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Wherever the Stars Call
Living within the Galactic Federation of the Solar System isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Laurel got sold into strict federation schooling where if she doesn't shape up, they'll scramble her mind until she's no longer herself and build the perfect citizen out of her.
Juniper got fitted with invasive cybernetics to augment the human experience at the tender age of eight and if they act up, the feds can turn them off--effectively killing them.
So, the two of them decide to run away together. All they need is to get past Jupiter where the fed's hold isn't as tight. There, Laurel can figure out what she wants in life free from fed control and Juniper can figure out how to stop their cybernetics from ruining their life.
Easy, right?
Not when they find a busted federation ship on the way with a vampire on board who might need their help with a severed head the federation is after, or perhaps, he just wants their blood. One of the two.
Laurel got sold into strict federation schooling where if she doesn't shape up, they'll scramble her mind until she's no longer herself and build the perfect citizen out of her.
Juniper got fitted with invasive cybernetics to augment the human experience at the tender age of eight and if they act up, the feds can turn them off--effectively killing them.
So, the two of them decide to run away together. All they need is to get past Jupiter where the fed's hold isn't as tight. There, Laurel can figure out what she wants in life free from fed control and Juniper can figure out how to stop their cybernetics from ruining their life.
Easy, right?
Not when they find a busted federation ship on the way with a vampire on board who might need their help with a severed head the federation is after, or perhaps, he just wants their blood. One of the two.
516 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 29, 2024
3 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
S. Jean
12 books31 followersS. Jean (she/they) is a queer sci-fi & fantasy author writing whatever strikes their fancy at any given moment. When not writing or dreaming of what to write, they can be found dabbling in game dev and drawing!
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 19, 2024
I recieved an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I adored this from start to finish. S Jean's writing is as excellent as ever and the characters they have brought together in Wherever the Stars Call are an absolute delight to read about. The cast, their relationships and their adventures together and apart all shine so brightly here.
I adored this from start to finish. S Jean's writing is as excellent as ever and the characters they have brought together in Wherever the Stars Call are an absolute delight to read about. The cast, their relationships and their adventures together and apart all shine so brightly here.
September 24, 2024
Something I love about these ARC opportunities is that I find books like this one, that I end up loving, and such amazing authors, like the one that wrote this wonderful book.
If space pirates are your thing, you will love this—I have always loved pirates, and now I can confirm I like each and every kind of them. There are also vampires, androids, and hear this: the story starts with a heist! We’re frigging stealing a spaceship!
I have always been wary of sci-fi, and though I have always been interested in the moon and the stars, more towards the constellations and not so much outer space’s life, I receive fondly this type of story. There’s so much we don’t know out there, and there’s so much space that we can fill with our own imagination. I’m still kinda curious about what happened with Earth there though…
No one is going to convince me that this is not a love story. A story about fighting and risking everything for love. About never giving up. Don’t let all the action and the explosions and the real fights and the guns and all that distract you from the real meaning 👀 It feels fast-paced because there’s always something happening, usually life-threatening. This band of outlaws group together to become a family carrying each their own packages, which comes as an obstacle in their new life. Oh, except Clary—Clary was detached and disengaged enough with her past life as to bring baggage. So they’re constantly fighting to survive and, let me tell you, there are way too many cliffhangers.
I’m not even going to attempt to hint at how it ends because I suffered through it and you will have to do it as well, but something I can assure you is that it will be worth it. If you like anything of all I have listed here, you will love it. But you’re the one who has to give it a chance, so what are you waiting for?
If space pirates are your thing, you will love this—I have always loved pirates, and now I can confirm I like each and every kind of them. There are also vampires, androids, and hear this: the story starts with a heist! We’re frigging stealing a spaceship!
I have always been wary of sci-fi, and though I have always been interested in the moon and the stars, more towards the constellations and not so much outer space’s life, I receive fondly this type of story. There’s so much we don’t know out there, and there’s so much space that we can fill with our own imagination. I’m still kinda curious about what happened with Earth there though…
No one is going to convince me that this is not a love story. A story about fighting and risking everything for love. About never giving up. Don’t let all the action and the explosions and the real fights and the guns and all that distract you from the real meaning 👀 It feels fast-paced because there’s always something happening, usually life-threatening. This band of outlaws group together to become a family carrying each their own packages, which comes as an obstacle in their new life. Oh, except Clary—Clary was detached and disengaged enough with her past life as to bring baggage. So they’re constantly fighting to survive and, let me tell you, there are way too many cliffhangers.
