The Name of the Star is a terrific mix of paranormal suspense and realistic thriller that's bound to keep you on the edge of your seat.
I was intrigued by the concept of this novel, with the Jack the Ripper case as a setting for the mystery, I had high expectations. It’s wonderfully suspenseful and eerie with just enough realism to grab my attention and set the foundation the more paranormal aspects of the story.
Rory Deveaux is excited to start a new life when she leaves Louisiana for a boarding school in London. She recounts her story, from mining her colourful relatives for stories to wow her English classmates, to coming to grips with heavier course loads, and making a couple of fairly entertaining friends. But London is soon caught up in fear, as a copycat killer has begun recreating Jack the Ripper's bloody murders in gruesome detail. The city is under Rippermania as everyone wonders if the police can stop the next murder from occurring. Much to everyone’s dismay, nothing is showing up on the CCTV cameras throughout the city, and the police have few leads in the case. They take a special interest in Rory when she witnesses a strange man hanging around campus on the night of one of the murders.
Johnson fearlessly takes readers from what seems like a cool, innocent-abroad-with-iPod story to a supernatural thriller, when Rory seems to be the only one who can see the murderer, and the stakes quickly rise when it becomes clear that Jack the Ripper is back, and she is his next target. The tension ramps up exquisitely among cups of tea, library visits, absolute paranoia and the London Underground.
Maureen Johnson is a master at vivid descriptions that plummet the reader right into the storyline, to experience the world through the eyes of her main character. She’s got a dry wit and overarching hilarity in her writing, that adds levity to what might otherwise be a pretty intense book about a serial killer. She doesn’t shy away from gory descriptions of the crime scenes either, broken bones, spilt guts, gashes and cuts, it’s all there and plenty more, to keep you glued to the pages as Rory sets her mind to find out the truth about the murders.
The main plot twist caught me totally off-guard. The ending of the book is genuinely terrifying but never loses the wit, verve, and humour that Rory carries with her throughout. Although the novel doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger, it leaves you with a complicated revelation that will have you reaching for the sequel right away.
Comments