Young Adult Review: Tin Star (ARC)

Tin Star (Tin Star, 1) by Cecil Castellucci, February 25, 2014. 240 pages. Published by Roaring Brook Press. Source: publisher.

On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist's leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.

When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula's desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind.

First Sentence:

There are few things colder than the blackness of space.

Even though I enjoyed the last thing I read by Cecil Castellucci, I was nervous going into Tin Star because it seemed that many people were enjoying this one. While there were some missing gaps in the back-story and not enough explanations to why things were the way they were, I really enjoyed this one.

What can I say, Tin Star had many good qualities that made it an interesting and quick read; even with some story holes, this was an interesting read.
     Would I have liked to see the author, Cecil Castellucci, give more of an explanation as to why people were so hot to get away from Earth, yes. Although, I think the story was supposed to ficus more on Tula and her struggle to survive rather than why people were striking out to colonize other planets. So, while more answers and back-story would have been nice, I enjoyed reading about Tula and her struggle to fit into a world that did not accept humans; as well, as her troubles relating to the ones that did come around.

Having not read many books that have actual alien species mentioned in them, I really enjoyed seeing all the different lifeforms that were included in Tin Star. Especially the different ways they reacted, and how Tula had to discover how to deal with each of them. It was interesting because we all know how difficult it is to connect with people who do not share are views and whatnot. So, yeah, this was one of the things that made Tin Star such an interesting read for me. 

What I really enjoyed about Tin Star would have to be the writing, as well, as the feel of them world in which Tula found herself in. Even though I wish there had been more mentioned about what had happened on earth to make people leave (or cut themselves off from the new), I thought Cecil Castellucci did a wonderful job of bringing the reader along for the ride; as well, as bringing the various lifeforms Tula met to life. I also enjoyed reading about Tula herself and seeing her slowly regain her humanity after years of being the sole human there. It was interesting to see how much she of herself she shut-away just to keep going, and then, when things changed (like more humans) kept me reading just to know what she would do.

I only have two complaints when it comes to Tin Star. The first being that there were zero explanations as to why people were leaving Earth; I wanted to know what was so bad that it was forcing them to strike out into the unknown reaches of space. The second being that things went to fast with the relationship between Tula and one of the humans that was stranded at the station later in the book.
    Other than a lack of answers for all my questions, I really enjoyed the story and Tula's struggle to find a reason to live and her fight to pay Brother Blue back for what he did to her. It was just an interesting Sci-fi read.

Final Verdict: Tin Star- An interesting Sci-fi tale about lies and deception, vengeance and heartbreak.

Tin Star earns 4 out of 5 griffins

This book was receive din exchange for an honest review.