Scan barcode
alienguy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Deadnaming, Racism, Dysphoria, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Rape
Minor: War and Alcoholism
mercapto's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Initially, I struggled with this because of my own personal expectations. I found the blurb quite misleading - it read like it would focus more on the Shizuka and Lan romance, the blend of sci-fi and fantasy, with a trans prodigy as a side character. Even the reviews on the back page made it seem like a fantastical love story. It was quite jarring to expect something removed from reality and to get a very real and very harrowing story of an abused trans girl, even if she found happiness in the end. Especially because it was at the start of the book, there was no easing into it. However, once I took a step back and reassessed my expectations, I did begin to enjoy it more for what it was.
But I wish the blurb had made the focus Katrina! It reads like Lan and her donuts broke the curse when it was Katrina being her wonderful self that made Shizuka change!
Aoki is wonderfully imaginative, and obviously has many stories to tell - I can tell that she wanted to pour everything into this book. I get it, a book crossing deals with demons with an intergalactic family and the story of a trans girl finding herself is very unique, is going to stand out more than individual books in each genre. But… I can’t help but think I’d rather have read a separate book for each theme. Or even just demons deals and the Katrina storyline. Or even just a longer book! A series that blends together in one final novel!
Katrina’s narrative is so much more in depth than the other two main characters, and it’s clear that writing what you know works well for Aoki - even without looking her up I could tell that whoever was writing Katrina had real experience either being trans or was heavily involved in the trans community, and the way she writes these scenes, so matter-of-fact, so real, is where her ability shines through - “The violin had given Katrina a voice with which to sing. And now, that newfound voice was pushing her, urging Katrina to speak.”
It’s not that she doesn’t write Shizuka or Lan well, it’s just that there’s not enough pages to flesh them out properly - they are big concepts and backstories that need a bit more handholding to understand than Katrina, who’s backstory, sadly, we are all familiar with in today’s reality. And so effective is her writing of Katrina, that no matter how well Shizuka and Lan are written, they will pale in comparison to her. I felt I really knew Katrina, but Lan and Shizuka? I just didn’t feel the connection to each other, unfortunately.
Unlike others, I don’t mind the changes in POV, I feel like with a book like this you need it to understand the complex world. It actually reminded me a bit of Les Mis, in a way, because there’s so much going on and so many characters you need to see into their heads. Of course, it’s a lot choppier in this novel, but I still think it’s fine. I also liked the food descriptions, in think they worked well and were quite immersive, and actually made me want to go out and appreciate all the hidden little eateries with hidden stories where I live!
This was an enjoyable read, and had a lot to offer. There’s a lot of in depth analogies and metaphors, and I think a very thought-provoking book.
But I wish the blurb had made the focus Katrina! It reads like Lan and her donuts broke the curse when it was Katrina being her wonderful self that made Shizuka change!
Aoki is wonderfully imaginative, and obviously has many stories to tell - I can tell that she wanted to pour everything into this book. I get it, a book crossing deals with demons with an intergalactic family and the story of a trans girl finding herself is very unique, is going to stand out more than individual books in each genre. But… I can’t help but think I’d rather have read a separate book for each theme. Or even just demons deals and the Katrina storyline. Or even just a longer book! A series that blends together in one final novel!
Katrina’s narrative is so much more in depth than the other two main characters, and it’s clear that writing what you know works well for Aoki - even without looking her up I could tell that whoever was writing Katrina had real experience either being trans or was heavily involved in the trans community, and the way she writes these scenes, so matter-of-fact, so real, is where her ability shines through - “The violin had given Katrina a voice with which to sing. And now, that newfound voice was pushing her, urging Katrina to speak.”
It’s not that she doesn’t write Shizuka or Lan well, it’s just that there’s not enough pages to flesh them out properly - they are big concepts and backstories that need a bit more handholding to understand than Katrina, who’s backstory, sadly, we are all familiar with in today’s reality. And so effective is her writing of Katrina, that no matter how well Shizuka and Lan are written, they will pale in comparison to her. I felt I really knew Katrina, but Lan and Shizuka? I just didn’t feel the connection to each other, unfortunately.
Unlike others, I don’t mind the changes in POV, I feel like with a book like this you need it to understand the complex world. It actually reminded me a bit of Les Mis, in a way, because there’s so much going on and so many characters you need to see into their heads. Of course, it’s a lot choppier in this novel, but I still think it’s fine. I also liked the food descriptions, in think they worked well and were quite immersive, and actually made me want to go out and appreciate all the hidden little eateries with hidden stories where I live!
