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I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World
From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson comes a deeply moving, wise guide to finding joy and meaning in a world that seems to be falling apart
It’s hard to escape the feeling that something is deeply wrong . . . that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves, collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising economic inequality, widespread unrest, and more. In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues we are undergoing what every complex civilization before us has—systemic collapse.
So how do we continue to live as sensitive humans amidst such a tumultuous shift? What does life look like when the systems we rely on deteriorate? Should we be having kids? How do we make financial decisions? Should we be prepping? And, most importantly, how do we avoid succumbing to doom and despair?
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into these pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with philosophers, poets, game theorists, and spiritual leaders, Wilson takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for living fully, meaningfully, and beautifully through these troubled times. Our predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is valuable to us—to eat the stars—and to return to our humanity once again.
I Eat the Stars empowers readers to move beyond panic, doom, and despair. With her warm, incisively intelligent, wise, and down-to-earth voice, Wilson creates a space for readers to confront their fears and anxieties about an uncertain future, guiding them toward one rooted in truth, hope, justice, creativity, community, and to step up as “warriors” and meet the moment.
We are in what we were warned about for decades. But from a crisis comes stunning possibility.
It’s hard to escape the feeling that something is deeply wrong . . . that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves, collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising economic inequality, widespread unrest, and more. In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues we are undergoing what every complex civilization before us has—systemic collapse.
So how do we continue to live as sensitive humans amidst such a tumultuous shift? What does life look like when the systems we rely on deteriorate? Should we be having kids? How do we make financial decisions? Should we be prepping? And, most importantly, how do we avoid succumbing to doom and despair?
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into these pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with philosophers, poets, game theorists, and spiritual leaders, Wilson takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for living fully, meaningfully, and beautifully through these troubled times. Our predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is valuable to us—to eat the stars—and to return to our humanity once again.
I Eat the Stars empowers readers to move beyond panic, doom, and despair. With her warm, incisively intelligent, wise, and down-to-earth voice, Wilson creates a space for readers to confront their fears and anxieties about an uncertain future, guiding them toward one rooted in truth, hope, justice, creativity, community, and to step up as “warriors” and meet the moment.
We are in what we were warned about for decades. But from a crisis comes stunning possibility.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published June 16, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
June 26, 2026
I got half way and I cannot justify going any further.
This book is the rantings of a highly privileged, wealthy, out-of-touch white woman who maybe needs some real struggles - like affording rent and groceries - in her life.
I get where the author is coming from, but don't talk down to the rest of us that cannot afford to move to Paris like a main character in a rom-com and unpick every thought and feeling that comes to mind.
To clarify, I am not denying the climate change research cited in this book. However, I despise being thought of less than because I don't share the author's view on all Collapse theories. Keeping in mind that they are theories.
But - I do agree with some, and felt pushed out by the author's 'all-or-nothing' mentality. The author has become nothing more than the person she was criticising - someone holding on so tightly to a world view because they've invested so much of their time and identity into it. Chill.
If the world and society as we know is going to collapse soon, and there's nothing we can do about it, why not meet people where they are and love them for that?
2.5 stars only because it allowed me to clarify my own position.
This book is the rantings of a highly privileged, wealthy, out-of-touch white woman who maybe needs some real struggles - like affording rent and groceries - in her life.
I get where the author is coming from, but don't talk down to the rest of us that cannot afford to move to Paris like a main character in a rom-com and unpick every thought and feeling that comes to mind.
To clarify, I am not denying the climate change research cited in this book. However, I despise being thought of less than because I don't share the author's view on all Collapse theories. Keeping in mind that they are theories.
But - I do agree with some, and felt pushed out by the author's 'all-or-nothing' mentality. The author has become nothing more than the person she was criticising - someone holding on so tightly to a world view because they've invested so much of their time and identity into it. Chill.
If the world and society as we know is going to collapse soon, and there's nothing we can do about it, why not meet people where they are and love them for that?
2.5 stars only because it allowed me to clarify my own position.
June 7, 2026
“The Titanic is going down and we’re debating the right way to fold a deck chair”
I can’t believe a non-fiction book is my first five-star review of the year! Since learning about collapse theory, it’s been all I can think about and now I see examples of it every day; I just didn’t have a word for it before. It is at once terrifying and validating.
Reading this was hard work (intellectually, emotionally, spiritually) and so it felt difficult to pick up and yet impossible to put down. It’s completely altered how I view the world and confronted my sense of certainty about our future. But ultimately it’s about returning to what it really means to be human.
I think you have to be ready for this one, but when you are, do it.
I can’t believe a non-fiction book is my first five-star review of the year! Since learning about collapse theory, it’s been all I can think about and now I see examples of it every day; I just didn’t have a word for it before. It is at once terrifying and validating.
Reading this was hard work (intellectually, emotionally, spiritually) and so it felt difficult to pick up and yet impossible to put down. It’s completely altered how I view the world and confronted my sense of certainty about our future. But ultimately it’s about returning to what it really means to be human.
I think you have to be ready for this one, but when you are, do it.
June 29, 2026
My, my. Chicken Little, the sky is falling.
While I happen to agree with a lot of what the author discusses about climate and systems collapse, this book is a mess. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I got was existential panic for the first part of the book. An entire chapter on losing “hopium.” I swear to God. 😒
Then the remainder of the book is about her going on vision quests and, in fact, not giving up “hopium.”
When, somewhere in the middle, after my fear center was shut down from overuse, she started mentioning the myth of calories in and calories out, alarm bells started ringing. That’s when I looked up her credentials, and what do you know? She holds an online nutrition credential and wrote a book about sugar addiction. I swear to the Lord, I just cannot.
But I stuck with it because I wanted to see how she would land the plane. All of the pilfered quotes she uses to suit her narrative are very effective if you’re not paying attention. I genuinely caught myself thinking, this is how people get sucked into cults. I kept waiting for the pitch.
Alas, if you’re well read on any of the topics she discusses, you’ll probably agree these systems are dysfunctional and everything does seem on the verge of, or already in, collapse. But if you’re reading this for any semblance of feeling better or finding peace, you’re barking up the wrong quack tree. 🌬️
While I happen to agree with a lot of what the author discusses about climate and systems collapse, this book is a mess. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I got was existential panic for the first part of the book. An entire chapter on losing “hopium.” I swear to God. 😒
Then the remainder of the book is about her going on vision quests and, in fact, not giving up “hopium.”
When, somewhere in the middle, after my fear center was shut down from overuse, she started mentioning the myth of calories in and calories out, alarm bells started ringing. That’s when I looked up her credentials, and what do you know? She holds an online nutrition credential and wrote a book about sugar addiction. I swear to the Lord, I just cannot.
But I stuck with it because I wanted to see how she would land the plane. All of the pilfered quotes she uses to suit her narrative are very effective if you’re not paying attention. I genuinely caught myself thinking, this is how people get sucked into cults. I kept waiting for the pitch.
Alas, if you’re well read on any of the topics she discusses, you’ll probably agree these systems are dysfunctional and everything does seem on the verge of, or already in, collapse. But if you’re reading this for any semblance of feeling better or finding peace, you’re barking up the wrong quack tree. 🌬️
June 17, 2026
Sarah Wilson has written a highly accessible and eminently readable book about collapse.
