As Stars Fall

by Christie Nieman

A bush fire, and its aftermath, links a Bush-Stone curlew and three teenagers experiencing loss, love and change.

The fire was fast and hot ... only days after it went through, there were absolutely no birds left. I should have seen it as an omen, the birds all leaving like that.

Robin is a self-confessed bird-nerd from the country, living in the city. On the first day at her new school, she meets Delia. Delia is freaky and definitely not good for Robin's image.

Seth, Delia's brother, has given up school to prowl the city streets. He is angry at everything, especially the fire that killed his mother.

When a rare and endangered bird turns up in the city parklands, the lives of Robin, Seth and Delia become fatefully and dangerously intertwined ...

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Australia, Fiction, Family, Young Adult Contemporary, Grief

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2014

Reviews

[Nomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Beautifully written and compelling in both a quiet and urgent way. As Stars Fall was unexpected (both in it's captivating nature and in it's plot) and lyrical and haunting in that perfect way where the characters bleed into you and you feel their grief and wildness and confusion and hope.

As Stars Fall is an astonishing book in so many ways. It moves along to it's own beat blending two vivid settings (the city and the country) and three POVs that criss-cross and gain momentum so that I was holding my breath wondering how things were going to turn out. The narrative structure reminds me a little of The Accident -- though As Stars Fall has an extra element that just verges on magical realism (kind of -- mostly in the way that you can begin to maybe expect the unexpected -- and in the feeling that something horribly magical, or magically horrible could be just about to unfold). I loved it for that. The element of danger and impending doom just quietly bubbling away in the background. It was grounded and yet had exquisite moments of grief and paranoid delusion and heightened emotions mixed in with the everyday stifling, even boring, aftermath of tragedy and upheaval.

I loved reading this exquisite Aussie YA novel -- which didn't follow a set formula but was crafted with care and took me to places I did not expect and then had me suddenly realising how much I had come to care for the characters. This is a slower read -- but every scene drew me deeper in and I consumed in a 24 hour period. It's reeling with emotion -- but balanced with some sharp humour and a gorgeous and unpredictable love story. I loved the school setting -- Robin is so brave and wonderful to watch at setting into a new school (she's daring and bold and clever and just such a great heroine to cheer for) and the farm setting and I loved the aliveness of the fierce and unrelenting, devastating fire. I am not really a bird fan at all but I loved the mysteriousness of the bush-stone curlew and how it tied everything together. The ending was stunning and really brought the book into a whole other level.

As Stars Fall is a favourite read for me this year and I recommend it to fans of Aussie YA -- to readers who like to sink into their books and quietly and unexpectedly fall in love.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Stars Fall is beautifully written, and a novel that I think will appeal to both older teenagers and adults. Not just the adults who already love YA (of which there are many! I guess I am one of them now?), but adult readers who prefer literary novels or who might previously have dismissed YA. It's a very 'literary' YA and doesn't fit what one might expect of a 'typical' YA novel. It's contemporary but it has a distinct other-worldly edge, mixing the real and surreal well.

Seth is a character whose actions make him incredibly difficult to like, and both he and Delia's perspective are told in third-person, making them feel more distant. Their sometimes questionable behaviours are made credible by their previous experiences - Seth's behaviours are pretty much consistently terrible, but his loss is explored very well. Robin's first-person narration is engaging and immersive, and while each of the central characters are well-developed, she is the most likeable.

It's described as a love story in the blurb but I wouldn't regard it as such, and if you come into it expecting that to be central you'll be disappointed. Similarly it is very slow-paced - if you're expecting something which develops quickly, you won't find that here. It's evocatively written and luxuriates in detail, including detail about the Bush-Stone curlew. It has a great deal of depth and atmosphere but not a lot of action until the very end. It's a story that's predominantly about grief.

I think this is an intriguing and original contribution to contemporary YA literature in Australia, and I'm very much looking forward to what Christie Nieman writes next.

[Clare Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I have more to say later.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say a 3.5 rating for this one... It took awhile for me to get my head around the premise however this is an intricate story of a bush fire, its aftermath and a Bush-Stone curlew (bird) that binds three unlikely teenagers together.. An interesting read and concept..

[ALPHAreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book begins with a curlew watching a bushfire rage:

The light was strange. The darkness was a deep red, and there was a thickness between the stars.

There is a human caught in the “stinging air”, and the curlew watches on as the human is, “Taken away. Bought forever to the stars.”

