Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

124 reviews

flamesocks's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Racism, and Body shaming

queersicles's review against another edition

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

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

courto875's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Racism, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, and Transphobia

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Homophobia

Minor: Deadnaming

agilefruit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Body shaming, Rape, and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexism, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Racism

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

kanonkita's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Absolutely gorgeous -- not just the story but the language of it. Aoki's background as a poet really comes through in this book. It's a stellar example of how a story can deal with very real and personal issues while also incorporating fantastic elements like demons and aliens.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Transphobia, Dysphoria, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Self harm, Murder, War, and Racism

Minor: Child abuse, Body shaming, Deadnaming, and Sexual assault

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

ka_ke's review against another edition

It starts off fine, the individual character perspectives are kept to individual chapters, but then around 25% of the book, perspectives change characters half way through scenes/paragraphs. 

I also think this book would benefit from a content warning in the beginning regarding the fmc’s body dysmorphia, suicidal thoughts, sex work etc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Sexual violence, Violence, Outing, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Racial slurs, War, and Xenophobia

alyb_batgirl's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, and Physical abuse