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The Name of the Star The Shades of London Maureen Johnson Books

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The Name of the Star The Shades of London Maureen Johnson Books

If you're looking for a hauntingly suspenseful read with the right amount of humor, a touch of romance and plenty of mystery than you need to go pick this book up!

The thing that I loved the most about this book is the way it's written. What Maureen does with her story line, the way she introduces her characters, and her ability to hold my attention from the moment I opened her book made me fall in love with the YA paranormal genre all over again. Maureen Johnson's writing is brilliant! She flawlessly brings her story's setting to life by not only vividly describing London, but I loved the way she merged together both modern day London with it's historical history. This not only adds an engaging element to the already thrilling murder mystery, but it makes me want to drop everything I'm doing and catch the new flight out there. Not that I would need much convincing to do that, but that's beside the point.

If I hadn't already fallen in love with the cover, I would have been sold on the synopsis. It's not hard to entice me with words like London, ghosts, romance, mystery, humor and Jack the Ripper. What's fascinating about this story is the way Maureen is able to paint the picture of how Jack the Ripper goes about terrorizing London all over again. Is he a wanna be Jack the Ripper or is he the ghost of Jack. Just who is Jack the Ripper really? As the plot thickens Maureen provides small glimpses of every angle from the historical references from back in the 1888 when these horrible crimes were first committed, to modern day news outlet, to the cops, the Ghosts, and the story's protagonist, Rory. I adored Rory! This southern girl finds herself not only in a new country learning new customs, but she finds herself at the heart of a terrorizing murder mystery. Boy does this girl hold her own, because if I had to deal with some of the things she does I would have ran away screaming, but instead Rory faces everything head on.

The Name of the Star is a book that's rich in historical references, refreshing with it's detailed story telling, enjoyable because of the characters and brilliant, because well, it's written by Maureen. Being that this is my first Maureen Johnson boo, I now understand why so many YA readers love her. She has the talent for mixing suspense, humor, and a tiny bit of romance together perfectly. There's plenty of nail bitting suspense, laugh out loud moments, and hauntingly good scenes. I highly recommend picking this book up! There are some vivid descriptions from the 1888 crime scenes in London mentioned in the story.


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The Name of the Star The Shades of London Maureen Johnson Books Reviews

While this is classified as a young adult novel, it translates well to adults also.
A shy young girl, grieving for her recently deceased aunt, finds herself on an epic quest across Europe while following the instructions left for her in 13 envelopes.
Charming, addictive and worthwhile!
I loved this book! But what's not to love? It had everything; tragedy, triumph, romance, crime, action, adventure, travel and it was down right fun.

Ginny is our main character. She is not a risk taker by any means. Her Aunt Peg has died and she has been given an envelope with some cash, a list of rules and a quest to fulfill. She has left for Ginny some envelopes. They are numbered sequentially and the number of the count is 13. Thou shall not count to 12, unless thereby thou proceed to 13. 14 is right out. Sorry. Coincidentally, the envelopes are also all blue...and on the small size, hence the title of the book.

Now Ginny could cheat and open all the envelopes and read them, but Aunt Peg's rules were very specific. She had a plan and the envelopes were not to be read except in order and at the ordained location or time frame. Ginny never having been anywhere, is understandably nervous about undertaking this trip.

She really has no idea what to expect not having seen her aunt in a long time, never even knowing she was sick and again, she's not a risk taker, but she undertakes the journey and follows her aunt's instructions. She is to take one backpack only and only what will fit in the backpack. She is to only take the money her aunt left her. She is to take no travel books and nothing to record her journey in. And she is not allowed to use phone, computer, camera, Internet or any other electronic devices or tools. And she cannot contact anyone back in the States. Oh yeah! She's going to England!!!

But alone is an intimidating prospect, especially for a 17 year old who has never been out of the country. I personally would have reveled in the experience, but I have family from the UK and became obsessed from an early age. I also did do just that. I went off to England by myself, but I was 29 at the time. Got off the plane, rented a car and just drove for 2 1/2 weeks. It was quite an adventure, but I have a travelling heart.

