If I had to be extremely picky about saying something negative not that I have to but.. At all. I never knew books with Jack the Ripper could be so amusing. But this one is. There were a lot of times that I was laughing out loud hysterically my dad was giving me strange looks. The writer managed to balance the creepiness and entertainment just right. All the characters were very interesting and each and every one had a very distinct personality, with each of their own secrets. Rory, Jazza, Jerome, Alistair, I love.
Even Boo, Stephen, Callum, where at first I had a sense of distrust and an unsettling feeling about them, all had something special and unique to add to the story. It was not until near the end of the book that things were cleared up, and I crossed one guy off from the list. Overall, The Name of The Star is one book that you cannot miss. Or Jack the Ripper might go to you next. View all 6 comments. This book had been on my shelf for years, seriously, before I actually picked it up to read it.
I'm not even sure why, because the plot was always intriguing to me. I ended up having a great time with this story, and give it a solid 4. I thought the Jack The Ripper was stuff was interesting albeit a little on the fantastical side the way London and the general media was reacting to these murders but it didn't ruin the story for me.
I enjoyed the main character, I enjoyed reading about the Londo This book had been on my shelf for years, seriously, before I actually picked it up to read it. I enjoyed the main character, I enjoyed reading about the London boarding school life which was surprising, as I'm a little burnt out on boarding school stories and I found some parts to shockingly creepy - this book has just the right amount of spook in it.
Some of the side characters felt a little flat to me, but I loved the Shades and I loved the antagonist. Looking forward to reading the other books in the series. I was really intrigued and quite pleased with The Name of the Star. I read it after seeing many dazzling reviews, so my expectations were quite high and though it wasn't perfect, I was very satisfied with it.
Jack the Ripper! That is all it took to entice me. Unless you have been born and raised under a rock, you have already heard about Jack the Ripper. His case is fascinating and very mysterious. I was really curious to find out how Maureen was going to use an extremely known story and make it I was really intrigued and quite pleased with The Name of the Star.
I was really curious to find out how Maureen was going to use an extremely known story and make it fresh. I was not disappointed. I loved the creativity she used while writing the plot in this book. She obviously did her research and added quite a bit of actual Ripper facts in the story which was very interesting. Then she added some great plot elements to make it an original and refreshing story. The first part of the book we have Rory who has moved to London to attend a private school.
However, we don't have the usual private school cafeteria drama that you'd expect in this setting. Rory doesn't make instant enemies who happen to be the "it" crowd.
Nor does she become the it crowd with the hottest guy in school. Rory is an ordinary high school student who works hard to get good grades and makes friends with her roommate. All the while a new killer is terrorizing London in much the same way as Jack the Ripper. Some may find it slow, but I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and Ripper facts before the furor. The second part is much more fast paced with a lot of plot progression and excitement.
The plot itself was nicely done with lots of fascinating facts and creative spooky encounters. I did have a few issues with the motives of the murderer. I can't say exactly what without going into spoilers, but I didn't understand the reasoning behind his motives.
He never had any reason to think he was ever in danger unless he became troublesome. That is all I can say without giving away spoilers, but I think those who've read it will understand. I also understand, myself, that this is the first in a series, so the possibility of getting further explanations is still open. It was refreshing to have no love triangle hanging in the air, but the romance was scarce at best. The love interest wasn't vert attractive or charming.
I never felt much of a connection between him and the protagonist, but since it held such a scant part in the novel, it didn't affect my enjoyment of it by any means.
I was reading this for the suspense, not the romance. I was actually surprised and pleased to find quite a bit of humor added in the dialogue. The protagonist is smart and witty. I really enjoyed her way of thinking. There are a good number of great and amusing lines that I could have used as quotes in my review, but I was always too comfortable or lazy to write them down so I'll let you read them for yourself.
It's not a cliffhanger, but it opens the imagination to a great extent. In the end, it's a pretty good start to a potentially great series. View all 15 comments. View all 4 comments. Not bothering with an actual review. What a disappointing and dull book. You would expect a book about Jack the ripper to be an enjoyable and entertaining read.