This was an enjoyable read, and had a lot to offer. There’s a lot of in depth analogies and metaphors, and I think a very thought-provoking book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Rape, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Physical abuse
siriface's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Transphobia, Child abuse, Deadnaming, and Death
kikind's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Racial slurs, Bullying, Physical abuse, Death, and Self harm
larbster90's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, and Transphobia
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Deadnaming, Death, and Sexual assault
Minor: Alcoholism, War, Violence, and Murder
lady_bountiful's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Rape, Transphobia, and Sexual assault
amby's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
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? It's complicated
3.5
I'm having a hard time rating this book... it is complet chaos. I don't think this are really spoilers, but if you wanna go in blank, don't read this. Refugees from a galactic war start a donutshop. 70+ years old violin teacher has a deal with hell. And a teenaged transgender runaway girl. It sounds like a weird combo, it stayed a weird combo!
Some triggerwarings (below) are necessary, defintly for transpeople who don't have a supporting familiy. I as cis-women already found it very hard to read the horrble stuff Katherina had to endure.
Yet, I got annoyed by how often the writer refered to her trauma as a reasons to feel shit about herself. I understood it about the caracter but it's just the way it's written.
But my biggest problem is the switching of points of views. Sometimes it took 3 alinea to realise from who's point of view I was reading the story. It made it a lot less relaxing to read.
The ending of the book made up for a lot! And the description about violin music was so beautiful ❤️ as well as the found family element.
Triggerwarings, and I'm sure this is not all of it. Deadnaming, very often misgendering, prostitution, (sexual) abuse.
Some triggerwarings (below) are necessary, defintly for transpeople who don't have a supporting familiy. I as cis-women already found it very hard to read the horrble stuff Katherina had to endure.
Yet, I got annoyed by how often the writer refered to her trauma as a reasons to feel shit about herself. I understood it about the caracter but it's just the way it's written.
But my biggest problem is the switching of points of views. Sometimes it took 3 alinea to realise from who's point of view I was reading the story. It made it a lot less relaxing to read.
The ending of the book made up for a lot! And the description about violin music was so beautiful ❤️ as well as the found family element.
Triggerwarings, and I'm sure this is not all of it. Deadnaming, very often misgendering, prostitution, (sexual) abuse.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Death, Bullying, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Cultural appropriation, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Addiction
spadedigsbutts's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I really really wanted to like this book. Trans coming of age story combined with devil deals, older Sapphic romance, and science fiction magic? Absolutely sounded like my cup of tea, unfortunately the negatives just personally outweighed the positives for me.
On a technical level, the book is a huge mix. Sometimes parts are written in the most lovely way with pretty language and clever witticisms, but other times I am struggling to even understand what some sentences mean and having to reread entire paragraphs over and over. The latter happened more for me than the former unfortunately, and the issue was exacerbated by the fact that about every few paragraphs there is a POV shift, so we rarely spend much time with any one character. As a result, we only have strong characterization for a handful of characters as we ping-pong between the "main" protagonists and multiple secondary characters without much relevance. The back-of-the-book blurb for the novel is a bit misleading, because it would make you think we have three protagonists, but we actually have more like 4 as there is a violin repair woman who gets an entire story arc and multiple chapter appearances, yet only interacts with the main three maybe twice? This leads into another major technical issues, which is if you are not good at remembering names (like me), this will be an awful experience for you. Almost every character introduced, no matter how minor, is often introduced with a full first and last name, and description, implying they will be important and recurring, only for them to drop off the face of the earth. Except when they don't and they reappear several chapters later and you, having by that point been trained to ignore most named characters, you have to flip back to the beginning to remember who that was. For context on how bad it gets with the names, I was live-tweeting my friend about my reading experience and by page 50 about 35-36 individual names had been introduced. If these are the sorts of technical issues that don't bother you as much, definitely dive in, but for me it was personally super distracting.