That accessibility is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The book surveys an enormous subject with broad strokes, sacrificing depth for breadth, and rarely pauses to interrogate its own assumptions. It spends little time establishing what "collapse" means in detail, instead somewhat haphazardly running through a scattered, by no means comprehensive list of contributing causes. Admittedly, doing so would leave little room for anything else, as the subject is immense and our world both vast and impossibly complex.
But rigorous analysis was never really the point. Originally written as a Substack serialisation, the book retains the feeling of a personal journal: reflective, conversational, emotional, and episodic rather than methodical or scholarly.
So if you're looking for detailed science on the drivers of collapse, philosophical explorations of how to maintain democracy in a collapsing world, serious engagement with ethical concerns such as whether to have children in an age of ecological overshoot (let alone high-consuming first-world ones!) or discussions on whether or How To Blow Up a Pipeline, this is not that book. Fortunately, books that tackle those questions in depth already exist.
If, however, you're looking for companionship in confronting collapse, it may be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Becoming collapse-aware can feel like tumbling down the proverbial rabbit hole into an abyss, made worse by the merciless levels of ostracism one invariably encounters. In that sense, Wilson's book succeeds less as an original intellectual contribution than as an act of solidarity, as Wilson’s vulnerable sharing of her personal journey reassures readers that they are not alone.
The structure reflects this purpose. Rather than presenting a tightly argued thesis, it resembles a stream of consciousness: the whirlwind of fear, grief, anger, confusion, and searching for meaning that accompanies the plunge into the abyss. She writes about falling into deep despair and its associated liberating, necessary wailing, her dancing to escape paralysing terror, her grappling with fear and loss and grief, but also arrives at some upsides that come with a better grasp of a terrifying reality, such as the clearsightedness that comes with the relinquishing of living a lie based on delusional hope.
Wilson draws on her extensive experience with thinkers and feelers in the collapse space (including her own readers, whose feedback and comments are incorporated in this final version) as a podcast host, journalist, blogger and more to deliver insights and anecdotes from near and far. It touches on ecology, history, sociology, psychology, neuroscience, game theory, and numerous adjacent disciplines, but almost always in passing. Readers hoping for sustained engagement with any of these topics may find themselves frustrated by how quickly the discussion moves on.
Paradoxically, that light touch is precisely what gives the book its appeal. Its conversational style lowers the barrier to entry for readers who are only beginning to engage with collapse, making the grim subject feel approachable rather than overwhelming.
Throughout, Wilson scatters facts and observations without developing them into sustained arguments. She doesn’t strain the Overton window and offers few genuinely novel insights. Readers already immersed in collapse literature are unlikely to encounter ideas they haven't seen before.
Yet that may miss the point. The book's principal contribution is not originality but accessibility. Its value lies in translating an overwhelming body of ideas into an emotionally resonant narrative that many readers will recognise in themselves, even if it does ultimately leave them hanging. But to that, I would just say: of course it does, because the reality of collapse is surreal.
Ultimately, the book is about finding a way to be in a world one knows is ending, or at the very least about to go through foundational changes the likes of which we can hardly imagine.
I think it is a valuable contribution to collapse literature that delivers what it promises and helps build bridges, bringing the topic closer to the mainstream. I would recommend it to readers looking for a thoughtful companion while coming to terms with collapse.
That accessibility is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The book surveys an enormous subject with broad strokes, sacrificing depth for breadth, and rarely pauses to interrogate its own assumptions. It spends little time establishing what "collapse" means in detail, instead somewhat haphazardly running through a scattered, by no means comprehensive list of contributing causes. Admittedly, doing so would leave little room for anything else, as the subject is immense and our world both vast and impossibly complex.
But rigorous analysis was never really the point. Originally written as a Substack serialisation, the book retains the feeling of a personal journal: reflective, conversational, emotional, and episodic rather than methodical or scholarly.
So if you're looking for detailed science on the drivers of collapse, philosophical explorations of how to maintain democracy in a collapsing world, serious engagement with ethical concerns such as whether to have children in an age of ecological overshoot (let alone high-consuming first-world ones!) or discussions on whether or How To Blow Up a Pipeline, this is not that book. Fortunately, books that tackle those questions in depth already exist.
If, however, you're looking for companionship in confronting collapse, it may be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Becoming collapse-aware can feel like tumbling down the proverbial rabbit hole into an abyss, made worse by the merciless levels of ostracism one invariably encounters. In that sense, Wilson's book succeeds less as an original intellectual contribution than as an act of solidarity, as Wilson’s vulnerable sharing of her personal journey reassures readers that they are not alone.
The structure reflects this purpose. Rather than presenting a tightly argued thesis, it resembles a stream of consciousness: the whirlwind of fear, grief, anger, confusion, and searching for meaning that accompanies the plunge into the abyss. She writes about falling into deep despair and its associated liberating, necessary wailing, her dancing to escape paralysing terror, her grappling with fear and loss and grief, but also arrives at some upsides that come with a better grasp of a terrifying reality, such as the clearsightedness that comes with the relinquishing of living a lie based on delusional hope.
Wilson draws on her extensive experience with thinkers and feelers in the collapse space (including her own readers, whose feedback and comments are incorporated in this final version) as a podcast host, journalist, blogger and more to deliver insights and anecdotes from near and far. It touches on ecology, history, sociology, psychology, neuroscience, game theory, and numerous adjacent disciplines, but almost always in passing. Readers hoping for sustained engagement with any of these topics may find themselves frustrated by how quickly the discussion moves on.
Paradoxically, that light touch is precisely what gives the book its appeal. Its conversational style lowers the barrier to entry for readers who are only beginning to engage with collapse, making the grim subject feel approachable rather than overwhelming.
Throughout, Wilson scatters facts and observations without developing them into sustained arguments. She doesn’t strain the Overton window and offers few genuinely novel insights. Readers already immersed in collapse literature are unlikely to encounter ideas they haven't seen before.
Yet that may miss the point. The book's principal contribution is not originality but accessibility. Its value lies in translating an overwhelming body of ideas into an emotionally resonant narrative that many readers will recognise in themselves, even if it does ultimately leave them hanging. But to that, I would just say: of course it does, because the reality of collapse is surreal.
Ultimately, the book is about finding a way to be in a world one knows is ending, or at the very least about to go through foundational changes the likes of which we can hardly imagine.
I think it is a valuable contribution to collapse literature that delivers what it promises and helps build bridges, bringing the topic closer to the mainstream. I would recommend it to readers looking for a thoughtful companion while coming to terms with collapse.
July 27, 2026
2 stars = Meh. Just ok.
“Understanding collapse is not for everyone.”
Climate collapse, end stage capitalism, AI, and a rise in fascism that is threatening democracy are all issues I was already aware of, and they do not bring me joy. So I picked this book up hoping it would help to provide a philosophical perspective to lessen the concern over these heavy issues. Ha! This book stressed me the hell out.
“We human beings now have the power to exterminate ourselves; this seems to be the entire sum of our achievement. - James Baldwin”
There is excellent factual information here for those that are uninformed, including very recent events. Unfortunately the title and synopsis are misleading as I experienced a paradoxical effect with a significant increase in anxiety from reading it. The advice offered for the most part had already been implemented in my life, which left me with more negatives than positives from the reading experience.
