SWNN Review – Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story
Author Elizabeth Schaefer offers a unique perspective on The Force Awakens, telling the film’s story through the eyes of everyone’s favorite scavenger and would-be-Jedi, as she takes young readers on a journey with Rey through the events of The Force Awakens. Read on for the full review.
Rey’s Story is a fun, albeit brief, glimpse into the mind of Rey that is basically an abridged re-telling of The Force Awakens. Schaefer leaves out a large portion of the overall story in favor of focusing on Rey’s involvement and impact on the film, letting readers experience the story as she herself experiences it.
This is a young reader book, focusing on the 6 – 8-year-old age group, so don’t expect any huge revelations or additional scenes not in the film. With the exception of the book’s prologue which finds Rey flying an A-Wing in her custom-built flight-simulator, the rest of what you see is pretty much what happens on-screen in the film. That being said, I did enjoy the book, as it is well-written and very easy to read with the narrative requiring no additional explanation to younger readers as Schaefer’s words are straight forward and very on-point.
When reading my seven-year-old the junior novel of the film by Michael Kogge – although he got most of what was read – I did find myself having to explain several word meanings and so forth, due to its slightly older intended readership. It was also hard for him to read on his own, as it required him to pause now and then to get help from me with some words or phrases unknown to him. At times, I needed to break down explanations of the book’s plot as some of the verbiage was a little over his head. These are problems that don’t exist in Schaefer’s book.
While it is a good thing for him to stretch himself a little in his reading, it’s nice to be able to just hand him a book and let him go to town. Rey’s Story is perfect for a reader his age to do just that (and the fact that she’s his favorite character from the film makes it all the more enjoyable for him). I strongly recommend this book to parents who are interested in getting a good Star Wars book for their young reader to enjoy.
At 138 pages, this book is a quick read for adults (I think I finished it in a little over an hour) and possibly a several-day adventure for younger readers. Schaefer succeeds in capturing the imagination while not wearing out her welcome, as she is very conscious of the young reader’s attention span. The illustrations at the beginning of each chapter are a plus in this department, adding excitement to every turn of the page and breaking up the narrative in a way that keeps younger readers engaged.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s not a lot of new information in this book in regards to canon, but there were still a couple of interesting little nuggets. Unlike Rey’s vision as presented in the junior and adult novels, the version presented in this story more closely mirrors that of the film, including young Rey watching the ship fly away as it leaves her behind on Jakku. The little boy and the voice mentioned in the other novels is absent, yet the duel between Luke and Vader (which was not in the film) remains. Other than the Bespin duel however, the vision is almost exactly what you see on screen in the film.
Like Kogge’s and Foster’s novels, Schaefer also includes Kylo Ren’s moment of recognition when Rey pulls the lightsaber into her hand stating, “It is you.” And as an added bonus, by being in Rey’s head, you see that she has no idea what this means as any form of recognition on her end of Kylo Ren escapes her.
One of my personal favorite moments from the book was in the final chapter when Rey comes face to face with Luke, and she instantly recognizes him as an older version of the young man she saw fighting with the lightsaber in her vision in the bowels of Maz’s castle. The name of the planet Luke is on, Ahch-To, is also mentioned. Although this name was previously revealed, this is the first time we actually see the name in a story, locking it in as the official name and not just a placeholder subject to future change.
Before she leaves for Ahch-To, Leia also mentions to Rey that in her youth, she had the opportunity to train as a Jedi (which she obviously didn’t take) as she encourages her that only she can decide if this is the path for her. I thought this was nicely added touch as well.
It is also revealed in the book that Rey has absolutely no memory of her family or her life before Jakku. She knows someone left her there, but beyond that, she has no idea why or where they went. This scenario adds a little more weight to the popular mind-wipe theory, or maybe she just suffered a trauma so great that her child’s brain blocked out her past as a defense mechanism. Obviously these are questions we can’t expect to be answered in a book, but it’s nice to know that Rey will receive these revelations as we do in the next couple of episodes.
It’s hard for me to be overly critical of a children’s book, especially one as fun and well-written as this one, so I will just stick with the positives and say that if you have a young child, this book is well worth the six dollar price tag. If I didn’t have kids, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to read this one, and I assume that most of our readers would feel the same with it being a children’s book. But fear not, you’re not really missing out on anything of any canonical significance that you won’t get elsewhere. But if you feel like giving it a go, have at it, it’s a good little read.
Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.
I like that it doesn’t give too much away but clarifies a bit of uncertainty for people who had subtle questions from the film. I also like the fact that they confirm that Rey doesn’t remember anything from her past; which leads to my firm belief that Kylo wiped her mind clean after dropping her off on Jakku.
Kylo wouldn’t have forgot he did that. He’d known who she was pretty much instantly. And would gave looked there to find lipukes map. It doesn’t make sense for Kylo to have mind wiped her.
Man now that there is so much milk from TFA I can have cereal for days.
Neat little tid bits here and there
That cover and those images are spoilerific 😛
That comment better be a joke.
It is….
That cover’s hot as Jakku
She’s Luke’s daughter, anything else makes no sense and is lame. Then again, I pull have said the same thing if they told me they were going to remake New Hope and call it episode 7.