Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

34 reviews

lorriss's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Moderate: Homophobia, Bullying, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Rape, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and War

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, Religious bigotry, and Suicide

melliedm's review

reflective fast-paced

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

2.0

“Plaster of Paris, chicken wire, and concrete were not strong enough to bind the space-time continuum”, and heart, whimsy, and originality are not enough to bind Light From Uncommon Stars.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I liked it’s creativity, I liked what it was trying to say, and I liked it conceptually. When it comes to the execution, however, I don’t think the final product worked for me. 

I found the perspective-switching mid-scene and sometimes as frequent as every few paragraphs offputting and confusing, with the character voices to feel too unified/similar to make those perspective switches feel like they made a marked difference outside of being jarring. I also felt that the novel did a lot of telling as opposed to showing, frequently giving us far too much information so that we couldn’t engage with the unpredictable nature the book seemed to flirt with. The one time the book did not telegraph what was coming clearly, it instead telegraphed the opposite—which could have worked if we had not been given false information from an internal perspective. The false information coming from an external perspective would have felt earned, but the internal made it feel like we were intentionally lied to in order to achieve a last minute twist. 

Despite my complaints and the fact that this wasn’t a hit for me, Light From Uncommon Stars still managed to be charming and an easy read. You can just fly through the pages, which is a fantastic trait. I think that there are many people who would absolutely love to bask in Light, I just wasn’t one of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Outing, Deadnaming, Sexual content, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Racism

Minor: Gun violence and Fire/Fire injury

the_one_krissy's review

emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Rape, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

solenodon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexism, Dysphoria, Racism, and Outing

Minor: Terminal illness, Sexual content, Deadnaming, and War

gwenisnonbinary's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

Many many triggers in this book but it was one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Death, Dysphoria, Racism, Transphobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, Bullying, and Cursing

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Self harm, Rape, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Mental illness

Minor: War, Pedophilia, Murder, and Domestic abuse

augustar14's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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

4.5

One of the first books I've read that shifts character perspectives amongst many characters but not at chapters. Just, whenever it needs to happen. That took some adjusting but once I figured it out, I really began to enjoy how immersive it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Classism, Cultural appropriation, Rape, Cursing, Body shaming, and War

Minor: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Misogyny

Internalized transphobia as well as external. Abusive family (escapes from). Alcoholic, violent, transphobic father and mother who makes excuses for him. So called friend who "suggests" she pay for rent in sex. Sex cam work with transphobic comments. Bad hookup for money. Other moments of sexual harassment, verbal and physical, past and present. Two characters killed with an alien blaster gun in another character's fit of rage at seeing something that ended up being not true. Somewhat graphic descriptions of their feelings and their deaths. Mother deadnames main character in one scene.

mewchellie's review

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Hate crime, Outing, Sexism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

ailsaod's review

challenging hopeful informative 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

3.0

 In hindsight I'm not sure why I was so excited about this book - it is another book that is about identity and was written for a specific target demographic and unfortunately I am not it. If you are trans, musical, Asian-American (or just American at all!) then this is probably much better but I am none of these things so most of the book just went over my head. I found it a thoroughly frustrating experience for the music and American culture aspects in particular and I only really have myself to blame - what did I expect from a book that centres about violinists??

The parts of the story that related to the main character being trans were more accessible (by which I mean it didn't rely on cultural references I have no way of knowing) but was quite upsetting. I have no doubt that this is an accurate portrayal of what many trans people face but that just made it even more appalling how the main character was treated. I think this book was supposed to be hopeful but it had quite the opposite effect on me! People suck!

This book is a lot more rooted in reality than I expected which makes it even weirder that the two speculative aspects are so disparate: demons and aliens? I found this quite jarring and a bit like trying to reconcile different MCU characters' backstory in the same universe. The addition of the alien family in particular made the story seem rather unfocused - is the book about Katrina and Shizuka Satomi's shared journey or is it about the alien refugees running a donut shop or is it about Shizuka and Lan dating and having yet another misunderstanding? I simply do not know.

I feel like this is a book that is very much for certain people - not just in terms of your identity but also your outlook on life and this book and I were just not compatible. Also I need brain bleach for THE most uncomfortable scene of sexual content I have read this year. I almost fell out of my seat in public because I was so horrified! Yuck!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.5

I feel a bit torn when it comes to this book. On one hand, I was very engaged with it and wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen. I liked the mix of characters and perspectives, and even some of the surprising things (that at first felt like a mix of too many genres) ended up feeling natural and fine. 

However, I also feel like I ended the book missing some of the point. Like, there was just so much going on, and I'm not sure what my takeaways were supposed to be. Also, there was just so much transphobia that Katrina had to deal with; it was hard to read and felt like some of it wasn't totally necessary? Idk. I get that that can be real but it's not like every single trans person has to go through all of the things she did, and it just was so rough to read. Between that and the racism and violence, I would definitely recommend checking out the content warnings before reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Outing, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Sexism, Death, Deadnaming, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Fatphobia, War, Vomit, Child death, and Ableism

excritos's review

dark emotional funny inspiring fast-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: Sexual violence, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Self harm and Violence