Thus begins Christie Nieman’s debut Australian YA novel, ‘As Stars Fall’.

From the beginning alone, readers will know that they are about to go on a somewhat harrowing journey made no less painful for the poignancy of Nieman’s masterful words. I was not surprised to discover that Christie Nieman is in fact a playwright, even winning a Green Room Award for her play ‘Call me Komachi’. She sets the stage for this novel so beautifully – beginning with a scene many Australians will be familiar with. Even if you’re not someone who has found themselves and their town ravaged or threatened by bushfire, the summer seasons in Australia are often marked by a tragedy we are all too familiar with. Watching the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires on the TV, visiting the eerie memorial to the 2003 Canberra bushfires, I’ve even heard first-hand accounts of the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires from my dad, who was a police officer at the time and sent to direct fleeing traffic. Nieman’s book begins from the point of view of a curlew bird watching the flames come, and then alternates to the perspective of a human woman about to be swallowed up by the fiery monster – it’s a viscerally frightening scene made even more so for the calm beauty of Nieman’s words, describing something so sinister and mindless.

From there, we are introduced to three main players. There’s first-person narration from Robin Roberts (cruel parents), a country girl who has moved to the city with her mum – leaving behind her beloved Murramunda after fires ravaged the land.

Robin meets and reluctantly befriends a strange girl at her school called Delia … whose mother was the human that the curlew bird was watching in the beginning, being consumed by a firewall.

Delia and her brother Seth’s chapters are in third person, perhaps a reflection of the disconnection they feel, living in the fallout of their mother’s tragic death. A lecturer, their mum was in the bush doing research on the bush stone-curlew – the very same bird that Delia notices Robin idly sketching during detention one day.

Robin is, in fact, a “bird nerd” feeling unsettled in the concrete city jungle, partly because she misses the variety of birds. When Robin, Seth and Delia discover a bush stone-curlew in nearby parklands, the discovery binds them together ever tighter.

Christie Nieman really needs to be commended – she’s clearly done a lot of research into the psychological impacts of bushfires, particularly on teenagers. Delia and Seth are coping in their own, very different ways. For Delia, it’s throwing herself into her mother’s research on the curlew and looking for connections and glimpses of fate in the wake of her loss. For Seth, it’s choosing oblivion with the drug ‘angel dust’, and many of his chapters read like wading through the smoky haze of his subconscious and self-hatred.

Robin is also feeling the impact of the bushfires, but mainly in the displacement of home and the fractures she’s felt in her family;

But two months ago, when the fire came through, all the birds disappeared. Dad said it was worse than any fire anyone had seen in decades. He said we were lucky that we’d had all our sheep up in the top paddock: we hadn’t lost any, not like some of our neighbours. The fire was fast and hot, which is bad. It killed someone, some woman up in the hills, not a local, right on the fire track where Dad and I used to go to collect wood. It was in all the papers. And the fire stripped so much of the landscape that only days after it went through, there were absolutely no birds left.
I should have seen it as an omen, the birds all leaving like that. They left first, and then Mum and I left for the city a few weeks later. And I haven’t been back since. I don’t even know if any of them have returned.

I really loved that Nieman went into the range of loss for these characters – particularly because their pain is so viscerally connected to nature. This is really a recurring theme in the novel, as Nieman explores the side-by-side affects of disaster on both humans, nature and wildlife;

And that’s the complicated thing about disturbance. It’s a natural part of an ecosystem. It compels life, it changes life, it makes like dynamic. It makes an ecosystem what it is, and it makes us who we are too. But it can be dangerous: give an ecosystem, or a person, too much disturbance, and it can drive them past their point of no return.

I did occasionally feel quite cold towards Seth and Delia, but only because they felt deliberately distanced from readers with their third-person narration. Compared to Robin’s voice – vibrant, sometimes combative, a little bit cheeky – Delia and particularly Seth’s chapters were harder to get through. I appreciate that this was deliberate, and a way for Nieman to communicate just how disconnected the siblings are after the loss of their mother, but it was my response to their chapters nonetheless.

‘As Stars Fall’ is a tender morsel of a novel, a ‘Silent Spring’ for young adults that also explores dramas of the heart in the wake of nature’s tragedy. Christie Nieman is bringing something very different to contemporary YA, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read albeit predictable. Really liked the use of the Bush Stone-Curlew and the emphasis on conservation and regeneration, doesn't happen often enough in Australian novels - now I am sounding like the mother of two scientists!

