Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

16 reviews

allisong82's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Classism, Racism, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

augustar14's review

challenging emotional mysterious 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

4.5

One of the first books I've read that shifts character perspectives amongst many characters but not at chapters. Just, whenever it needs to happen. That took some adjusting but once I figured it out, I really began to enjoy how immersive it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Classism, Cultural appropriation, Rape, Cursing, Body shaming, and War

Minor: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Misogyny

Internalized transphobia as well as external. Abusive family (escapes from). Alcoholic, violent, transphobic father and mother who makes excuses for him. So called friend who "suggests" she pay for rent in sex. Sex cam work with transphobic comments. Bad hookup for money. Other moments of sexual harassment, verbal and physical, past and present. Two characters killed with an alien blaster gun in another character's fit of rage at seeing something that ended up being not true. Somewhat graphic descriptions of their feelings and their deaths. Mother deadnames main character in one scene.

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

dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Homophobia, Death, Classism, Child abuse, Trafficking, War, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Outing, Murder, Lesbophobia, Hate crime, Dysphoria, Drug use, Deadnaming, Cultural appropriation, and Alcoholism

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.5

I generally enjoyed Light From Uncommon Stars. It was an interesting and rather stark mix of sci-fi and fantasy. I've rarely seen demons/hell and aliens in the same book which felt a bit dissonant to start, and I still have some questions about specifis there but I didn't find it too distracting.

Katrina is clearly traumatized by the way her family and other people have treated her in the past. It was honestly a bit hard to read at times.

After having spent some time being treated well by Shizuka, it was heartbreaking that Katrina didn't seem to feel betrayed by finding out what she'd been chosen for. She does not expect kindness for free. I hope she gets to go to therapy in the near future.

One of the most interesting and I think underexplored characters to me was Shirley. I find upacking the personhood of AI really fascinating and I think it's important philosophically to consider what makes a person a person.

It's clear Lan didn't fully process her feelings about where Shirley came from couldn't really allow herself to consider Shirley as a full person or truly her daughter. Watching Lan try to reconcile who Shirley actually was with her preconceptions about AI and her sadness about losing the original Shirley was interesting and proves that sometimes, even if you're smart, you need other people to point out what's right under your nose. I wish though, especially as a POV character, that we had seen more of how Lan actually processed that (if she did).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Racism, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Classism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, and Outing

Minor: Grief, Miscarriage, and War

pkledgrape's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Outing, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Classism and War