I fell into this novel from the first short chapter, set in 1983, at Lancaster University – perhaps because I grew up in the 1980's. The central character and first person narrator, Cameron Spark, comes across as vulnerable, shy and unassuming, and at first, likeable. As the novel progressed, however, I did find him less plausible and a bit wet and annoying. He falls in mad love with Bex right at the beginning of the book, who is a much more interesting character, being a feisty, feminist, fox-hunting activist and saboteur. Cameron is clearly besotted and therefore biased in his affection for Bex, and you can sense that this is going to get him into deep trouble from the start.
| Bright Stars by Sophie Duffy | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Kate Jones
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| Summary: An interesting - and sometimes absorbing – story of friendships forged in our youth and living with the ghosts of our past. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 304 | Date: October 2015 |
| Publisher: Legend Press Ltd | |
| External links: [www.sophieduffy.com Author's website] | |
| ISBN: 978-1785079849 | |
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The story is one of several friends who meet at Lancaster University in the 1980's. Cameron is a dyspraxic Scottish outsider, who struggles to fit in and is quickly swept up in a friendship with the aforementioned Bex and another girl, the Canadian Christie. The other member of the group, Tommo, is a selfish wannabe rockstar, who Cameron seemingly dislikes intensely. It is obvious that Tommo is going to be the one to get the group into trouble, and I did find that the characters seemed a little unbelievable in their total commitment to their part: feminist activist/ambitious blonde Canadian/wannabe rockstar. They did seem, at times, a little one-dimensional, including Cameron. In fact, I thought the best character was Cameron's father, who was portrayed in a lovely, masculine yet soft-centred way.
I felt that the novel might have been more interesting if the author had chosen to portray it from more than one character's viewpoint – particularly Bex, as though she has real potential as a character, I didn't feel that that was developed enough. I like the first person, present tense style of the story, which is set in present day Edinburgh. I like the short, punchy sentences, as this is a style of writing I enjoy and it usually moves the action on quickly. It also helps to draw you close to Cameron's experience, and it should make you empathise with him, though as I said above, I found it more difficult to do this as the story progressed.
Something I really didn't like about the style of the book was the asterisked notes at the bottom of many of the pages. These had 'explanations' of some of the places or events mentioned in the text. I felt this distracted from the absorption of the story, and made it feel like reading an essay or as if the author hadn't quite finished the manuscript. I'm unsure whether this was intentional on the author's part, to indicate that Cameron was writing the story as a report of what happened, but I felt it detracted from the story somewhat. It seemed that the words could, and should, stand alone without these explanations.
The chapters flip between 1980's Lancaster and present day Edinburgh, and although this works pretty well, and the book has a good story at its heart, I did feel that it was over-long and carried on telling the story way after it should have ended. The loose ends were tied so neatly that they seemed a little fake. Overall, the pace does pick up in the second half of the book, and there is a genuinely absorbing storyline at its heart.
Further Reading: If you like this book, you might like The Generation Game or [[This Holey Life by Sophie Duffy|This Holey Life], both by Sophie Duffy.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Bright Stars by Sophie Duffy at Amazon.com.
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