“We are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger. We are the danger. - António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations”
-----
First Sentence: I always feel I need to explain why I write a book.
Favorite Quote: To face death is to learn how to live.
“Understanding collapse is not for everyone.”
Climate collapse, end stage capitalism, AI, and a rise in fascism that is threatening democracy are all issues I was already aware of, and they do not bring me joy. So I picked this book up hoping it would help to provide a philosophical perspective to lessen the concern over these heavy issues. Ha! This book stressed me the hell out.
“We human beings now have the power to exterminate ourselves; this seems to be the entire sum of our achievement. - James Baldwin”
There is excellent factual information here for those that are uninformed, including very recent events. Unfortunately the title and synopsis are misleading as I experienced a paradoxical effect with a significant increase in anxiety from reading it. The advice offered for the most part had already been implemented in my life, which left me with more negatives than positives from the reading experience.
“We are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger. We are the danger. - António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations”
-----
First Sentence: I always feel I need to explain why I write a book.
Favorite Quote: To face death is to learn how to live.
June 24, 2026
big deep thinking going on here. made me feel like a speck and i liked jt.
Want to Read
June 27, 2026came across this book while at work and i looove the cover, haddd to check it out!! (yes i judge books by their covers)
July 19, 2026
Lots to think about. Read in a few sittings. Video review to follow. Certainly, this author writes about something I’d already had been thinking about - and accepted - but seeing it in print confirmed I’m not alone. This isn’t the stuff people are comfortable talking about.
June 22, 2026
Lots to sit with here. Definitely the kind of book you return to, almost as a milestone Che k. And Wilson reminded me of the staggering line by Rilke “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.”
July 7, 2026
If you do nothing else with yourself this year, you need to read this book. I will personally drive and deliver it to anyone who wishes to read it. No cap.
I picked this up at QBE Books because I liked the cover art. I am not ashamed to admit the fact that i judge books by their covers A LOT! Covers are our first impressions - and boy, do they matter. Upon reading the blurb I turned to Mat (who was with me, as he always is) and said "Look at this! Isn't it pretty?' before he could respond, a worker approached us and implored me to buy it.
'It's our top rated non-fiction of the month,' she said. 'It's only been out two weeks. Everyone who picks it up we urge to buy it. It is brilliant.'
A little stunned, I said, okay!
Best $30 I've ever spent.
If you followed my reading progress, I have been dropping the quotes I enjoyed most from each reading session. I will now drop most of the bits I underlined in this review (I'd love to do all of them, but that would require pretty much writing a book of my own). After reading this, I feel a profound sense of relief, admiration and love for me and my fellow humans. So, if you don't end up picking this up, at least I've keyboard smashed my fav bits in for you:
'Human wipeout by Artifical Intelligence has also become a highly possible reality. We know this because, bizarrely, the people who make it love to tell us so.'
'...collapse is what we are currently in. You know, where things are a bit shit. And instead of returning to normal...they just get more shit.'
'In our global, postindustrial vilisation's case, our carbon emissions and, by proxy, our energy and resources problems are what are ultimately too expensive to fix. And so... we literally can't afford the fossil fuels to make the requisite clean energy transition happen in time.'
I think the person we want to be is kind. Because kindness is the substance that keeps our sense of self vertical. We ultimately ache to downgrade our sense of self-importance and to release our inward obsession with finding our own happiness and to instead give to others. Because it's in relationships, in the giving outward, that we find real joy.'
'...the need for certainty felt like a trap. Things like buying investment properties and creating nest eggs began to feel nonsensical when I could no longer plot where I'd be in five or ten years and when there was no longer a solid map onto which to plot them.'
'Kids now pass into adulthood awkwardly, reluctantly and with mental illness; they turn to Andrew Tate and dark online fantasy worlds.'
'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.'
'If you're staying attached to the status quo right now, you will be unhinged, because there is nothing there.'
'Every LLM (Large Language Model) user in the MIT study was shown to have suppressed neural engagement and 'a decline in intrinsic motivation and epistemic curiosity' after completing the assigned writing task and ALL OF THEM 'remembered nothing of what they wrote'' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'Tens of thousands of workers in Kenya earning U$2 an hour, for example, are currently required to "train" ChatGPT to be morally decent. They literally trawl the net's orgy of violence, self-harm, murder, rape, necrophilia, child abuse, bestiality and incest, and train the LLM not to generate harmful content.'
'What if we've ruined this gift we were granted and just thrown the whole lot under the truck, for ourselves, for the innocent children to come, the animals and eveything else that makes up the web of life?'
'When the ordinary thought of a highly cultivated people begins to regard having children as a question of pros and cons, the great turning point has come.'
'In general, it is the rich who have the most to gain from clinging to the 'old normal'.
'For sure, humanity has faced many of the crises before us today, and others besides. However! We've not faced so many ALL AT ONCE.'
'What is it with the tech bros' technofascist takeover? Why are they being "allowed" to build killer robots? And to dictate global politics? Why isn't anyone stopping them?'
'We have spent decades, centuries, rejecting and devaluing "soft qualities" - empathy, compassion, humility etc. - that define us as humans, as divine organisms that belong to the incredible energetic force that is Life.'
'With allostasis, healthy systems also crave stability after a change, but the baseline of that stability can be somewhere new.'
'A gaslighter will casually make an offensive or problematic claim and then focus the discussion on the emotional response it elicits in the other person. Strawmanning... entails deliberately misrepresenting or oversimplifying an opponents position to make it easier to argue against.'
'collapse won't be like the movies.'
'I like to remind myself that humans are design to survive austerity. What we'd characterise as extreme poverty today was, until a few centuries ago, the condition of 94 percent of people on Earth.'
'Many truths can exist at once.'
'Happiness can't be relied on as a measure of our life's meaning.'
'If all else fails, or you lose focus, just care. Care all over the place. When a world sees care in other people's faces, it shifts.'
'Keep being outraged. Our outrage is the spark of our common humanity.'
'Since the beginning of time, people have had children in dark times who, often, grew up to experience horribly declining conditions throughout their entire lives. I would argue until the end of days that their lives are worthy and that their contribution is entirely necessary.'
'I could choose to exist, anew. From ground zero, I could opt back in.'
'We must create art in the apocalypse.'
I picked this up at QBE Books because I liked the cover art. I am not ashamed to admit the fact that i judge books by their covers A LOT! Covers are our first impressions - and boy, do they matter. Upon reading the blurb I turned to Mat (who was with me, as he always is) and said "Look at this! Isn't it pretty?' before he could respond, a worker approached us and implored me to buy it.
'It's our top rated non-fiction of the month,' she said. 'It's only been out two weeks. Everyone who picks it up we urge to buy it. It is brilliant.'
A little stunned, I said, okay!
Best $30 I've ever spent.
If you followed my reading progress, I have been dropping the quotes I enjoyed most from each reading session. I will now drop most of the bits I underlined in this review (I'd love to do all of them, but that would require pretty much writing a book of my own). After reading this, I feel a profound sense of relief, admiration and love for me and my fellow humans. So, if you don't end up picking this up, at least I've keyboard smashed my fav bits in for you:
'Human wipeout by Artifical Intelligence has also become a highly possible reality. We know this because, bizarrely, the people who make it love to tell us so.'
