Spoiler Section

⚠️ The following section contains major spoilers for Starside. If you haven’t finished the book yet, skip this section and come back afterwards!

Okay… now we can actually talk.

The biggest thing I struggled with throughout this book was Aris herself.

For someone whose entire goal in life is to kill the gods, she spends a surprising amount of time needing someone else to rescue her. It felt like nearly every dangerous situation ended with another character stepping in to save her, which made it difficult for me to believe she was genuinely capable of completing the mission she’d dedicated her entire life to.

Then, somewhere around the middle of the book, she suddenly starts defeating immortals almost effortlessly after escaping captivity. Where did that come from?

I never felt like we saw the growth that bridged those two versions of Aris. If we’d watched her gradually become stronger throughout the journey, I think those later victories would’ve felt so much more satisfying.

Then there’s Raker… I really wanted to love him.

Broody, mysterious men with emotional baggage are usually my weakness, but Raker crossed the line from emotionally guarded into simply being cruel far too often. Every time I thought, “Okay, this is where he’s finally going to soften,” he’d immediately go back to belittling Aris.

Because of that, I never fully bought the romance. The chemistry was definitely there, but I don’t think enough emotional groundwork was laid for Aris to suddenly declare that she loved him before driving a sword through his heart.

I actually think it would’ve been much more powerful if we’d seen Aris slowly question her revenge throughout the story, realizing that not every immortal deserved to die and struggling with the feelings she was developing for Raker. That internal conflict would’ve made the ending hit so much harder.

And can we please talk about the hood and mask?

I spent the entire book preparing myself for some dramatic reveal. Scars. Magical corruption. Silver markings. Literally anything.

Instead… He’s just ridiculously handsome. I’m sorry, but after that much buildup, I couldn’t help laughing. It felt incredibly anticlimactic.

Another thing that kept confusing me was the competition itself. Once all fifty competitors successfully enter Starside… why is everyone still trying to kill each other? Wouldn’t the logical next step be to actually focus on finding the gods?

It honestly felt like everyone forgot what the original objective was and simply continued fighting because the story needed more action scenes.

Cadoc especially frustrated me. He already had an incredible magical sword, a dragon, and enough weapons to equip an entire army, yet he became completely obsessed with hunting Aris for her sword.

Then he somehow reached the final destination before she did… only to patiently wait around because he somehow knew she’d eventually arrive. His motivations never felt strong enough to justify how fixated he became.

I also couldn’t help feeling disappointed by how many storylines never reached their full potential. Kira and Zane looked like the beginning of an amazing found family, but they slowly faded into the background before the story abruptly revealed Kira’s death near the end. It barely had any emotional impact because we hadn’t spent enough time with them.

The dragon bond was another missed opportunity. You all know I have a soft spot for dragons, so I was thrilled when Aris bonded with one.

I fully expected that relationship to become one of the emotional pillars of the story, but the dragon disappeared for large portions of the book and only really returned near the end. I wanted so much more from that relationship.

The fantasy world suffered from something similar. There were dragons, magical horses, giant bears, immortals, fae-like creatures, zombies, magical swords, and countless other fantasy elements.

None of those ideas were bad individually—in fact, most of them were really interesting—but there were simply so many of them that none had the space to truly shine. Instead of making the world feel richer, it occasionally made it feel overcrowded.

One moment that genuinely confused me was the situation with Vander Evran. This man literally saves their lives, gives them shelter, food, and medicine, yet Aris immediately becomes suspicious and defensive for reasons I never really understood. She questions everything he says and acts as though he’s somehow done something wrong, even though he’d just rescued them.

It felt strangely out of character considering how grateful she’d been toward other people who had helped her throughout the journey.

And finally… The confrontation with the goddess. This was the moment the entire book had been building toward. Aris finally comes face-to-face with the goddess who murdered her family. She makes a bargain. She promises not to kill her. She learns what she needs to know.

And then… The dragon simply eats the goddess. I actually had to put my Kindle down for a second because I couldn’t believe that was how the confrontation ended. After spending an entire book building toward this moment, it wrapped up so quickly that it barely had time to land emotionally.

I think that’s ultimately what Starside comes down to for me. There are so many genuinely brilliant ideas in this book. The world. The magic. The dragons. The revenge plot. The found family. The romance.

I just wish Alex Aster had trusted those ideas enough to spend more time developing them instead of constantly introducing new ones.

Because underneath all of my frustrations, I can absolutely see the incredible book this could have been—and maybe that’s why this one ended up feeling so bittersweet for me.