Scan barcode
scmiller's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Outing, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Dysphoria, Body shaming, Transphobia, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Rape, Blood, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, and Murder
Minor: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Pedophilia, Gaslighting, and Gore
rainbowshelves's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Transphobia, Outing, Murder, Physical abuse, and Gun violence
Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Violence, Body horror, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Deadnaming
Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, and Grief
It's difficult to choose Graphic, moderate or Minor accurately but I'll do my bestprincesspunx's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexual assault, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Murder, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Xenophobia
crufts's review against another edition
- 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
This was such a weird review to write. There were so many parts of Light From Uncommon Stars that I loved. There were also many parts where I saw room for improvement. I could hardly decide the star rating. I felt like it was a 5-star book and a 3-star book at the same time.
For example, Stef Sanjati (a YouTube makeup artist) was slapped with this label despite the fact that she was just trying to do makeup tutorials and talk about her life. You can see Stef talk about this here
Or when
On their very first meeting we're told they're in crush-at-first-sight, purely based on appearances. It's shallow and comes out of nowhere.
Then, Lan and Shizuka don't even hold hands until pretty much the end of the book, let alone anything else. And they spend sizeable chunks of the book at loggerheads with eachother. Where's the romance?!
There's also a massive age difference between the two characters, discussed below in the content warnings.
Despite the discomfort she feels when putting on a "camshow", and the gross comments made by some of her viewers, Katrina also feels somewhat validated by the fact that these strangers are calling her beautiful and desirable.
That's all fine, and (sadly) it's realistic that this was probably one of the most efficient ways for Katrina to make money in her situation. But when this point appears in the story, it's introduced very suddenly and without any backstory explanation of how it started.
How on earth did a 15-year-old Katrina make the leap of signing up for her first camming account? She wouldn't have started hormones at that time, and probably had an even worse body image than she does in the present day. So what on earth possessed her?
I'm not saying it couldn't have happened, but how? How did she first decide to join the 31 per 10,000 Americans who are prostitutes? What's the explanation? What finally pushed her to lie about her age, to click that "Register account" button, and to buy a webcam? Was she being pressured by friends? Did she read on the internet that it was lucrative? Was she just feeling lonely and desperate? And what experience did she have at that first camshow, so that she decided it was worth doing it again despite the gross comments?
The lack of explanation is even bigger for the sex work that Katrina does in person. After all, she was able to do camshows while living at her parents' house, and her risk of danger was so much higher for the in-person work. So what pushed her to arrange that first "date"? How did she learn that this was a thing she could do? Why did she take such a big risk, again lying about her age and going out to meet a stranger? And what happened so that she felt it was worth doing multiple times?
Considering that this part of Katrina's life appears throughout the book, I felt like there just wasn't enough backstory explaining how it first started.
But when Shizuka finds out that Katrina is an underage sex worker, does she spring into action to protect her? Nope! She has no problem with Katrina doing this while being a minor who can't legally give consent.
Shizuka was completely unconcerned about Katrina being an underaged sex worker, with not a single thought about Katrina's age even crossing her mind. She had no impulse whatsoever to protect Katrina in this situation. This weirdly neglectful behaviour made me wonder if the author had forgotten that Katrina is underaged while writing this scene.
Shizuka is elderly, and the story appears to be set in the present day. Yet Shizuka never has a single thought or experience that reflects the fact that (a) she grew up in a time when homosexuality was even less accepted than it is now, and (b) as far as we know, she has never had a crush on a woman before.
I found it hard to believe that Shizuka had absolutely no reaction to this happening, not even a neutral or positive one. I would've been satisfied if there was a comment like "Shizuka had fallen in love with many women over the years", or "Shizuka was surprised to feel this way about another woman for the first time", or anything like that. But Shizuka never showed any awareness that being same-sex attracted is unusual.
I can't know for sure, but I'm guessing this is because the author was trying to give the story a similar vibe to The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, where the lesbian romance is treated as totally normal and nobody considers it unusual. But Light From Uncommon Stars has a different setting (present-day Earth, not futuristic space), so this doesn't make sense.
Incidentally, Lan never thinks about this point either. But I can believe that she wouldn't necessarily think about it, because she's depicted as socially unaware and uninformed about Earthly culture. We don't know what her alien species thinks of gay people, so maybe they aren't bothered by that. For Shizuka, however, this lack of comment didn't make sense.