'...collapse is what we are currently in. You know, where things are a bit shit. And instead of returning to normal...they just get more shit.'
'In our global, postindustrial vilisation's case, our carbon emissions and, by proxy, our energy and resources problems are what are ultimately too expensive to fix. And so... we literally can't afford the fossil fuels to make the requisite clean energy transition happen in time.'
I think the person we want to be is kind. Because kindness is the substance that keeps our sense of self vertical. We ultimately ache to downgrade our sense of self-importance and to release our inward obsession with finding our own happiness and to instead give to others. Because it's in relationships, in the giving outward, that we find real joy.'
'...the need for certainty felt like a trap. Things like buying investment properties and creating nest eggs began to feel nonsensical when I could no longer plot where I'd be in five or ten years and when there was no longer a solid map onto which to plot them.'
'Kids now pass into adulthood awkwardly, reluctantly and with mental illness; they turn to Andrew Tate and dark online fantasy worlds.'
'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.'
'If you're staying attached to the status quo right now, you will be unhinged, because there is nothing there.'
'Every LLM (Large Language Model) user in the MIT study was shown to have suppressed neural engagement and 'a decline in intrinsic motivation and epistemic curiosity' after completing the assigned writing task and ALL OF THEM 'remembered nothing of what they wrote'' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'Tens of thousands of workers in Kenya earning U$2 an hour, for example, are currently required to "train" ChatGPT to be morally decent. They literally trawl the net's orgy of violence, self-harm, murder, rape, necrophilia, child abuse, bestiality and incest, and train the LLM not to generate harmful content.'
'What if we've ruined this gift we were granted and just thrown the whole lot under the truck, for ourselves, for the innocent children to come, the animals and eveything else that makes up the web of life?'
'When the ordinary thought of a highly cultivated people begins to regard having children as a question of pros and cons, the great turning point has come.'
'In general, it is the rich who have the most to gain from clinging to the 'old normal'.
'For sure, humanity has faced many of the crises before us today, and others besides. However! We've not faced so many ALL AT ONCE.'
'What is it with the tech bros' technofascist takeover? Why are they being "allowed" to build killer robots? And to dictate global politics? Why isn't anyone stopping them?'
'We have spent decades, centuries, rejecting and devaluing "soft qualities" - empathy, compassion, humility etc. - that define us as humans, as divine organisms that belong to the incredible energetic force that is Life.'
'With allostasis, healthy systems also crave stability after a change, but the baseline of that stability can be somewhere new.'
'A gaslighter will casually make an offensive or problematic claim and then focus the discussion on the emotional response it elicits in the other person. Strawmanning... entails deliberately misrepresenting or oversimplifying an opponents position to make it easier to argue against.'
'collapse won't be like the movies.'
'I like to remind myself that humans are design to survive austerity. What we'd characterise as extreme poverty today was, until a few centuries ago, the condition of 94 percent of people on Earth.'
'Many truths can exist at once.'
'Happiness can't be relied on as a measure of our life's meaning.'
'If all else fails, or you lose focus, just care. Care all over the place. When a world sees care in other people's faces, it shifts.'
'Keep being outraged. Our outrage is the spark of our common humanity.'
'Since the beginning of time, people have had children in dark times who, often, grew up to experience horribly declining conditions throughout their entire lives. I would argue until the end of days that their lives are worthy and that their contribution is entirely necessary.'
'I could choose to exist, anew. From ground zero, I could opt back in.'
'We must create art in the apocalypse.'
June 28, 2026
"Our grief and fear exist only because love was there first. We grieve and fear losing only what we love."
I journeyed through all the below thoughts and darker while reading this book but this line made everything, makes everything so much more manageable. Do you want to be right or do you want to love?
I was on the precipice of absolute panic while reading most of this book. My flaring internal arguments being met with my usual selfsoothing words that no longer provided any salve to my anxieties. It has been very confronting. You can not go back to a past self after reading this. There is maybe only just enough silver linings provided to prevent a full blown existential panic attack throughout the book. Maybe? I was shaken to see i have seemingly built a nest of comfort around me in plush silks and lovely things, and what of this when the water is contaminated and the sun a ball of angrier fire? I am stuck in a childish desire for comfort, avoiding any pain and despair i can but with what?
As the world collapses further i want to inhabit the space of the " Warriors of the human spirit, Meg writes, are the adults who do not flee, but who bear it, or who abide', as she puts it
They serve as beacons of an ancient story that tells of the goodness, generosity, and creativity of humanity. You will know them by their compassionate presence You can identify them by their cheerfulness. When asked how they do it, they will tell you about discipline dedication, and the need for community."
Although that still may reek of egoism, surely its healthier than the ego built on dresses and tchotchkes (and avoidance?) ?
In the words of Mary Oliver "we have wound up breathing just a little, and calling it a life".
I nearly got fully stuck in the moloch but I urge you to persevere through the chapters, arriving at the chapters on dance, humble, wisdom....
A picture perfect performance of the left brain right brain theory, GO RIGHT!
I arrived at the end if this book crying big, feeling light and held because its all already here. The tools. Our guru is nature, its life... but theres work to do!
"this poem by Paul Fleischman:
On the mythic dav of Armageddon, when the world is destroyed and every sinner stands naked and unsupported in the void to face fate in accordance with his or her deeds. I imagine that the tribunal judging us won't consist of winged angels or horned devils, but will be a black capped chickadee, a lynx and a birch tree. They will know as clearly as you and I do that one predator species has cut down every virgin forest, killed as many plants and animals as he could get away with, spoiled every source of fresh water and fouled every ocean on the planet. Who can you and I bring forward as our on character witnesses? Right now, I'm cultivating friendships with black bears, a woodlot, and a Canadian river Im not saving nature. I'm letting nature save me.?"
I want to be humbled by forming a friendship with a river.
I journeyed through all the below thoughts and darker while reading this book but this line made everything, makes everything so much more manageable. Do you want to be right or do you want to love?
I was on the precipice of absolute panic while reading most of this book. My flaring internal arguments being met with my usual selfsoothing words that no longer provided any salve to my anxieties. It has been very confronting. You can not go back to a past self after reading this. There is maybe only just enough silver linings provided to prevent a full blown existential panic attack throughout the book. Maybe? I was shaken to see i have seemingly built a nest of comfort around me in plush silks and lovely things, and what of this when the water is contaminated and the sun a ball of angrier fire? I am stuck in a childish desire for comfort, avoiding any pain and despair i can but with what?
As the world collapses further i want to inhabit the space of the " Warriors of the human spirit, Meg writes, are the adults who do not flee, but who bear it, or who abide', as she puts it
They serve as beacons of an ancient story that tells of the goodness, generosity, and creativity of humanity. You will know them by their compassionate presence You can identify them by their cheerfulness. When asked how they do it, they will tell you about discipline dedication, and the need for community."
Although that still may reek of egoism, surely its healthier than the ego built on dresses and tchotchkes (and avoidance?) ?
In the words of Mary Oliver "we have wound up breathing just a little, and calling it a life".
I nearly got fully stuck in the moloch but I urge you to persevere through the chapters, arriving at the chapters on dance, humble, wisdom....
A picture perfect performance of the left brain right brain theory, GO RIGHT!
I arrived at the end if this book crying big, feeling light and held because its all already here. The tools. Our guru is nature, its life... but theres work to do!
