This Shattered World By Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
This Shattered World By Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner Ah, ladies! How this series has stolen my heart! From These Broken Stars to This Night So Dark and now finally to This Shattered World, I have loved every second I have spent with these books and immersed in these vast, beautiful worlds. It’s not just the story, the plot, that sucked me in, but the way Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner weave the words together. Stunning imagery, imaginative worlds, and just plain amazing prose are making these two women into some of my favorite authors! I cannot wait to see what wonders you magic into existence next! And now, getting over the author-crushes and fan-girling! In These Broken Stars, the first book in the Starbound series, we met Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux, a couple that I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of. In This Night So Dark, we get a little glimpse into Tarver’s past and, although short, it was still sweet. And now, in This Shattered World, we are introduced to the next couple in this brilliant series: Jubilee “Lee” Chase and Flynn Cormac. Brace yourself! They are just as amazing and interesting as our previous couple! Jubilee and Flynn are on the opposites sides of a war, one that has only recently called a tenuous ceasefire. And one that, with only the tiniest of sparks, could cause a whole world, a world not even able to sustain life on its own, to be covered in flames and blood. It is up to Jubilee and Flynn, though they believe they are fighting for two separate causes, to try and find the one thing they are both desperately looking for: peace. Jubilee Chase is amazing. She is strong, something we get to see and witness in the first couple chapters in great detail. Although she gets into some distressing situations, she is not a woman to lie down and wait to be saved by prince charming. She fights, tooth, nail, and pink plastic cocktail sword to save herself. And although she can’t always escape, she never gives up. She always looks for a way out; never relying on another to save her when she knows all she needs is strength, bravery, and an opportunity to use her muscles or brain. This was another thing I loved about Jubilee. Her muscles and, really, the way she was portrayed. Although she is in the military, although she is strong, although she has muscles, she is portrayed as graceful. The muscles and strength don’t make her “butch” or “macho” or “manly looking.” They make her graceful. And wonderful. And down right awesome. All in all, Jubilee Chase, you are amazing and a role model. Wanna be friends and hang out? I’ll bring the ration bars. Flynn Cormac is more amazing still, though in a different way than Jubilee. Although it’s not stressed a lot throughout the book (except, perhaps, near the end), it’s very obvious that the people Flynn is apart of, the Fianna, are torn between wanting Flynn as their leader because his sister led them before; or wanting McBride, a well spoken, secretly slightly mad warmonger, instead. Flynn speaks of peace, a peace that his people are becoming more and more skeptical about. While McBride speaks of acts of open aggression, with lives lost on both sides but the day eventually won. And the Fianna are pulled between the two, their respect and yearning for peace pulling them towards Flynn, but their hatred and anger towards the military pulling them to McBride. And the reason I think Flynn is so well written is because he doesn’t whine about being a leader, weather he wants to or not sometimes. He knows it’s what his people need. Knows that he has influence over them and instead of being a cliché as I’ve seen happen so many times, he at least tries to help lead his people in the right direction instead of whining about “why me why me I don’t want to, wha wha wha.” He tries and that’s what I like to see. And don’t forget! Our two favorite people, Tarver and Lilac, make an appearance and even stay true to their personalities from their book. Sweet! The characters in this sequel are both well written and absolutely full of life. Like These Broken Stars, This Shattered World was written from the perspective of its two main characters, Jubilee and Flynn. And unlike many books, it was done amazingly well. It is because of these POV switches that I think the characters seem to have so much life in them. Instead of only seeing the war through Jubilees eyes, as a soldier fighting to prevent the disaster that left her an orphan from happening again on Avon, we also get too see it from Flynn’s perspective. We get to see a young man, thrust into a position of semi-leadership that he’s not so certain he can handle and yet doing the best he can. We get to see Jubilee’s struggle to do what she feels is right over what she has been drilled and taught to think. Flynn’s struggle to save a people becoming more and more desperate from doing something that will end in only blood and violence. Jubilee’s struggle to face the fact that, while she believes in what she is doing, not everything is as simple as following orders. That was one of the things that so captured me about this book: watching both of these young adults doing the best for their people, only to find that maybe, just maybe, they have been fighting the wrong person the entire time. I won’t go into the plot to much. It was amazing and, although I found some parts of the book seemed to suddenly slow way down, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment at all. I simply don’t want to accidentally give anything away. Everything is connected, one way or another and, if I got into it, I would just start spilling the beans about everything. Suffice to say, if you like the first book, you’ll love this one, though they are both very different. Sadly, or really happily, there was no falling Icarus-like scene in this book, but I suppose that’s a good thing. Fewer bodies and fire to deal with and all that. Although we didn’t get to see much of Avon, the story being restricted to the military base and the area around it, it was still enough. More than enough really, because this set it apart from These Broken Stars wonderfully. Instead of getting a sequel that is nothing more than a copy paste from the first, we get a wildly different story that sets it part from it predecessor. They did wonderfully! So, finally, although I would love to go on and on, I will simply add this: I tip my top hat to you Amie Kaufman, and to you Meagan Spooner. You are quickly becoming two of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to see what wonderful worlds you’ll show me, what amazing people you’ll introduce me to, what astounding places you’ll take me, and simply what beautiful books you will write alone or together. See you in the Stars!

















