The Night Our Stars Vanished
Ratings1
Average rating2.5
15
Ratings1
Average rating2.5
Eighteen year old bookworm and color conscious Dwight Moors is no stranger when it comes to injustice. After all, it's in his bloodline, people dying over injustice. His ancestor Prince Jabari drowned in the Atlantic Ocean when he sacrificed himself for his wife Arjana. While Dwight takes a walk at midnight in the summer before his senior year, he's assaulted by three thugs who nearly beat him to death inch by inch. When the police arrive, the young African American's filled with relief, only to be deemed as the villain as the police aim their guns at him. Dwight measures his life through the muzzles of their guns. On the same night Dwight's caught in his own midnight madness, Leon Evers, a Caucasian boy who has an infinity symbol tattooed on his inner wrist, loses his virginity to Charlie Abrams. It's everything ever dreamed of. With each kiss, each caress, he feels a warmth that's like no other, a torch that he can keep forever to combat the feeling of losing his mother Elina Evers who died during childbirth. The warmth vanishes once Leon finds out that Charlie, the person he gave his heart and body to, gave him HIV. Now he wonders if he'll ever love someone again. What's worse. How can he tell his two closest friends without unraveling at the seams? Tired of carrying this secret, Leon confides in Dwight who he barely knows outside of school. Dwight initially doesn't welcome him openly, but soon the two teens grow to be friends and are surprised that there's more than what meets the eye. A dual narrative story, this story deals with issues involving race, notions of masculinity, sexual awakening, and follow the journey of two boys who try to regain the stars they lost the night when their lives derailed.
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Contains spoilers
Hard to rate this book honestly. I loved the main characters duo and their friends, and found the story endearing, especially regarding both evolutions and target. But there are several parts where I feel like this could have been better too.
The ending felt too long, the book could have ended around the 80% mark without changing much. Forcing a sudden attraction between the two boys felt also unnecessary regarding their common story during the course of the book.
The two main characters have deeply rooted problems regarding their distant past they don't tackle at all.
All the story around Dwight's ancestor, the fact that his father doesn't realize the pain it causes and the reason behind is not well constructed at all. Dwight goes in a trauma loop that isn't addressed in the book except by the fact that he suddenly tells this story in a Youtube stream where there's absolutely no correlation except being at friend's dad's.
Same goes for Leon that has deep troubles deeling with his mother's loss at birth that isn't addressed in the course of the book and seem to be a perfectly normal way to react and deal with others to everyone around him.