Of Scars and Stardust

By Andrea Hannah

After the attack that leaves her little sister, Ella, close to death in a snowy cornfield, Claire Graham is sent to live with her aunt in Manhattan to cope. But the guilt of letting Ella walk home alone that night still torments Claire, and she senses the violence that preyed on her sister hiding around every corner. Her shrink calls it a phobia. Claire calls it the truth.

When Ella vanishes two years later, Claire has no choice but to return to Amble, Ohio, and face her shattered family. Her one comfort is Ella’s diary, left in a place where only Claire could find it. Drawing on a series of cryptic entries, Claire tries to uncover the truth behind Ella’s attack and disappearance. But she soon realizes that not all lost things are meant to be found.

Praise:
"An intriguing puzzle of a book."—KIRKUS REVIEWS

"This psychological thriller reads like a Robert Cormier version of Twilight."—BOOKLIST

"An unsettling read for fans of stories that leave the reader wondering what is real and what is truly delusion."—VOYA

"Intense and incredibly written."—SLJTEEN

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Oct 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9780738743783

Andrea Hannah

Andrea Hannah (Novi, MI) graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in special education. When she's not teaching or writing, she spends her time running, traveling, and attempting to keep her pug out of the refrigerator.

Reviews for Of Scars and Stardust

[pixiedark · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of Scars and Stardust is a heartbreaking book. This book is full of terrible secrets that turns life upside down for Claire Grahm. When Claire's sister Ella gets attacked and then disappears, she thinks the wolves did it. Two years later she finds out the truth. This book has suspense and mystery along with a YA coming of age story. I was surprised at the ending and I cried when I finished reading it.

[Lauren Noelle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

mysterious and mystical from page 1 to the very last word. this book will have you question everything you know about unconditional love.

[krau0098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I got a copy of this book through Netgalley. I was intrigued by the title and decided this would be an interesting read after scanning the synopsis. It was a quick read that started out amazing. It’s mostly a mystery of sorts with some ambiguous elements of paranormalcy and mental illness.Claire lives in a quiet town with her family. Her best friend Rae always teases her about the wolves in the cornfields, the wolves that are drawn to the color periwinkle and the taste of cherry. This all seems whimsical, if a bit creepy, until a little girl disappears one night. Claire loves her sister Elle, Elle is full of energy and whimsy and general enthusiasm for life, Claire has promised to protect her forever. Then after one night of tragedy all that changes. Claire ends up in New York living with her Aunt to recover from the “ordeal”. However when Claire gets news that Elle has disappeared she hurries back to her hometown to help track Elle down. Now Claire is trying to figure out if the wolves are real or if something else is haunting her hometown.This was a very quick read that was an interesting combination of mystery, paranormal overtones, and mental illness. There are many twists and turns throughout and the plot really keeps you engaged and guessing. The writing style uses a lot of description and made it easy to visual the scenery in the book. I enjoyed the way the writing flowed and how dreamy it was at times. There are parts of this book that are incredibly creepy too.Claire is a tragic character plagued by guilt over the tragedy that happened to her sister that night. I thought it was really bizarre that Claire and her sister go through all this and their parents’ idea of resolution is to send Claire to New York to live with her aunt, but that is explained as the story continues.While I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, the ending of the book is confusing and vague. You aren’t really sure what happens at the end or what is going on. I think this is done on purpose, but I personally would have liked more closure. Overall this was a good and engaging read. I give the first half of the book 4 stars and the second half 3 stars. I get what the author is trying to do here, but the ending is still just a bit too sloppy and confusing. I enjoyed the description throughout and the haunting mystery that Claire is trying to solve. It was a quick and fun read. I would recommend to those who like creepy mysteries that have a paranormal overtone to them.

