this book reminds me of patah seribu—a 2012 malaysian telemovie starring shila amzah and sharnaaz—bubbly girl MC x cold boy MC! i shed some tears quite a few times reading this book (it was emotional k) 🥲

characters:
neveah is the happy-go-lucky girl who sees positivity in everything, and she has this unwavering love and admiration towards the stars—it’s what keeps her going. while yohan on the other hand, is the complete opposite; he’s barely livinb after “surviving” a traumatic event.

Marisa beautifully expresses the changes in yohan’s personality before and after he met neveah; i adore how this gentle side of yohan slowly blossoms as the story progressed. and when motorbike-yohan started to make its appearance…. u don’t understand i’m on my knees 🧎‍♀️

i get the grumpy x sunshine trope intended by the author, but i think the sunshine is a bit overdone because at certain scenes, neveah’s insistence to include yohan in the fun sometimes frustrates me, maybe i’ve grown out of the cheeky YA scenes 😂 so i guess some scenes didn’t sit right with me, like when neveah made a mess with the EGGS in yohan’s kitchen to make him say yes and join their trip, because i personally would’ve lost my temper 😭

however, along the way i realised, maybe i didn’t like neveah’s personality because it mirrors who i was—younger me, innocent & naive, the one who’s unnecessarily kind to everyone. and yohan feels so close to me because his personality is what’s the closest to me today. (ok i didn’t intend to make this depressing but real)

writing & pace:
at first, i struggled a bit to read this book because it’s slow-paced and it took me a while to get used to the characters’ monologue since the author sometimes write half-finished monologues (as if the train of thoughts are cut off) to build suspense, but some monologues left me wondering because i couldn’t figure out the context of the half-finished sentences. but on page 194, things started to pique my interest when yohan keeps denying to himself that neveah needed someone else as her tutor, “definitely not him” (oh we know he’s lying to himself) 🤭 the 2nd half of the book picked up as well and the yohan x atlas crossover buildssssss up my curiousity!! 🥸😼

ending:

did it leave my mouth hanging saying “what just happened”? yes. but is it realistic? yes, and i like the message that it delivered—meeting neveah is yohan’s star, she made him see colours again for a while, if not forever. but sometimes a mere love interest couldn’t change one into a happier person, because “no matter how much despair you purge from your system, there’s always a piece of it that clings on, refusing to let go.” (a direct quote from the book itself)

the second half saved the book for me! pls also check the tw before u read this book. thank you to the author herself, marisa, for sending the e-ARC to me! proud of you ☄️🫶🏻 fading stars is for you if you love: astronomy, grumpy x sunshine trope, depressing boy MC with traumatic past!

p/s: the copy that i read is the latest ARC, but there were quite a lot of typos here and there. i hope these have all been resolved before the final cut.