[Eugenia (Genie In A Book) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*This review also appears on the blog Chasm of Books*

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

That is my greatest fear: that one day when we finally stop focusing so hard on ourselves, we will life our hears, we will look around, and we will find that we are alone.

Beautifully told with a unique environmental focus, As Stars Fall is quite an interesting piece of YA Australian fiction. Told through the stories of three teenage characters as they deal with the linked repercussions of a fire which impacted them all, this novel is one with a subtle tone that tries to convey a deeper message. Although I found the writing captivating, for the most part the pacing was very relaxed, and I felt that it needed that little extra something to push it over the line for me. Nonetheless, if you are a birdlover or have an interest in stories with damaged characters and the challenges they have to face, then you still might like to give this one a try.

He feels partial, like something has been left behind, or something in him replaced. As if now, when he walks around in his own flesh, the world around him can move and shift and play tricks on him as it wants, can suck him into darkness or strange landscapes. He doesn't have the same relationship with the world he had before. He can't trust it.

This is just one example of where the writing style really shines through as something quite powerful. Although there are a few long-winded descriptions which may leave you wondering what the point of that block of words is, for the majority I felt that it reflected what the essence of this book was about. It's an exploration of how Robin, Delia and Seth are working through the changes in their lives and coming to terms with their realities. The different tenses and alternating POV's made this quite an interesting read, as the plot is almost entirely character-driven with the aid of some bird symbolism.

I couldn't question it. It was true. A true memory. An unseen curlew and I, sitting hunkered down deep in the valley of my home - of our home - while higher up in the hills everything we knew became so disturbed and so changed as to be unrecognisable.

The one character which I could neither understand nor connect with was Seth, who throughout the whole book just seemed to be in a monotonous downward spiral. He does drugs, smokes and is crying out for help in a world which just can't seem to help him, or that he doesn't want the help. In contrast, both Robin and Delia's accounts were nuanced and honest, with the addition of some fictional science observations about the Bush Stone-Curlew adding a distinctive touch.

CONCLUSION

As Stars Fall was an enthralling read which sweeps you up into its plot which flows as if the story itself is flying. On the whole, if you are interested in impacts on the environment and people that natural events can have, then this book is for you.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Stars Fall, is an exquisite work of fiction, and a remarkable debut.

From its evocative opening, told from the perspective of a bush stone-curlew, separated from her mate in a bushfire in country Victoria, and forced to abandon her nest and flee, and at the same witnessing the demise of a woman trapped in the fire. The story moves to the protagonist "Flame" Robin, whose family has separated in the wake of the bushfire, and moves to the city with her mother, where she meets a strange girl, Delia, who has much more in common with Robin than she knows. The story shifts perspective between Robin, Delia, and Delia's brother, Seth, who are all connected through the appearance of the bush stone-curlew who has appeared in the neighbourhood - extremely rare and endangered in the region.

For me, as a reader, I found much of Nieman's prose extremely moving - especially having lived in Darwin where the bush stone-curlew is quite common. Its bizarre appearance and haunting call provides for the perfect inspiration for an astounding novel - which makes for truly Australian contemporary gothic fiction. It explores the aftermath of the destruction and grief that comes with the tragedy of bushfires and death, blending scientific theories of natural regeneration, but at the same time, explores the various personal trajectories that we follow after the loss of a loved one, where the bush stone-curlew is the uncanny embodiment of that which we cannot describe or explain - something that can be either haunting and grotesque, or rare and beautiful, depending on our perspective.

I cannot describe how much I loved this novel. Neiman's prose is flawless, and her characters very real and relatable. Whilst this is marketed as a YA novel, this is not reflected in her writing style, but merely through the perspective of its central characters who are teenagers. I would give this to anybody to read. It is a work of beauty that deserves to be read.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is set in the Victorian country of Murramunda and the city.
It follows the lives of Robin, Delia and Seth whom have been connected and brought together by a rare and endangered bird: the Bush- Stone Curlew.
Robin follows her father and is a bird nerd who has moved from Murramunda to the City with her mother, who has a job at a prestigious girls school.
It is at this school that 'Flame' Robin Roberts meets Delia; the small freaky girl who has been put up a grade into Robins class and is still recovering from the accident that had happened.
Delia's brother, Seth, isn't doing so well about what happened to their mother either. He blames the smokes and marijuana for the unreal connection he seems to have with the curlew in the park.

