And The Stars Were Burning Brightly

And the stars were burning brightly is a book about hope, friendship, and family.

The two protagonists are Megan and Nathan, two very different teenagers brought together by a tragedy: Al's death.

Al is the weird kid everyone picks on at school, just because he was obsessed with stars and poetry and didn't fit in. He's also Nathan's brother and Megan's friend and the continuous bullying brought him to kill himself.

Both Megan and Nathan blame themselves because they could have done more. Megan hid the fact that she Al's friend because she wanted to fit in with the cool kids and didn't want to be bullied too while Nathan didn't pay much attention to his brother because he was busy with his friends. To honor his death, Megan sets up a Facebook memorial while Nathan tries to understand why his brother would do something so extreme.

Nowadays, teenagers feel pressured to conform to the norms of society and pretend to be someone they're not or they look up online to models and influencers and feel bad about their body. It's so important to raise awareness about this and I think the author really managed to talk about this issue in a flawless way. I love that Megan realizes that there's no point in trying to change yourself for the sake of others and she encourages everyone to be more like Al and stay true to themselves.

I really loved the message of this book and I think it's relatable for every age. At some point in our lives, we all felt pressured to hide parts of ourselves, just to appear more interesting in the eyes of others.

The ending was very heartwarming, and I loved that everyone got their little happy ending.
To sum up, this was a great book and I'd recommend it to everyone that felt lost at some point of their lives.