From the Archives: Book 4: "Love, Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli

 

"Love, Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
SPOILER ALERT: This is a sequel to "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli. If you haven't read "Stargirl" I may spoil some things for you!
Verdict: Read Stargirl, then read this...
Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Okay, I have to say that I did not enjoy this as much as "Stargirl". "Love, Stargirl" is written in epistolary format (in letters) rather, one very long letter. The letter is from Stargirl to Leo. "Love, Stargirl" is Stargirl's journey to rediscovering herself. As you know, in "Stargirl", she kind of loses sight of the care-free girl that you come to love. What you don't realize is how much she lost. I found "Love, Stargirl" rather depressing. Stargirl still does the somewhat odd things that you learned to love her for in the first book, but in this book she is epically sad and it's mostly about Leo. This really bothers me, I wanted her to move on from Leo! In the first book it was bad enough that she loved Leo despite everything he did to her...but the fact that she still loves him and misses him so much was a little more than I could take.

This book seems a little forced for Spinelli and makes me wonder if he had enough material to write a second book. "Stargirl" had so many layers to it and had a focus on many different topics. "Love, Stargirl", on the other hand, was only focused on Stargirl needing to become Stargirl again. I still suggest reading it if you liked "Stargirl", but it isn't a must.

 

I know this isn't a great review, but I don't really have that much to say on this one.

*Present day note*- I now want to re-read this book and see if I read it any differently. I remember it much more fondly than this review indicates. Perhaps it's time to begin a re-read series of my blog as well....