Cut Him Out In Little Stars by Lucy Strange – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: A Wartime Romantic Mystery Coming-Of-Age.
YA book title: Cut Him Out In Little Stars.
YA author: Lucy Strange.
YA cover designer: Micaela Alcaino.
Genre: Young Adult Mystery/ Romance.
Published by: Chicken House.
ISBN: 9781915026163.
Recommended for children aged: 12+.
First published: Paperback, August 2026.
This YA novel is ideal for: A fresh take on World War Two romance with the many twists and turns of a murder mystery. Relatable, humorous yet impressive character development of a young protagonist.
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Our review:
This beautiful story is definitely one for the true literature lovers. The Shakespearean title, the quotes from and references to much-loved female writers, the secrets unfolded through the diary entries of Juliet’s mysteriously deceased mother and a good old British murder mystery all weave together to tell the coming-of-age story of the protagonist, Juliet, within the setting of a coastal town during the Second World War.
You cannot help but love Juliet from the get-go. She is surely relatable to so many young women in her battle to try and drop her teenage awkwardness and become a successfully functioning adult. She begins the narrative heartbroken, gracelessly so, over the death of her very new fiancé who proposed during a brief, whirlwind romance before he was sent up to the hostile skies of World War Two. In an attempt to alleviate her grief, her father sends her to stay with her sister, Frances, in the fictional Kentish seaside town of Fairlight in a house that has been passed down the female line of their family.
There’s plenty more feminine strength entwined into the narrative, not only in Juliet’s own character development but also in the other characters. For example, Frances and her friend Alex both volunteer for the lifeboat crew, which proves to be an increasingly dangerous job, especially with a Royal Air Force base so nearby. Whilst romance plays a very important role in the narrative, the grim realities of war are not forgotten and, as the book progresses, the reader may well feel the fear and uncertainty of the characters as Fairlight becomes an increasingly dangerous place to be.
The murder mystery plotline leads to plenty of jeopardy and breath-holding moments; there are ample opportunities to make predictions about different characters and decide who you would trust in Juliet’s position! Meanwhile, romance threads its way through the lives of several key characters. Juliet must decide whether to give love another chance and, of course, it shall not run smoothly. Without giving too much away, two other characters face the realities of an LGBT+ relationship in the 1940s, and the murder victim herself turns out to have had her own romantic entanglements that I shall say no more about here!
Juliet must also process and come to terms with the loss of her mother when she was just a child, a loss which led to a fear of the sea and to her father’s avoidance of Fairlight. The true story of Juliet’s mother is gently revealed through a series of old diaries, rumours of ghosts and some of Frances’s childhood memories.
Cut Him Out In Little Stars is a wonderful, gripping and heartfelt read that I would wholeheartedly recommend for your next cosy, romantic murder mystery.
- Chicken House’s Cut Him Out in Little Stars page includes an official opening extract from Lucy Strange’s novel and a link to the full extract.
Many thanks to Chicken House for the review copy.
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