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Spirals of Stardust
In the 23rd century, a Great Shift occurred on planet Earth. After implanting animals with cloned human genes using DUST (Devices Uncovered through Star Technology), humans went extinct.
Human culture gracefully leapt into the animal kingdom.
Meanwhile, Earth thought it lost all its rainforests. But wait! Two highly intelligent orangutan explorers, Orly and Adir, spotted something while scaling the Peca da Neblina mountain range. Could it be?
The last existing rainforest on Earth was Jill’s home.
Jill the jaguar, who thought in pictures instead of words, often wished her Great-Grandma Geneviève was still alive. Her sensitivities and creativity plunged her in and out of predicaments. This kept her from going to college like her friends. Subsequently, an unlikely bond arose between Jill the jaguar and Cy the sloth.
Cope, you must. All those visual spatial skills, have you. Your strengths, they are.
With an ailing father at home, Jill forged her way through an industry her ancestors helped advance. Was Jill able to carry on the family legacy in medicine? Or would she be remembered as the fledgling nurse wannabe?
Take a prowl with the slightly zany Jill the jaguar into the 23rd century…
Human culture gracefully leapt into the animal kingdom.
Meanwhile, Earth thought it lost all its rainforests. But wait! Two highly intelligent orangutan explorers, Orly and Adir, spotted something while scaling the Peca da Neblina mountain range. Could it be?
The last existing rainforest on Earth was Jill’s home.
Jill the jaguar, who thought in pictures instead of words, often wished her Great-Grandma Geneviève was still alive. Her sensitivities and creativity plunged her in and out of predicaments. This kept her from going to college like her friends. Subsequently, an unlikely bond arose between Jill the jaguar and Cy the sloth.
Cope, you must. All those visual spatial skills, have you. Your strengths, they are.
With an ailing father at home, Jill forged her way through an industry her ancestors helped advance. Was Jill able to carry on the family legacy in medicine? Or would she be remembered as the fledgling nurse wannabe?
Take a prowl with the slightly zany Jill the jaguar into the 23rd century…
142 pages, Paperback
Published March 26, 2024
14 people want to read
About the author
Diane C. Jerome
1 bookDiane holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, as well as a M.S. and B.S. from the University of Houston.
As a facilitator of student learning, she has woven firsthand experiences into dissertation vignettes and into peer-reviewed articles: “Blue Dragonflies are ‘Dandleflies’. . .” for the Affective Reading Journal and “A Challenged Third Grader Connects with Meaningful Books” for the Indiana Reading Journal.
When she's not writing, coaching, or crafting, Diane can be found enjoying the Texas outdoors with her Goldendoodle, Josie.
"When I write, I am an iridescent tetra swimming in the most pristine aquamarine ocean ever conceived.”
As a facilitator of student learning, she has woven firsthand experiences into dissertation vignettes and into peer-reviewed articles: “Blue Dragonflies are ‘Dandleflies’. . .” for the Affective Reading Journal and “A Challenged Third Grader Connects with Meaningful Books” for the Indiana Reading Journal.
When she's not writing, coaching, or crafting, Diane can be found enjoying the Texas outdoors with her Goldendoodle, Josie.
"When I write, I am an iridescent tetra swimming in the most pristine aquamarine ocean ever conceived.”
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 16, 2024
First of all, I don't think I'm in the right age group for this book. The dialogue just felt so juvenile to me, but then there were these medical terms that I'm pretty sure a 10-year-old doesn't understand.
I liked the idea of this book. I was not bothered by Jill's thoughts jumping from one thing to another. That reminds me a lot of me. But the storyline was just not that interesting. I thought it would span a wider view of Jill's life but it was only very specific parts.
I like the concept, but I'm just not sure about the execution.
I don't know, maybe I was just expecting more Zootopia vibes...
I liked the idea of this book. I was not bothered by Jill's thoughts jumping from one thing to another. That reminds me a lot of me. But the storyline was just not that interesting. I thought it would span a wider view of Jill's life but it was only very specific parts.
I like the concept, but I'm just not sure about the execution.
I don't know, maybe I was just expecting more Zootopia vibes...
July 25, 2024
1.5 ⭐️
I think the concept for this book is very interesting, but the execution didn't hit the mark for me. I didn't like that the book opened up with some heavy lore dump on the background of this world instead of letting us discover it through the story, I didn't like the POVs of most of the characters and felt like the transition from first person to third to first again was messy and confusing. The chapter titles didn't make very much sense and the main characters inner monolog was not fun to read and felt like the yapping of a frustrating younger sibling instead of the main character of the story.
It's a short book but I ended up DNFing halfway through and just kind of skimming the end and am fine with not finishing it. Might just not be my cup of tea!
I think the concept for this book is very interesting, but the execution didn't hit the mark for me. I didn't like that the book opened up with some heavy lore dump on the background of this world instead of letting us discover it through the story, I didn't like the POVs of most of the characters and felt like the transition from first person to third to first again was messy and confusing. The chapter titles didn't make very much sense and the main characters inner monolog was not fun to read and felt like the yapping of a frustrating younger sibling instead of the main character of the story.
It's a short book but I ended up DNFing halfway through and just kind of skimming the end and am fine with not finishing it. Might just not be my cup of tea!
November 27, 2024
The concept of this book is really interesting, and the world-building presented at the start is, needless to say, very creative.
It made me wish it stayed like that for the rest of the 130 pages.
The first thing that came to my attention was how confusing the demographic for this book is. The writing is straightforward, leaving no room for nuance, which in a kids' story is the standard. But then you have the sometimes hard-to-follow info-dumping, the footnotes, and the medical terms that make you doubt who this book was actually aimed at.