- Katrina's male camshow patrons are portrayed as leering fools who she's squeezing for money.
- Tremon Philippe is a literal demon, described as resembling a toad.
- Lucia's grandfather was cruel and sexist.
- The violin repair guy was an elitist jerk.
- The pawn shop owner was an extortionist.
- Evan was an inconsiderate ass and a rapist.
- Lan Tran's ex-husband was a military stooge.
- Harlene (sp?) Ferreira's boyfriend was rude and homophobic.
- Lan Tran's teenage son violently murders two people in a fit of rage.
- The Chinese contest sponsor guy sexually harasses Katrina.
Firstly, Shizuka never atones for her crimes. Remember, she didn't just murder six people; she sent them to hell where they would suffer in eternal torment! But not only does she never express regret for what she did, she goes off to live happily ever after in space with Lan.
Secondly, there is no revenge, punishment, or justice of any kind against Evan, who rapes Katrina near the start of the book. He just gets off scot-free. Given that Shizuka becomes a protective parental figure to Katrina, I wish we had gotten to see her enact some kind of hellish retribution against Evan.
Thirdly, just before her final performance in a violin contest, Katrina is suddenly molested by the contest sponsor. He then leaves.
However, Katrina isn't left reeling from this horrible event, or feeling dirty, or flashing back to Evan's rape, or simply unsure whether to laugh or cry. No, she just smirks and mentally insults the sponsor:
> Katrina smirked. You could give him all the money and power in the world, but a [expletive] was still a [expletive].
Not only that, but at the end of the book it's revealed that she's entered into some kind of sugar daddy arrangement with him. What?! This was such a bizarre way for Katrina to react.
Graphic: Gore, Transphobia, Gun violence, Dysphoria, Racism, Homophobia, Murder, Outing, Racial slurs, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Deadnaming
Minor: Violence and War
Whoof! Lots of content warnings here. Don't be fooled, this book isn't fluffy and nice like Long Way To A Small Angry Planet.
Misgendering, Dysphoria, Outing: Happens often during the book, directed towards Katrina. There is also a short flashback to a young Katrina which refers to her as "he".
Deadnaming: Occurs only once during the book.
Racism, Racial slurs: Racist remarks are made directly to the main characters' faces. Some racial slurs and stereotyping terms are mentioned during the book.
Gun violence, Murder, Gore: Two teenagers are killed in a gory fashion. The scene finishes quickly and doesn't linger.
Sexual content, Prostitution, Adult/minor relationship: There is an explicit sex scene. Another scene is vaguely implied. A scene with an underage participant is outlined in brief terms. Sexual and anatomical references are made during the book.
Rape: It is vaguely implied that this has occurred, and the event is later referenced several times.
May-December relationship: Lan is a mother of teenage children, which puts her human-equivalent age around 40 to 50. There is no indication that her original alien species has a particularly different timescale of maturation and aging. Meanwhile, although Shizuka spends most of the book blessed with fiendish youth, she's actually 78 years old. This difference in experience between these two made their romance rather questionable.
Homophobia, Homophobic slurs: Katrina consistently refers to "other queers" when she is thinking about groups of LGBT+ people, regardless of whether the people are "queer". Several anti-gay slurs are used against the main characters.
War, Violence: War is discussed by the main characters and depicted in flashbacks.
julianship's review against another edition
It also means we don't spend enough time with the characters to really develop them emotionally. I still don't have a great sense of who Katrina is apart from the things that have happened to her, which is a real shame because she has the potential to be really interesting.
I also think it's worth a content warning that while this book has an ultimately hopeful tone, it spends a LOT of time in Katrina's head as she deals with the aftermath of transphobic abuse from her parents and also, apparently, basically every person she's ever met, including sex work clients and so-called friends. There's a ton of internalized stuff and the book spends a lot of time with it, which can feel kind of jarring when the other subplots are about... donuts? There's also an onscreen rape scene and a very graphic murder (the murder is not related to Katrina's subplot.)
I guess this book just felt underdeveloped to me. To follow the donut metaphor, the ingredients were there, but it was underproofed and then covered in a lot of different kinds of sprinkles.
Graphic: Rape, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Outing, Murder, Gore, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, and Child abuse
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, and Self harm
Minor: War
troisha's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Racism and Transphobia
Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and War