Though it was an absolute fail for a Jack the ripper story. I can't stop remembering this particular scene Who the fuck puts that kind of description in a kissing scene? What a turn off. What was t DNF. What was the author attempting? A lady and the tramp? Kind of reminds me of that. I can't. Nonetheless some might enjoy this book though. Just not me. More like 3. If you know me at all, you know I love serial killers. I don't love them in a way that'd make me want to be one or anything, don't worry, but I think their mentality and motives are absolutely fascinating.
And there is no serial killer as famous as Jack the Ripper. People have been fascinated with the Ripper since he first started killing. There were no definitive eyewitnesses, he stopped at five women, and investig More like 3. There were no definitive eyewitnesses, he stopped at five women, and investigators couldn't decide whether he had medical training or not. He's the guy that got away, and always will be, because there's no way for us to solve the mystery today.
Anyway, needless to say, I was excited to read The Name of the Star. Given my excitement, The Name of the Star didn't quite live up to my standards. I don't quite know why, but I think it may have been that I wanted more creepy, serial killer craziness and not so much about supernatural powers. I did love the London setting and reading about places I've only seen in movies The facts of the Jack the Ripper murders are so well-documented and easy to find I probably would've stopped reading the book had a fact been wrong.
Sometime I read books that have their facts completely wrong and I want to throw the across the room. Anyways, I wanted action, action, action, but the beginning of the book was very much about the characters. I love well-developed characters, and most characters were, but it got to be a bit much. I especially didn't like Rory's love interest. He was kinda bleh for me.
The second half of the book picked up, and the twist really made it more interesting, and made me really want a sequel, especially the ending. The end really had all the action that I had been waiting patiently for, and made the book definitely worth my time.
If you're creepy like me and love Jack the Ripper, this is a sure bet. Any fans of paranormal novels will get their fill, though I know the synopsis doesn't make it sound like it! All in all, The Name of the Star is a ripping good and creepy time. Feb 01, Emma rated it it was amazing Shelves: ya , re-read , paranormal. February reread Yep!
Just as brilliant as I remembered! January A great YA paranormal urban fantasy story and the good news is this is a series. This is my first read of this author and I was impressed with the gentle humour and genuine insight into the mind of late teens in general and Rory, the main character's, personality. The supporting characters are likeable too and the fact that the focus of this book was not teenaged angst and romance was a big plus.
Call-me-Claudia, the hockey- February reread Yep! Call-me-Claudia, the hockey-loving house mistress was good fun too. I shall definitely be continuing this series. Shelves: library-checkout , heroine-i-loved , young-adult , favorites , favorite-or-autobuy-author , to-buy-wish-list , sky-s-the-limit-club , gothic-fiction , ghost , set-in-uk.
The Name of the Star was a hit with me. Maureen Johnson got my attention as an author with her short story, "The Law of Suspects. I appreciated how she writes with a respect for the intelligence of her readership, even though they are the YA audience. Like CS Lewis, I believe the best children's book is one that an adult can enjoy. I knew I was going to follow her after reading this brilliant short story.
So when I saw this book was coming out, I was excited to read another full-length suspense novel by her. Let's just say that she's now two for two.
Are you into Jack the Ripper? I mean that in the best way. Meaning, do you have an interest in the mythos and story of Jack the Ripper? Many people do, so don't be ashamed if the answer is yes.
The only reason I ask is because this is a book to check out if you do. While this book is very thrilling suspense with a supernatural twist, it's also a funny coming of age story. Our heroine Rory is from Louisiana, and she has that sparkling Southern woman vibe that I find irresistible. I love her character's voice, the down to earth way she looks at life, and how she manages to find the wry humor in her situation. Johnson engaged me as a reader by giving me a protagonist that I started caring about on the first page of the story.