Speaking on the story of the book, it's hard to really call it a story. It would be easier to call it a slice of life with fantastical elements and characters interacting until the last fourth of the book where more of a plot with the central protagonist, Katarina, comes up and we get some much needed payoff to her and Shizuka's arcs. If there is anything to say about this book, it is that almost everything with Katarina and Shizuka is excellent!! I loved seeing Katarina come into her own and gain confidence under the protection of her strong and loving mentor figure. While the book never once made me believe Shizuka would sacrifice Katarina, the inherent drama of the possibility and what they're willing to do for each other is great! If this book had just been about them and condensed to cut the many many side characters I would have rated it like a 4 minimum. Even if you don't read the whole book, read Katarina's stuff!! It's really good!! Unfortunately the biggest weakness of the book is Shizuka's love interest, the space refuge Lan, who just constantly feels out of place in the book. I wouldn't contribute this lack of cohesion to the fact everything else in the book is mundane or magical and Lan's parts of the story are super sci-fi, as I've seen other books do similar successfully, but that she never quite gets integrated into any one character's life. Even Shizuka, who is Lan's romantic interest, just has entire scenes and arcs going on independent of her to the point I forget Lan exists until she appears. Lan comes with a number of plot points and character arcs that unfortunately just flat out don't get a resolution, like with her son wholiterally murders two people, is put into stasis, and is then never once brought up again. Because there's just so many characters and things going on, Lan just doesn't really get the development she needs and it hurts the book a lot as so many chapters are dedicated to her and her family.
Anyways, if none of these are deal breakers for you, go read it!! Katarina's trans coming-of-age story is really good!! Unfortunately everything surrounding it is just very messy and underwritten and I wish i could have liked it more.
Speaking on the story of the book, it's hard to really call it a story. It would be easier to call it a slice of life with fantastical elements and characters interacting until the last fourth of the book where more of a plot with the central protagonist, Katarina, comes up and we get some much needed payoff to her and Shizuka's arcs. If there is anything to say about this book, it is that almost everything with Katarina and Shizuka is excellent!! I loved seeing Katarina come into her own and gain confidence under the protection of her strong and loving mentor figure. While the book never once made me believe Shizuka would sacrifice Katarina, the inherent drama of the possibility and what they're willing to do for each other is great! If this book had just been about them and condensed to cut the many many side characters I would have rated it like a 4 minimum. Even if you don't read the whole book, read Katarina's stuff!! It's really good!! Unfortunately the biggest weakness of the book is Shizuka's love interest, the space refuge Lan, who just constantly feels out of place in the book. I wouldn't contribute this lack of cohesion to the fact everything else in the book is mundane or magical and Lan's parts of the story are super sci-fi, as I've seen other books do similar successfully, but that she never quite gets integrated into any one character's life. Even Shizuka, who is Lan's romantic interest, just has entire scenes and arcs going on independent of her to the point I forget Lan exists until she appears. Lan comes with a number of plot points and character arcs that unfortunately just flat out don't get a resolution, like with her son who
Anyways, if none of these are deal breakers for you, go read it!! Katarina's trans coming-of-age story is really good!! Unfortunately everything surrounding it is just very messy and underwritten and I wish i could have liked it more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, Sexism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Bullying, Body shaming, Transphobia, and Outing
Moderate: Abandonment, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Colonisation, Alcohol, Child death, Deportation, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death, Classism, and Murder
Minor: War and Confinement
This book absolutely digs and then dwells in real-world racism, transphobia, and other bigotries. If you want more of an escapist trans story without real-world bigotries, absolutely put this one down. If you're looking for more cathartic real-world brutal depictions of transphobia, etc. you might like this.clarabooksit's review
emotional
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Outing, Dysphoria, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny
Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Bullying, Physical abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Minor: War, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Self harm
theirgracegrace's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Light From Uncommon Stars is a beautiful symphony from start to finish. Every pastiche-style chapter slowly develops the relationship between its three main characters: Shizuka Satomi, a violin teacher who needs to sacrifice one more student to Hell to be able to play again; Katrina Nguyen, a transgender woman escaping her transphobic and abusive family only to become Satomi's student; and Lan Tran, an alien refugee fleeing a galactic war with her family by pretending to be the owners of a donut shop. The prose reveals and hides at every moment, building to a powerful concert the night before Satomi's contract with Hell is up, and either she or Katrina has to die. The ending completely surprises and lends itself well to the book's themes of being oneself and sharing one's soul with the universe to stave off apathy and hate. Incredible book that I've recommended to everyone already!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Stalking, Violence, Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Self harm, Transphobia, Cursing, Death, Dysphoria, Kidnapping, Rape, Deadnaming, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Xenophobia
Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury