The Weight Of The Stars by K. Ancrum is a YA novel that explores growing up and learning that following dreams can sometimes tear us away from the ones we love.
Set in not so distant future when private space exploration is sending teams of young women into space on one way trips to the unknown.
Ryann Bird lives in a trailer park, is seen as the bad girl in school. Although in high school herself she looks after her younger brother, his baby and is the central figure in her group of friends. The weight of the world is on her shoulders and yet when she is asked to try and get through to the new girl in school, Alexandria she takes on this task too.
Alexandria is an angry loner who is convinced that nothing good can come from being friends with Ryann, the leather jacket wearing, motorcycle riding school bad girl. But when Alexandria falls off her roof and breaks her arm Ryann steps up in an unexpected way and Alexandria begins to look at her differently.
Alexandria spends her nights on her roof as she tries to catch radio signals from her mother, an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip through space. With a broken arm, though, she struggles to get on and off the roof by herself so she reluctantly accepts help from Ryann. One night turns into many and soon they form a friendship and eventually a romance.
The book follows this budding relationship and Ryann’s circle of friends that includes some great diversity and rainbow representation.
The Characters
The story is told from Ryann’s view. She is an interesting and different kind of character. As the main caregiver to her younger brother and his child Ryann’s life could be seen as difficult and yet she just gets on with things and never complains or laments how hard she has it. I appreciated that about her.
Alexandria is a fantastic counterpoint for Ryann. Where Ryann is rough and brazen in her approach to the world Alexandria is thoughtful and a little withdrawn. While she starts off guarded she learns to open up to Ryann and the connection between the two is lovely.
The cast of side characters include a circle of friends and their relatives that really gives amazing rep to a range of unrepresented folks such as a set of three parents who are all in a relationship. Each of the side characters has a unique personality and added to the flavour of the story.
The Writing Style
This was a particularly interesting book in terms of writing style. It is told in tiny little segments with timeframes as the headings. It gives an immediacy to the story and feels almost like a countdown. It also forces the author to get right to the crux of each segment because there wasn’t a lot of space for unnecessary fluff.
See the excerpt for the beginning of the book to give you an idea of what I mean.
The Narration
Tantor audio produced this audiobook, so you know it’s high quality. For this one they enlisted Joniece Abbott-Pratt to do the narration.
The narration was not bad. There were one or two spots where I found it a little monotone and would have appreciated more voice modulation.
Other that that, though, I felt like Abbott-Pratt managed to navigate this complex story and the largish cast of characters quite effortlessly. The male voices were clearly male and the characters all retained the same voices throughout, making it easy to keep track of who was speaking.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
I loved the writing style of the book.
I liked Ryann and wanted to see her achieve something good with her life and I loved the diversity in the book and how inclusive it was of things like throuples.
Heads Up
There is a theme of abandonment and making decisions that benefit you and not necessarily those you love. I like that we are exploring these kinds of themes in literature because especially for women it’s a difficult thing to do.
The Conclusion
If you like coming of age stories with a literary fiction flavour then this is worth exploring. I suspect readers will either love or hate this book because it is so unique. I enjoyed it and found myself excited to return to it because I never knew what was coming next.
I did find the ending to be a little bit sad but hopeful.
In terms of the audiobook, try a sample and see if you like the narrator. The sample is an accurate reflection of the entire book.
Excerpt from The Weight Of The Stars by K Ancrum
Dawn
She woke up to the sound of screaming.
She always woke up to the sound of screaming. Ryann scrunched her eyes against it for a minute and then rubbed her face in exhaustion. Eventually, she heaved herself from bed and numbered into the living room.
“Hey, heyheyhey,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”
She picked up Charlie and put him in his rocker on the floor, tipping it gently back and forth with her foot as she opened the fridge.
Her younger brother, James, was still snoring loudly a couple of rooms over, but she waited until Charlie was clean and fed to pop her head in and wake him up.
“Get up, it’s six-forty-five.”
James just sighed and flopped over.
“Seriously, James.” Ryann pushed herself into James’s room, kicking dirty clothes and magazines out of the way. She yanked his dresser open and pulled out a pair of torn jeans and a black T-shirt and tossed them on James’s bed.
“I’m leaving in ten minutes.” She slammed the door shut behind her.
15 Minutes
Ryann wiped Charlie’s face clean and buttoned him up into his col-weather onesie. She packed the baby some food and then dropped him off with their neighbour Ms Worthing.
By the time she got back, James was awake, dressed and smoking on the front stairs.
“Did you eat yet?” she asked.
He stared at Ryann blankly, eyes bleary with exhaustion. His purple hair was a tangled nest. Ryann sighed in exasperation and went back inside so that she could grab some granola bars and her leather jacket.
She tossed one bar into his lap on her way out and hopped onto her motorcycle. Ryann waited patiently until she felt James sluggishly climb on behind her and put his arms loosely around her waist. The she took off up the highway to the next town over.
30 Minutes
The Bird siblings had had many good things snatched from them.
Their father had been a handyman with a small business and loyal clients. He’s had a big red beard and large hands and a laugh that echoed over fields and hills. Their mother had been a mathematician working for NASA. They loved their wild tall girl and small round boy as best they could. But, one bright morning, they died. Sometimes, people just die.
A little while afterward, James stopped talking altogether. Then, a year later he brought a baby home. A baby with red hair, polish eyes, and a laugh that echoed. Ryann had questions, but James never answered them. And like on that terrible bright morning a year before, she swallowed har, tightened her shoelaces, and stood up to meet it.
So there they were:
Sitting in the ruins of the best that they could build.
And it would always have to be enough.
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Bits and Bobs
- ISBN number: 9781250101655
- Publisher: Square Fish; Reprint edition
- Audiobook Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Narrator: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Audiobook length: 6 hours 54 minutes
- K. Ancrum Online
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