"this poem by Paul Fleischman:
On the mythic dav of Armageddon, when the world is destroyed and every sinner stands naked and unsupported in the void to face fate in accordance with his or her deeds. I imagine that the tribunal judging us won't consist of winged angels or horned devils, but will be a black capped chickadee, a lynx and a birch tree. They will know as clearly as you and I do that one predator species has cut down every virgin forest, killed as many plants and animals as he could get away with, spoiled every source of fresh water and fouled every ocean on the planet. Who can you and I bring forward as our on character witnesses? Right now, I'm cultivating friendships with black bears, a woodlot, and a Canadian river Im not saving nature. I'm letting nature save me.?"
I want to be humbled by forming a friendship with a river.
July 2, 2026
I began reading I Eat the Stars during a lunch break the other week, and before I knew it, I found myself having a full fledged panic attack. I think it suddenly dawned on me what I was about to read and the realities it would force me to confront. It wasn't easy to pick the book back up again, but I'm so glad I did.
What kept me reading was the thread of hope that quietly glows throughout the path Wilson takes us down. To somehow offer both no hope and every hope in the world at the same time is an art form in itself. There is something profoundly liberating about accepting that there isn't as much we can control or "do" as we once believed. Strangely, that realisation felt like a weight being lifted.
The book invites you to stop striving for impossible certainty and instead simply live life. It sounds absurd when written down, but it struck a deep chord with me. These are thoughts I grapple with daily, and Wilson articulated them in a way that felt both confronting and comforting. A challenging read, but ultimately one I'm very grateful to have experienced.
What kept me reading was the thread of hope that quietly glows throughout the path Wilson takes us down. To somehow offer both no hope and every hope in the world at the same time is an art form in itself. There is something profoundly liberating about accepting that there isn't as much we can control or "do" as we once believed. Strangely, that realisation felt like a weight being lifted.
The book invites you to stop striving for impossible certainty and instead simply live life. It sounds absurd when written down, but it struck a deep chord with me. These are thoughts I grapple with daily, and Wilson articulated them in a way that felt both confronting and comforting. A challenging read, but ultimately one I'm very grateful to have experienced.
July 21, 2026
This was not the book I thought I was going to get when I picked up this book! If you don't have the mental capacity to read about societal/civilisational collapse, then I would not recommend you read this. I felt challenged (in a good way) by some of the ideas put forward but also some views felt quite murky and based on 'vibes', not research. But it has encouraged me to research about it from a more thorough academic standpoint.
July 5, 2026
My brother gave me this book for my recent birthday and said he was looking forward to discussing it with me when I finished it. I was not familiar with this author or her podcasts or prior writings so I found this offering both compelling and at times confusing but very thought provoking overall.
While reading it, I came across an article and interview with her in the Sunday Age that discussed liminality- a section I had just read within the book at that point- and found myself pondering even more deeply.
My brother described this book as like nothing he had ever read and I feel somewhat surprised myself that though it was not an easy read it was one that I wanted to continue to the end and that I will reflect on long after I have turned the final page. Not every book can have that said about it.
While reading it, I came across an article and interview with her in the Sunday Age that discussed liminality- a section I had just read within the book at that point- and found myself pondering even more deeply.
My brother described this book as like nothing he had ever read and I feel somewhat surprised myself that though it was not an easy read it was one that I wanted to continue to the end and that I will reflect on long after I have turned the final page. Not every book can have that said about it.
June 26, 2026
dnf-ed at 13%. the author just seems so full of herself to the point where it makes the book jarring. it's consistently going back and forth between facts and random details of her life that semi-relate. and her writing style is draining. she literally pats herself on the back while writing, saying things like "i'm on a roll." don't interrupt that roll just to be meta! it makes it feel incredibly disjointed. she also tells the reader about a date she went on and then adds an annotation to the side to let you know what came of the relationship. i don't care! get on with it! let's not forget the fact that she put 3 sentences on a full page to "give us time to process what she just said" lady you're not sharing any groundbreaking information that i didn't know before, you are just wasting paper. i've never read a self-help-type book before, is this level of author self-reference and self-aggrandizing normal? if so, this is NOT the genre for me.
Review of advance copy
A great honest book that brings together a thoughtful approach and reckoning with our collective age of collapse. It’s part philosophical meditation, part survival guide, and part personal reckoning with ecological grief, futurology, poly-crisis, political failure, and contemporary instability. Wilson positions herself against both the relentless positivity of wellness culture and the raging nihilism. The book moves through memoir, philosophy, travel writing, psychology, wisdom, climate science, and spiritual reflection with a restless, searching energy. She draws on thinkers ranging from the Stoics to Buddhist philosophy, alongside conversations with activists, scientists, and everyday people and scenarios trying to navigate an unstable world. It argues that art, ritual, friendship, slowness, and attentiveness become even more necessary during periods of uncertainty. An important set of distilled conversation in each chapter for our liminal, and very uncertain time. She concludes that one of the effective approaches to the difficult now is to do less, we have been 'efforting' so hard and to only be ourselves.
June 14, 2026
Could not rate this book more highly. I pre ordered and inhaled it over a couple of days. It made me feel sane, less alone and although the concept of Collapse is unsettling or even frightening, not talking about it doesn’t make it less so. Pretending it’s not happening is exhausting.
I’ve no idea how Sarah managed to bring all of the huge issues together in the way she did, to make it all make more sense AND make it feel like it could just possibly be a liberating time to be alive. A time to slow down and simplify. How appealing that sounds.
How to be ‘anti-chaos’ despite ‘mostly existing in indignant shock a lot of the time’.
This book is brilliant. A must read if you’re up for it
I’ve no idea how Sarah managed to bring all of the huge issues together in the way she did, to make it all make more sense AND make it feel like it could just possibly be a liberating time to be alive. A time to slow down and simplify. How appealing that sounds.
How to be ‘anti-chaos’ despite ‘mostly existing in indignant shock a lot of the time’.
This book is brilliant. A must read if you’re up for it
July 23, 2026
This was a refreshing read. I was actually surprised because I couldn't follow her other books on Quitting Sugar. That's simple not in my DNA to do.
However, this...this was good. I'm no doomsday person but at some point we all have to become a bit of a realist and realise the world is going to shit. That's what this book discusses and it is well researched and full of wonderful quotes from great literature.
I'm also intrigued about the University of Chicago course called "Are we doomed?" Chicago is my home city even though I've been in Australia for the last 25 years.
At some point you have to let truth start to take the place of hope and I don't think that is being doomist. With the climate crisis, AI and the way billionaires are running/ruining the planet.
There's some interesting research she shows about what happened during the blitz and rations - people were actually happier than they ever have been.
A good example also was what people born in 1900 and what they lived through. I'm sure you can imagine all the events they lived through during that time period.
Some suggestions she said was to learn survivalist skills which I could use.
And I love how she said that 40+ women care the most. We are angry mothers and we have the ability to make some changes and survive.
However, this...this was good. I'm no doomsday person but at some point we all have to become a bit of a realist and realise the world is going to shit. That's what this book discusses and it is well researched and full of wonderful quotes from great literature.
I'm also intrigued about the University of Chicago course called "Are we doomed?" Chicago is my home city even though I've been in Australia for the last 25 years.