This book is a slow read, but it's the slow read that allows the writing to soak in your mind, as it is written in such a beautiful, silent, yet lyrical way.

The characters in this book were unique, each with their own struggles they needed to face, through times of confusion. There is a lot of hope, especially at the ending, where they start to become resilient and regenerate, allow themselves to start anew like the bush lands after a fire.

It is the bird, the Bush- Stone Curlew, who is like this book, beautiful and eerie. You feel the grief not only from the human characters, but the bird as well.

I love how this book has blended so well; mixing grief, the wilderness and city/ country life together. It is written in Robins first person as well as third person for Seth and Delia. The different views of this book allowed me to see in the mind of Robin, but also how much Delia and Seth were actually feeling, struggling and grieving. I found this book quite compelling, beautiful, and captivating. And I am happy that the characters kind of found themselves in the end.

I give this a 4/5

[Rebecca]

I loved Robin's voice from page one and for me, she was the highlight of this book. Captivating in her strength and vulnerability - she highlighted one of my favourite things: that strong characters aren't only resigned for ruthless fantasy types, wielding weapons and ready to fight their way out trouble. They can be angry and quiet and sad and overwhelmed and thoughtful and thoughtless and dissolve into tears and pick themselves up again - it's the keeping on that make them real, lively and wholeheartedly human.

I'd classify this as #QuietYA, although sometimes a little too quiet? I found the first half to be strongest, but a lack of urgency towards the end. Robin was a great character and I liked Delia, but overall I have mixed feelings.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

[Catherine McCullagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book review:
'As Stars Fall' by Christie Nieman

This is a story dominated by bushfire. From the opening paragraphs, the reader is pitched into blazing scrub, a black sky lit by an orange glow and thick, choking smoke. The story is told through the eyes of three young protagonists who are unwittingly united by a single bushfire. A country girl who fights the fire as it threatens her family property and siblings whose scientist mother is a victim of that same fire are all deeply affected and their anguish sets the tone of the story. It is telling that the mother’s last thoughts are of her children, that they are too young to leave — and she is right. As their bereaved father lapses into alcoholism, the eldest child, a teenage boy named Seth, seeks solace in drugs while his younger sister, Delia, internalises her grief and pushes it away in a bid to force herself to move on. As the story develops, these strategies come spectacularly unstuck.
This is a carefully crafted portrayal of two families in disarray, the cohesiveness of each destroyed in a single, fiery episode. Underpinning the story is a far broader issue which is skilfully woven into the fabric of the tale — the destruction of the environment and its impact on native species, specifically the Bush Stone-curlew. This is a native bird with a difference, its eerie call, something akin to the wail of the banshee, marking it as truly unique. In fact, the first time I heard it, I was convinced some unfortunate creature was being torn to pieces by a fox.
The Bush Stone-curlew is the other major character in this story. Like the fire, it links the protagonists and provides both the opening and closing perspectives, neatly bookending the narrative. The bird itself is representative of both the subtle conservation undertone of the book and of the fracturing of the families by the fire. There are, in fact, two curlews, a male and female, separated by the bushfire that took the life of the scientist. The curlew’s perspective is employed at several crucial moments in a ploy that works well, broadening the focus of the reader beyond the human elements of the tale.
The language of this story is highly evocative, the imagery colourfully drawn, both in descriptions of the country and city settings. At times the use of short, sharp clusters of words, phrases and sentences almost resembles the crackling of the bushfire that looms over this tale. The same technique is applied to the emotions of the character and to the actions of Seth, in particular, as he is gripped by hallucination and distorted reality. It is powerful and effective and adds pace and tension to the narrative.
'As Stars Fall' is a highly engaging story that works through the trauma of loss and into a phase author Christie Nieman calls ‘regeneration’. But this is not a simple story of country people and the devastation of the bushfire. The impact of this bushfire infiltrates the bounds of the city in a timely reminder that such disasters are not solely a matter for luckless farmers, country dwellers and wildlife. The other timely reminder lies in the plight of our Australian wildlife and the implication that we are all responsible for its fate, no matter where we live.
Highly recommended.

[Bridget Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A descriptive read and a story about teenagers who don’t fit the typical mould of city living. They like the country life and bird life in particular the Curlew.i think this book is based on the King Lake fire.

