Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Light from Uncommon Stars

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

202 reviews

nomes27's review

dark hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

Gorgeous first 100 pages bursting with beautiful descriptions of the magic of music. From there the plot kinda fell apart, imo.

I also thought that the resolution was a little too hallmark-y.

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apollinares's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.0

I thought I'd enjoy this book more based on recommendations from friends and other reviews, but a lot of what people praised about it felt a bit overstated/almost cheesy, to me. The sci-fi element (from the name of the book, to the promise of starship shenanigans in the blurb) felt kind of hastily done, and a lot less thoroughly world-built than Shizuka's origins/development (Faustian bargains, Hell, etc). It almost felt like a disservice to Lan as a tritagonist, to have so much less of her history, thought, and motivations explored and revealed.

There were many things I liked about the book, I'm just disappointed I didn't enjoy it more. Katrina's arc was well executed, albeit cliché at times; as a trans writer, I feel like Aoki can make her trans protagonist as universally relatable as she wants, she has that right (speaking as a trans person myself). Also, many trans people will pour their heart and soul into a hobby as a means of escape, to the point of obsession, and get so good at it that it feels mary-sue-ish - I'm guilty of this with art, and one of my trans roommates is making a phenomenal video game right now. I bring this up because cis friends who have read this book see Katrina's violin playing skills as "overpowered", for lack of a better term, and I completely disagree, trans people are just that cool.

Lan and Shizuka's relationship was everything I loved in a meet cute - two older wlw (When do you see that??? I love that!!! They're giving owl house Eda levels of pining) struggling to flirt and falling flat on their faces. And the misunderstandings! Ugh, when Shizuka

got a call from Astrid about making dinner and Lan assumed a "housekeeper" was a romantic partner, and got really sad about it, it was so cute.

Or when

Shizuka saw Lan in uniform and had a gay little freakout, I may have squealed in delight despite being way too old for that myself.

Older wlw absolutely carried this book for me,

age gap be damned. They're both consenting adults, and yes, one's in her mid 40s while the other's almost 80, but has Shizuka really lived these past 46 years, suspended in a weird violin-murderhobo stasis? I don't think so. Let her kiss a hot starship captain I beg of you.

So, what didn't I like? I've already mentioned the story's treatment of Lan - her voice and inner world just feels much emptier than that of Katrina or Shizuka, and she deserved more as a tritagonist. Also, regarding Marcus:

the treatment of Marcus was... not great. He killed some people and never really got a resolution. The other loose ends were all tied up, and Marcus was just sort of left with nothing. For a book that is all about community and healing and support, this kid, who was clearly hurting, never got the support and rehabilitation he clearly needed. He was just forgotten about by his own family, who seemed to move on from his absence far too quickly.

Similarly, nothing ever came of

Katrina's friend Evan. I would have liked to see something occur there - like, there were all these threads that got converged at the end, there was even an undocumented immigrant Floresta hires in the epilogue - a random new character shoved in there - and you're telling me Aoki didn't have time for a petty moment with Katrina and Evan's friends, except with the power dynamic now flipped? Come on.

Some of the more cringe-worthy moments like

Astrid walking in on Katrina

gave me the worst second hand embarassment. And Lucy's character felt just a bit cliché with her inferiority complex and the way she spoke about/dealt with it.

All in all, a fun read with excellent representation that unfortunately fell short in many places. My library doesn't stock the Wayfarers series, so I continue in my fruitless search for good queer sci-fi that doesn't "masquerade as sci-fi" through a contrived title and cover.

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surelyinthefountain's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

Sometimes, I like to check out a book that is being touted as really great that I suspect is going to be triggering. And hey, yeah, this is absolutely a book to take the triggers seriously on.
There's nothing really wrong with published fiction originating in fanfic, but man, sometimes you can really tell that something came out of there. If you were on tumblr in the early to mid 2010s, way too much of this book is way too familiar. It's kind of a shame, because the writing that is very grounded in a place and a community -- i.e. the Asian American community in the San Gabriel Valley -- are so good. I do appreciate the portrayal of um...let's just say a certain kind of white queer person lol; it's painfully accurate. But man, the central romance in the book just reeks of "you've come into this fanfic already shipping this (possibly genderbent) pairing, so you don't need help becoming invested in it within the fic itself," because I found it very hard to become invested in it. Plot's not for me, either. And a personal thing, but I don't love when Asian American authors give the "wow I don't get why this Asian person doesn't have solidarity with Asian people of a different ethnicity" line. Do I agree that solidarity would be nice? I mean, yeah obviously, but people don't work like that; it's so fucking reductive to not acknowledge that Asian countries have history with each other too lol.

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fl0tsam's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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nekoshka's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.0

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minervacerridwen's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

4.5

I had heard very different opinions on this book, so I was curious to find out what I'd think of it myself. I loved the writing style from the start; it reminded me of Douglas Adams but also of anime, in certain scenes. Add to that the donuts, all the gorgeous food descriptions, the passion for music, and the messages of love and family, and this was absolutely a great book for me. However, I also feel it should have come with content warnings. A lot of absolutely horrible things happened to Katrina, and I was sad to see her suffer so. If you'd rather avoid stories that contain the queer struggle because you already see enough of that in daily life, you should probably skip this one. But it made sense for the narrative and was treated with respect, eventually keeping a careful balance between heartbreaking and humorous, with a satisfying ending and the feeling I have learned a few more things about classical music and violins.

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