The light of the midnight stars by Rena Rossner

 

Name of Book: The Light of the Midnight Stars

Author: Rena Rossner

ISBN: 978-0-316-48346-9

Publisher: Redhook 

Type of book: 1359-1360s ( 5119-5123) fantasy, superpowers, Judaism, Hungary, Romania, Black mist, disease, anti-Judaism, destruction, conversions, hiding, LGB romance, leaving everything behind, faith, sacrifices 

Year it was published: 2021

Summary:

An evocative combination of fantasy, history, and Jewish folklore, The Light of the Midnight Stars is fairytale-inspired novel from the author of The Sisters of the Winter Wood.

Deep in the Hungarian woods, the sacred magic of King Solomon lives on in his descendants. Gathering under the midnight stars, they pray, sing and perform small miracles - and none are more gifted than the great Rabbi Isaac and his three daughters. Each one is blessed with a unique talent - whether it be coaxing plants to grow, or predicting the future by reading the path of the stars.

When a fateful decision to help an outsider ends in an accusation of witchcraft, fire blazes through their village. Rabbi Isaac and his family are forced to flee, to abandon their magic and settle into a new way of life. But a dark fog is making its way across Europe and will, in the end, reach even those who thought they could run from it. Each of the sisters will have to make a choice - and change the future of their family forever.

For more from Rena Rossner, check out The Sisters of the Winter Wood.

Characters:

Main characters include the three sisters: powerful Sarah who is capable of controlling fire and can be capable of shapeshifting. There is also Hannah, the oldest sister who controls growth, earth and is a capable healer. Levana is the youngest sister who can read path and future of the stars and while powerful too in her own way, she dreams and wants to be among the stars a lot I believe. Secondary characters are also well done, from the sisters' parents to their romance interests all are unique and memorable individuals. The story also has LGB romance between one of the sisters and a female character, which was done well in my opinion.  

Theme:

One can't hide behind masks and fake names the true nature of self 

Plot:

The story was written in first person narrative from the three sisters' point of view. Similar to her debut, the three sisters each have distinctive powers and ways of chronicling their world: Sarah the middle sister talks in a present tense while her older sister Hannah writes journal entries and Levana, the youngest sister has really short chapters or else discusses a lot of moon and stars. In second half, Levanas chapters become free verse while Sarah and Hannah keep up their styles. The ending of the story isn't fully complete because i was trying to understand how a certain event in Hannahs life has ended, but the author doesnt address it, unfortunately.    

Author Information:
(From the book)

Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars program and holds an MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. SHe currently lives with her husband, five children, and a pug in Israel, where she works as a literary agent.. Her grandparents and great-grandparents are from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, and Romania. Their stories inspire her work.

Opinion:

Few years back, I read an incredibly wonderful novel that involved Jewish CHARACTERS outside of 1940s: and that is THE SISTERS OF THE WINTER WOODS. Learning that Rena Rossner was releasing a new tale, I was extremely excited about jumping into her new one: THE LIGHT OF THE MIDNIGHT STARS. At the start, THE LIGHT OF THE MIDNIGHT STARS didn't disappoint and had magic and power of her debut novel. I loved learning about variety of fairytales and traditions as well as seeing magic powers and history come alive. I also enjoyed the tender romance between the oldest sister and her non-Jewish beau. However, during the second half it all changed. The second half is also strong in romances and character of middle sister as well as attempts to survive in a gentile world, but there definitely was something missing, perhaps not enough detail or explanations about the sister's new lives. What I also didn't really appreciate is conversion to chriatianity. I am sorry, but if I want to read a Jewish story, I don't want to read about them converting to christianity. ( Conversions are more for marriage purposes rather than them discovering jesus, but I still didn't like it or felt comfortable) Also, a belief that the middle sister expressed, well, caused my blood to boil so to speak. Ideally all religions are the same, she said when justifying her decision to convert. In my experiences though, people from non-christian faiths don't get treated the same and it's not fair. Aside from those few quibbles, it's a wonderful story.        

This was given for a review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)