Book Review: Same Place, Same Stars

Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen

This ultimately hopeful psychological drama digs into the complexities of mental health treatment and the stigma surrounding it.

When Natalia Sokolov is admitted to Awana, a mental health treatment facility, it feels like it’s her last chance. Her whole life, she’s been afflicted with terrifying episodes that happen as she sleeps. Once, as a child, she woke to find herself strangling her foster mother. Since then, her parasomnia has only gotten worse, no matter what treatment she’s sought.

At first Awana seems like it may be the key to her recovery. A high-end facility, it has more freedom than any of her previous institutions. Restraints and strip searches are not required. Instead, the staff use therapy, exercise, sunlight, and art to support their patients. 

For the first time, it seems like the drugs that Natalia is prescribed are working and sleep becomes a less terrifying ordeal. At Awana, Natalia finds her first friend, Lindsay, a girl who is as unlike her as possible, but one she soon becomes inseparable from. 

As Natalia begins to push the boundaries she had always previously stuck to, she meets Gabriel King, a gorgeous and utterly forbidden boy who is a patient in the male section of Awana. 

As Natalia’s time in Awana progresses, she discovers that something sinister is happening at the institution. And more disturbing still, her night terrors might be a link to the shadowy past that she can’t quite remember.

Same Place Same Stars is a psychological drama that explores some of the difficult questions surrounding mental health with care and nuance. Natalia and Lindsay both have their mental health struggles, but they are presented as real people rather than a collection of behaviors. Through the callous treatment that Natalia has received from previous mental health institutions, it’s quite clear that the measures taken by these places are overkill for a young woman who is afflicted with a terrifying condition she cannot control. Humanizing the characters in this story hits home how vulnerable people are when they are considered damaged and put under the control of an organization. Even Awana, as forward thinking as it is, fails to keep its patients safe.

The friendship between Natalia and Lindsay is the strongest part of this novel. The girls are polar opposites in temperament and personality. Their problems and lives are also entirely separate, and these differences cause problems. Lindsay’s manner of dealing with things doesn’t work for Natalia, and neither of them understand the other’s mental health struggle. Despite this, they create and sustain a strong relationship through the story. 

While the characters and relationships in Same Place Same Stars are generally strong, some incongruities pop up in her thoughts and actions concerning the way she was raised. It’s established from the beginning that she was homeschooled, kept apart from other people, and spends little time online, but she is incredibly savvy when it comes to things like abuse of power. She has the language to discuss ideas well outside of things she seems to have been exposed to, even with the previous institutions she’s been in, and these incongruities can occasionally make her more difficult to connect with.

Ultimately, Same Place Same Stars is an emotive coming-of-age novel filled with hope. Even if the characters are past their teenage years, they are still finding themselves, making mistakes, and growing through the course of this affecting story.

Thank you for reading Joelene Pynnonen’s book review of Same Place, Same Stars by Katey Taylor! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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