I’m not even going to attempt to hint at how it ends because I suffered through it and you will have to do it as well, but something I can assure you is that it will be worth it. If you like anything of all I have listed here, you will love it. But you’re the one who has to give it a chance, so what are you waiting for?
October 23, 2024
(ARC review, got a copy so yippie)
At the end of the day, we all love a found family in space.
The story starts up strong with introducing the two main characters and their pov, both feeling different already, but also tight. Slowly, we get introduced to more people that make up the found messy family they will be. Every time a new character got introduced, it went smoothly but with stakes. The whole story is, I must say, smoothly introducing new and new stakes that add more to the characters' story lines as well as the world building.
Though, with that sometimes I felt like there wasnt as much time to process said stakes, as we moved from one thing to the other. I can see it is a rather packed story, many layers many characters many kind of relationships that get introduced with all theit layers, and kudos that that all also got to be paid off, sometimes a bit more faster than other times. I can tell a lot of thoughts have been put into every detail, and that does pay off in the end, and satisfies me as a reader. Gives a feeling no moment was wasted.
Overall, a super fun and entertaining space mess, with lots of action and warm character moments, stakes and interesting world building. I really enjoyed my time with it.
At the end of the day, we all love a found family in space.
The story starts up strong with introducing the two main characters and their pov, both feeling different already, but also tight. Slowly, we get introduced to more people that make up the found messy family they will be. Every time a new character got introduced, it went smoothly but with stakes. The whole story is, I must say, smoothly introducing new and new stakes that add more to the characters' story lines as well as the world building.
Though, with that sometimes I felt like there wasnt as much time to process said stakes, as we moved from one thing to the other. I can see it is a rather packed story, many layers many characters many kind of relationships that get introduced with all theit layers, and kudos that that all also got to be paid off, sometimes a bit more faster than other times. I can tell a lot of thoughts have been put into every detail, and that does pay off in the end, and satisfies me as a reader. Gives a feeling no moment was wasted.
Overall, a super fun and entertaining space mess, with lots of action and warm character moments, stakes and interesting world building. I really enjoyed my time with it.
August 8, 2024
Wherever the Stars Call is such an amazing novel. From the beginning, we're thrown into action, alternating between Laurel's and Juniper's POV. Both of them have their past and struggles, as do all the other characters.
Space pirates, androids, living and traveling on a starship, a cybernetic AI cat - Wherever the Stars Call has it all. Every aspect of the world is wonderfully woven together, creating an immersive and fascinating world, far away from an Utopia.
It was the most wonderful thing to watch the little found family grow and start trusting each other, and ultimately follow an unexpected goal - with lots of problems in their way.
I hope there'll be a sequel at some point. There's so much potential for more adventures with this space pirate crew.
Thanks to the author for the eARC!
Space pirates, androids, living and traveling on a starship, a cybernetic AI cat - Wherever the Stars Call has it all. Every aspect of the world is wonderfully woven together, creating an immersive and fascinating world, far away from an Utopia.
It was the most wonderful thing to watch the little found family grow and start trusting each other, and ultimately follow an unexpected goal - with lots of problems in their way.
I hope there'll be a sequel at some point. There's so much potential for more adventures with this space pirate crew.
Thanks to the author for the eARC!
September 14, 2024
This book has shot right to the top of my all-time favourites. The softness, the diversity/representation, the found family elements. Everything was just so wonderful and safe to read. I cried and sat there smiling as I read, I laughed out loud. It was the most wonderful reading experience I've had in such a long time, but also so unique to this story.
Thank you to the Author for this ARC.
Thank you to the Author for this ARC.
October 7, 2025
Wherever the Stars Call is yet another sci-fi fantasy book from queer writer S. Jean that is heartwarming for a queer’s soul. I acknowledge that may seem to be a slightly off description, since you’re going to experience great, nail-biting sci-fi action for the vast majority of the book. However, those are only set dressing for really great character development and wholesome moments between out two leads, Laurel and Juniper.
