As a young adult author, I started reading Libba Bray’s books based on a recommendation from a student. I have continued to read whatever she writes.  The first book I read, A Great and Terrible Beauty, was fantasy driven and I didn’t see that coming when I picked it up. Beauty Queens hooked me on Bray, however. It was hysterical. Her series The Diviners solidified me as a fan. With a dynamic protagonist, Evie, The Diviners takes an interesting look at New York in the Roaring ‘20s and the rise of Eugenics, with a bit of the arcane interspersed.  As she has grown in her craft, I have continuously loved the characters she has created and her ability to consistently capture the voices of her teenage protagonists.

Under the Same Stars is by far her most accomplished work, and from Eugenics she moves to tackling prejudice across the 20^th and 21^st centuries in all forms. As a Good Morning America Book Pick attests, she has fully achieved a stellar novel. Pun intended. Under the Same Stars was written during the pandemic, as many current releases seem to have been. During that time of shared strife and civic uprise, something struck a chord with Bray and Under the Same Stars was born. Set across three different time spans – World War II in Germany, the eighties in West Berlin, and the year 2020—three seemingly disparate tales of the choice to cope or rebel against inhumanity conjoin. The story begins with German girls who are working underground and attempting to save the people that are being persecuted by the Nazi’s, a connection is formed to a teen dropped into the punk scene of West Germany in the eighties fighting conformity. From that teen’s discovery of sexuality we find her son, a teen in online school in 2020, facing the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. The stories of these brave teens in history attempting to change the world amidst chaos speaks to those who have a voice to speak out against these injustices and is a strong call to young adults to take a stand when they see it.