Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

123 reviews

jessamo19's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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jesselopod's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Equal parts harrowing and delightful, a strange, moving and entertaining read with massive themes explored through a very strange plot. It was an unexpected mash up of a lot of genres I like, and it took me a little while to get into it but I am glad I stuck with it, by 100 pages I was invested in the absurdity which would life you up and then smash you down to harsh reality, and kept being surprised at where it went next. 
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raekit's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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pandsomeboi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense 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

“Equally heartwarming and heartbreaking.” That’s how this book was described to me by one of the multiple people who recommended it. I don’t know how this book flew under my radar for a year, but I’m so glad folks made sure I found it! Just read it. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Ever. It realistically incapsulates so many different experiences of life as “other;” the pain, the joy, and everything in between.

The best part is that it stands on its own as YA, and as sci-fi, and as fantasy, and as speculative fiction. Still feel weary about trans folks? Well how do you feel about space aliens? Or demons? Or music? Or food? Or immigration? Or coming-of-age stories? There are so many in-roads! It’s an amazing piece of literature. Creative. Well-written. Exciting. Compelling. And emotional! Everything you want.
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amby's review against another edition

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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.
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kell_xavi's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful slow-paced

2.5

I’ve been meaning to read Ryka Aoki since I heard her on a panel 6 or 8 years ago, and was interested in the potential story in this book. Unfortunately, Light from Uncommon Stars is an odd combination of factors that squirms out from its own internal logic, borrows from demonic deals and starship tales done elsewhere, better, and slows to dragging around Katrina’s struggles with identity and prejudice. Here’s what was good: the food, every description and scene of restaurant patrons, comfort eats, new flavours, neighbours’ fruit trees. Allusions to real music, performance details, movement of sounds, composers’ histories, and audience impressions. Shirley, and her sibling dynamic with Katrina. A fictionalized version of a very real type of selfish, white, queer community. 

The rest was disappointing. Katrina was so much a set of ideas about transness, trauma and self-hatred that morphs into self-love, but I didn’t get a deeper sense of who she was or the ways in which she was queer beyond the body she tries to erase. Despite gestures to the inspirational growth of the artist, the family, impressions of all the characters are blunted.
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clarabooksit's review

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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

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lord_lut's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-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

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mandal1226's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

A tale filled with music, demons, and Aliens?! A must-read in the LGTBQ+ community, but a necessary read for every community.
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theirgracegrace's review against another edition

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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!
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