Starworld by Audrey Coulthurst, Paula Garner
Published by Candlewick Press on April 16th 2019
ISBN: 0763697567
Pages: 342
Goodreads

Sam Jones and Zoe Miller are both seniors in high school, struggling with their lives in different ways. Quiet, artistic Sam feels invisible and separate from everyone around her. Pretty, popular Zoe doesn’t let anyone actually see her true self. After a chance encounter brings them together, Sam and Zoe begin to create Starworld together, an imaginary respite from their lives, even as things seem to fall apart around them. But when Sam realizes that she’s starting to fall for Zoe, it threatens the world they’ve created together.

Authors Audrey Coulthurst and Paula Garner have collaborated on a novel for high school readers that depicts the quiet dramas that many are experiencing. Sam and Zoe grapple with personal problems with heart and truth. While other characters are less fully developed, many readers will be moved by the authentic and natural way that Coulthurst and Garner write about adoption, unrequited crushes, popularity, families with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses, and how people’s lives look different from the inside.

Characters are assumed white. Resources are provided in the back for additional information on many of the topics brought up in the novel. Recommended where “issue-driven” books are popular in young adult collections.

Reviewed by Sarah Cropley, Scarborough Public Library.