Junauda Petrus

Told in two voices, sixteen-year-old Audre and Mabel, both young women of color from different backgrounds, fall in love and figure out how to care for each other as one of them faces a fatal illness.

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

does not excuse. just explains. what you, as the child, do with that knowledge is up to you and what you're ready for

joana ashley

I think what many parents struggle with, mine included, is that they may not know how to love us in the way that we need. I think that being a parent can bring up a lot of your own fears and traumas and a lot of parents don't know how to not pass that on to their own kids.

The prettiest voices are kites for the heaviest hearts

This is really making me want to read a book on astrology later 

In my reading, I learn that people mainly just know about what their sun sign is, but that is only one part of who we are. That the Moon, Venus, Mercury, and all of the planets and where they were in the sky when we were born will tell us the story of who we are. I close my eyes and imagine little baby me coming into the world and all of the planets and stars are imprinted in me like cosmic DNA or something.

Every inch of nature is divine. There is life, there is breath, there is spirit. Queenie sees God in all these things because they in turn are alive and create life. 

Audre, what you see and feel is true; who you are is divine. All of this is God. The mango, the bake, each bush in the yard. Sacred, each chicken crying at dawn. Each lesson that hurts you, and each hair on your head that reach for the stars is God.

Healing can be found in connection. Dig deep, dig mindfully. 

Healing is like falling in love, but deeper. You unite with someone so that you can work alchemy with they soul. So that they might elevate and revive them and heal not only them but their ancestors. And like love, if you don't know how to protect yourself, it could consume you.

And I don't even think I understand God or how I feel about him or it. Or maybe she or them? My grandma talks about God and Jesus and the Bible, and my mama is more meditation and the Universe. My dad said he knows God through growing food from seeds and dirt, water and light, and he feels God when he tastes the miracle of fruit in his mouth.

Nothing in life prepares you for death, and the certain promise of it. Whether it is your own death or someone you love. And nothing in life prepares you to live, truly live, knowing that death is near. Another thing to remember is, you alive until you ain't, so live in any way you can.

Let the pain leave out of you with each breath. It want to be free too

February Prompt: a book about Black Excellence/Black Joy

This book is all-consuming in its warmth and love and MAGIC. Mabel and Audre (and Afua) offered me a taste of the infinite and the mystical of life. 

There were so many different thoughts and takeaways that I feel have marked me for the better, and I'm so thankful to have stumbled upon this book. I had no idea what I was in for, and now I can move forward, feeling changed. 

What a beautiful book about Black joy, human connection, nature and mortality. And it's a YA NOVEL??

ASATT 2024 Reading Challenge 

February Prompt: a book about Black Excellence/Black Joy

This book is all-consuming in its warmth and love and MAGIC. Mabel and Audre (and Afua) offered me a taste of the infinite and the mystical of life. 

There were so many different thoughts and takeaways that I feel have marked me for the better, and I'm so thankful to have stumbled upon this book. I had no idea what I was in for, and now I can move forward, feeling changed. 

What a beautiful book about Black joy, human connection, nature and mortality. And it's a YA NOVEL??

Miya Castile

Isabela H 

tbh I almost didn't make it very far in this book, it took me a moment to get into the rhythm of the prose, but once I did, I was HOOOKED. 
It was such a unique experience and I loved every second of it. Despite the tragedy hanging down on everyone, there were other such beautiful threads of love, acceptance, hope. 
I highly highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a refreshing YA romance that doesn't feel like a YA romance, and includes such bigger messages.

eve 

the most magical book i’ve ever read. it gave me much more than i thought it would. the struggle of being queer and black. the Trinidad and Tobogo culture and accent, you could feel it from the whole book. stars. the universe. the faith. a book within a book. it felt so real. it was real. queenie’s black magic had me shook. it is magical realism, but at the same time i think such magic is real. the power of black love. so powerful. i feel SO seen. the ending was beautiful and of course… it could have a different meaning, depends if you look at it in a literal or esoteric way. 
this book was truly breathtaking. im going to read it a lot more. it will be in my heart forever. 
and i’ll always tell myself that the blackness between the stars is the melanin in my skin.

