Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

37 reviews

corriejn's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

Uncategorizable, and wonderful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Self harm, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Violence, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Bullying, Sexual content, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Emotional abuse

Minor: War and Deadnaming

jen_b's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.75

This book has everything, I loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Transphobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Xenophobia, Sexual content, Outing, Gun violence, and Rape

Minor: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, 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

martinatan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

Everything I would want out of a queer modern fiction story. I was so delighted and moved by how authentically every single one of the main cast was written, and how Ryka Aoki does not shy away from letting the realities of living while queer/trans and Asian/mixed race play out as they do for many. The whole story represents to me the beautiful complexity of what it means to belong to multiple marginalized communities and understand others within them. I love the use of sci-fi and fantasy elements (my favorites) to explore themes of immigration and displacement, transformation, and self-actualization. I appreciated the connections between music, food, identity, and types of love that all feel essential to my own experience as an Asian American.

Chapter 35 was my favorite part of the writing in the book, but the entire novel is laced with such care and tenderness, as well as wit and charm, that by the first chapter I could tell it was something really special. Most of all I want these characters and anyone who identifies with them to be happy. Hopefully this book reaches others like me who will find much needed comfort in its story. Much love to Ryka Aoki for every word of this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Outing, Racism, Body shaming, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Genocide

Explicit deadnaming of a protagonist near the end of the book by her parent

whirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing 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? No

5.0

Such a lovely and beautiful book. I don’t know the first thing about violins or classical music but the book isn’t any less accessible or enjoyable because of it. The main characters are all amazingly strong women, all in their own field of expertise and with their own unique talent; and also with their own unique struggle to overcome

I can’t even begin to describe how weird the combination of scifi / classical music is, but at the same time it totally works here and just makes sense - until you try to explain the book to someone else and it really stops making sense.. so just read it to find out for yourself

It makes you both love and hate the world we live in and the people in it, but also shows that by being kind yourself to the people you meet even if it seems just basic courtesy to you, can make a big difference. I think that’s my main take away from the book: be kind, you don’t know what anyone else is struggling with so why not take a chance on improving their day even a little bit where you can. And find the right people to connect with and stick with them and take care of each other like family 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Religious bigotry, War, and Xenophobia

lalunitalee's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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 harassment, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Bullying, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

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.

yggie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was such a painful book - in a good way, in a true way, but wow. I did see the hope, I did see the love, I did see the ‘growing into yourself, becoming strong and confident’ thing, but I can’t shake the pain. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing.

The pain is not what made me go for just three stars. I’ve seen people complain about the switches in pov but those felt natural to me, I only got confused once and that was on me. The truth is, I got tired of reading about donuts. Donuts and chicken and duck and tea, it never ended and it didn’t add much for me. Also, Windee made me cringe every time she entered the narrative. Terrible character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

sknappy1's review

hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dysphoria, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Bullying, Body shaming, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Death, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

readerette's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

When the book started so slow and I realized how many characters there were, and with how loose of ties to one another at first, I almost decided to stop. 

But Katrina's experience as a transwoman kept me in it, as she experienced pain after pain and still learned to trust again. It was emotional to read, but beautiful. The trigger warnings are accurate, and there's enough lightness, goodness and love to balance them out.

Once I got used to the writing style (perfunctory and shifting between characters) and started to see where the story could go, I didn't want to put it down. The existential questions in this story were also refreshingly posed.

The Endplague just feels to me like civilization levels of mortal despair, and raises the question of what to do in the face of that knowledge: the same question each of us individual mortals has to answer for ourselves.

If you like sci fi/fantasy with a heart (the Becky Chambers comparisons are apt), I recommend this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Death

Minor: Vomit, Murder, Mental illness, Outing, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Suicide