Swimming in a Sea of Stars by Julie Wright

Swimming in a Sea of Stars 

By Julie Wright 

Published by Shadow Mountain

Publication Date: August 1, 2023

Description from the publisher:

A single kindness can save a life.

Journal entry: Heading to school. I know what everyone will say. There goes the girl who tried to kill herself. 

Addison is no stranger to feeling stressed, insecure, and sad. Her therapist recommended she keep a journal to help her understand those feelings better, which she really needs today. It’s her first day back to school, several weeks after she survived her suicide attempt. She knows there are rumors about why she did it: A lousy home life? Bullying? Heartbreak? None of them are true, but it doesn’t matter because Addison still feels like she’s drowning. She still holds secrets she’s not ready to share. 

During the school day, Addison encounters four other students struggling with their own secrets: 

Booker is anxious about seeing Addison. They were sort of a couple until he tried to kiss her. She fled and then tried to end her life. Those two things couldn’t be related, could they? 

Celia feels trapped by her mother’s abusive boyfriend. She can guess why Addison did what she did.

Damion is TikTok-famous and thinks befriending Addison could boost his followers. But what no one knows is he needs the world to remember him since his sick mom doesn’t anymore. 

Avery is considered a loner and doesn’t know Addison, but they have neighboring lockers. With Avery’s older brother in jail for dealing drugs, Avery is desperate for meaningful human connection. 

Swimming in a Sea of Stars is a poignant and gripping novel about how we’re all interconnected, like the stars in the night sky that form constellations and map out the universe, and if even one star goes missing, the effect is profound.

 My review:
This book totally drew me in from the first page. I don't always like books with several narrators, but I liked each of the five here. I also really enjoyed seeing how their interactions impacted each other, just small things or words that were just the nudge that another character needed to think about things (including each other) differently. I appreciated the honesty of the emotions. I think that's my favorite think about a well-written YA book; the emotions are palpable. In a book that covers topics of attempted suicide, abuse, cancer, etc., those emotions and the plot could have become overwhelming, but I think Julie Wright did a great job of finding the balance of not making them too much for the reader while still making them real and not sugarcoated or overly simplistic. I also liked the feeling of hope as the book progressed. With a book that covers so much--and all occurs in one day--realistically, we're not going to see everything resolve perfectly, but I think where it ended for each character was hopeful. Part of me really wanted an epilogue because I'd love to know what happened to each character, but I also wonder if it could have felt believable; the characters still have a lot of emotional work to do and skipping that to include an epilogue might have diluted their experiences and the power of their processes of coping and learning and growing.

This book covers important topics and is very well-written. I definitely recommend this to teens and adults alike. 4.5 stars.
I read an ARC provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own.