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Where the Forest Meets the Stars follows Joanna “Jo” Teale, a cancer survivor and researcher who studies birds in rural Illinois. Jo’s solitary life takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious, bruised young girl named Ursa arrives, claiming to be an alien on a mission to witness five miracles and return home.

I gave this book a 3.25 out of 5 stars. The beginning was slow and the second half finally reveals more about Ursa’s life before she meets Jo. The second half made up for the first half’s slowness, but it still was pretty predictable.

If there had been more background to Ursa’s life in the first half, it wouldn’t have felt like it came out of nowhere in the second half.

It’s hard to write much about this book because it will give too much away. It took me awhile to get used to the narrator and how she read for Ursa. Her voice sounded so much like AI.

There were so many different types of trauma being talked about that it felt like the author was trying to cover too much. It felt like fewer types of trauma could be represented and done well.

I definitely liked the second half better even though it seemed like everything was happening all at once. So much was revealed that I think having Ursa’s story woven throughout would’ve served a better purpose.

I think it was predictable, but I’m happy that everything worked out in the end.