Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

176 reviews

renstrange's review

challenging emotional reflective 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

update after finishing in 2024: this was a soft dnf last year, but i always intended to give it another shot. i’m so glad i did. i connected with it instantly this time. i especially love katrina and the mother-daughter relationship that forms between her and shizuka.

the writing style takes some getting used to and the main relationship lacks some development. due to this, i’d thought i would give this book 4-4.25 stars. and then i hit the last 20%. 

this book made me cry. i rarely cry, so any book that affects me so deeply automatically needs to be five stars. sorry, i don’t make the rules.

2023: dnf for now. i’m having trouble connecting with this book, but i don’t want to fully give up on it yet. i’ll try it again another time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Dysphoria

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, and War

Misgendering, transphobic slurs, lesbophobic slurs, underage sex work

abookwormspov's review against another edition

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

yinflower's review

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape, Self harm, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Outing, and War

jaimc's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Dysphoria

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Outing, and Sexual harassment

Minor: War

kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Outing, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, and War

le_mur's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Racism, Rape, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Outing, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

queersicles's review

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

I love slow paced, slice of life books. Much of what I love about this book is about that. The book describes food with such texture and depth, it feels very comforting to step inside this world where there are clear problems but those are taken just as seriously as the character's meals. I love the relationships between these different women, power dynamics of adult-teenager, cis-trans, human-AI, and parent-outside adult giving perspective on her parenting choices were all explored. It felt like love between women was the main focus of the book. Grappling with the outside pressures of war, immigration, misogyny, racism, transphobia, etc, were battled out. No one woman was saving anyone else, they were grappling with power dynamics and how to listen and respect one anothers autonomy throughout, which was beautiful to see unspool in such a cooky little world where the devil and aliens are running around
 That all being said, I felt frustrated by the ending.

the end leaves Shizuka (the woman who was selling the souls of her students to hell for her own fame/glory) with a happy ending and a gay relationship which had depth and felt interesting and flawed, but left Katrina with no romantic relationship (which would have been fine) except her getting a Tesla and seemingly carrying on some kind of relationship with a man who literally sexually assaulted her the very first time he met her (he grabs her genitals through her dress in a backstage dressing room with a bunch of people around) which felt just.. like such a betrayal? She starts the book running from her abusive family, escapes and finds a new family to be a part of, but then the end, the book doesn't focus on her growing friendship with an AI named Wendy who I think would have been a more satisfying ending to see how their relationship was developing, and instead ties her to this rich asshole where she is (this is a presumption on my part) still in some way doing sex work in exchange for money/a Tesla from a rich asshole? It just felt like a slap in the face. </Spoiler> that unsatisfying ending detail took a lot away for me, which is why I couldn't give it 5 stars

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Outing, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

pobi's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense 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

4.0

While some of the overarching metaphor was a little overdone it was a super cute book with a mix of genres that was really refreshing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Outing, Dysphoria, and War

alice_persephone's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Outing, and Dysphoria

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