The negative Poisson's ratio honeycomb structure is widely used in the field of impact protection because of its unique mechanical properties and excellent energy absorption capacity. The evolution of local dynamic stress in this structure is closely related to changes in its cellular microstructure under dynamic impact. Current research on negative Poisson's ratio structures mainly focuses on improving overall energy absorption capacity of the structure by designing cells with concave deformation mechanism, often ignoring the structural optimization of existing models and lacking exploration of other energy absorption mechanisms of rotary deformation. To further improve the dynamic response of star-shaped honeycomb structures with negative Poisson's ratio under in-plane impacts, the rotation characteristics of cells are studied in this paper. Building on traditional designs, the star-shaped honeycomb structure is further optimized, and the deformation energy absorption mechanism of star-shaped honeycomb cell is endowed with the coupling idea. Based on the principle of relative density equality, two types of rotating star-shaped cellular cells with double negative Poisson's ratio effect are obtained by internal rotation and external rotation: internal star-shaped cellular cells and external star-shaped cellular cells. The energy absorption characteristics of different honeycomb structures under in-plane impact loads are studied using numerical simulations, and the influences of both concave and rotating deformation mechanisms on the energy absorption characteristics of honeycomb structures are investigated. Based on one-dimensional shock wave theory and energy absorption efficiency method, empirical formulas for dynamic platform stress and dense strain of star-shaped honeycomb structures are given, and the formulas for calculating their relative density are established. According to the theory of critical velocity, the first and second critical velocities of the star-shaped honeycomb structure are determined. The dynamic response of the rotating star-shaped honeycomb structure under different impact velocities is analyzed using the explicit dynamic finite element method. Simulation results are compared and analyzed with the evaluation indexes of model macro and micro deformation modes, platform stress, and specific energy absorption. The results show that when the new structures are impacted, their cells first rotate and then recess, exhibiting a stronger negative Poisson's ratio effect. Under the impact at a medium speed of 20 m/s, the platform stress of the internal honeycomb structure is higher and the stress stability is better. In the platform stage, the stress fluctuation of the external spiral honeycomb structure is more severe, but it has higher specific absorption energy under the impact at a high speed of 120 m/s. This study shows the relationship between the concave mechanism and rotation mechanism of the star-shaped honeycomb structure and its energy absorption characteristics, providing new insights for optimizing the impact dynamic performance of honeycomb structures.