Elli Veil and the Constellation Prize - Kat Saturn - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Kat Saturn

ILLUSTRATOR: Chrystal Phegley

GENRE: Teen Fantasy-Adventure

PUBLICATION DATE: November 17, 2025

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A teen fantasy about a stellar [pun intended] adventurous quest. Great characters, but even greater inclusions of astronomy, history, and anthropology. Light in terms of approach, but hefty in intelligence. Too many whats, not enough whys. Fabulous illustrations. A nice, thought-provoking option for those willing to try a complex read.

Plot Preview:

Eleven-year-old Elli Veil has always been fascinated by the stars, especially by a bright star that shines every night high beyond her bedroom window. Staying in a cult-like isolated community, Elli believes that the stars hold the promise of life beyond her village of Box Hollow. However, one night, that star abruptly disappears and no one in Elli’s whereabouts seems to care. But the little girl knows something is wrong, and with some unexpected partners, she sets off on a quest to locate the missing star.

The story comes to us in Elli’s third-person perspective.

This indie author’s profile page states that she has “a passion for astronomy, puzzles, and cultural anthropology”. So it is really smart of her to capitalise on her areas of interest in her debut work. Her comfort with and knowledge of these topics comes out wonderfully.

Bookish Yays:

🌟 Elli. What a charming little character! The perfect protagonist to take the load of this adventurous solo quest on her shoulders. Her love for stargazing is used well.

🌟 A strongly quirky feel right from the start. This isn't a typical book in anyway, which could go both for and against it. But if you can embrace the whimsical storyline, you are in for a ride.

🌟 The titbits from not just astronomy but also history and anthropology. The book is very intelligent in its use of these subjects. I am honestly not sure how many of these references kids will understand, especially as some of the facts are quite esoteric and even the names are challenging (though authentic). But I enjoyed these factual add-ons.

🌟 The cover art! 😍 😍 😍 For the first time in ages have I been so blown away by an indie cover. It is so stunning and creative! And of course, a perfect fit for the plot.

🌟 The inside illustrations, almost as adorable as the cover, and in full-colour. This is the kind of book where the physical copy will offer the best way to enjoy the visual feast. Yay to no-AI art!

Bookish Okays:

💫 Box Hollow Village, where Elli resides. Rigid in its norms and rituals, square-loving, deviation-hating… it was the perfect location for such a whimsical story. Unfortunately, after the initial couple of chapters, the village’s obsession with all things square is ignored as the focus moves to Elli’s quest. I wish there had been more of the location.

💫 Similarly, I wish there had been more to some characters. Many of the supporting characters – a couple of the humans and all of the… errrm… non-humans – are really memorable, and I truly loved them all. But the other human characters barely get any development. They come in the scene only to the extent needed and we don’t get a clear handle on their personality. The cast is heavily female-dominated, but this is necessitated by the plot.

💫 On paper, Elli’s quest is extremely challenging. The tasks she needs to accomplish and the persons she needs to find are really difficult. However, she finds almost everyone and achieves almost everything on her first try. I wish there had been some greater stumbling blocks to make her quest more realistic. (Well, as realistic as technically feasible in a fantasy.)

💫 A major chunk of the story has only whats and not much whys. All the explanations come at the end, justifiably so as per the plot. So there might be plenty of questions arising in some of the scenes, but the answers don’t come immediately. A lot of patience required!

💫 The book has a few riddles, the answers to which are, quite unusually, not provided within the story but at the end, explained with helpful visual cues. At first, I enjoyed the challenge of solving a riddle and not knowing its answer immediately, However, the subsequent riddles were so tough that I couldn’t crack any! Some of the clues provided were really cryptic. As this is a children’s book, I wish the difficulty had been toned down so that kids too could feel the sense of achievement on solving the riddles.

Bookish Nays:

🌑 The pacing is on the slower side, which isn't good news for a 300-pager aimed at teens.

🌑 The ending didn’t make me too happy. To be clear, it was a happy ending, but I felt it was unnecessarily and unnaturally forgiving, especially considering what had happened. Kids might be angelic enough to accept this climax; I am not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Plus, the infodump was too extended.

Overall, I might have jumped at this MG/teen fantasy just by looking at the cover, but the story offered me a much more complex and enriching experience than I had anticipated. The plot is somehow cute and dark at the same time, which makes for an eccentric reading experience. It is a really complex storyline, all the more for a debut writer. While certain things could have been finetuned, I still appreciate the main characters, the anthropological inclusions, and the creativity. The illustrations were an awesome icing on the cake.

Definitely recommended to teens and older readers interested in adventurous fantasy stories with an astronomy angle. Be ready to jiggle your brain cells through this journey.

My thanks to author Kat Saturn for providing me with a complimentary copy of “Elli Veil and the Constellation Prize”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.