At some point you have to let truth start to take the place of hope and I don't think that is being doomist. With the climate crisis, AI and the way billionaires are running/ruining the planet.
There's some interesting research she shows about what happened during the blitz and rations - people were actually happier than they ever have been.
A good example also was what people born in 1900 and what they lived through. I'm sure you can imagine all the events they lived through during that time period.
Some suggestions she said was to learn survivalist skills which I could use.
And I love how she said that 40+ women care the most. We are angry mothers and we have the ability to make some changes and survive.
July 6, 2026
While i do think this book holds some interesting truths, (generally) harmless advice, and opinions and beliefs i can find solace in, ultimately it falls flat at delivering hard hitting conclusions - making the book much more depressing than inspiring. This comes from lackluster realizations of “letting go” and “looking towards community” that have already been explored ad nauseam. It feels repetitive after a certain point, with callbacks that seem to be callbacks just for the sake of referencing previous points rather than expanding on them. I think this comes from the format of this novel being an adaptation of the author’s substack/blog (iirc). The only really takeaways from the book are some thought provoking statement ~50 pages or so, and that we’re actually pretty screwed.
I think the perfect summation for this book comes from the sentence “After my ayahuasca experience, I took to dancing.” I just don’t think i’m in the audience for this book
I think the perfect summation for this book comes from the sentence “After my ayahuasca experience, I took to dancing.” I just don’t think i’m in the audience for this book
July 10, 2026
One of the most random book I’ve ever read. It has interesting cover (perhaps that’s how I ended up with it), and a few good quotes across the book. The rest was just random bunch of thoughts; panic and statements about various aspects of world collapsing and we need to adult up. Well..
July 5, 2026
I had such high hopes for this one because the premise sounded fascinating. Sadly, it really didn’t deliver for me.
The takeaway seemed to be: the world is falling apart, we can’t do anything about it, preparing ourselves won’t help — but love will somehow save us. And honestly? I didn’t need a whole book to tell me that.
Not the hopeful, eye-opening or constructive read I was hoping for. Poetic at times, yes. But ultimately disappointing.
The takeaway seemed to be: the world is falling apart, we can’t do anything about it, preparing ourselves won’t help — but love will somehow save us. And honestly? I didn’t need a whole book to tell me that.
Not the hopeful, eye-opening or constructive read I was hoping for. Poetic at times, yes. But ultimately disappointing.
June 27, 2026
"Collapse is indeed disgraceful... AND it's a gift," Wilson says at one point in I Eat the Stars. I think assessing how you feel about that quote will tell you all you need to know about how you'll feel about this book.
Before I say anything else, I will acknowledge: This book does exactly what it advertises it will do. We very much get what we signed up for. But...while in theory it sounds educational, empowering, and helpful, in action, it feels kinda gross.
First, obviously the book hinges on the premise that collapse is surely happening. It doesn't take any time discussing ways collapse might be prevented (nor should it—that's not its focus). But it's worth being aware that Wilson is absolutely not a subject-matter expert, and her evidence for the claim that collapse is inevitable, well, reads like the musings of a nonexpert who has found a new pet project. The book's bibliography is weak (Buzzfeed is cited), Wilson admits to using AI for fact checking, and a number of the claims the book hinges on have far more nuance than the book acknowledges. I certainly wouldn't expect a book for general audiences to contain academic-level analyses, but when an argument is so central to a book's thesis, that argument should be stronger. Without further support, this feels like fear-mongering for the sake of selling copies or building a brand, when this book could have worked just as well if it simply said "let's assume we're heading toward collapse" and moved on.
But, well, let's assume that we're heading toward collapse (see what I did there?). Wilson's proposals are, at best, naively oblivious to the potential gravity of the situation and, at worst, blithely individualistic and self-serving. The book very much operates from a mindset of "Let's assume collapse is inevitable, recognize that as a freeing thought, and then live our best lives." But when true collapse comes, how many "best lives" are going to resemble the visions Wilson is describing in this book? I Eat the Stars is a mindset book, a me-me-me book about being personally mentally accepting of the idea of potential collapse, but it never gets gritty and real about the possibilities that we will all have to live with drastically less, live significantly different lifestyles, or face incredible violence or suffering. Above all, I Eat the Stars holds fast to the idea that we can't do anything to prevent collapse, and this steadfast refusal to provide solutions or "hopium" leads it to ignore any truly substantial commentary on how we can be our best human selves in a world heading toward collapse. Perhaps, yes, collapse is inevitable—but what if we can make it a bit less awful?
To me, a book on this topic that doesn't engage with the topic of community in any meaningful way isn't worth reading. And a book that focuses on making sure that those in positions of privilege can feel good philosophically about the concept of collapse while skating past the idea that there are people who are currently experiencing circumstances far worse than wealthy Western readers are ever likely to live through may fill a gap in the literature, but it's not something I personally want to engage with.
Wilson is a beautiful writer, and I'm happy for her that she was able to find personal healing and financial success in a project like this. I also very much appreciated some of the quotes shared throughout the book (disclaimer, though: these are another instance of poor fact checking—many of these quotes are misattributed or otherwise inaccurate—but they're still insightful!), and I'll definitely treasure some of the reframes I got from those. But personally, I would recommend that if you're interested in the topic of collapse, you seek out the experts.
Note on the author: Partway through my read, I paused to look into Wilson further because I was curious about her comments about her history of climate activism since I wasn't familiar with her work in the space (though in fairness, she's Australian and I'm American). It turns out she has a fair bit of history of controversy in areas that would have led me to personally steer clear of her work. It does appear that her views have evolved on some of those topics, but regardless—if stances on controversial topics may affect your decision to support an author, you may wish to look into Wilson before choosing whether to pick up this book.
(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ebook copy! All opinions are, of course, my own.)
Before I say anything else, I will acknowledge: This book does exactly what it advertises it will do. We very much get what we signed up for. But...while in theory it sounds educational, empowering, and helpful, in action, it feels kinda gross.
First, obviously the book hinges on the premise that collapse is surely happening. It doesn't take any time discussing ways collapse might be prevented (nor should it—that's not its focus). But it's worth being aware that Wilson is absolutely not a subject-matter expert, and her evidence for the claim that collapse is inevitable, well, reads like the musings of a nonexpert who has found a new pet project. The book's bibliography is weak (Buzzfeed is cited), Wilson admits to using AI for fact checking, and a number of the claims the book hinges on have far more nuance than the book acknowledges. I certainly wouldn't expect a book for general audiences to contain academic-level analyses, but when an argument is so central to a book's thesis, that argument should be stronger. Without further support, this feels like fear-mongering for the sake of selling copies or building a brand, when this book could have worked just as well if it simply said "let's assume we're heading toward collapse" and moved on.
But, well, let's assume that we're heading toward collapse (see what I did there?). Wilson's proposals are, at best, naively oblivious to the potential gravity of the situation and, at worst, blithely individualistic and self-serving. The book very much operates from a mindset of "Let's assume collapse is inevitable, recognize that as a freeing thought, and then live our best lives." But when true collapse comes, how many "best lives" are going to resemble the visions Wilson is describing in this book? I Eat the Stars is a mindset book, a me-me-me book about being personally mentally accepting of the idea of potential collapse, but it never gets gritty and real about the possibilities that we will all have to live with drastically less, live significantly different lifestyles, or face incredible violence or suffering. Above all, I Eat the Stars holds fast to the idea that we can't do anything to prevent collapse, and this steadfast refusal to provide solutions or "hopium" leads it to ignore any truly substantial commentary on how we can be our best human selves in a world heading toward collapse. Perhaps, yes, collapse is inevitable—but what if we can make it a bit less awful?
