Constellations of Scars by Melissa Eskue Ousley || Review

I received an eARC via the author, via NetGalley this does not affect my opinion of the book, all my thoughts are my own and are honest.

'Not all gifts are a blessing. Some are a curse.

When Amelia turned 12, she began growing pearls. Every month, a crop of beautiful pearls bursts from the skin on her back. Her mother, Denise, believes her daughter is blessed, and sells the pearls to put food on the table. Amelia sees her condition as a curse. As the pearls form, her body aches and her skin grows feverish.

The harvest of pearls brings temporary relief from the pain, but leaves her back marred by scars. Denise hides Amelia away from the world, worried that Amelia’s gift will be discovered and she will be abducted for the wealth she can provide. Now a young woman, Amelia realizes she has become her mother’s captive, and plans her escape.

When she runs away from home, she finds a new family in a troupe of performers at a museum of human oddities. She soon discovers the world is much more dangerous than her mother feared.'

Constellations of Scars had a very unique premise. It drew me in and I needed to know more.

Amelia was very naive to no fault of her own, she had been locked away from the world since she was 12 years old. She wasn’t the best main character to follow in the best way possible. You would be looking at all her decisions and know it wasn’t the right thing to do or life wasn’t too easy, but due to Amelia not knowing this, I found entertaining to read. But on the flip side, I also found she was too trusting in the world and how everything was easy and it was a bit hard for the logical side of my brain to process.

Other than the premise, this book was a disappointing read for me. I found the pacing was off. It would be very slow through the middle, but the ending conflict was finished way too quickly for my liking. There was a writing style choice in the book that wasn’t a personal favourite. The charters weren’t all that fleshed out which made it very hard for me to care when certain things happened.

I did appreciate the dark turn this book took, but as it was the main conflict I really wish it had good into more depth and been highlighted more. It felt too rushed and brushed over for me too enjoy to the fullest.

This book had a lot of potential for me. I feel the book could have been longer, the pacing could have been more evened out, the end conflict could have gone on longer, and the characters were more fleshed out.

2 ⭐️

Thank you so much NetGalley and Melissa Eskue Ousley for the chance to review your novel.