To quickly summarize, S. Jean’s book involves the duo trying to break away from the control of a futuristic authoritarian government and forge their own path, their freedom, living as outlaws beyond Jupiter. Both of them are struggling with different aspects of how fascist institutions control the populace. Juniper had been outfitted with cyber technology that makes them more than human, but also susceptible to have their entire human self replaced with the perfect soldier and citizen to the state, one that is unthinking and obeys all. Meanwhile, Laurel’s struggle is more abstract: one of forging identity outside of her family, one that sold her to slavery, and societal oppressive structures.
Along the way, they meet an infamous space pirate vampire named Cedar Woods (if you were wondering where exactly was the fantasy), one that was held in government captivity for three years. Cedar’s and the duo’s first meeting wasn’t exactly a scene out of Candy Land, with the duo witnessing the brutal and bloody aftermath of the soldiers’ mistake of starving a vampire for three goddamn years. With federation soldiers closing in, the three of them decide to stick with each other for now, with Cedar tagging along a severed head of his lover, one that the trio eventually learn is not dead due to a cybernetic chip preserving his mind.
I’ll get to discussing the things I liked about this book (there are many of them), but first I want to delve into a more philosophical discussion. I swear it is relevant.
With Juniper being non-binary, Laurel explicitly aroace and Cedar and his lover (who eventually gets a new body) having one of the gayest relationships I’ve seen in a piece of fiction, their struggle against futuristic, techbro-adjacent fascism is one of queer struggle. It’s one of class struggle.
Throughout the book, the trio and other characters who joined Cedar’s crew go on multiple heists, usually to steal whatever McGuffin they needed to access the next step in their plan. And the book treats whatever cash or loot they received as the crew’s loot, using it in whatever way they wanted to satisfy the needs of crew members. They actively resist the capitalist and authoritarian measures of the fascist government and reject their way of leadership. At one point, they vote democratically on a fairly crucial decision.
The portrayal of (space) pirates in Wherever the Stars Call is absolutely in line with how 17th and 18th century pirates actually operated. They elected their captain and limited his authority, divided loot equally and maintained a multicultural, multiracial society. They had much more freedom on pirate ships than on ships of national, capitalist merchant societies. Late Marxist scholar Christopher Chitty describes in his book Sexual Hegemony that “pirates established societies according to their own rules, societies in which homosexuality not only was allowed but was an important form of comradery[.] […] In the early eighteenth century, the pirate and the sodomite were ideological twins[.]"
Cedar, Juniper, Laurel and other characters joining their crew have created a socialist society. One that is invested in not complying with fascist demands and one that is deeply queer. Which is why it pains me to bring up my one, big problem with this book: the lack of meaningful, explicit social commentary.
It should be noted that I don’t necessarily disagree with S. Jean’s intention behind writing Wherever the Stars Call as a fun sci-fi adventure reminiscent of Adult Swim space anime. I think it was a fantastic idea, and it’s not like every single book written by a queer person has to carefully dissect how capitalism oppresses those non-complaint with bourgeois social norms.
However, before reading this book, I read S. Jean’s Errant Wings, the book that released before this one. Errant Wings doesn’t pull punches regarding its social commentary: it very explicitly takes offence with religious fundamentalism, with the black-and-white conservative worldview, it precisely shows that whatever stereotypes you assign to a group based on biological characteristics and disallowing them to be anything different, then they’re just gonna follow the one path they are able to take.
Whatever the Stars Call has inklings of social commentary, like I pointed out with Cedar’s crew being a socialist society, but the book only really has the guts to really say “authoritarianism bad” and “brainwashing bad.” But every single dystopia does that, let's be honest. The main question a dystopia should be answering is "why?" and "how are they achieving this?"
I suspect this difference in complexity has probably to do with Errant Wings being New Adult, while Whatever the Stars Call is Young Adult. I do have to point out that The Hunger Games, the quintessential YA novel, has social commentary regarding the American obsession with violence and reality shows. Good social commentary can be done in YA, and Wherever the Stars Call just… flops on this front.
To the dear reader sticking with this review so far, I want to thank you. So let’s talk positives about this book. The characters in this book are authentically funny, awkward and relatable. The action scenes I mentioned at the start of this review have got my blood pumping. At several points in the book, I was genuinely wondering, "Are they going to make it?" and was horrified when several of the amazingly-written characters were on the brink of death.
There's also some genuine queer representation. I appreciated Laurel being asexual and I related to her struggles to so many levels it would make this review actually too long.
