Super Star

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
* Arc read via Around The World ARC Tours
* Book will be released on September 29, 2011

This is a super star of a book, a definite 4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes.  It has a main character who’s full of surprises and quite the interesting new take on Jack the Ripper.  

Aurora aka Rory is going to boarding school for a year in London while her parents teach in a different town.  Everything seems normal at first but her first day in London is also the same day that a killer mimicking Jack the Ripper strikes again.  

Seeing Rory trying to fit in at school and seeing the friends she makes is fun since she’s the only American at the school.  This means that there’s plenty of cultural differences and misunderstandings to be had.  I like how she uses her Southern charm to mess with people.  She becomes fast friends with her room mate Jazza and she finds out that her classes are a lot harder then she thought they’d be.  

The humor and the voice of the book is great and really draws you into the story.  When you add in the mystery of the new Jack the Ripper and a dash of paranormal goodness, it makes for a great story.  

There’s the hint that there may be a love triangle in later books.  She meets a guy at school and they do get along very well.  He’s a bit obsessed with Jack the Ripper, seems to know everything about the case and theories about who did it.  Rory may have more in common with a new guy that she meets.  I guess it all depends on how Rory handles the new paranormal part of her life.

I wasn’t sure what to think about this book at first but then all the pieces come together.  This book has a spooky atmosphere throughout because of the interludes before some of the chapters about the murders.  There’s also a giant dose of paranoia too because everyone knows the dates that the killer will strike if he follows the original Jack the Ripper’s schedule.  This is no ordinary killer though.

Rory has new skills that are hard to believe but may be the only way to catch the killer.  The new people she meets are dysfunctional but also extremely good at what they do.  I really want to know more about the group and especially whoever the big bosses are.  

The ending was so so good and leaves some major questions about Rory’s future.  I can’t wait to see what happens next in this mysterious and spooky series.