Review: A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw

I didn’t know much about this book when I started it. I got it as a part of a mystery bag I bought last year at NYCC. That’s what I love about getting books like this because they can surprise you. I am not sure I would have picked it up on my own. Vega is the Astronomer. Like her mother before her and her mother before her, she is the only one who can read the stars. The world has been consumed with sickness and it is said that the Astronomer will read the stars and save them. The action begins when Vega sees two stars in the sky that were not there before. This is the sign. She must find the Architect to take her to the see. A couple of issues. She doesn’t know how the Architect is and she has also never left her home in the valley. She runs into Cricket and then Noah, who help her out but there is a group of men, who will do anything to find her. The Theorist, basically a gang but run by a man who obsessive in finding the Astronomer because he more then anything wants to save himself. Vega, who has been sheltered her own life, is very brave. She doesn’t hesitate when she sees the stars even though her mother just died because she knows what’s at stake. Despite all the advisory she faces, she never wavers from her mission and keeps going. The twist at the end, I’ll admit, I did not see coming and the ending does leave it open for a sequel. The part of me that wants a happy ending hopes there will be but I also do like an open-ended ending. Life keeps going no matter what happens. Even in fiction.