Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

8 reviews

scmiller's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

andloveistoolong's review against another edition

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

Light from Uncommon Stars has a WILD concept. There is so much going on in here (I mean, the plot is about deals with a devil AND extraterrestrial refugees hiding out on earth), but it all worked together so well! It is by turns funny and heartbreaking, but ultimately a beautiful and kind story that's going to be staying with me for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Racism, Transphobia, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Cursing, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Violence, and War

Minor: Miscarriage, Ableism, Drug use, and Rape

emzhay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Transphobia

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Ableism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Incest and War

skudiklier's review

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

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, War, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Child death, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, and Suicide

Fetishization of trans women and women of color. Deadnaming in only one scene. Assault briefly on-page, but mostly implied/discussed; mild sexual content in the form of camming and sex work. Use of transphobic/homophobic, racial, and ableist slurs, both reclaimed and otherwise.

sarah984's review against another edition

hopeful 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

This book has a lot of disparate elements (violin history and culture, refugee experience, trying to find community as a multiply marginalized person, LA food culture, aliens, demons and more) but ties them all together in a way that kept me engaged. The characters were mostly great, and while the author is realistic about the difficulties in our world today it also carries both defiance and hope. I like the way history is presented in the book where change over time is noted and discussed without putting the old against the new.

One of the plot lines wrapped up a little weird and there was a strange dig at vegans near the beginning that felt crueler than the rest of the content but it wasn't a big enough issue to make me drop a star.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Outing

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Death, and Murder

red5ryan's review against another edition

As a transgender person, I am all for seeing more representation in media, and I think showcasing more authors like Ryka Aoki is super important. But as authors of marginalized identities become more prominent, something we must remember is while we may be comfortable with slurs hurled at us over the course of our lives, others may not be. And this book is RIDDLED with every homophobic and transphobic slur imaginable, as well as several ableist and racist slurs. Slurs are a source of trauma for many queer people and people of color. Some of those terms (like the aforementioned, "queer,") have been reclaimed by their communities, but I speak as a queer, neurodivergent person when I say that the slurs used in this book and the context around them, even when coming from a writer of these identites, were deeply unsettling. I hope not to come off as a young queer person who has no idea what their elders went through when they were my age. I am well aware of what happened to the queer community of the past and how the rhetoric highlighted in this book resulted in their demise. If anything, it is an awareness of the generational trauma my community has experienced that makes reading this book so difficult. Transphobia has carried itself into the 21st century, and I struggle at times to assert myself as an out and proud non-binary person. Seeing that play out in this book has been rather painful and I find myself unable to continue forward. Highly triggering content aside, this was a fantastic book. A bit hard to follow at times but intriguing nonetheless. It is a book that I regret being unable to finish. (Also one of the main characters kind of grooms another, which is a major plot point. She supposedly abandons that goal but it was still unsettling while it was happening. That also made me kind of uncomfortable.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Child abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Xenophobia, Sexual assault, and Ableism

troisha's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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