She also pulled the British card, which will get me almost every time. Through in a modern story with a Gothic atmosphere and it makes for an irresistible read. She goes with a "Sixth Sense" theme, and like that movie, you don't quite catch on immediately, but when you do, it's a natural process.
Such a marvelous concoction of suspense, humor, young adult emotions and situations, and yes, out and out terror in some parts of the book. Suspense builds wonderfully, adding to that gothic atmosphere until I was anxiously waiting for the next aspect of the story to be revealed.
The villain is layered and complex, gradually revealed in a way that showed a lot more was going on than I thought. I really appreciated that, that wonderful feeling of finding I didn't have the answers all figured out until the very end when I was supposed to know all those things. Well, I think I talked myself into giving this book five stars, even though I told myself I was going to be more rigorous about reviewing books and giving five stars. I recommend it! View all 9 comments. Mar 30, Lexie rated it liked it Shelves: mystery.
But, hey, boarding school shenanigans! Okay, I love Maureen Johnson. She is a lovely and intelligent and hilarious person. So far, I've enjoyed all the books she's written. I'm pretty sure I've read all of them That said, I found The Name of the Star somewhat disappointing.
I don't know, maybe I had unrealistically high expectations, and I also thought the book would be about something completely different. But, don't get me wrong. I did enjoy this book. But, I suppose it just wasn't quite as good as I had hoped it would be. First Okay, I love Maureen Johnson. First of all, I thought this book was going to be historical fiction, about Jack the Ripper.
Something different! And it's not about Jack the Ripper. It's about a murderer imitating the crimes of Jack the Ripper. But even so, I could see how the premise could work and be something really interesting.
Unfortunately, I found the first or so pages of the book to be pretty Our protagonist, Rory, is an American girl who goes off to London for boarding school. She knows next to nothing about England or the way the British school system works——so basically, she just tries to figure it out for about the first fourth of the book.
She tries to get used to living in a different country, she makes new friends, her friends are like, "Oh hoho you silly American! Let us teach you our British ways! And yes, of course I respect the fact that she put so much effort into looking up this information to make her story more authentic.
However, that doesn't mean she had to explain so much of it in large chunks. And once we get into the actual plot, it still wasn't the most exciting. Also, it kind of unexpectedly turned into a paranormal book about halfway through.
It still kept me interested for the most part, and it involved some cool ideas, but I don't know. It always kind of irks me when I think a book is realistic fiction and then it suddenly becomes fantastical. There was some foreshadow, but I felt like it could have been a little more obvious. I mean, I went from thinking this was historical fiction, to thinking it was a modern-day murder mystery, to figuring out that it was actually fantasy.
So, that was a little confusing. But, there were aspects of the book that I liked. Although Rory isn't my favorite protagonist ever, at least she was funny and seemed realistic most of the time. Although, by the end I didn't feel like she had developed enough. She was still kind of the same person. Basically, Jo saved her butt. But Rory didn't really do anything very heroic for herself or for other characters.
So she still has time to grow, I suppose. And I liked most of the side characters. Boo and Jazza and Jerome were all pretty likable. Speaking of which, I loved that part where Jerome and Rory were going through the museum analyzing all the different kinds of butts in the paintings——that is totally something I would do.
Over all, this wasn't terrible and it wasn't life-changing. It was good. Just good. I enjoyed reading it; I liked the humor and the characters and the premise although it was a little confusingly executed.
There were a lot of unexpected twists and turns to the story. Although I'm not dying for the sequel if there is one , I'd read it just to see where this goes. View all 21 comments. Sep 08, Amanda rated it it was amazing. After thinking about this for a couple of days I'm changing my rating to 5 stars. Series like this is why I read YA and it deserves 5 stars. Oct 02, Wanda rated it really liked it Shelves: female-authors , public-library , book-club , ghosts , favourites , read-in , mysteries-thrillers , young-adult , london.
