The best dystopian and speculative fiction highlights a societal weakness and forces the reader to see it in a new way. Debut novelist Laura Maylene Walter cleverly does this in Body of Stars, which focuses on a world much like our own except for one thing: the markings on women’s bodies can foretell the future. It’s the perfect vehicle to demonstrate the paradoxical place of women in society—is she revered, protected, or policed? And how do you know where the lines are drawn? ... The success of Body of Stars rests on [its] truly clever conceit and Walter’s ability to use it to tell a compelling story while also illuminating the challenges that entrenched rape culture (and its handmaidens, victim blaming and slut shaming) still pose to genuine gender equity. If one gender requires protection from the other, which gender is truly the problem? It isn’t a perfect novel. There are a few too many 'little did I know' moments early on, but those are small flaws in what is an incredibly strong debut that hits a number of sweet spots—feminist literature, dystopian/speculative fiction, and young adult literature. It’s well worth your time.

Laura Maylene Walter’s new book, Body of Stars, is set in a vividly imagined alternate reality that feels eerily familiar ... While some aspects of the novel may seem far-fetched, Body of Stars explores the ways in which a person’s physical form can shape their experience of the world. Most women and many men know that this is true because they experience it daily. Body of Stars makes that experience literal, giving it a concrete anchor and making it uniform throughout the novel’s culture ... In Body of Stars, [...] each character struggles to find space for themselves within their predictions and limitations.

The book’s fantastical premise is just distanced enough from reality to make Celeste’s story a tantalizing escape, and yet close enough that its implications are convincing. The characters are down-to-earth, average people, and both men and women face real gender challenges and work together to overcome them. The book’s palpable anger at injustice is met with love—a fierce, familial and able challenger. This is an exciting debut that fans of Leni Zumas’ Red Clocks will want to check out.

... uneven ... While the worldbuilding details are impressive, the critique of rape culture feels shallow and cursory, and the overly earnest characterizations don’t help. Readers might want to pass.