Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

6 reviews

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Body shaming, Murder, Deadnaming, Animal death, Rape, Transphobia, and Violence

rainbowshelves's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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

4.25

Oh! Really painful to read at times but in the end so lovely and hopeful. Will also potentially make you hungry. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Outing, Murder, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Violence, Body horror, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Deadnaming

Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, and Grief

It's difficult to choose Graphic, moderate or Minor accurately but I'll do my best

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. 

---

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

bluejayreads's review

emotional reflective tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is about a trans girl runaway with serious PTSD from years of transphobic abuse from her parents and a passion for (but no training in) violin, a legendary violin teacher who has one year to sacrifice a student to save herself from Hell, and a space alien starship captain hiding from a galactic plague by running a donut shop on Earth. With those characters, it's sure to be a wild ride, right? Well, this book is actually about the power of love to save both the lover and the beloved, the dangers of being a trans girl and especially being a trans girl in the public eye, and the (sometimes literal) magic that happens when passion, emotion, and music combine. And there's also a scene where a demon attempts to fight an alien. For as absolutely buck wild as the ideas are, it's an astonishingly resonant and intensely emotional story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Homophobia, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs

Minor: Rape, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Self harm

Survival sex work, PTSD from parental abuse, misgendering, homophobic slurs

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

---

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.

---

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