To me, a book on this topic that doesn't engage with the topic of community in any meaningful way isn't worth reading. And a book that focuses on making sure that those in positions of privilege can feel good philosophically about the concept of collapse while skating past the idea that there are people who are currently experiencing circumstances far worse than wealthy Western readers are ever likely to live through may fill a gap in the literature, but it's not something I personally want to engage with.
Wilson is a beautiful writer, and I'm happy for her that she was able to find personal healing and financial success in a project like this. I also very much appreciated some of the quotes shared throughout the book (disclaimer, though: these are another instance of poor fact checking—many of these quotes are misattributed or otherwise inaccurate—but they're still insightful!), and I'll definitely treasure some of the reframes I got from those. But personally, I would recommend that if you're interested in the topic of collapse, you seek out the experts.
Note on the author: Partway through my read, I paused to look into Wilson further because I was curious about her comments about her history of climate activism since I wasn't familiar with her work in the space (though in fairness, she's Australian and I'm American). It turns out she has a fair bit of history of controversy in areas that would have led me to personally steer clear of her work. It does appear that her views have evolved on some of those topics, but regardless—if stances on controversial topics may affect your decision to support an author, you may wish to look into Wilson before choosing whether to pick up this book.
(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ebook copy! All opinions are, of course, my own.)
July 26, 2026
Wanted to love this one. I saw her at an event and bought the book from her there, so I went in genuinely backing it.
She'd mentioned leaving space in the margins for notes. Boy did I make notes, mostly in the early chapters, fact checking some of the research she was presenting. When she talks about all the research she's done, I think I was expecting something more like a Naomi Klein epic. It wasn't that. It felt more Eat Pray Love with civilisation collapse as a backdrop. It read like someone who has read some authors in the field, and she does name drop a few she knows personally, but it wasn't a lit review.
I think I would have liked following her Substack serialisation more than reading the book itself.
It did make me think about privilege though, her moving to Paris and living that life while considering the collapse of civilisation. Very different to someone living in a food desert, struggling to make ends meet, dealing with climate change, political change, impending AI change. But then who's to say her life is all roses, it patently isn't, she's struggling through her own things too. So it made me check my own privilege as much as hers.
There's an honesty in it, it's memoirish rather than non fiction, but from an incongruous setting, which is part of what makes it feel a little off. I feel like it could have done with tighter editing, more research into adjacent topics (there was a fair bit of repetition), and perhaps more consideration of what collapse means to the wider community rather than just her own subscribers' questions.
I struggled to the end, and spent half the time listening to it as an audiobook. It wasn't embracing. I can see why it's polarising. I actually think going to an area already affected by collapse might have given it a more genuine feel.
She'd mentioned leaving space in the margins for notes. Boy did I make notes, mostly in the early chapters, fact checking some of the research she was presenting. When she talks about all the research she's done, I think I was expecting something more like a Naomi Klein epic. It wasn't that. It felt more Eat Pray Love with civilisation collapse as a backdrop. It read like someone who has read some authors in the field, and she does name drop a few she knows personally, but it wasn't a lit review.
I think I would have liked following her Substack serialisation more than reading the book itself.
It did make me think about privilege though, her moving to Paris and living that life while considering the collapse of civilisation. Very different to someone living in a food desert, struggling to make ends meet, dealing with climate change, political change, impending AI change. But then who's to say her life is all roses, it patently isn't, she's struggling through her own things too. So it made me check my own privilege as much as hers.
There's an honesty in it, it's memoirish rather than non fiction, but from an incongruous setting, which is part of what makes it feel a little off. I feel like it could have done with tighter editing, more research into adjacent topics (there was a fair bit of repetition), and perhaps more consideration of what collapse means to the wider community rather than just her own subscribers' questions.
I struggled to the end, and spent half the time listening to it as an audiobook. It wasn't embracing. I can see why it's polarising. I actually think going to an area already affected by collapse might have given it a more genuine feel.
Review of advance copy
🎧 I eat the stars by Sarah Wilson 🎧
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half
I absolutely adore anything written by this inspirational and incredibly insightful woman.
I own most of Sarah's books and re-read them often. I also radically give them as gifts.
This book asks the hard questions and respectfully and philosophically answers them. This book is food for thought and inspires passion and empowering conversations.
"Sarah Wilson comes a deeply moving, wise guide to finding joy and meaning in a world that seems to be falling apart.
It’s hard to escape the feeling that something is deeply wrong . . . that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves, collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising economic inequality, widespread unrest and more. In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues we are undergoing what every complex civilisation before us has – systemic collapse.
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into these pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with philosophers, poets, game theorists and spiritual leaders, Wilson takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for living fully, meaningfully and beautifully through these troubled times. Our predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is valuable to us – to eat the stars – and to return to our humanity once again.
I Eat the Stars empowers readers to move beyond panic, doom and despair. With her warm, incisively intelligent, wise and down-to-earth voice"
I highly recommend this book. Deeply thought provoking and moving.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half
I absolutely adore anything written by this inspirational and incredibly insightful woman.
I own most of Sarah's books and re-read them often. I also radically give them as gifts.
This book asks the hard questions and respectfully and philosophically answers them. This book is food for thought and inspires passion and empowering conversations.
"Sarah Wilson comes a deeply moving, wise guide to finding joy and meaning in a world that seems to be falling apart.
It’s hard to escape the feeling that something is deeply wrong . . . that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves, collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising economic inequality, widespread unrest and more. In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues we are undergoing what every complex civilisation before us has – systemic collapse.
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into these pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with philosophers, poets, game theorists and spiritual leaders, Wilson takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for living fully, meaningfully and beautifully through these troubled times. Our predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is valuable to us – to eat the stars – and to return to our humanity once again.
I Eat the Stars empowers readers to move beyond panic, doom and despair. With her warm, incisively intelligent, wise and down-to-earth voice"
I highly recommend this book. Deeply thought provoking and moving.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I read this book for my therapy book Instagram and it’s not really a therapy book. That said, it kind of blew my mind. As a therapist, I’m spending a lot of time talking to folks who are just tied in knots about what is happening in the world, like a bouncing from hopeless depression to agonizing anxiety. Shouldn’t someone be DOING something about what’s going on? Should I be doing something? What can I do? Wilson proposes something new: to understand that we’ve already tipped the scales toward climate disaster and we’ve already crossed over the threshold for societal collapse. In a way, this acceptance - there’s nothing we can DO to stop it; it’s happening - can give us a newfound peace and a new direction. If this stuff is happening and it’s fairly inevitable, then who do I want to BE as things collapse? What meaning do I want my life to have? How can I make the best of whatever it is that’s coming next? It shifts our focus from fighting against the machine to turning inward and assessing how we want to experience this next time period. She leaves room for hope, for something unexpected. But I actually found such a relief and release of weight at potentially just going with the flow of this collapse rather than trying to fight the tide. I feel like this kind of grounding foundational stance is good for me as a therapist trying to help people through - and there’s a few clients I would recommend it to as well.