Another example of really enjoyable YA literature. The real details of homework, living in residence, cafeteria meals, etc. Rory gets drawn into the paranormal gradually, but still has to cope with reading assignments and essays like a regular student. Rory has just the right amount of snark in her soul to make all these tea-drinking, field hockey-dreading moments highly entertaining.
She also acquires a small circle of reliable friends, reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just a fun fact about me: I don't read book blurbs.
Whether I've been anticipating the book for a long time, or it's a book I've never heard of, I don't read blurbs. I find they give away too many little spoilers that I would much rather find out. Therefore I am a judge a book by it's cover type of person. That was my entire reason and therefore I had no idea what this book was about. To put it m Just a fun fact about me: I don't read book blurbs.
To put it mildly, I was extremely ecstatic when I realized that this was a Jack the Ripper story. I love to study Serial Killers, I read biographies and true crime books constantly and I study them in school so when I started this I was extremely excited. It did not disappoint. Johnson managed to include this really unique idea and plot point into a story that I already liked. I would have loved to just read about a Jack the Ripper copycat, but the extra plots and storylines she included were amazing.
Her character building is so well done, I can see how talented Maureen Johnson is just from this one book. Rory is a strong character, and on top of that, she had about 10 minor characters who all managed to have their own personality, which is often times rare to see. I will say, one thing that I found refreshing was the lack of love story.
Yes there's a minor love interest, nothing major, but it doesn't dominate the storyline. Not even close, and I like that. Not that I don't love some good fluff once in a while, but I really wanted to read a book about something else with no romance and this definitely delivered. Overall, a really really unique book that was well done. Shelves: i-own-a-copy , out-in , favourites , scary-scary , ghosts-and-zombies , big-bad-evil-people , paranormal-supernatural-psychic , death-tragedy-suicide.
That last page! This better be part of a series, or I will have a mini fit. The Name of the Star was one heck of a book - creepy, funny, adventure-and-action filled, I really enjoyed it! I read it slowly over a few days, however I'm glad I did as I was able to take it all in and marvel in its uniqueness.
There's just something about Jack the Ripper that sends shivers down your spine. I knew, reading this, that I was going to look into the original Ripper murders, and my goodness, some of thos WOW! I knew, reading this, that I was going to look into the original Ripper murders, and my goodness, some of those images have been forever burned into my brain. I can only imagine the horror the people of London must have experienced when the real Ripper killings were taking place.
The Name of the Star was clever, well written and had my attention the whole way through. There were times I found myself sitting with my eyes wide open in shock, thinking 'NO, don't go there, don't do that! Such a mix of emotions. Definitely worth your while reading this one, go do it. Saucy Jack dares you. View all 7 comments. Apr 14, jv poore rated it really liked it Shelves: legends-myths-fables , ghost-story , young-adult , own-it , mystery. I have never been so thrilled to have the next book-in-the-series- already on hand.
One book with these dynamic, compelling and wickedly funny characters was simply not enough. Because Ms. Johnson could write an entertaining cereal box, I'll share a few of my favorite quotes from this book rather than give a detailed review in an effort to lure you in. I was a walking T-shirt slogan. Jack the Ripper is one of those topics I really wish they'd cover in the History syllabus for school.
Instead it's 20th century this, and 20th century that. Even at A level - which, for all you non-British, non-TNofS readers, are the two years of excrutiating study we have before university, in which we study four and then three subjects respectively, of our own choosing - the syllabus for the vast majority of the time is an unimaginative, repetitive look at 20th century European and USA history Jack the Ripper is one of those topics I really wish they'd cover in the History syllabus for school.
Even at A level - which, for all you non-British, non-TNofS readers, are the two years of excrutiating study we have before university, in which we study four and then three subjects respectively, of our own choosing - the syllabus for the vast majority of the time is an unimaginative, repetitive look at 20th century European and USA history, just in loads more detail.
So when I saw that Maureen Johnson had chosen to set her story around Jack the Ripper, and in my home city of London, I instantly knew I had to read it.