What an amazing book. At the time of writing this, I'm getting ready to read an ARC of S. Jean's upcoming novella and I can't wait to properly get to it!
To quickly summarize, S. Jean’s book involves the duo trying to break away from the control of a futuristic authoritarian government and forge their own path, their freedom, living as outlaws beyond Jupiter. Both of them are struggling with different aspects of how fascist institutions control the populace. Juniper had been outfitted with cyber technology that makes them more than human, but also susceptible to have their entire human self replaced with the perfect soldier and citizen to the state, one that is unthinking and obeys all. Meanwhile, Laurel’s struggle is more abstract: one of forging identity outside of her family, one that sold her to slavery, and societal oppressive structures.
Along the way, they meet an infamous space pirate vampire named Cedar Woods (if you were wondering where exactly was the fantasy), one that was held in government captivity for three years. Cedar’s and the duo’s first meeting wasn’t exactly a scene out of Candy Land, with the duo witnessing the brutal and bloody aftermath of the soldiers’ mistake of starving a vampire for three goddamn years. With federation soldiers closing in, the three of them decide to stick with each other for now, with Cedar tagging along a severed head of his lover, one that the trio eventually learn is not dead due to a cybernetic chip preserving his mind.
I’ll get to discussing the things I liked about this book (there are many of them), but first I want to delve into a more philosophical discussion. I swear it is relevant.
With Juniper being non-binary, Laurel explicitly aroace and Cedar and his lover (who eventually gets a new body) having one of the gayest relationships I’ve seen in a piece of fiction, their struggle against futuristic, techbro-adjacent fascism is one of queer struggle. It’s one of class struggle.
Throughout the book, the trio and other characters who joined Cedar’s crew go on multiple heists, usually to steal whatever McGuffin they needed to access the next step in their plan. And the book treats whatever cash or loot they received as the crew’s loot, using it in whatever way they wanted to satisfy the needs of crew members. They actively resist the capitalist and authoritarian measures of the fascist government and reject their way of leadership. At one point, they vote democratically on a fairly crucial decision.
The portrayal of (space) pirates in Wherever the Stars Call is absolutely in line with how 17th and 18th century pirates actually operated. They elected their captain and limited his authority, divided loot equally and maintained a multicultural, multiracial society. They had much more freedom on pirate ships than on ships of national, capitalist merchant societies. Late Marxist scholar Christopher Chitty describes in his book Sexual Hegemony that “pirates established societies according to their own rules, societies in which homosexuality not only was allowed but was an important form of comradery[.] […] In the early eighteenth century, the pirate and the sodomite were ideological twins[.]"
Cedar, Juniper, Laurel and other characters joining their crew have created a socialist society. One that is invested in not complying with fascist demands and one that is deeply queer. Which is why it pains me to bring up my one, big problem with this book: the lack of meaningful, explicit social commentary.
It should be noted that I don’t necessarily disagree with S. Jean’s intention behind writing Wherever the Stars Call as a fun sci-fi adventure reminiscent of Adult Swim space anime. I think it was a fantastic idea, and it’s not like every single book written by a queer person has to carefully dissect how capitalism oppresses those non-complaint with bourgeois social norms.
However, before reading this book, I read S. Jean’s Errant Wings, the book that released before this one. Errant Wings doesn’t pull punches regarding its social commentary: it very explicitly takes offence with religious fundamentalism, with the black-and-white conservative worldview, it precisely shows that whatever stereotypes you assign to a group based on biological characteristics and disallowing them to be anything different, then they’re just gonna follow the one path they are able to take.
Whatever the Stars Call has inklings of social commentary, like I pointed out with Cedar’s crew being a socialist society, but the book only really has the guts to really say “authoritarianism bad” and “brainwashing bad.” But every single dystopia does that, let's be honest. The main question a dystopia should be answering is "why?" and "how are they achieving this?"
I suspect this difference in complexity has probably to do with Errant Wings being New Adult, while Whatever the Stars Call is Young Adult. I do have to point out that The Hunger Games, the quintessential YA novel, has social commentary regarding the American obsession with violence and reality shows. Good social commentary can be done in YA, and Wherever the Stars Call just… flops on this front.
