Book Review: We Are All Constellations by Amy Beashel

You are strong. You are brave. You are not alone.

Seventeen-year-old Iris is happy. She might not have her mother but she refuses to let her past determine who she is. Then Iris finds out the truth about her mum’s death.

As her childhood memories prove uncertain, not even her friends or new love interest Orla can help her make sense of them. Reeling from the discovery, Iris is forced to question everything she knows about her friends, her family and herself. But can she find a new future now her eyes are open to the past?

CW: grief, suicide, suicidal ideation, mental illness, sexual orientation, LGBTQIA+ characters and themes, violence against women

GENRE: Young Adult Drama

PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amy Beashel lives in Shropshire with her husband and two kids. Her debut novel The Sky is Mine was nominated for a CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021, longlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2021 and shortlisted for the Bristol Teen Book Award 2020. Incidentally, she is also the fastest woman in the world on a space hopper.

You can find her on Instagram and Twitter.

Review & Recommended Listening

This lovely book tackles a lot, but don't be frightened by all the content/trigger warnings, because it deals with those topics so beautifully and with utmost care. It doesn't come off preachy or trying too hard to be relevant to the youth, and even as a much older reader it resonated with me. Such is the power of Amy's writing; she has a way with words that really tugs at the heart, all while telling a well-woven tale. Her characters are complex — so utterly human — but relatable, even the "worst" ones. And while the story is painful and heartbreaking in so many places, it's not actually graphic, nor is it a pit of despair. It's real, and it's complicated, and it's messy, but it's also hopeful and brave and fierce.

The cover is beautiful, though I might be a tad biased because I like pinks and purples. I really loved the font stylings and I felt they were very effective in conveying Iris' feelings and thoughts to the reader. I'm not much of a poet, but I liked the poems featured and I think it would be nice if someone actually made videos of them being performed ala Tala.

As a Filipino currently living in the UK I also have to say that I really enjoyed Tala and all the cultural goodness that were sprinkled into the story! Now I miss palitaw 😭 but I'm hopeful that if they could make that here, so can I LOL. But, yes, Amy's pretty much spot on with the references. I had a laugh at how much of a big deal pasalubong and 18th birthdays are, and Iris calling Tala's mom Tita is just 👌 (Though the official language of the Philippines is actually Filipino, not Tagalog.)

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommended Listening: As I mentioned in my open call for books to review, I’ll now be adding a song to my reviews! It’ll be one that either sums up the book for me, what I’d imagine in a trailer were it a movie, something that I associate with the story or one of the characters for whatever reason… or maybe even an original inspired by it 😉

Lost in a vast ocean

Hope sinking like a storm

And the fate broken

By fading thoughts of our own

When night is all we see

Know that I will never leave

Cause through every season

Through all the years

When the water is calm

And the waves are the storm

I will be here

When you start believing

That you're lost in the dark

Where it's out of reach

Know that I'll be your north star