[Kaaren Matthewson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Great read!!!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw and moving. I cried reading this book.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was odd. On the one hand, I could *not* bring myself to care about Seth or Delia, and even my affection for Robin was halfhearted. I also wasn't too fussed on the pacing, and reading felt like trudging through thick mud at times - you really had to struggle to get anywhere. And another criticism: why the heck was Robin's POV in first person and the others' chapters in third? That was disorientating and pulled me out of the writing, taking me about a page to readjust each time.

So after dismissing the characters, the pacing of the plot, and the structural choices made by the author, I guess I need to mention why this is getting three stars and not two. Easy: the setting, the description and some of the information. Everything to do with the bushland completely ensnared me; it was fantastic. All of the bird species mentioned (special shout out to the near-protagonist, the Bush Stone-Curlew, which you could feel a passion for in the writing), the Ash Wednesday link, the little excerpts from Delia's mother's ecology and conservation research papers, Robin's memories and descriptions of Murramunda - now that's the kind of shit that ecology students appreciate. :P That's where the book shined, and it's so obvious the author herself has a huge passion for bush conservation.

So, there's no way I could demote this book to a two-star rating - there were aspects that made that just not an option. But neither can I give it four stars when so many basic elements of the story were unengaging. And that's my stream-of-consciousness word vomit done.

[Melissa Pouliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, could not put it down. Although it is targeted at young adults, it is just as enjoyable for a young adult at heart. A very dear friend gifted me four books and choosing which one first came down to which cover grabbed me the most. I just adore this cover. The lovely part about book gifts is you know absolutely nothing about the book or the author, and that is a wonderful discovery within itself. As an Australian writer with a special interest in our landscape, I love reading stories set in Australia. The way this book connects people through our unique environment was so beautifully done. I read this book was not picked up in the U.K. or U.S. for being 'too quiet' but for me it was anything but. It has so many messages in its pages for all of us, lessons about family, the land we live on, the people we meet, the decisions we make and the decisions life makes for us. I look forward to your next book Christie!

[Weirdfi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this book 4 stars because there is no 3 and a half.
But a word of warning to those interested in picking this one up.
I liked it, and I loved parts of it. However, since there a fair bit of inner dialogue it really doesn't lend itself to those people that found themselves bored with first person POV diary type books we had to read in high school. And since they are teenagers, there is a lot of to and fro with emotions, but that is also life and a part of the book that in the end charmed itself to me.

I did find the different POV and styles a little distracting but the questions made me curious to continue. Not everything is wrapped up and some things I think were left out but I still recommend it as a slightly different read.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a 1 star book up to page 195. After that it was a 2.5 star book. I hated it up to page 195 because it was boring, snail paced, unoriginal and well just plain bad. After page 195 however it became real as the characters' lives intertwined at last. I would have wanted Seth and Robin's relationship to develop way more as well as Robin and Delia's relationship. The whole story was dragged out and focused on an insignificant part of the characters' lives, I feel. The ending was absolutely perfect though, I do wish it wasn't the end.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 2.5
Everyone else seems to be giving this rave reviews, and while I really agree that the writing was brilliant, it just wasn't for me. The story didn't grab me and I never particularly liked or cared about any of the characters. I think part of the reason for this was the multiple POVs. I don't normally have an issue with this, but because Robin's POV was in first person but the others' weren't, it really jarred with me and disrupted my immersion in the story. All in all, this just want the book for me. But I can easily see why everyone else loves it.

[Anne Williams:) · Rating 4 out of 5]

About the repercussions when a mother is killed in a bush fire. This book deals with grief and also environmental issues and the links to the land that have an effect on us all. It is a bit wordy in places but the characters are well drawn and compelling. The story spirals towards what could be a frightening climax.

[Emma Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure that I've had as many feelings in my life as any of the characters in this book did in like a month.
I had a real problem with the shifts in perspective and tense.
I could have lived without the telepathy stuff.
I'm not sure I understand why the romantic angle was getting shoe-horned in at the end there.
I did like it though.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely standalone in a world with all too many epic series.
Some beautiful observations about nature, specifically bush-stone curlews and gentle cautionary messages about drugs.
Much to think about in this one.

[Serena ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book! once i picked it up i couldn't put it down.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. I ties so many genres into one and once I finished I was left feeling giddy with joy because it made me feel so happy. Loved it so much!

[Kim]

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the characters or the story. I wanted to love it, because it is Aussie YA, but just couldn't get there.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - an unexpected but highly enjoyable read - bought on impulse during the ABC Shop's closing down sales.

[Rheanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't bad, but it didn't really grab me.

[Tayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF
this gets to go on my die-bok shelf

i hated it