To the dear reader sticking with this review so far, I want to thank you. So let’s talk positives about this book. The characters in this book are authentically funny, awkward and relatable. The action scenes I mentioned at the start of this review have got my blood pumping. At several points in the book, I was genuinely wondering, "Are they going to make it?" and was horrified when several of the amazingly-written characters were on the brink of death.
There's also some genuine queer representation. I appreciated Laurel being asexual and I related to her struggles to so many levels it would make this review actually too long.
What an amazing book. At the time of writing this, I'm getting ready to read an ARC of S. Jean's upcoming novella and I can't wait to properly get to it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 28, 2024
Vampires and SciFi? Hell yes!
At first I didn't really expect this combination to work. Vampires feel like such a fantast element and mixing it with SciFi is something I'd never seen before. But putting it together was so much fun! I had a great time with both elements in this book.
Laurel and Juniper are such lovely main characters in this book. Both of them are incredibly tied to each other and that friendship was amazing to see. Their friendship isn't perfect however and they have struggles between them at certain points too. This made their friendship feel really human and it was nice to see this play out in the book. It reminds me of how lovely friendships can be wnd really makes me want to cherish my own friendships even more.
This book takes us to a lot of places, with danger in every corner. It was a lot of fun and adrenaline throughout the book when there would be intense fighting scenes or the main characters had to flee something. Fleeing is a big theme of the book with Laurel and Juniper trying to make life for themselves running away. They always seem to be chased by law enforcement or another entity wanting to stop them. This keeps the urgency to keep reading high, always wanting to know if they're going to be safe. Which was also just a lot of fun to keep going.
Lastly I want to say that this book has found family in a way I haven't seenuch before. A lot of found family in books the found family is around the same age as the main characters. And that's lovely and I enjoyed a lot of books with that. However this time having a parent figure show up that's actually a lot older was so sweet and enjoyable too. I felt like this added a lot to the book and made it even more memorable for me.
Concluding I absolutely loved this book and it made me even more sure to want to keep reading books from this author.
4.5 stars rounded up
I received an eARC and this was my honest review.
At first I didn't really expect this combination to work. Vampires feel like such a fantast element and mixing it with SciFi is something I'd never seen before. But putting it together was so much fun! I had a great time with both elements in this book.
Laurel and Juniper are such lovely main characters in this book. Both of them are incredibly tied to each other and that friendship was amazing to see. Their friendship isn't perfect however and they have struggles between them at certain points too. This made their friendship feel really human and it was nice to see this play out in the book. It reminds me of how lovely friendships can be wnd really makes me want to cherish my own friendships even more.
This book takes us to a lot of places, with danger in every corner. It was a lot of fun and adrenaline throughout the book when there would be intense fighting scenes or the main characters had to flee something. Fleeing is a big theme of the book with Laurel and Juniper trying to make life for themselves running away. They always seem to be chased by law enforcement or another entity wanting to stop them. This keeps the urgency to keep reading high, always wanting to know if they're going to be safe. Which was also just a lot of fun to keep going.
Lastly I want to say that this book has found family in a way I haven't seenuch before. A lot of found family in books the found family is around the same age as the main characters. And that's lovely and I enjoyed a lot of books with that. However this time having a parent figure show up that's actually a lot older was so sweet and enjoyable too. I felt like this added a lot to the book and made it even more memorable for me.
Concluding I absolutely loved this book and it made me even more sure to want to keep reading books from this author.
4.5 stars rounded up
I received an eARC and this was my honest review.
October 28, 2024
As soon as I heard about this book, I knew immediately I had to read it. Scifi? Check. Queer? Check. Vampires? Check. Found family. CHECK.
I was a little worried going in just because of the length of the novel - I'm not typically a huge book person and was worried it might drag but it didn't at all! I was so invested from the very start and couldn't wait to see what happened next. They do have a lot of perilous situations kind of back to back but it absolutely makes sense with the plot and is realistic for the situation that they find themselves in.
Laurel and Juniper's relationship was so freaking cute and so sweet, and I'm glad that it was realistic too - sometimes things happen and friendships/people aren't perfect, especially in high-stress situations, since pretty much nothing went how they thought it would. Also, they felt age-appropriate - they are teens and yes, have had a lot of hard times in their life so while not totally naive, they also make bad decisions sometimes that they don't fully think through. Overall, the whole found family just filled me with fuzzies and I love them all so much and I'm so upset they aren't real.
