Celeste and
her brother Miles may have been born two years apart, but they’re essentially
twins. For as long as either can remember, the other has always been there. But
unlike other families, Miles has always been obsessed with his sister’s
markings, and what they mean. By the time Celeste becomes a changeling and her
juvenile markings are replaced by adult markings, Miles is somewhat of an
expert interpreter. Only, she can never let him know what her adult markings
predict, because they spell out Miles’ future, too, and it’s not a good one.
However,
just as she is coming to terms with what her new future will look like, Celeste
becomes another statistic; she’s abducted. Two weeks later, she returns home,
broken and tainted, and the life she once envisioned slips away into a river of
shame and misfortune. Eventually, Celeste decides to finally show Miles her
markings, but is surprised to learn that her brother has a secret of his own, and
if she’d known, everything could have been different.
Body of
Stars is a
phenomenal book, and its dystopian message is all the more believable because
it is set in a world similar to ours, with a key difference: all women are born
with a set of markings that literally predict the future. Their juvenile
markings change when they become adults, after a short period of being a
changeling. Unfortunately, it’s a risky time in any girl’s life, as the changes
cause them to be irresistible, putting them at enormous risk of ending up like
Celeste: abducted, raped, only to be returned broken and without a hope of a
decent future.
Reading
this book left me in awe, and angry. Part of what fuelled my rage was the
injustice faced by these characters, which mirrors the many challenges faced by
so many women – and men- throughout history. When a social construct such as
gender inequality is dissected and rearranged into fiction, it becomes so much
easier to identify its flaws, and spark outrage that there’s no solution. While
Body of Stars is primarily based on gender issues, the formula is
applicable to any modern social injustice – from racism to class inequality. The
plot is both brilliant and devastating because it could be altered to represent
any form of oppression – cruelty can have many faces.
Initially, Laura
Maylene Walters gives us the fleeting impression that women’s abilities to know
the future and to interpret fate make them valuable and powerful, but we soon
learn that is not the case. This is a world that blames broken young women for
their own misfortune, and by failing to lay blame with the perpetrators, effectively
offers up its women as victims, while reminding them that being abducted is
determined by their own actions. In fact, there’s a line that sums up this twisted
perspective; “to be abducted indicated a moral failing; a lapse of judgement and
restraint that pointed to a more serious deficiency”. The stigma follows them
for the rest of their lives; crushing their dreams of attending university, and
robbing them of careers and pride.
As we witness
Celeste’s shame and despair, and her fruitless pursuit of justice, it’s
impossible not to lament the fact that no one cares. Here, the taboo is
commonplace, and outrage has become complacency. In fact, abducted girls are
not even considered victims; they take on the shameful persona of perpetrator
and victim. In trying to cope with her new role as the one at fault and the one
who was faulted, Celeste turns to fantasy, and reads a tale about people
without markings, in which the future in uncertain and nothing is left to fate.
Our protagonist explains, “In that book, both girls and boys grew up blank. They
were the same.” She imagines a world in which there are no markings, and it changes
everything.
Only, the reader
does live in a world free of markings, and it changes nothing. Celeste’s
story is so moving because it isn’t new. It isn’t even fictional. We live in a
world of differences, and rather than embrace these and learn from them, we allow
the unknown and the unexperienced to make us afraid. That fear is the root of nearly
all social injustice; taboos bleed into each other and create a nightmare
reality.
Body of
Stars is more than
just a clever story with a beautiful narrative and relatable characters, although
those aspects alone make it well worth a read. It’s the type of book that
plants a seed in your mind, a read that gives you goosebumps and makes you dash
down your thoughts and insights in an excited scrawl; the type of book you lend
to friends and family. This story has the power to incite a revolution and make
history, if only we listen to its call to stop the shit, and fix our society. To
do this, we need to rely a little less on judgement and oppression, and a
little more on embracing opportunity and making the right voices heard.
You don’t need
to be a feminist to appreciate this book, but it is a good starting point. From
there, you’re free to become a global citizen and do your part to end
injustice. Do you accept the challenge?
Body of
Stars by Laura Maylene Walter is published by Hodder Studio, an imprint of
Hodder & Stoughton, and a Hachette company. It is available in South Africa
from Jonathan Ball Publishers.