And, I am delighted to say, it did not disappoint. The same day she arrives, the first in a string of copycat murders takes place. Someone has killed a woman in exactly the same way that Jack the Ripper murdered his first victim. As the murders continue, with the murderer leaving absolutely no trace of themselves despite all the CCTV cameras, London becomes more and more afraid, the media more and more frantic. Rory herself gets swept into a world she didn't even know existed.
And it all starts with her seeing a strange man that no-one else can see. It's not long before it's her turn to be a target of the new Ripper. It's clear that Johnson knows her stuff, right from the beginning. The information given to us in terms of the Ripper cases is clear and detailed. The whole nature of these crimes is completely dark and horrific, and I'm glad that the author didn't shy away from that. The pacing of the first half was somewhat slow, but after a while I actually didn't mind, instead enjoying learning about the boarding school Rory's at and how she settles in.
The second half was engaging with its plot developments. Rory herself is just hilarious. I really didn't expect this book to be so funny, and yet there were parts where I just had to laugh at Rory's take on things. To begin with, it was amusing to see how shocked she was at the culture difference between here and America, to have to learn different phrases and grow used to the cold and never-ending rain.
I still can't believe that Blu-Tack doesn't exist in America. It's just so weird to think about. And the Underground. Oh my God. Rory got so excited about tubes and the Underground, you'd think she was Arthur Weasley.
She also had loads of anecdotes from her life in America that she referred to. Rory was independent, down-to-earth and generally really likeable. I mentioned plot developments. I love the different ideas that Johnson has brought together here.
You can tell she had a clear image of what she wanted in this story, and it all came together nicely. The take on Jack the Ripper here is not one you're going to find elsewhere. All the characters generally had their own voice, and I liked how there weren't any stereotypes. What I didn't quite understand, however, was the romance.
There was no insta-love, there was no love triangle, but The way it was introduced wasn't exactly obvious, and I didn't understand why Rory and her guy of choice were together. I mean, they're both likeable characters, but I didn't get their relationship. The love interest himself is also slightly weird, and I couldn't really see how Rory was so comfortable with it, at least without asking him about it.
You'll see what I mean if you read it. Having said that, though, there was something about him that I liked. And for some reason he sounded unbearably cute when he quoted those Spice Girls lyrics.
I'm weird, I know. This being the first book by Maureen Johnson that I've read, I'm sufficiently impressed. Romance aside, this is a well-rounded novel with an intriguing plotline. I appreciated the development of the secondary characters, Alistair and Jazza being particular favourites, and reading from Rory's perspective was truly wonderful. The ending isn't a cliffhanger, but it's definitely a brilliant opening for the sequel - which, luckily for me, I have and will hopefully be starting relatively soon.
I highly recommend this to those of you who haven't read it yet. This review is also posted on my blog. View all 14 comments. Aug 20, Lindsay rated it liked it Shelves: read-in This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here. I'm not sure. Who's ready for an unorganized review that contains spoilers? Take a seat. So, this book is… like Harry Potter, except Peeves is the villain and there's no magic. There are obviously places where one can argue that this is not true, but hear me out.
Honestly I thought prefects were only a Harry Potter thing. I was thrown. I'm very American. I liked Jerome, but their relationship was odd. It was like they were just bored and were like, "Eh, I guess I can make out with my friend. See: Cho Chang and Harry for comparison. Why I gave it 3ish stars: - I liked this.
Ahhhhhh, so many info dumps. They do add to the story and give it a fuller picture, but it was hard to push through certain passages. I get that the story moved its focus, but Jazza still existed!! I wanted more interactions. I didn't believe that any news station would take a random murder and automatically say, "So this is obviously a Ripper.
We have to keep an eye on these specific dates. Everyone be scared. Like I actually thought the identity of the Ripper was going to be a surprise. Was it Jerome? Was it Allistair? We do not guarantee that these techniques will work for you. Some of the techniques listed in The Name of the Star may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them.
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Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to young adult, mystery lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download.
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