Gina Butson's first offering to the world will leave readers with a sense of wonder.
The Stars Are A Million Glittering Worlds
It's an exquisite debut about two young people fleeing their ghosts on a round-the-world trip; brimming over with exotic locations and endless partying. Delivered with sensitivity, thoughtfulness and some of the most beautiful imagery I've read, this author is one to watch.
Outside, the darkness slowly ebbs, swallowing stars as the sky changes imperceptibly from black to grey. Snow falls. Glaciers continue their crawling churn down the mountain. As the sky lightens, the broad top of Ruapehu cuts a dark seismic line between earth and sky, a line between now and then, between today and all the days that follow after.
Thea has been on the run from her past for almost a decade. A quiet and thoughtful young woman known as 'Kiwi', she's left her life in Aotearoa behind to backpack on a round-the-world ticket through Asia and Central America, keeping her secrets close. Wherever she goes, she's there for a good time, not a long time.
...she went out onto the terrace, hoping to find a moment of calm, to watch the dusk fall into the lake and the world slowly darken into night. But the darkness was already there, contained in the three volcanoes standing sentry on the edge of the lake: Volcán Tolimán, Atitlán...Volcán San Pedro.
Thea washes up on the shores of Lake Atitlán, 'the place where the rainbow gets its colours', in Guatemala; a brooding, volcanic lake hemmed in by conical mountains. She stays at the Xaman Ek, a backpackers San Pedro, on the edge of the lake, where some gringos, instead of passing through, have taken up residence - lured by easy access to party drugs, casual partners and all-night dancing at the local nightclub, Xibalba.
At Xaman Ek, she comes into Chris's orbit. From a privileged background, he's a party animal and everyone's friend. There's an undeniable attraction. They fall into an easy rhythm of partying all night, sleeping late and chugging back coffees until it's time to do it all over again. Their routine changes unexpectedly when Chris's girlfriend Sarah, who he hasn't mentioned at all, suddenly joins them in San Pedro.
One of the themes of The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds is the importance of female friendship. Sarah's presence doesn't really complicate things, in fact Thea and Sarah strike up a strong friendship: leaving the party trap of the backpackers to explore the village proper and its surrounding walks: a graveyard where relatives are stacked above ground, a mountain to hike and attending Spanish language classes.
" 'I'm not a good person.' She lets the smoke out of her lungs. Neither am I. He doesn't need someone broken. He needs someone like Sarah, whose goodness can seal up the cracks and keep his darkness in."
Chris treats Sarah off-handedly - as if she's really only there for his pleasure - he resents her putting handbrakes on his good time.
Sarah's travelling to be more courageous. However, she becomes reliant on Chris and won't move on without him. She begins to view him as a possible life partner and niggles at him to continue their travels, continually trying to pry him away from his party lifestyle - if only just to walk her safely back from the nightclub. Author Butson uses this setup to illustrate how women, especially those young, inexperienced and blinded by love, can subjugate their lives for men who don't really value them.
When tragedy strikes in San Pedro, Thea's already moved on into Honduras. In the aftermath, Chris heads not to London as he'd planned, but gaps it back to Australia. Why? Is he culpable? What does he hide from Thea when she catches up to him? And what has Thea been running from all these years?
Bonded by their shared experience, Thea and Chris end up together in Tasmania, where Thea bonds with the landscape and takes up the ocean swimming habits of her old life - one she's still not ready to face. When a local event triggers memories of their time in Guatemala, Thea and Chris begin to worry old wounds and old secrets.
She and Chris fitted together when they both had empty spaces to fill; his lake-deep shadows and her ice-blue guilt sliding together the way a glacier can be dirty with morainal rubble. In their cracks and silences, they've helped each other carry secrets all these years. And their secrets have been slowly crushing them.
Gina Butson has a gift for expressing her characters' feelings and experiences through language that aligns this with the environments that have so much effect on their lives. The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds lives up to its beautiful title, making this a memorable read.
The Stars Are A Million Glittering Worlds is a Libby featured audiobook and eBook title in April and is available to read now with no waitlist.
Plus sign up for an evening of discussion with Jacqueline Bublitz who will host an interactive discussion with Gina Butson and register online to join in the conversation!
Add a comment to: The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds – an exquisite debut from Gina Butson