Artwork belongs wholly to Hannah Lindsey, author and artist.

General Overview

Wishing Stars by Hannah Lindsey is the first book in a middle-grade ongoing series that is, quite frankly, being published quite quickly. Hannah Lindsey is probably the largest indie author I have read, and the first book makes me completely understand why. I was first drawn to her book because of the art that she creates to accompany it, and I backed the kickstarter to get the audiobook made. She has a great series and a great work on her hands. It has some minor flaws in my humble opinion, but overall is outstanding. The book deals with grief, found family, tough on the outside, soft on the inside father figures, love, friendship, and light versus darkness. It sounds like a lot, but it is all so masterfully woven into the book. It genuinely does not read like most indie authors.

Plot

The plot of the book is broken most easiliy into two parts: first, the main character, Lisa, a teenage girl living in New Jersey discovers The Agapéd magic, the most powerful magic in the universe, and then she is whisked away to train that power to fight the darkness; second, powerscaling and pain to fight the darkness that arrived sooner than expected. There are also middle-school family and friend drama that connect well to the plot and magic through Lisa. Fans of the Witcher, Last of Us, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and generally wholesome but unafraid media (e.g. the original Teen Titans TV series) will enjoy this series.

The strong themes of light always prevailing over dark and the power of belief make there way natrually into the story. Honestly, it is just good stuff. None of it felt wasted by the end.

Edgar Allen Poe once spoke of the “single effect” that everything must contribute to the singular effect of a story, and Lindsey made sure that every moment of the plot mattered.

I give the plot a strong 10/10.

Characters

The characters are what got me into the series. Do they fit a number of tropes? Yes. Small town girl in a lonely world takes the midnight evanessence going anywhere and meets a city prince born and raised in central Boolavouge who takes the hunter training going… anywhere. I guess the analogy falls apart there, but that is a good thing.

Gaius, Lisa, Vilmad, Valhalla, and Cal are are well-developed, unique characters even if they fit various tropes from around the literary world.

Gaius is both Lisa, Lindsey, and my favorites (to my understanding).

I think each character is well-characterized and none serve overlapping roles despite having overlapping named roles (i.e. multiple characters claim “friend” or “mentor” titles, but none feel the same).

Lindsey really impressed me with her characters (and the art helps, too).

Characters also earn a solid 10/10.

Writing

Lindsey’s writing was strong. I mentioned before the notion of the single effect, and she use deach word well. There were some instances in which I was skipping over a word I did not know despite it clearly being English, so there might be some reading-level issues with her target audience of middle-grade (even with all the crying that almost happened for me).

On that note, I do not cry while reading books. I just never have. Lindsey struck my heart with such beautifully crafted simple scenes taht allowed my heart to latch onto the emotion while remaining vivide enough for me to put myself there. I almost cried (possibly single-teared) four times in this novel. Lindsey is great at making you feel the emotions of her characters and care about them in a way that most anyone should be able to relate to.

My one criticism, and it really is not that big, is one I saw in another review that I do agree with: there are a lot of italicized statements. However! Given that the text is supposed to put you in the mind of a thirteen to fourteen-year-old girl, getting glimpses of that internal dialogue is useful, but I still think some of it could have been toned down. Enough to even take off half a point? No, because she would get extra points for being the only other person than Oda (or my philosophy professor handing me back a B on my first essay for him) to make me cry while holding paper. She clearly has this down.

I give the writing a 10/10.

Final Rating: 10/10

Thank you for making the math easy, Lindsey. You truly did a wonderful job with this book as an outpouring of your heart and soul. That is what it means to be a writer. You found your story, and the world is better for it.