Who is Alex Aster (author of the stars)

Bestselling author Alex Aster is best known for her Emblem Island and Lightlark series. At the young age of 12 Aster started to write stories, and often says that her writing experience can be used to show the power of following your dreams. Starting to gain popularity through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram by making info videos on her books to increase her fan-base. More importantly, while she is currently considered a bestselling author according to NYT, WSJ, and USA Today, at her start she had a hard time finding people to publish her books, which is so hard to believe when looking at how far she made it now. Most of her books are fantasy, young adult novels, however recently she released a contemporary romance novel about a writer finding love. So in other words she is talented in so many different genres. 

Popular bestselling books

One of Aster’s most popular novels is Lightlark, it’s a fantasy novel that is about an island that appears every 100 years to host a game where 6 rulers fight to rid themselves of their deadly curses. Since birth the rulers are taught how to survive in these situations, and only one can win(Aster). It’s kind of the same basis of the Hunger Games or Powerless in a way, so if you enjoyed that maybe this will be your next read. This series contains betrayal, plot twist, love triangles, and mystery so it has something for everyone. Moreover this series is written so that it could be one big book, meaning that it picks up where the last one left off. While some people may prefer 1st person point of view over third person, these books make people fall in love with it anyway. It is such a well written series that has you gasping and rooting for either Team Grim or Oro, which will make sense if you read the books. Overall I would recommend any of Aster’s books to anyone due to each one being so different yet so interesting. Lastly, the newest book in the Lightlark series is written as a flip book, so the first half is from the view of Grim and the other half from Oro’s view. All together I would recommend taking a chance on this book and going to the signing of Aster’s.

What came with the signing

Recently, I had the opportunity to go into the city to go to one of Aster’s book signings for her newest novel Grim and Oro. It was hosted by the Barnes and Noble in Union Square. Tickets were forty-two dollars per person and included the signing of the Grim and Oro novel, signature only, and up to two additional books per person. There was also a staff member there that would take pictures of the interaction for you to remember the occasion. More importantly while you were waiting in line you could grab small things like bookmarks, bracelets, pins, and cookies. My favorite part was that people actually got to talk to Aster and have a brief conversation. It was also nice to see how happy she was to be there with us, and she seemed as excited as the fans to have this opportunity. During my interaction with her I asked her two different questions. The first being, are her characters based on people in real life? I was able to find out that not many of her characters aren’t, but she does take emotions from real life saying that she couldn’t write about how in love they are if she wasn’t in love the same way. Also when asked what a fact was that nobody else knows about her she said that she’s really interested in stars and even had a starfish as a pet when she was younger. Overall I loved how down to earth she was by taking the time to ask the questions I had, and would recommend others go to a signing by her.

Overall experience

One of the best parts of the signing was getting to see how many people love the same book as you. It felt as if you had a whole reading community that understood you. Being a person who doesn’t have many people who read most of the same books as them, it was cool to see how I have something in common with so many people. Lastly, it was so much fun to get to go into the city and fan-girl over one of my favorite authors. I was so excited that when I first saw her I introduced myself as an article, yes it’s fine to laugh whenever I tell this story I do too. I hope you readers take this as a reason to at least try one of her books and laugh over my fan-girl reaction too.