[isisunit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would like to thank Flux and NetGalley for granting me a copy of this e-ARC to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.Goodreads Blurb:"After her little sister mysteriously vanishes, seventeen-year-old Claire Graham has a choice to make: stay snug in her little corner of Manhattan with her dropout boyfriend, or go back to Ohio to face the hometown tragedy she's been dying to leave behind. But the memories of that night still haunt her in the city, and as hard as she tries to forget what her psychiatrist calls her "delusions," Claire can't seem to escape the wolf's eyes or the blood-speckled snow. Delusion or reality, Claire knows she has to hold true to the most important promise she's ever made: to keep Ella safe. She must return to her sleepy hometown in order to find Ella and keep her hallucinations at bay before they strike again. But time is quickly running out, and as Ella's trail grows fainter, the wolves are becoming startlingly real.Now Claire must deal with her attraction to Grant, the soft-spoken boy from her past that may hold the secret to solving her sister's disappearance, while following the clues that Ella left for only her to find. Through a series of cryptic diary entries, Claire must unlock the keys to Ella's past—and her own—in order to stop another tragedy in the making, while realizing that not all things that are lost are meant to be found."This book has more twists and turns than a switchback-covered, hairpin-filled road winding through the Italian Alps. The core group of characters are Claire and her younger sister Ella, as well as Rae and her younger brother Grant. All are in their early- to mid-teens at the start of the story. A story that ultimately revolves around local legends, legends Rae took great pleasure in telling to Claire and Ella. Only Rae's versions were filled with outrageous embellishments. Right there is a huge clue that something's not right in the town of Amble. Wolves with a thing for cherry-flavored items, human flesh, and the color periwinkle - who would believe such tall tales?It seems Claire, and by extension, her younger sister Ella got caught up in the stories. It didn't help that Rae reveled in telling them to the sisters just to watch them squirm. But she unknowingly set something in motion; she had no idea just how deep her tales had sunk their claws into the sisters, or what the ultimate outcome of her teasing would cause.On her way home from a secret party for Claire's fifteenth birthday Ella is attacked by the wolves. Claire found her in the cornfield and lost it. Due to her unrelenting hysteria, and to give Ella some peace and quiet in which to heal, Claire is sent to NYC to live with her aunt. Two years go by with no visits home. But Claire no longer notices how long it's been because she's too busy worrying about the wolves that have somehow followed her to the City. Then the phone call comes, changing everything. Ella has disappeared. Claire knows the time has come for her to go back home to find the truth. And if she's going to rescue her sister she has to work fast.Claire is an incredible earnest character, one who is believable even when she's spouting the unbelievable. She wholeheartedly believes it is up to her to rescue Ella, a task she sets to with a will. Along her journey she learns many things, for she is adamant about learning the truth once and for all. The town and home she returns to has both changed dramatically and not at all.Grant, Rae's younger brother and the boy Claire has had a crush on since she can remember, is now a deputy in training for the Amble police department. But he still cares about Claire, and he's willing to do what he can to help her out. It turns out that he too has a vested interested in discovering the truth. Amble keeps her secrets close, and woe to anyone that crosses the will of the town of Amble. These people never forget and never forgive. A lesson Claire is learning the hard way. But what she learns is not just about herself. During her investigation she discovers many hidden truths: truths about herself, Rae, Grant, Ella, even about her parents.The complex characterizations make this an exceptionally fascinating read. It is well enough written that as the reader it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. Since the reader usually has much more information than the characters, what Ms. Hannah pulled off is a complicated and challenging literary feat. Even if you begin to suspect a certain truth, each time you think you know for sure something comes along to put you off-balance again. So you keep going forward in your deductions, only to be pushed right back to where you started. All courtesy of a fine steel-like thread of confusion interwoven throughout the entire book.Although this book is more of a character study than an action tale, there are moments of high action and drama that will more than keep you mentally alert. Trying to keep up with Claire's thoughts is like trying to rake leaves on a windy day, not only is it challenging, but it's also probably pointless. Like the leaves, everything will settle down in the end. But you won't get neat and tidy piles in either situation, because neither the leaves nor Claire work that way. While. It the most uplifting or cheerful book I've ever read, this was well worth the time, and without a doubt a book I shall be recommending widely.