The Starburst Effect

Right from the beginning we meet Lily in the midst of her parenting fighting and subsequent divorce. To make matters worse, her biggest bully happens to live right next door, hears it all, and torments her for it – turning just about the entire school against her.

I’m a cruel twist of fate, her tormentor gets injured during the Homecoming game, resulting in sever brain trauma. He awakes from a coma as almost an entirely new person, with the last year wiped out his memories.

It’s an emotional rollercoaster from the get go. We are along for the ride as Lily and Noah try to rebuild the bridge he had burned with her.

Lily is such an amazing character, written with real flaws. I’m pretty sure it would take me a lot longer to forgive my tormentor, but Lily is obviously a better person than I am. Her development is great. She starts out as this scared, meek, girl and turns into someone she herself can be proud of. Standing up for herself and others, and definitely not okay with being put last.

Oh, Noah. Like I said, I’m not sure I could forgive him as easily as Lily did. He was such a rotten character in the beginning. I’m so glad Oram did not wipe his memories completely, as I feel that that would have been cheating. He definitely deserved to remember and feel guilty about the way he treated others, especially since the person he was the cruelest to, was the only person to stick by him. Noah is a strong character, with ambition to graduate high-school, even though the odds are stacked against him.


Mason, Lily’s younger brother, was such a sweetheart. You can tell he had a lot of love for his sister from the first few pages. He was a solid rock for her in her time of need, so perceptive of everyone and everything around him. A genuinely sweet kid.

Lily and Mason’s parents though. Ugh. I understand that divorce is stressful and it brings out the worst in people, but for them to treat their children the way they did… I feel Lily, and Mason, were justified in their actions.

I love the attention to detail. You can tell Oram did her research before writing this book. I also enjoy the little tid bits that bring her previous work into this one. She casually references things for Cinder & Ella, as well as V is for Virgin.

The Starburst Effect by Kelly Oram hits hard and fast. If you’re a fan of redemption arcs, pick this book up. It is full of emotion – don’t forget the tissues. There is some content that may be triggering for some.

Possible Triggers:

Bullying & Name Calling
Divorce
Depression



You can read my original review at bookswithachance.com