Book Review: The Name of the Star

History does repeat itself; especially when it comes to mass murders in London. The Name of the Star is a part of the series “Shades of London”. Maureen Johnson visited London. That is where the idea of the series was born. While vacationing, she learned about Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper was an unidentified murderer in 1888 in London. The book is a mysterious novel about a girl named Rory who goes to London with her parents for a semester. While in London, Rory attends boarding school where she develops a strong bond with her roommate Jazza. But Rory arrived at just the right time, the time of the Ripper’s killing spree.

Jack the Ripper was a man who killed went on a killing spree in 1888. It is now 1988, and someone is mimicking the Ripper’s agenda. The police are scattered across the city but they have no suspects. There are no witnesses, except for Rory. Rory is the only person who has seen the Ripper.

The book explores different obstacles that Rory goes through regarding school, love, and finding herself, the normal teenage experiences.  One of the major themes in the book involves Rory trying to finding herself. She questions her abilities, thoughts, and actions. Rory is a teenager, and every teen goes through that phase. Johnson portrayed this phase in an interesting way because at the time Rory is trying to figure herself out, continuous murders are happening around her, she becomes a target for the Ripper, and she has friends and family who are worried about her.

Rory and all the other students are innocently in school while the murders are getting closer to campus. The police camp out in front of the school for days to make sure the students and staff are safe, and also because the most recent Ripper victim was murdered nearby. The police have no leads because no one has spotted the Ripper, not even the dozens of security cameras that surround the area. “The white tent was there all day Sunday. It glowed at dusk, when it was illuminated by dozens of high-powered work lights. The press was there too, hovering on the edges of campus, watching. The school sent around an e-mail saying how really, really safe it all was, even though there was a homicide investigation going on on the green at that very second, and several psychologists were being called in to talk to anyone who felt like they needed support.” The reason I picked this quote from the book is because of the content behind it. Without knowing what is going on in the book, you can have sympathy for the staff and students because the killing spree is happening right around them. A lot of the students were also very interested in what was happening. The students were having “ripper watch-parties” to hear about the latest update on the news, they were kids staring out the windows of their dorms, etc. As anyone of us would. The book is narrated by  Rory too, so everything that you learn about in the book is from the ins and outs of Wexford school.

I enjoyed this book. It was definitely a page turner! Johnson doesn’t reveal who the murderer is until very close to the end but it isn’t the very last thing you read so it does show you the aftermath of all that has happened. My favorite thing about it, is the fact that the Ripper targets Rory and goes after her. She saw him but didn’t rush to the police because she didn’t think seeing him was important to the investigation. It was a random guy, that doesn’t mean he’s the Ripper, right? So now it makes me wonder if she would have never reported to the police about the man she saw, how would that change the book. I think it’d also be interesting to hear the story from someone else’s point of view, like Jerome, her crush. Or Jazza, her roommate. Or, the Ripper himself. That’d be really good! This book makes me also want to read a few other Maureen Johnson books because I like the way she takes personal experiences and makes them so exciting and mysterious.

The Name of The Star was nominated for an Edgar Award. This book would be enjoyed by those who love a good mystery. It is different because of the fact that the narrator is a schoolgirl and how all of a sudden, she becomes a target of a serial killer. The book is set in the late 1980’s so the language is not hard to understand. The book would also be enjoyable to those who appreciate a good young adult book. You have the opportunity to connect to the different characters because the author gives background and talks about different obstacles they had to overcome.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Published by The Penguin Group on September 11, 2011. The novel consists of 372 pages plus acknowledgements. The book falls under multiple genres which are young adult, mysterious, and fiction.