The surprise for me was that actually I think Cedar ended up being my favorite character, which I did not see coming. Petition for him to adopt me! I love how nuanced he was as a character, both being a vampire but also a marshmallow underneath it and fiercely loyal. Also Lily is definitely runner up for favorite character because hello? Cat.
I devoured this book in one sitting somehow and I am already ready and looking forward to rereading it, I loved it so much. Would highly, highly recommend if you are a soft scifi fan and don't mind a little gore now and then (because, vampires).
Huge thank you to the author for sending me an eARC to review. All opinions are my own.
I was a little worried going in just because of the length of the novel - I'm not typically a huge book person and was worried it might drag but it didn't at all! I was so invested from the very start and couldn't wait to see what happened next. They do have a lot of perilous situations kind of back to back but it absolutely makes sense with the plot and is realistic for the situation that they find themselves in.
Laurel and Juniper's relationship was so freaking cute and so sweet, and I'm glad that it was realistic too - sometimes things happen and friendships/people aren't perfect, especially in high-stress situations, since pretty much nothing went how they thought it would. Also, they felt age-appropriate - they are teens and yes, have had a lot of hard times in their life so while not totally naive, they also make bad decisions sometimes that they don't fully think through. Overall, the whole found family just filled me with fuzzies and I love them all so much and I'm so upset they aren't real.
The surprise for me was that actually I think Cedar ended up being my favorite character, which I did not see coming. Petition for him to adopt me! I love how nuanced he was as a character, both being a vampire but also a marshmallow underneath it and fiercely loyal. Also Lily is definitely runner up for favorite character because hello? Cat.
I devoured this book in one sitting somehow and I am already ready and looking forward to rereading it, I loved it so much. Would highly, highly recommend if you are a soft scifi fan and don't mind a little gore now and then (because, vampires).
Huge thank you to the author for sending me an eARC to review. All opinions are my own.
October 27, 2024
Wherever the Stars Call by S Jean is an adventure filled with found family, space pirates and space vampires, all on the run from a morally grey (at best) Galactic Federation. Best friends Laurel and Jupiter each have their own reasons for going on the run - Laurel has escaped from the strict federation school where her parents dumped her, while Juniper was forcibly fitted with intrusive cybernetics and is effectively now property of the Federation as they can shut down the cybernetics at will, essentially killing them. The escape does not go to plan, of course , and the pair soon find themselves on an abandoned ship with a vampire who luckily turns out to be a little less terrifying than he first seems.
This is a fun, fast paced, action packed read, from the initial escape and heist of a spaceship through all the gang's adventures to the dramatic conclusion, and while I certainly enjoyed the story, what really captivated me about this book was how well the author had crafted the characters. I loved all of the characters, not just Laurel and Jupiter, but all of the friends they picked up along the way, and I am certainly intrigued by the villain of the piece. This is a book that really leans into the found family trope, and I loved all the relationships between the characters. These are friends who would literally go to the ends of the galaxy for each other. There's also wonderful representation in the book, one of the main characters is non binary and the other is Ace, and as I have said before both are awesome. I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this book, and I really hope that more people find it and enjoy it just as much as I did.
This is a fun, fast paced, action packed read, from the initial escape and heist of a spaceship through all the gang's adventures to the dramatic conclusion, and while I certainly enjoyed the story, what really captivated me about this book was how well the author had crafted the characters. I loved all of the characters, not just Laurel and Jupiter, but all of the friends they picked up along the way, and I am certainly intrigued by the villain of the piece. This is a book that really leans into the found family trope, and I loved all the relationships between the characters. These are friends who would literally go to the ends of the galaxy for each other. There's also wonderful representation in the book, one of the main characters is non binary and the other is Ace, and as I have said before both are awesome. I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this book, and I really hope that more people find it and enjoy it just as much as I did.
August 10, 2024
I received an ARC and these are my voluntary thoughts on this story.
To be totally honest, it is super hard for me to ever give something 5 stars but this book truly deserves it. It is a masterclass of pace. Enough air to breathe and enough action to give it a solid punch. The world has precisely enough meat on the bones for me. Not too much for it to be overwhelming or feel like you are reading a brochure and not too little you feel like you walking in darkness.
Combine this with an awesome cast of characters all complex with their good and bad sides which makes them all super interesting. They are also not all at once dumped on you but are gradually introduced to you throughout the story. Story beats are handled incredibly and I never felt something really came out of the blue or was jarring. The warnings for this book were on point and I felt the descriptions that went into those areas were still classy which I personally prefer.
