Imagine you are a woman in the universe of this book, wherefrom the moment you're born you have markings on your skin that tell your future. Then, around the age of 16 you undergo a process of change into your adult person and you get more detailed markings, that set your future in stone. You are also overwhelmingly attractive for that short period of time, which can lead you to your doom.

It is a privilege to know, the characters tend to believe, and men who do not have this privilege are obsessed with knowing. They reserve the right to read the markings of their family members in order to learn more about themselves. They also get strangely attracted to all the changelings and that is when many girls are abducted, their future ruined. Because it is only their fault for allowing it to happen.

The setup for this novel was genius. What a great way to explore female agency and objectivization of the female body. But, the delivery was not great. The characters remained superficial, there were some plot holes and strange deus ex-machina solutions. More importantly, I didn't care much for the characters as there was not much depth to them. This book is centred around its message, but whenever the message is so strong, I prefer seeing more substance in the actual novel. ( )

just because a society believes in & accepts fate, forces greater than the material, it can still strip individual agency & dignity. you'd think that in such a world, nurturing the spirit would be tantamount -- how could you not when the proof of such energy is right there, literally printed, visible, on women's bodies? but the social power structure of this world, as with the real world, is designed to control by subduing. this aspect of the novel broke my heart the most, as someone who wishes so hard for proof of the mysterious in my own life. imagine living with such proof, but because of your society, it's not uplifting, fulfilling, but a burden? worse than a burden, it's just another cog of the day-to-day, until [unless] it becomes Danger, then it's your ruin.

Celeste narrates from a point in the future, & hints that it is a future greatly changed from what she expected at the time the events of the novel take place. you never get more than hints in the end, which left me just a bit dissatisfied.

overall an enjoyable, thought-provoking novel. ( )

A Dystopia That Blames the Victim

In Laura Maylene Walter’s inventive dystopian parallel world, young women bear the full brunt of sexual abuse that includes pedophilic rape. In this world, mole patterns on women loosely predict the future, burden enough, as protagonist Celeste discovers. But also when they reach maturity, transitioning from girls to women, they acquire a radiant magnetism that proves nearly irresistible to men. It falls on these young women, really still girls, to protect their chastity from gangs that kidnap them and offer them up to older men. When this happens, society ostracizes them, the victims, cutting them off from higher education, good jobs, and the like. They, and even their families, bear the full brunt of this brutal act committed against them.

If that sounds familiar, it should, because in essence women in this world face a similar fate. In the fictional Body of Stars, we can feel enraged by the suffering of these women, an emotion quite often missing from this world’s outrages. One only has to witness the treatment visited upon rape victims and women who protest their harassment to see the truth in this.

Over the past couple of years, several novels pointedly focusing on how society oppresses and controls women have appeared, emphasizing the fact in extremis. Some are very good, among them Red Clocks (abortion prohibition, personhood amendment), Gather the Daughters (religious cult incest), and The Mercies (religious and societal control), and some not quite as good, among them Blue Ticket (absolute control) and Vox (silencing). While imaginative and concentrating how society often ignores, disbelieves, or blames the victims of rape, Body of Stars as a novel falls somewhere between the very good and the others. This novel would have benefited from a bit of pruning, along with somewhat more spirited prose. Most of all, though, for all the time invested in traveling through Celeste’s world experiencing her tribulations and following her and her brother Miles’ efforts to redress the situation, it ends flatly. It’s one of those novels where readers will want a little more, but nonetheless an interesting debut that might promise better things to come. ( )

A Dystopia That Blames the Victim

In Laura Maylene Walter’s inventive dystopian parallel world, young women bear the full brunt of sexual abuse that includes pedophilic rape. In this world, mole patterns on women loosely predict the future, burden enough, as protagonist Celeste discovers. But also when they reach maturity, transitioning from girls to women, they acquire a radiant magnetism that proves nearly irresistible to men. It falls on these young women, really still girls, to protect their chastity from gangs that kidnap them and offer them up to older men. When this happens, society ostracizes them, the victims, cutting them off from higher education, good jobs, and the like. They, and even their families, bear the full brunt of this brutal act committed against them.

If that sounds familiar, it should, because in essence women in this world face a similar fate. In the fictional Body of Stars, we can feel enraged by the suffering of these women, an emotion quite often missing from this world’s outrages. One only has to witness the treatment visited upon rape victims and women who protest their harassment to see the truth in this.

Over the past couple of years, several novels pointedly focusing on how society oppresses and controls women have appeared, emphasizing the fact in extremis. Some are very good, among them Red Clocks (abortion prohibition, personhood amendment), Gather the Daughters (religious cult incest), and The Mercies (religious and societal control), and some not quite as good, among them Blue Ticket (absolute control) and Vox (silencing). While imaginative and concentrating how society often ignores, disbelieves, or blames the victims of rape, Body of Stars as a novel falls somewhere between the very good and the others. This novel would have benefited from a bit of pruning, along with somewhat more spirited prose. Most of all, though, for all the time invested in traveling through Celeste’s world experiencing her tribulations and following her and her brother Miles’ efforts to redress the situation, it ends flatly. It’s one of those novels where readers will want a little more, but nonetheless an interesting debut that might promise better things to come. ( )

3.5-4.0 stars.

While I don't necessarily agree with the worldview this novel creates, I did think the author did a good job of world building--so much so that at one point, early in the book, I wondered if there was a place in a non-US country where something like the book "Mapping the Future" existed and was practiced.

Some of the plot seemed a bit predictable--Celeste being "lost" for one. Other parts of the plot surprised me: Cassandra and Marie remaining Celeste's friends after she was returned, for example. I was glad that we got to see Celeste find a meaning for her life, but I did wish for a more hopeful ending.

I'm afraid I definitely don't agree that the future is the future (set in stone) and that it can't be changed--well, except the we'll all eventually die part of the future--it seems to me that if you're prewarned about something (being abducted perhaps) that there would be ways to try to change that (taking more care--even if it's to the point of being locked in during the changeling time and shortly after).

Disclosure: Over 10 years ago, this author and I were members of the same writers' group. If I remember correctly, our time in the group together was not very long--I believe she was moving on from the fiction group shortly after I joined the group as a member. We do live in the same general geographic area so occasionally we might attend the same event, but we haven't kept in close touch since that writers' group. ( )