Viktoria A

2,5/5

This books was really slow for me to get through, there were multiple times I didn’t feel like reading it and there wasn’t really anything interesting happening in my opinion. It clouds have gotten 3 stars if it wasn’t that there was a lot of typos when I read, and I mean a lot. That was also a reason for why it took me around 2 weeks to finish this book.

Flavia Louise

This book was definitely not written for me, and that is fine and that means that I'm not the voice to be heard here.
Being a European non-native English speaker I initially struggled with the use of AAVE. And then there is the fact that I didn't see the CANCER trigger anywhere, it's not a mystery illness. (view spoiler)[And to be honest I spend this whole book being lowkey worried that we would have an earth magic cures cancer type of deal here and that really lowered my enjoyment. (hide spoiler)]
Ok now that I got that out if the way: This book was stunning. It explored complex family dynamics and generational trauma. The prose was dense and gorgeous. The narrative centered queer black girls and was unapologetic in that focus. I marked so many quotes. <3

priya

4.5 stars

TW: homophobia, brief transphobia, cancer, frequent death mentions, kicking a minor out of their house and country

“I felt alone in my house. I felt like I was her enemy and not she only child.”

“I can’t explain how I love Jesus and you at the same time, but somehow it is true. I ain’t understand how God finally make sense in your arms and in your church. I think this is why this punishment, because I even at times loved our way more than the way of Jesus.”

“Against all this green, Audre is cocoa wrapped in a light-purple dress with skinny straps that keep sliding down her shoulders, her booty a pillow on the earth in the midst of it all. She also has these superthick glasses with brown rims that had to be circa 1988 but still made her seem like she saw into your soul. And was unimpressed.”

“I’m a good helper too; can I help?” says a little voice. Her little brother, a sweet little dumpling, with short dreads bouncing from his head and sneakers that light up as he walks, emerges from another room.”

“I laugh because in my core, I is an island girl, and somehow I find myself wrap up in a snow globe of a life.”

mia ¿

** spoiler alert **
           just some (pointless) thoughts

honestly i'm surprised at how few ratings this book has??? it was a botm pick so i thought more people had heard about it... it's a shame they haven't though because this book was BEAUTIFUL especially for a ya book. it's a book i know i'll go back to in order to find the details i didn't see the first time. it dealt with real issues in such a tender but realistic way and it was just so so so good. i really can't describe it, i just know i'll be rereading it soon. i don't say that about a lot of books either...

Jocelyne Lessard

I genuinely didn't know what I was getting into when I read this, I saw it on a rec list and decided to buy it. I love it, I loved the characters and I cried a little bit. Its a good read!

Abby Hoggatt

4.5 stars!

Very cute, very impactful. I loved the spirituality involved in this book!

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I bought this book! Buy diversely!

Book: The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

Author: Junauda Petrus

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Diversity: Black MCs and side characters, lesbian and bisexual MCs, non-binary pronouns for side character, Trinidadian MC, MC with leukemia, f/f romance

Recommended For...: magical realism, romance, contemporaries

Publication Date: September 17, 2019

Genre: YA Magical Realism

Recommended Age: 16+ (domestic abuse TW, cancer TW, masturbation mentioned, suicide mentioned TW, romance, homophobia

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Pages: 312

Synopsis: Trinidad. Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she’s going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor’s daughter. Audre’s grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won’t lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. “America have dey spirits too, believe me,” she tells Audre.

Minneapolis. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels–about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that’s plagued her all summer. Mabel’s reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner.

Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it’s Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future.

Junauda Petrus’s debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.

Review: Overall, I thought this was a well done book. I started it by reading and then finished it by listening to it on audiobook. The book has multiple POVs that all have distinct voices. I loved the character development of both of the main characters and I loved their relationship with each other. The book is beautifully wrote and incorporates magical realism in one of the best ways I’ve ever read. The book also has great world building and discusses a lot of real world topics.

However, the book has come under fire recently. Trinidadian reviewers state the book has bad representation of the Trinidad rep because of badly translated Creole and antiquated representation of what Trinidad is, so be mindful of that. I can’t speak for that but I will say to trust ownvoice reviewers and their interpretations. The book is also 10000x better in audiobook format and from what I’ve read the book is supposed to be told in oratory format.

Verdict: Recommend, but please be mindful of what Trinidadian reviewers say about the book.

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

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