When I really dig deep and try to find something, which goes into a single star of a galaxy kind of detail. The only thing I did not find, is if I would live in this world, there is no solid reason not to become a vampire in this world. At least in my biased opinion as a person who doesn't enjoy the sun that much anyway.
So in conclusion, I would highly recommend this book, over 400 pages of a fantastic story that in my opinion is pretty much suited for most audiences.
To be totally honest, it is super hard for me to ever give something 5 stars but this book truly deserves it. It is a masterclass of pace. Enough air to breathe and enough action to give it a solid punch. The world has precisely enough meat on the bones for me. Not too much for it to be overwhelming or feel like you are reading a brochure and not too little you feel like you walking in darkness.
Combine this with an awesome cast of characters all complex with their good and bad sides which makes them all super interesting. They are also not all at once dumped on you but are gradually introduced to you throughout the story. Story beats are handled incredibly and I never felt something really came out of the blue or was jarring. The warnings for this book were on point and I felt the descriptions that went into those areas were still classy which I personally prefer.
When I really dig deep and try to find something, which goes into a single star of a galaxy kind of detail. The only thing I did not find, is if I would live in this world, there is no solid reason not to become a vampire in this world. At least in my biased opinion as a person who doesn't enjoy the sun that much anyway.
So in conclusion, I would highly recommend this book, over 400 pages of a fantastic story that in my opinion is pretty much suited for most audiences.
October 27, 2024
I received an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for my review.
This is a really fun, heartwarming book! I super enjoyed the core characters and absolutely adored how queer everything was (and how NORMAL that was. I'm always mixed on queernormative worlds, but I really enjoyed this). I love love loved how the story revolved around chosen family - I'm a sucker for it and this hit the spot for me.
The plot was pretty simple and relatively predictable, but the individual elements were super strong - the writing of the function and malfunction of cybernetics was 👌👌 and wasn't so high-tech that I felt lost.
The only real weakness this book has, beyond preference on content/pacing, is the worldbuilding, which was definitely more vibes than something that felt real to me. I still enjoyed what was there, though!
This book is really lovely for anyone looking for a queerplatonic sci fi road trip kind of vibe, and I'd highly recommend it if you're into that!
This is a really fun, heartwarming book! I super enjoyed the core characters and absolutely adored how queer everything was (and how NORMAL that was. I'm always mixed on queernormative worlds, but I really enjoyed this). I love love loved how the story revolved around chosen family - I'm a sucker for it and this hit the spot for me.
The plot was pretty simple and relatively predictable, but the individual elements were super strong - the writing of the function and malfunction of cybernetics was 👌👌 and wasn't so high-tech that I felt lost.
The only real weakness this book has, beyond preference on content/pacing, is the worldbuilding, which was definitely more vibes than something that felt real to me. I still enjoyed what was there, though!
This book is really lovely for anyone looking for a queerplatonic sci fi road trip kind of vibe, and I'd highly recommend it if you're into that!
December 2, 2025
I came across Wherever the Stars Call during an indie book sale. I was initially drawn to it because of the wonderful art. I thought it was gorgeous, so I read the summary. Sounded interesting, so I purchased it. I'm so glad I did. I absolutely adored this book. Found family is one of my favorite book themes, and this book completely nailed it. The writing, characters, story, and setting were all wonderful. I'd classify it as a cozy sci-fi story, but it wasn't all happy. The characters felt very realistic and so were the relationships which included the unhappy as well as the happy. Overall, an absolutely delightful read that I wish more people knew about.
December 2, 2024
This book was so much fun! Heists, space adventures, evil galactic federation, and the fun contrast of sci fi plus vampires. The characters were all so endearing I was so worried something bad was going to happen to them! But there's nothing too terrible, just good old fashioned fun. The book also tackles some heavier issues, including the best depiction I've read of nervous system de-regulation, but with all the fun madness in the plot it never feels heavy. Really enjoyed reading this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2024
Beautiful story, with wonderful characters, especially Cedar.
November 13, 2025
Such a fun read. There's really just about something for everyone in this. Space vampires, pirates, heists, cybernetics, androids, interplanetary travel, you name it! Thoroughly enjoyable!
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