Review: Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev

Title: Eyes Like Stars
Series: Theatre Illuminata
Authour: Lisa Manrchev
Publisher: Square Fish (Macmillan)
Publication Date: 13 April 2010

Source: Library



Synopsis: From GoodReads
All her world's a stage.
Beatrice Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She is not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but has no lines of her own.
Until now.
Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the characters of every place ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

Review:
Wow did I completely adore this book. I felt as if I was bathing in a fountain of literary knowledge aiding my quest for education via osmosis.

The 3rd person narrative provides a means of tying all of the characters together and keeping the thread of the plot under tight control. The literary characters are further developed outside of their respective stories, giving them a wonderful roundness while creating a 'modern' persona. Applying both prose and play format added depth to the plot especially with the use of stage directions within the narrative. This blending of different styles of writing also proved to be visually dynamic on the page.

The imagery was so detailed it burst to vivid life within my imagination. I especially liked the 'thinking caps' and could really do with one myself [ : D]

Mainly focalized from Bertie's point of view. She is very creative, the mystery surrounding her appearance at the Theatre is a hinging point of the plot. Via the narrative you have the feeling of wanting to protect her. It must be my mothering instinct kicking in.

The magic of the Theatre is revealed slowly along with Bertie's part in it, beautifully intertwined with mystery. As you may already know I really want to dye my hair purple well after reading this I want it even more [ ; ) ]

This book has it all a fantastic love triangle (give me the bad boy - I was completely drawn to Ariel for me he was the Shakespearean equivalent to Damon in The Vampire Diaries), magic, mystery and romance blended seamlessly to create a wonderful piece of escapism. For me this equals win plus win.

I am desperate to read the sequel Perchance to Dream but the library is having a problem obtaining it *sniff, sniff*