Review of Starship Malaysia

[Huini Hellen]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Starship Malaysia" by Keith Costelloe.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Scott Mitchell had a dream he could not share with Jon, his father. In the dream, Scott, his father, and Agnes (Jon’s girlfriend) were in his father’s Mercedes. Agnes frantically asked Jon to stop speeding beyond the lane limits, but he would not listen. A lorry driver also pursued the Mercedes, hooting and scaring them as Jon tried to avoid it. Before they realized it, their car was tossed in the air as the truck crashed into it. Scott then flew in the air and saw his father’s and Agnes’ corpses lying on the ground. He woke up tense and unable to make sense of his dream.

A day after the dream, the police informed Scott that his father had died in an accident. The images on TV were exactly as they appeared in his dream. Following his father’s death, Scott’s mom took him to Malaysia, where Scott had to start life again. He needed to learn to blend into a new country with conservative beliefs. He also had to observe traditions not observed in liberal California, where he grew up. Just as Scott was settling in, having made new friends and enjoying school life, his friends were kidnapped. Will Scott and his remaining friends save them? How will they face armed criminals?

Starship Malaysia by Keith Costelloe is told from the first-person point of view. The storyline is developed as recordings that Scott made for Waz, whom he had left in Palo Alto, California. The author uses simple sentence constructions that teenagers would be able to understand with ease. The random moments of soliloquy when Scott was thinking things over in his head painted the typical life of a young boy, making it easy to resonate with his vulnerabilities. For example, Scott blames himself for not warning his father about the accident. He even wishes he had delayed the trip by a few minutes. This reveals children’s guilt when something happens to their parents, especially when they feel they have a duty to prevent it.

Despite the book being primarily in the form of recordings, the conversations between the characters furthered the plot development. Costelloe did not just describe Scott’s insecurities when settling in Malaysia but went ahead to vividly present them. For example, I found it commendable when he stood his ground against British students that wanted to intimidate him. The protagonist’s fallible trait was also evident when he was tested by his volleyball teammates and could not get all three answers correct. He was believable, with faults and strengths that readers would easily empathize with.

Costelloe has foregrounded the human trafficking involving young children in the Asian continent. He has excellently shown how people’s greed for money leads them to commit atrocities against young boys and girls. It was sad reading about the cruel attachment of different price tags on human life owing to their distinct races. The author also sheds light on the chauvinist and patriarchal tendencies of some societies, where female children do not have the same chances in life as their male counterparts do. Their lives are seemingly cut out, and their education is deemed meaningless as they are nurtured for arranged marriages. The novel reflects on the biases that still exist in society and which still need to be addressed. This contemporary relevance of the book is what I liked the most.

There is nothing I liked least about this novel, which merits the maximum rating of five out of five stars. It is exceptionally edited, as I did not find any grammatical errors. I recommend it to young adult readers looking for a thrilling mystery tale where young kids risk their lives to save their friends from sexual predation and trafficking.

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Starship Malaysia
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[Stephanie Stones]

This is an interesting and well thought of review. I would love to try out this book and know more about the fascinating things in it. This is an interesting storyline.

[Adeoluwa Adebusuyi]

This is a good and well written review. You captured all the important components of the book and I would definitely love to try out this book. Well done.

[Huini Hellen]

This is an interesting and well thought of review. I would love to try out this book and know more about the fascinating things in it. This is an interesting storyline.

Thank you for the kind words. Happy reading ahead.

[Huini Hellen]

This is a good and well written review. You captured all the important components of the book and I would definitely love to try out this book. Well done.

Thank you for your comment and for the kind words. I look forward to reading your feedback after you check the book out.

[Ivy_reads]

I would like to know more about the dream because that was awfully accurate. Good job on the review!