Reviews

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

savannahthomaswvu's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

danimal_crackers's review

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Beautiful, but bizarre.
Found the homeless storyline and resortion to prostitution haunting and triggering.
No disrespect to the author, this is an amazing piece of fiction, it just is not for me.
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bluejaybooks's review

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This book tries to do a lot and mixes a lot of genre elements. I feel like this will work well for some people, but be too much for others. Personally I enjoyed it, but it was occasionally hard to see the connection between aliens, deals with the devil, and real-world modern prejudice. Part of me did wonder if maybe the alien part could have been left out, but it all came together nicely in the end.

Honestly, the part that bothered me the most was that the characters fed donuts to ducks and fish. I'm pretty sure they shouldn't eat those. But at least these were made using alien replication technology instead of flour? Not sure it makes a difference . . .

But again, I felt this book was an overall good read and has a definite charm.

crockpothead's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

4.75

nocuplongenough's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

nouveaudragon's review

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adventurous 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

5.0

It’s hard to imagine that 3 so wildly different storylines, all of which feel as though they belong to a completely different genre, could mesh so beautifully but they do. A supernatural, science fiction, teen coming of age, romance (but not with the teen) story all coming to fruition inside a donut shop? Incredible. So unforgettable that I’m writing this review in 2024, and started the book in 2021. It has been living rent free in my mind for that long! 

heathermb's review

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4.0

JoCo Book Club
Source:  Libby Audio
 
This has been on my list since I met the author on BOAT.  It was a great listen and I highly recommend it!  It didn’t go where I thought that it was going to go…but the story was really engaging and interesting.  
 
The shout out to “West Covina” was fun.
 

nataliecg's review

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dark emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

swinsword's review against another edition

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challenging sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The individual ideas are not bad. The execution of the ideas is in fact very bad. Additionally the main character is the most unbelievably miserable person ever. Every single bad thing that can go wrong to her does. It's misery porn for someone. After awhile it gets super tedious that every interaction she has is unrealistically a hate crime, or a pitty party. The author is a bad case of telling and not showing as well. Surprised as many people like this as they do.

mjwhitlock18's review

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

You know it’s gay when she compared another woman’s eyes to a starry sky. This story is complex, eccentric, and honestly confusing at times. It is soft, but also brutally honest. It follows a trans runaway violinist, her lesbian soul-stealing violin teacher, and a retired alien space captain/mother running a donut shop. It is ultimately about found family and carving out your place in the world. Occasionally there is shocking tonal dissonance and I had to take a break, but overall so unique and entertaining. 
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