The Name of the Star (Shades of London #1), by Maureen Johnson

Thanks for sticking with me for the last few months, guys. School has been insane, and now that it's spring break I've finally had some time to read a bit more and work on some backlogged blog entries. Anyways, all of that aside, here are my thoughts on Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star. 

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural

Rating: ★★★

Published: September 29, 2011

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 372

So, I've been aware of Maureen Johnson since maybe middle school? That's about six years. And in all of that time, I've only read two things by her: her short story in Let It Snow, and this: The Name of the Star (three, if you count her blog...). It isn't that I haven't been totally interested... I just don't usually find her books when I'm out browsing. I don't really read books because they're by a certain author  (unless it's Sarah Dessen, in which case my system has proved to be imperfect), so I often stumble upon books by authors that I like by mistake.

The Name of the Star came out a little over two years ago. I became aware of it sometime last year, when I started following Johnson on Tumblr. All I really remember is that some readers were messaging her, saying that now they were totally afraid of using bathrooms, or something like that. (After reading the book, I can say that I'm any more afraid of bathrooms than I was before, so...) It piqued my interest, but I quickly forgot about it. Then, this past Friday night before I left on spring break, I saw that one of my friends had a copy in her room. She let me borrow it, and I spent most of Monday reading it.

The Name of the Star is about a 17 year-old girl, Rory Deveaux, who moves to London in order to spend a year at a British boarding school while her parents teach at a university in Bristol. Coincidentally, the day that she arrives in London is the same day that a murder victim is found, the details of which mimic Jack the Ripper. While Rory learns more about her new home and slowly gets acclimated to English living, "Rippermania" takes over the city. As the body count increases, London police are left with few leads and no suspects - until Rory spots a person who could be the very killer the police are looking for. The problem? No one else can see him, and he's made Rory his next target.

I feel very...average...about this book. It reminded me a bit of Libba Bray's The Diviners in that there were supernaturally creepy murders going on, and a cracking team of juvenile ghostbusters was needed to solve the case/catch dat ghost. (Which isn't bad; gimme supernatural thrillers any day, I say!) But The Name of the Star, in my opinion, started very slowly. It took around 70 pages for me to feel like the plot was really going somewhere, and that the action had finally "started." (However, I will say that once things got moving, all of the action was ramped up and got very thrilling very quickly.) 

Johnson also did a good job at introducing facets of English life - what A-levels are, pubs being a part of regular life, "college" vs. "university," etc. - without overwhelming the reader with information. The reader learned about these things as Rory did (unless the reader is British, in which case - sorry), as she slowly became accustomed to living in London. I was pleased to note that London, as the setting of the book, wasn't blown out of proportion as some magical place inhabited by queens and Doctors and wizards. Rory lived in London without acting like a giant tourist or aggressively trying to assimilate. Her life was just very...normal. And as an American reader (with friends going abroad to study in England next year), it was nice to be able to read about Rory without being reminded over and over "Hey! She's in England! How neat is that? England England England *insert "clever" pop culture reference here*."

I also appreciated how the book's English setting continuously undermined Rory as she worked out the cultural differences between her old life in Louisiana and her new life in London. Rory was reminded frequently that she was an "outsider," and that there was some information she was not going to be privy to due to that status. (Well, at first. Obviously not everything was kept from her forever.) Her outsider status also made her a more sympathetic and interesting character. It gave me a chance to see how she responded to non-supernatural change, which I think was important in revealing parts of her character and personality.

As for some of the things that kind of bothered me as I read the book (no spoilers): 

• There were some organization issues; basically, information that could have or should have gone in the beginning of the book was added in at the end. I feel like - at least as far as character development goes - this should have been addressed in order to further develop Rory's nuances and personality.
• Halfway during the book, certain characters were abandoned as the plot kind of shifted towards ghost hunting. (Is that a spoiler? I hope not.) While I understand that Rory's priorities changed during this portion of the novel, I feel like Rory (as the narrator) could have addressed that shift better. Said characters had been kind of major up until that point, and so having them suddenly shunted to secondary status was... pretty abrupt.
• I didn't really care for the interval chapters; I felt like they interrupted the pace of the plot somewhat. While I do think they provided a "behind the scenes!" look at the murder investigation, I also feel like they could have been treated better. Maybe the characters that the interval chapters were about could have been referred to after their appearance? In the ending, to give a sense of closure?

These issues aside, I'll probably pick up the next book in the series. I'm interested where things will go for Rory post-TNotS; namely, who the villain will be. (The same friend who let me borrow this book has the sequel, so as soon as she's done with it, I'll be trying to get my hands on it.)

Has anyone else read The Name of the Star? I'd be interested in reading more books by Maureen Johnson, so if anyone has any recommendations, they can leave them in the comments.