Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

34 reviews

avanthiannotates's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was delightful in ways I absolutely did not imagine and did not see coming. There was so much about this that was truly just so beautiful.. and so heartachingly raw.
This was also written in such an interesting way that admittedly, I had to re-wind a fair bit because I didn't realise there was a character POV switch (even though it's written in 3rd person which I love). And I really loved how they utilised the 3rd person POV to give us a wider breadth of knowledge and understanding about the characters reacting to the same situation and how that could impact later scenes where we may only see it from one or two POVs. It was really delightful and honestly considering making a 5-star rating.

If you love aliens, AI, found-family, queerness, transness, music (violins), multiple weaving storylines, doughnuts, demons and ducks, this may be the story for you.

My fave quote:
"One does not play memories of music; one plays music itself. And lifetimes, from beginning to end, are as sheets of music, ready to be played"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Deadnaming, Racism, and Sexual assault

brinsay's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

This book is so good it amazes me question wether anything else I've given 5 stars is worthy in comparison. I love these characters, I love this story l, I love the big donut. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: War, Panic attacks/disorders, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Miscarriage, Racism, Mental illness, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Grief

abookwormspov's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, Cursing, Outing, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Rape, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death, and Abandonment

galliexyc's review against another edition

emotional slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Dysphoria, Suicidal thoughts, Deadnaming, and Transphobia

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, War, Child abuse, Rape, Violence, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

skeuomorphism's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.25

while reading LFUS i kept thinking of the word effervescent, which as it turns out is a damned good fit! i loved the characters - the shifting pov works a charm for their stories. it made them approachable and greatly emotive.
i also liked the plot - very unpredictable at times

(literally expected a Galactic Empire invasion. i was eyeing the stack of remaining pages in fear of the Abrupt End)

and ryka aoki has such a way with end-of-chapter cliffhangers.

+ a hunch that eeaao fans would love LFUS. not because both works revolve somewhat around baked goods of course, haha

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Deadnaming, Lesbophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Rape, and Self harm

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Religious bigotry and Alcoholism

proftumblebuns's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Child abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Deadnaming, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and War

speedofhuman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Body shaming, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

solspringsreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, but I’d primarily been excited to read it because I found it on a list of books with “trans joy,” and I seriously hesitate to classify this as a “trans joy” book. It’s a book where a trans character suffers immense amounts of abuse (in literally every aspect) and has to actively work through her trauma—and while there’s certainly a lot of joy that she feels throughout the book, it’s usually at the cost of a huge asterisk next to that brief moment of happiness where you know something bad is going to happen to her immediately after. She’s not quite “a woobie” in the trope sense, but she just borders on it enough throughout the book that it can be kind of exhausting. Even so, I still hesitate to say that her struggles are inaccurate to the lived experiences of trans women, especially trans women of color; Katrina suffers from a lot of mistreatment, and while it can be pretty overwhelming to read, it’s unfortunately pretty reflective of what it can be like to just… exist while trans. I personally just felt frustrated by it because it felt like her character arc never quite moves past the rampant transphobia she faces and how it makes her dysphoria worse; while other characters get to have sapphic love stories (and somehow still have subplots involving homophobic slurs) and family curses and all of these other things, Katrina’s main motivations are more-or-less to just survive and not get actively dunked on for, again, existing while being trans. She does find joy in her music and find a family of her own, but while listening to the audiobook I think I constantly felt like I was holding my breath and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Again, while this might be accurate to true trans experiences, I had perhaps hoped for a little bit more escapism from the hardships that trans people face. After all, this book includes a love story between a “Queen of Hell” and an intergalactic war general with the backdrop of a kitschy family-owned donut shop. If this can exist within the same book, I don’t think “trans girl experiences 0.5 seconds of unadulterated, non-dysphoria-inducing, no-strings-attached joy” would be a huge stretch.

This was a long rambling review to still say that I enjoyed the book very much. It touches on a lot of great themes, and the audiobook was fantastic. I just want to urge readers (especially other trans readers) to check out the warning tags for this one and to prepare themselves for some intense and heavier moments in an otherwise lighthearted and whimsical book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Outing, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, War, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, and Toxic relationship

tilder's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense 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

4.75

I really loved this read, the writing has incredible imagery and fascinating story. Each character has unexpected moments (like actual people) and have you looking for more. I learned so much more about violins. 

I think that the ending wasn’t what I wanted. I think that I was expecting either Shizuka or Katrina to evade Trenton. But not in this way, it almost felt too… easy? I think I would have preferred a conclusive death and see how it affects each character. Like Shizuka dying and Lan or Shirley becoming Katrina’s first student. It felt almost like fan service or a cop out. Either way, I really enjoyed this book and I am eager to read more 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Addiction, Violence, Self harm, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Rape, Hate crime, Racism, and Gun violence

tree_star's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

There was so much that I loved about this book. It all seems so unlikely and chaotic but the writing is so good that it works. 
It's campy. It's fun. The descriptions of food and music are excellent and put you right into the atmosphere. 
The characters have their own agendas and personalities and it all makes sense at the end.  Don't ask me how it just does. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Deadnaming, and Body shaming