Book Review: Lost Stars or what Lou Reed taught me about love by Lisa Selin Davis

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am not being paid for nor would I accept monetary compensation for my thoughts. These thoughts are my own.

I'll be your mirror, reflect what you are, in case you don't know... 

In the aftermath of her older sister's death, sixteen-year-old Carrie is taken under the wings of her sister's friends, and finds herself forsaking the science nerds of her former life and slipping into a daze of cheap beer and recreational drugs. Carrie - a talented guitar player and obsessive tracker of the coming Vira comet - is partying hard and fooling around with boys she doesn't even like, even though she's desperate for a boyfriend.

Her mother, enveloped by grief at the loss of her eldest child, has retreated to a monastery in the Catskills that requires a vow of silence. With her family splintered apart, Carrie is overcome at times by uncontrollable rages and her father decides to send her to a boot camp for wayward teens. Compounding the shame, and to her horror, she is forced to wear work boots and a hard hat - boy poison.

Then she meets Dean, a fellow musician and refugee from his own dark past. Throughout the summer Carrie learns more about Dean, about her sister's death, about her own family's past, and about herself...as well as about the Bee Gees, disco and the difference between wood and sheet-rock screws. Through love, music and her precious comet - and no small help from Lou Reed - Carrie fumbles her way through the complex web of tragedies and misunderstandings, to the heart of who she is and who she wants to be.

My Review:

4.5 Stars

First I have to say that the cover of this title is absolutely gorgeous, even more so in person. I think that is what I first fell in love with, I have always had an affinity towards celestial items. 

This is the heart wrenching story of Carrie. A young woman whose family has been destroyed in the wake of an accident. A young woman who has been trying to fit in where she can in order to not feel as if she is completely alone. 

While struggling with her broken life at home, she also harbors quite a bit of survivors guilt over her sisters accident. This actually hit home a bit for me. While not the same situation, my father also suffers this horrid disease. He lost his best friend at 16 to a drunk driving accident and he has never let it go. So it was a bit easier for me to understand exactly what Carrie was harboring inside. 

Life starts to change a bit when she meets Dean though. Slowly Carrie starts to realize that she's been living life all wrong. That she's been embracing and pushing away the wrong people and actions. Coming around to the fact that there is some information that's been missing from her assumptions since her sister's passing. 

Lost Stars is a great novel of growing, accepting, learning and letting go. No I do wonder if there is going to be a follow up to this book. Dean's past really wasn't elaborated on as much as I had hoped and I'm wondering whether that would have an impact on the relationship that's developing with Carrie towards the end.