But back to our story. Aunt Peg has very explicit instructions for Ginny. She has to go find some strange man who is expecting her and she is going to stay with him while in England. But she has other things she has to do as well, like find an artistic stranger and support their artistic vision with 500 pounds. She also has to go find some artist in Scotland Aunt Peg was friends with.

If you didn't guess before, Aunt Peg was what we call a unique individual. Some might say flighty. She gave up the rat race and just went off to pursue her dreams and follow along wherever the wind would take her. Eccentric? Perhaps, probably. A hippie? Definitely, but she lived each day of her life to the fullest and she was trying to teach Ginny how to do the same.

So Ginny follows the instructions in the envelopes to the letter, ends up traveling all over Europe in some less than ideal circumstances at times and has the time of her life. Talk about life changing events. Well, this one is one of the big ones. Hello, life!

If you think you would enjoy a story about a girl who ends up finding herself on the back roads of Europe, this would probably be a good book for you. So, go out there and grab that book by the cover and don't stop reading until the end. You won't be sorry!
This isn't my first time reading this, and I liked it as much this reading as I did the last. It was different reading it as an adult versus a teenager though because as a parent, I kept wondering why Ginny was allowed to travel without a chaperone. The focus of the story was on Ginny's adventures and the relationship between her crazy aunt and those around her, but it was still shocking to me how little was said about the rest of her family. I don't even remember who Ginny's aunt was actually related to (Ginny's mom, I believe, but again, I'm not positive. It was something that was only mentioned once near the beginning of the book, and then never mentioned again.) I had to wonder what kind of relationship Ginny had with her parents that they would agree to this crazy traveling scheme, and why she never thought about them during her travels. She made a point of contacting her best friend once in an internet cafe, but not her parents? It was strange to me. Still, I loved the book and how Ginny found herself new friends and companions as they traveled together.
If you're looking for a hauntingly suspenseful read with the right amount of humor, a touch of romance and plenty of mystery than you need to go pick this book up!

The thing that I loved the most about this book is the way it's written. What Maureen does with her story line, the way she introduces her characters, and her ability to hold my attention from the moment I opened her book made me fall in love with the YA paranormal genre all over again. Maureen Johnson's writing is brilliant! She flawlessly brings her story's setting to life by not only vividly describing London, but I loved the way she merged together both modern day London with it's historical history. This not only adds an engaging element to the already thrilling murder mystery, but it makes me want to drop everything I'm doing and catch the new flight out there. Not that I would need much convincing to do that, but that's beside the point.

If I hadn't already fallen in love with the cover, I would have been sold on the synopsis. It's not hard to entice me with words like London, ghosts, romance, mystery, humor and Jack the Ripper. What's fascinating about this story is the way Maureen is able to paint the picture of how Jack the Ripper goes about terrorizing London all over again. Is he a wanna be Jack the Ripper or is he the ghost of Jack. Just who is Jack the Ripper really? As the plot thickens Maureen provides small glimpses of every angle from the historical references from back in the 1888 when these horrible crimes were first committed, to modern day news outlet, to the cops, the Ghosts, and the story's protagonist, Rory. I adored Rory! This southern girl finds herself not only in a new country learning new customs, but she finds herself at the heart of a terrorizing murder mystery. Boy does this girl hold her own, because if I had to deal with some of the things she does I would have ran away screaming, but instead Rory faces everything head on.

The Name of the Star is a book that's rich in historical references, refreshing with it's detailed story telling, enjoyable because of the characters and brilliant, because well, it's written by Maureen. Being that this is my first Maureen Johnson boo, I now understand why so many YA readers love her. She has the talent for mixing suspense, humor, and a tiny bit of romance together perfectly. There's plenty of nail bitting suspense, laugh out loud moments, and hauntingly good scenes. I highly recommend picking this book up! There are some vivid descriptions from the 1888 crime scenes in London mentioned in the story.