Love As The Stars Went Out

by David Jones

'We met at the end of the world, and sat hand in hand as the stars went out.'

What's left to wish for when the stars go out and the night sky lies empty? What is left when everything has gone? Love As The Stars Went Out is an exploration of love without hope, of love for the sake of love: love when there is nothing else left. It is the story of relationships past and future, love, loss, grief, heartbreak, dreams, hope and the ongoing search for happiness.

It is the story of how, perhaps together and perhaps with love, we might be able to put the stars back into the sky, and continue to live even after the end.

David Jones is the author of the best selling Love And Space Dust, Could You Ever Live Without, Highway Heart, Moonlight And You, and Death's Door.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2015

About the author

David Jones was born in 1989 in Liverpool, which is still his home. He studied English language and Literature at the University of Liverpool before specializing in Renaissance and Eighteenth Century Literature. He started writing at an early age, and has won numerous prizes for both poetry and prose, as well as writing plays for the radio and producing short films. His chief interests apart from writing are Renaissance texts, performing and producing music, and playing sports.

Reviews

[Emmanuel García · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Love As The Stars Went Out" it's, for me, a beautiful book full of feelings in it's poetry. The poems in itself are short. But full of meaning if you decide to look for it.
My sincere opinion it's thst it is a 5/5.

[Junee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the emotions rather mindset focused on this one.
Love as the stars went out lean towards a darker side of humor, that feeling of loneliness and emptiness. I especially love the metaphors in the last piece, The God and the Bridge. My take away? Despite reaching success after how many years of struggle, you'd still feel that familiar emptiness and nothingness inside and you'd think to yourself, "what now?" That's just the dark side of me though you can also look at it this way, after reaching "the dream project," if you still feel uncontented, find another dream to feel contented about and find that happiness in building that dream.

[Kanika Som · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if these can be called poems but I view it more of a collection of thoughts and untold emotions of one said infatuation.

The writing is quite a mediocre and too short, but it's probably his style because his previous two books also used the same style.

Nevertheless, reading this indulges the mood in rather self sabotaging and self victimized a lots as it's more like a looking window to the past and regret. However, surprisingly, I kinda find it pleasant to dwell in because I've always been a melancholic by choice haha.

[unamichbonita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely a LOVELY BOOK!! ❤

[Jourden DeWitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple, pleasant, deeply enjoyable to read.

[Nicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I debated between 1 and 2 stars... but I would just really never recommend this to anyone. ☹

[Victória Scodeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A memory is a star or a stain."

[Christopher Gadomski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed much of the content of this collection and quite a few of them resonated with me. My biggest problem with this authors collections is that there's not nearly enough content. I've bought two of his books so far and there's scant more than maybe 100 poems and one work of prose in each book. C'mon fella, give us more for our money!

[C.R. Eede · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a nice little poetry book with a short story at the end. It has some very relatable excerpts in there. The haiku's were interesting, too.

I finished it in under an hour, so it's an easy read.

[Nadya Mohamed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. There are so many writers who attempt short and brief poetry, but do it in a very insignificant and unmoving manner. I thought this a perfect example of a book that achieved its objectives despite the brevity - it had a lot of depth and a lot of beautiful imagery and a clear themes - love of self and another, the galaxy, being, and actualising. It was wonderful, and quite specific and yet very relatable to me. I got a lot of undertones of 'hopeless romantic' from it, but that was something I tend to enjoy, so I didn't mind it.

Some of my favorites

"How strange
To dream of you
Even when
I am wide awake."

And also

"In some other life
We are standing
Side by side and
Laughing that,
In some other life

We are apart."

The long story in the end, was interesting. A little too long for my liking, but definitely spoke volumes to me about, "Don't go looking for what won't serve you", whether it's an actual person/experience/ or simply an idea. It didn't seem very in place with the rest of the book but it was still enjoyable and illustrative.

I have only two criticisms. Firstly, in my copy one poem was repeated twice. The other is that I did feel quite anxious, heart broken, and angst ridden towards the end (not that this is actually a valid criticism because this is likely what the author really wanted us to experience) and I am not particularly mad at that. In that case, I guess that's what makes this book even more powerful.

All in all, short and sweet, I would say. I thoroughly enjoyed it and if anything I wished there was more. Even the poems that consisted of only one complete thought had plenty of imagery, a lot of emotion, and touched really deep.

[Nicole]

I feel like this book of poems was written just for me. It was so simple yet the poems are deep and meaningful. I felt every word. They don't really feel like poems per se, more like thoughts....or quotes I would highlight as I came across them in a novel. I stumbled upon David Jones work as I was looking up Sylvia Plath quotes. His words make me feel very similar to the way hers do and that's probably why I was so drawn to them. I loved this book and I will read all of his other poetry books for sure. I even bought one of his novels just now.

[Catherina · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5**


Básicamente, un poemario. Lo que me llevo a leerlo fue su lado “oscuro”, la soledad, su tristeza, y lo que me encontré me dejó satisfecha. Por otra parte, no me identifico con los temas del amor a menos que sea una lectura romántica, por lo que no me han llegado la mayoría de los poemas y fue una lectura casi aburrida. No he comprendido el por qué estaba ese mini relato al final, pero no ha sido tedioso.

A pesar de dejarme satisfecha en lo que buscaba, fue mucho más el concepto de rupturas románticas por lo que no le he puesto cuatro estrellas.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A valiant effort but I feel that Jones was a little too inspired by his previous anthology, Love and Space Dust. Perhaps it is not my cup of tea but at times I also felt that some of the poems were just not there? Sort of an exhale that never reaches its full potential but is cut short. Regardless I did enjoy this very much.

[a ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written, but not enough to sustain my interest. I’m not really a romance genre fan, but I got lucky with some of the “modern poetry” books like those from Rupi Kaur and Courtney Peppernell. I thought it’d be the same with this one, but something was missing. Maybe I’m just tired of the same old formula they all seem to use for this type of content.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems in this book are more like lovely thought than poetry. But I still enjoyed them. They say in concise, engaging ways, things you want to whisper to your lover or to your heart.

[Nouf Alfadl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of thoughts .. It was sweet; lovely.

[Mars D · Rating 5 out of 5]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[Monika Skopalová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tenhle styl poezie můžu.

[Esra]

It hard to describe like a such great book like this

[Farah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And I began To miss a life That never Even existed"

[Allysia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as poignant as other collections by this author, but there were still some truly touching pieces!