Star Shipped took me by storm. Not only is a love letter to fandom, but also the very real actors behind the screen, but it’s also a story about communication, love, and connection. This was such a gorgeous emotionally vulnerable story. Keep reading this book review of Star Shipped for my full thoughts.
Summary
Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can’t stand one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. They’ve spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. Now that Simon’s contract is finally done, he can move to New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie.
Simon’s only problem is that people might assume he’s been pushed off the show due to being impossible to work with. And he is kind of difficult to work with. He doesn’t get along with people—unlike Charlie, who somehow tricked everyone on the show into adoring him despite some outrageously bad on-set behavior during the show’s first season. Simon would rather never have to see Charlie again, but reluctantly agrees to stage a very public friendship during the short time before he moves. When Charlie has to leave town to deal with a family emergency, this means Simon comes along. Their road trip brings Simon to places he would never have willingly chosen to visit—and he finds he’s actually not having a terrible time.
The more he gets to know Charlie, the more Simon suspects he’s underestimated his former coworker. Simon also realizes that after seven years, Charlie might know him better than anyone ever has. Even stranger, Charlie seems to be starting to actually like him, despite knowing him so well. Still, Simon is about to move three thousand miles away, so whatever’s starting between him and Charlie can’t really amount to anything… right?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Star Shipped is an enemies to lovers dream. It’s about the ways our enemies end up knowing us, seeing us, more than we want to. It’s about how they can sometimes see the parts of us we want to hide and know us more than we think. What starts out a fake friendship exposes all the ways they have been orbiting each other, playing in barbs and passive aggression, and their attraction. Star Shipped is dedicated to character development. We love the messy emotional and vulnerable characters and Sebastian delivers. It’s also dedicated to the fandom world, but also to the actors behind the stories and the screens.
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Star Shipped is heartfelt and emotional. It negotiates family trauma, the parts of us we are too afraid to show to the world, and to conversations about family, debt, and future. It unpacks their history and how their enemy relationship formed. I adored Star Shipped and how it explores the optics of queer baiting, rights to privacy, and how we can make it last. We feel like we can’t trust ourselves and we aren’t sure how to navigate our insecurities. I loved this one and enjoyed it so deeply! Find Star Shipped on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.