The Name of the Star

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson follows Rory who starts attending a boarding school in London as a Ripper copycat takes hold of the city.  The city is enthralled and terrified of this murderer who has been able to perform these gruesome murders without being spotted by any witnesses or the cameras that line the street.  After rushing back to her dorm on the night of one of the murders Rory sees the main suspect and becomes part of a world she never knew existed.

I really enjoyed this book.  The boarding school environment and students was (I never tire of reading about boarding schools) and the characters were realistic and nicely quirky.  The mystery and the mythology kept me guessing and then fell into place in an original way.  The book combines history and fiction in a way that makes the reader want to do research on Jack the Ripper.  I not only finished the book quickly but got to the point where I was bringing the book downstairs with me because I was hungry but didn't want to stop reading.

Appropriateness:  This book has quite a bit of underage drinking (or not quite so underage because of them being in the UK and drinking laws being different there).  Rory partakes but does not drink to excess.  It's a good starter in talking to your child about handling alcohol in college.  The romance is limited to kissing (although it gets hot and heavy) and there is some rather graphic violence.  I would recommend this book to an older teen audience 14+ (although I wouldn't find it inappropriate for older middle school readers) who are fans of the paranormal.