July 10, 2026
Did I enjoy this book? I enjoyed the middle. I felt that I needed to be high to enjoy the last third.
Did I learn a lot? Yes, I did learn quite a few new perspectives.
I feel like this book would be a much smoother read if I were Bella Hadid (as in, don't have to worry about money or work). Because soo many of the references screamed privileged. "you may wonder what's the point of looking for investment properties if we don't know how the climate will be in 10 years" (my paraphrasing of her words). Which I mean of course this author is, she is a very successful person.
This book made me think that I should've just bought a poetry book. Again, I don't regret reading it, I did gain insights. For example: no matter how much money and fame you have you'll have a crisis over your mortality and go on quests to self discovery that often involve drugs, poetry, and philosophers. Unfortunately for us regular people we don't have those philosophers and celebrities on speed dial like Sarah Wilson.
She sees the collapse of the "old normal" as a "gift." Which left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I will never see suffering as beautiful.
This book will however be a very pretty book to display on my bookshelf.
Did I learn a lot? Yes, I did learn quite a few new perspectives.
I feel like this book would be a much smoother read if I were Bella Hadid (as in, don't have to worry about money or work). Because soo many of the references screamed privileged. "you may wonder what's the point of looking for investment properties if we don't know how the climate will be in 10 years" (my paraphrasing of her words). Which I mean of course this author is, she is a very successful person.
This book made me think that I should've just bought a poetry book. Again, I don't regret reading it, I did gain insights. For example: no matter how much money and fame you have you'll have a crisis over your mortality and go on quests to self discovery that often involve drugs, poetry, and philosophers. Unfortunately for us regular people we don't have those philosophers and celebrities on speed dial like Sarah Wilson.
She sees the collapse of the "old normal" as a "gift." Which left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I will never see suffering as beautiful.
This book will however be a very pretty book to display on my bookshelf.
Review of advance copy
// 4.2 stars
don’t know what led me to pick up this book to read on my flight, but i never would hv expected the book to end my reading drought would be a haunting non-fiction tht changes the course of how i view a lot of things. this was my introduction into collapse theory & i couldn’t help but feel so much dread while reading this book and i realised eventually that part of me was searching for the part where i cn restore some of my ‘hope’. ironic, isn’t it, given how the book starts.
i really like how the sarah wilson writes and structures, the occasional lists and annotations and especially greek mythology she references to start her introduction to concepts. but while she manages an acceptance that i’m sure comes from lots of reflection and insight, i am not quite there yet - so i’m not sure how this book made me feel. scared? simultaneously like there is no hope and all hope? an understanding of humanity? i have a feeling this book will fill my thoughts for a long while before i am able to fully digest it.
ps “the titanic is going down and we’re debating the right way to fold a deck-chair” is so true
don’t know what led me to pick up this book to read on my flight, but i never would hv expected the book to end my reading drought would be a haunting non-fiction tht changes the course of how i view a lot of things. this was my introduction into collapse theory & i couldn’t help but feel so much dread while reading this book and i realised eventually that part of me was searching for the part where i cn restore some of my ‘hope’. ironic, isn’t it, given how the book starts.
i really like how the sarah wilson writes and structures, the occasional lists and annotations and especially greek mythology she references to start her introduction to concepts. but while she manages an acceptance that i’m sure comes from lots of reflection and insight, i am not quite there yet - so i’m not sure how this book made me feel. scared? simultaneously like there is no hope and all hope? an understanding of humanity? i have a feeling this book will fill my thoughts for a long while before i am able to fully digest it.
ps “the titanic is going down and we’re debating the right way to fold a deck-chair” is so true
July 4, 2026
It is neither my role, nor, I believe, the right attitude, to be a doomsayer, or worse, a doomsday prepper. Yet, as a critical thinker who seeks out different, even opposing, perspectives, I find it both valuable and enlightening to engage with someone like Sarah Wilson and her concept of "Collapse Awareness."
Wilson appears to have thoroughly researched the many dimensions of collapse (environmental, societal, and psychological) drawing on interviews with some of the most respected voices in their respective scientific fields. More importantly, her reflections strike a good balance between emotion and reason, science and hope, activism and acceptance, responsibility and action.
For anyone concerned about, or simply curious about, the future of our species and unfamiliar with the idea of "Collapse Awareness," this book serves as an excellent introduction.
What I appreciated most was Wilson's treatment of what may be the most visible and unsettling aspect of collapse: the erosion of trust, not only in our institutions and political leaders, but also in nature and, ultimately, in ourselves.
Wilson appears to have thoroughly researched the many dimensions of collapse (environmental, societal, and psychological) drawing on interviews with some of the most respected voices in their respective scientific fields. More importantly, her reflections strike a good balance between emotion and reason, science and hope, activism and acceptance, responsibility and action.
For anyone concerned about, or simply curious about, the future of our species and unfamiliar with the idea of "Collapse Awareness," this book serves as an excellent introduction.
What I appreciated most was Wilson's treatment of what may be the most visible and unsettling aspect of collapse: the erosion of trust, not only in our institutions and political leaders, but also in nature and, ultimately, in ourselves.
July 23, 2026
Hats off to Sarah for tackling this difficult topic - as another 52 year old woman I too keep wondering “why is nobody doing anything” and the book kind of answers this by saying it’s become a systems problem - too many interconnected systems keeping us stuck on a pathway that is bad for the planet, bad for equity, bad for everything really. It’s unsustainable and will naturally collapse at some point, forcing us back to a more simple existence. And I agree with Sarah that this is actually an attractive thought - many of us are craving simplicity - the book really is hopeful from that point of view. I do think it could have been much shorter and the structure less rambling - some chapters I skimmed. I was also disappointed by the references - not what I would call highly authoritative. But it was worth getting to the end - I felt inspired to do what I can with that Earth Mother energy - to sing, dance, walk, be creative and stick to my values on pointing out the crazy stuff being normalised in current times.
June 30, 2026
Self-aggrandrizing: Compares her own book to War and Peace, and then it gets worse. It's
defeatist, even nihilistic. If you believe collapse is inevitable and unchangeable and you're ready to throw your hands up, move, to Paris and enjoy the last days "breathing in the sacred gift of the universe," this book is for you. (I think she forgot that there's no air-conditioning there.)This probably read better as a doomsday blog, but for a book that claims to teach "how to live fully," in its happy-go-lucky Sark-osh cover, it fails. Hard.
I'm not a Pollyanna, but I'm also not whatever this is,and I don't belive that this approach is anything but privileged selfishness. It makes me angry I spent money on it. I actually recycled it rather than leave it somewhere someone else could be punished by coming across it.
defeatist, even nihilistic. If you believe collapse is inevitable and unchangeable and you're ready to throw your hands up, move, to Paris and enjoy the last days "breathing in the sacred gift of the universe," this book is for you. (I think she forgot that there's no air-conditioning there.)This probably read better as a doomsday blog, but for a book that claims to teach "how to live fully," in its happy-go-lucky Sark-osh cover, it fails. Hard.
I'm not a Pollyanna, but I'm also not whatever this is,and I don't belive that this approach is anything but privileged selfishness. It makes me angry I spent money on it. I actually recycled it rather than leave it somewhere someone else could be punished by coming across it.
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