The Starburst Effect | Review

Title -  The Starburst Effect

Author - Kelly Oram

Genre(s)  -  Romance

Publishing Date - June 20th 

Trope(s)  

• Disability Rep (Aphasia or Language Disorder / Brain Damage)
• Slow-burn
• Enemies to Lovers 
• Kind of Forced Proximity

Overall Ratings - ☆☆☆☆☆

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SYNOPSIS

Lily Rosemont lives next door to the biggest jerk in high school. Noah Trask has bullied Lily for years, and now he’s ruined her senior year by making her a target and turning the whole school against her. On top of that, her parents are getting divorced, and her world is falling apart around her.

After an accident on the football field leaves Noah with a traumatic brain injury, shattering his life as he knew it and leaving him with a whole heap of new disabilities, he’s no longer at the top of the high school food chain. In fact, he’s right down at the bottom with Lily.

In a cruel twist of fate, if Noah wants to graduate high school on time, he needs Lily’s help to complete a project—a book he wants to write about his experience. Lily’s not sure she can put aside her anger and hate for the boy who destroyed her senior year, but she desperately needs this project to get a scholarship to college.

It doesn’t take long for Lily to realize that the Noah who got injured is not the same Noah who survived the accident. He’s different. Way different. Slowly, Lily softens to this new Noah, but can she find it in her heart to forgive him? Can the two most unlikely people find friendship in adversity and help each other pick up the pieces of their broken lives?

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MY REVIEW

Firstly, I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review. 

This book was absolutely freaking amazing and I don’t even have words for it. I am not going to lie I even loved our MMC, Noah, as a jerk (I should slow down on reading those bully romances) the way his personality took a turn after the accident was something quite different and something I did love. Like a lot.

Lily, our FMC is so kind and awesome even though she’s bullied she doesn’t hesitate to support anyone. This might be a bit off-topic but if you’ve read Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas, there was a character called Delilah. I feel like this story about Lily can be Delilah’s story. 

I love the way that the author developed the relationship between Noah and Lily through these moments. Though a few points where I think the book could’ve been better are the way almost everyone is forgiven in the end. Some of the people who were forgiven I don’t think deserved that. But both Noah and Lily are great people so no wonder. And I can easily overlook the faults because of the rest of the book. 

The book also goes into detail about how someone suffering from something that makes them different from others affects them and the people surrounding them. Noah’s aphasia (brain damage affecting the language part of the brain leading to speech problems) made such a big change in his lifestyle the way his accident caused a “starburst effect” in his life was shown and I just have to praise the author for not half-hearting the disability or just adding it for the sake of it. I can’t speak much about how accurate the author was but it is still a good step for representation as I didn’t even know about the disability before this book. 

I am a big softie and I do love it when one character takes care of the other character (that trope >>>>>> ) and this whole book was based on that trope which made my heart melt. The way Noah turns into a huge softie too after the accident was a little unbelievable but I am fine with it.

I totally recommend reading this book and it comes out on 20th June!

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