LitPick Review
How far would you go to save a loved one?
Emma’s boyfriend, Lucas, is on death’s bed after developing cancer about a year ago. Emma is the only person who believes that Lucas can survive his sickness. In order to save Lucas, Emma resorts to seeking help from the town’s enchantress, Mrs. Kokesh who agrees to help but warns her that her beloved Lucas may come back a different person.
Meanwhile, an extraterrestrial traveler, nicknamed Scout, crashes in Lucas’ backyard and inhabits his body, bringing Lucas’ body back to life.
As government agents are discovered lurking around their town, investigating the crash and trying to capture the alien, Emma realizes that her warning from Mrs. Kokesh may hit closer to home than she had first thought. In order to truly bring her boyfriend back and safely return Scout to his home, Emma will embark on an adventure that will teach her the real meaning of bravery, humanity, and friendship.
Opinion:
From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion was a very enjoyable book. It kept you interested throughout the whole book and made you want to keep reading. The author did a great job of describing the characters. I especially enjoyed how the author portrayed Lucas, because for the majority of the book, Lucas was not actually “alive”, so we did not get to see what he was like for ourselves. Instead, the author brings the character to life by characterizing him through memories.
I also liked how the author made us question humanity through Scout’s questions. Several times throughout the book, I stopped to think why we did things like judge people before we even meet them.
At some points in the story, I thought that the setting could have been described a bit better, but overall the setting was adequate and didn’t bring down the story.
The tone and theme were both about being hopeful, which I thought fit the story well.
This book was told from 2 different point of views- Emma’s and Scout’s. I liked how we got to see how Emma felt about an alien living in her boyfriend’s body, while also seeing what it was like to experience an unknown planet for the first time.
Overall, I thought this book a good read and that there were no major flaws. I would recommend this book to anybody age 12+.
