Reviews with content warning for Bullying - A Scatter of Light

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A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo

17 reviews

dusktreader's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This captures the feeling of longing and coming out and first queer love so perfectly.

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radhikag's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

My heart feels so tender and pure. I love this book and I’m so happy it was my first read of the year. Love is so tender and sweet and soft n lasting!! I loved reading about Aria’s story, so much of it reminded me of i guess my first proper ~queer~ situationship and also made me ache for the how sweet it might have been to know n explore and presence this part of myself when i was younger, like Aria here or Lily in last night at the telegraph club.

I’m so happy these books exist, I can’t wait to re read them time and time again. I think everyone should read these but esp queer Bay Area people lol because it’s beautiful to see all the details I recognize and know about my home and city and just ugh!! Too good!
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Some quotes I love:

"You can't worry about other people's feelings about what you're creating," Joan said. "That will suffocate you. You have to do what your heart desires."

Joan and Steph were so focused on their conversation, it was as if I wasn't even there.

"What if what your heart desires hurts someone else?" Steph asked.

"Sometimes you can't avoid that," Joan said, "because people have feelings, and other people's feelings aren't always congruent with ours. But here's the important thing when it comes to art. This is what I've learned: The art is greater than you and your feelings. You have to serve it. It is not you. Some people will never understand that, but you need to surround yourself with people who do understand it. And you need to understand it yourself. Whatever you're creating may come from within you and your life, but then —almost like a child, it comes out of your body and it grows up and walks away. It walks away and affects other people you don't know and have never met. That's the beauty of it, and the reason I keep trying new things.

You never know who it will affect."

(170)

“[Her] physical body may be gone now, but who she was is not gone. She was more than her body, just as we are all more than our bodies. She was connected with all of you. You influenced her, and she influenced you, and that influence continued.”
The urn was beautiful. It had a round belly and an elegantly curved neck and a perfectly fitted kid, and it had been glazed in some way that left brilliant sea green steaks and dark blue flecks on the surface. As if the sea had been burned into the clay.
My stomach was a hollow inside me.
“Everything [she] taught you goes on. The thoughts that arise in your mind when you think of her are still influenced by her.”
The hollow was growing. I would become a sinkhole.
Susan Douglas lot a candle on the altar. A thin trickle of smoke rose from the march. “Earth returning to earth, fire returning to fire, wind returning to wind, water returning to water.” (309)

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ronan_lesh's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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kyrstin_p1989's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A story about life and death, love and loss, and the complications of familial relationships, this book is well-written and interesting. It took a few pages to get into the writing style but once I did I couldn’t put this one down. It made me laugh and cry in equal measure. The characters feelings are raw and real and the story is truthful and wise.

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely adored this book and may have even liked it more than I liked Last Night at the Telegraph Club which is saying something because I loved that book. I appreciate that this book wasn't a straight up sequel of that one but it still incorporates it and you get to see a glimpse of Lily and Kath's lives so many years later.

I feel like a lot about Aria's character resonated with me, not sure what that said about me exactly lol, but I do enjoyed reading her POV as she went through this tumultuous summer before college. She doesn't always make the best decisions, but that's part of growing up and starting to figure out who you really are. They're are quite a few possible triggers in this book, so be sure to check those. There's also one scene that's quite spicy for a YA book 🔥

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calicat42's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book reminds me so much of “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.” As a young girl, I could relate to Margaret, and I grew up with her. Now, as a young woman who can relate in an unbelievable number of ways to Aria, I’ve grown (and healed) a bit more with her.

It’s a beautiful companion novel to “Last Night at the Telegraph Club”, with another incredible narrator who allows you to experience the journey of finding oneself through complicated family dynamics, high school, and relationships. I wish I could read it again for the first time!

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melliedm's review

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emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's settled: I absolutely adore Malinda Lo.

A Scatter of Light follows Aria, a young woman in her year between high school and college, spending it with her grandmother instead of her friends because lewd photos taken without her consent were leaked by a boy. Yeah. I know. But stick with me. At her grandmother's in California, Aria meets the gardener taking care of the old property, a butch named Steph, who not only gives Aria a support network in California, but who (along with her queer friend group) act as a gateway for Aria to discover herself outside of the definitions placed on her by the society she came from.

Scatter of Light is a beautiful, poignant coming of age and coming out more than a romance (though Aria does explore a romance). It's got mistakes, grief, confusion—hope. Aria's coming out experience resonated with me so clearly, making this a ride to the stratosphere and back. I cannot recommend it enough. I was a puddle of tears by the end (some sad, some happy) I cannot wait to see what Lo does next.

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emfass's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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sarah984's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I started out really liking this book and I loved the ending, but there are so many inexplicable writing decisions made in the middle that it wound up disappointing me. The parts about Aria learning to appreciate the perspectives of the adults in her life, going to the dyke march and the music festival, and trying to make art were really compelling but the romance was just... it was bad. The LI is older and already has a girlfriend and it's impossible to see what she could possibly see in this bland 18 year old that would make her act out like that.

Aria is also like... there is a scene where she finds out a relative might be dying and all she can think about is cheating with this woman again.

Also imo the sex scenes were way too graphic - yeah I'm an adult and I read adult books but also I do not want to know what is going where in YA.

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hobbithopeful's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I enjoyed this book by Malinda Lo, however I don't quite love it as much as Last Night at the Telegraph Club. (I am giving this book 4.5 stars so if that tells anything about how much I enjoyed it)
This is a queer coming of age novel that follows teenage Aria during the years that gay marriage is legalized. Fantastic read, just didn't have the magic of the other book for me.
This is also touted as being a "companion novel" to Last Night at the Telegraph Club. In my opinion this is not really true, we get a brief mention of the characters but they never *actually* appear on page.

They are somewhat distant cousins once removed and Aria reads a newspaper article about them and her Mom talks about meeting Lily and her girlfriend at a birthday party. That is all you get, I was really disappointed especially considering how much it was a companion novel, the characters never even interact which is odd because they have similar career aspirations.

Malinda Lo has a beautiful way of writing, whenever I read anything by her I always feel drawn into the pages. If she is talking about sandy beaches I feel the heat on my face, and the sand in between my toes. If she talks about brush strokes on a canvas, the stiff fabric feels as real to me as the thick paint that glides across it.
I also love the cover, it so perfectly encapsulates the feeling of the book and the title. The way it draws your eye across the page and is full of colors, the symbolism is very well done.
If I had to nitpick I wish the toxic relationship between

Steph and Lisa was addressed more. It is quite obvious as the book goes on that Lisa is very controlling and toxic (no justification for the infidelity...but still) Also the relationship between Aria and her Mother is left very much unresolved. (Even at the end she isn't at her art show) Which really is sad, but I guess that is also the harsh reality of life. (We don't always get happy endings)

A must read for sure.

And the ending, while bittersweet, I don't think it could have ended any other way. BUT there were several threads and unanswered questions I had about several characters that felt very open ended and just left me with more questions. (Not always a bad occurrence, but still. I want to know who is engaged to who etc)

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