The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent

Title: The Stars Never Rise
Author: Rachel Vincent
Series: Untitled Series #1
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: June 9, 2015
Source: ALA MW

Summary from Goodreads:

Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.

Review

There were a lot of things I liked about The Stars Never Rise. For starters, the premise was AMAZING. Demons have the ability to possess humans and takeover their body, effectively hiding in plain sight. What remains of the human population after the initial uprising, is sequestered into walled-off towns that are controlled by the church, the ones thought to have the power to exorcize the demons and thus keep everybody safe. Life in these towns is strictly-religious-to-the-point-of-oppression but it is believed better than the alternative. That is, until Nina discovers that demons wear the faces of the very people she trusted and finds herself on the run from both demons and humans alike with a group of fugitives (aka the real exorcists).

So yeah, this book was nuts but in a good way. I LOVED the world and was easily pulled into Nina’s life. And Rachel Vincent gave us a steady dose of action and surprises along the way. There were one or two twists that were a little out there (like Finn's situation for those of you who've read it), but overall I was really pleased by the direction this book took. Nina was an easy character to like - she was fiercely protective of her sister and had to be strong for the both of them. Basically, when this book was good, it was REALLY GOOD, but that wasn't always the case...

My biggest, but really only, problem with this book was the info-dumping which created lulls in the plot and pacing. Despite absolutely loving the world and wanting to know more about it, I didn't want to be given a history lesson at various spots throughout the story. And I am not one to usually remark on info-dumping so it has to be pretty obvious for me to do so. I found myself getting restless, and dare I say bored, at a couple spots. I haven't read anything by Vincent in the past so I can't say whether this is her writing style or not.

I just have to say, I have no idea what the title, cover, or tagline (while I am at it) has to do with the story. But that aside, this story was a solid one. The world that Vincent created might be one of my favorites I've read so far this year. That said, I am looking forward to the sequel and I do recommend this!