that Lydia was this ghastly women with no heart - yet I found myself developing a big weak spot for this character. Plus the sauciness of her living with two well-built, sexy Polish men was quite exciting. I was living vicariously through her for a while :)

Katie is an older character - entering her forties and in a struggling relationship with a workaholic. Will she finally give up on their romance and move on?
I couldn't tell whether I loved or hated Conall - her workaholic boyfriend. He seemed like a bit of a fairy-tale man to be honest - sweeping girls off to London for first dates and taking them to posh Opera shows. What was with his strange obsession with chocolate anyway!? 

Fionn's character was an absolute mess - although in saying that, part of me adored him too. I loved and hated him equally. He was so spontaneous and footloose. He didn't know if he was going left or right - a bit like me I suppose. His head and his heart were continuously changing paths and always up in the clouds.

All in all though, these characters sadly failed to save this book. Mauve was my favorite and the only one that I really enjoyed. There were too many characters slung into the pages.



As always, Marian Keyes sticks to the Irish roots but I found this book extremely different compared to the other novels that I've read of hers. With the bold, gold hardcover and the 600 + pages it contained ..... I really was holding high hopes for this book and from the start I was very disappointed.

It wasn't her usual cheery, humorous writing. It was heavy and sporadic. It focused on problems such as depression, mental illnesses, trauma and cheating to name only a few.

Yet, as always with any book I pick up, I finally turned the last page and put the book down - leaving with a handful of messages and lessons from the writing that I hadn't had before the read.

That's the important thing about books - each one has something special and unique to offer you. Sometimes you just need to dig a little deeper to find what you're looking for.

I fully believe that every book you pick up, you pick up for a reason. 

That book was put into your hands by fate / destiny.. whatever you choose to call it.

As my good friend Adrian once said to me:  

"You could find the book that will change your life today."

That saying will resonate in my heart for the rest of my days.