I like how it switches from third person to first person in the protagonist, Jill's, case. But otherwise, most of the other perspectives (such as Mike's) feel like pointless ramblings that lead to absolutely nothing. In any story, this would be bad, but it especially affects Spirals of Stardust due to its length.
All the things I previously mentioned are passable at best and annoying at worst. However, they didn't take much from my overall enjoyment as much as the simple fact that the core of this book, a dystopian world in the 23rd century where animals behave and take the place left by the long-extinct humans, is quickly forgotten in favor of a sweet but superficial lesson about how everyone is different and that they don't have to follow the same path to achieve what they want (and that alternative medicine is cool, I suppose).
Plenty more could've been achieved through the premise of this story (how certain animals feel being assigned a particular role they can't escape from, slightly touched on in one of Mike's aggravating POVs), but sadly that wasn't the case.
An overall "meh" book that could've done so much more if it only had time (and a clear idea of what it wanted to convey).
The ADHD representation was nice, though.
It made me wish it stayed like that for the rest of the 130 pages.
The first thing that came to my attention was how confusing the demographic for this book is. The writing is straightforward, leaving no room for nuance, which in a kids' story is the standard. But then you have the sometimes hard-to-follow info-dumping, the footnotes, and the medical terms that make you doubt who this book was actually aimed at.
I like how it switches from third person to first person in the protagonist, Jill's, case. But otherwise, most of the other perspectives (such as Mike's) feel like pointless ramblings that lead to absolutely nothing. In any story, this would be bad, but it especially affects Spirals of Stardust due to its length.
All the things I previously mentioned are passable at best and annoying at worst. However, they didn't take much from my overall enjoyment as much as the simple fact that the core of this book, a dystopian world in the 23rd century where animals behave and take the place left by the long-extinct humans, is quickly forgotten in favor of a sweet but superficial lesson about how everyone is different and that they don't have to follow the same path to achieve what they want (and that alternative medicine is cool, I suppose).
Plenty more could've been achieved through the premise of this story (how certain animals feel being assigned a particular role they can't escape from, slightly touched on in one of Mike's aggravating POVs), but sadly that wasn't the case.
An overall "meh" book that could've done so much more if it only had time (and a clear idea of what it wanted to convey).
July 26, 2024
Take a bold leap into the 23rd Century and discover a world where humans have merged their genes with animals through a process called "STARDUST." Although humanity has become extinct, its culture endures among the animal kingdom. Jaguars, sloths, and grasshoppers now exhibit complex human behaviors while living in the last rainforest on Earth. I was particularly fascinated by Jill the Jaguar, whose experiences resonated deeply with my own.The way the author weaves them into the 23rd-century narrative is quite interesting. What seems like an apocalyptic end for humanity turns into a compelling exploration of human aspirations, such as achieving a college education and advancing knowledge. Though the world building stopped a bit short in my opinion, it was still a very nice read.
July 30, 2024
1.5 Stars
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book!
I really enjoyed the concept of this book and what it was going for. I loved the idea of following a jaguar character (Jill) who thinks in pictures instead of words. I love sci-fi, so I loved that this book took place in the 23rd century in a world that believes rainforests are gone, only for two explorers to discover the last rainforest on earth, which Jill inhabits. I enjoyed the relationship between Jill and Cy the sloth, and Jill's desire to further the family legacy in the field of medicine.
As much as I loved the concept, though, I struggled to enjoy the execution. Before I expand on this, I want to say that I've read my fair share sci-fi books and of teen/YA books, so I'm not unfamiliar with the differences in plotting, characterization, and writing that can be present in YA vs. adult books. Even so, the writing in Spirals of Stardust really confused me. It felt like the book was written for a middle-grade or younger audience, with extremely casual and simple sentence construction, long forays into Jill's thoughts that were also quite simplistic and at times repetitive, and narrative interruptions to infodump. And yet, some of the words used in the infodumps and the style of the info presented (like referencing fictional academic or historical texts, using footnotes, etc.) felt too advanced for that age group to understand. The effect was that I felt taken completely out of the story and unable to enjoy it. Again, the concept was very cool, but this was not the book for me, and I don't think I could recommend this based on my reading experience.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book!
I really enjoyed the concept of this book and what it was going for. I loved the idea of following a jaguar character (Jill) who thinks in pictures instead of words. I love sci-fi, so I loved that this book took place in the 23rd century in a world that believes rainforests are gone, only for two explorers to discover the last rainforest on earth, which Jill inhabits. I enjoyed the relationship between Jill and Cy the sloth, and Jill's desire to further the family legacy in the field of medicine.
As much as I loved the concept, though, I struggled to enjoy the execution. Before I expand on this, I want to say that I've read my fair share sci-fi books and of teen/YA books, so I'm not unfamiliar with the differences in plotting, characterization, and writing that can be present in YA vs. adult books. Even so, the writing in Spirals of Stardust really confused me. It felt like the book was written for a middle-grade or younger audience, with extremely casual and simple sentence construction, long forays into Jill's thoughts that were also quite simplistic and at times repetitive, and narrative interruptions to infodump. And yet, some of the words used in the infodumps and the style of the info presented (like referencing fictional academic or historical texts, using footnotes, etc.) felt too advanced for that age group to understand. The effect was that I felt taken completely out of the story and unable to enjoy it. Again, the concept was very cool, but this was not the book for me, and I don't think I could recommend this based on my reading experience.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews