Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

14 reviews

cpaeper's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

Moderate: Outing, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Violence, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, and Racial slurs

yinflower's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: War, Self harm, Rape, Blood, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, and Outing

proftumblebuns's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Child abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Deadnaming, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and War

ash_ton's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Fr should have read the content warnings for this because some of this stuff kinda bothered me, and normally reading things doesn't affect me that much. I guess it's kind of on me because obviously I have access to content warnings. Oh well. Anyways.

Complaints first, because I'm an asshole. I'm not sure I liked the different shifting POVs. I like to think I'm not an idiot, so at first I'd be a little lost on who was talking. And there were so many. Some of them just side characters. Wack.

I did really like the book though. I don't normally go for sci-fi, and I actually read this or the LGBTQIA+ book club I'm in. At first I wasn't a huge fan of it but I'm glad I stayed with it. Definitely thought provoking and an interesting story. Shirley was my favorite character. All my homies love Shirley.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Dysphoria, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, Self harm, and Transphobia

Moderate: Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Racial slurs, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide, Cultural appropriation, Suicidal thoughts, Deportation, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and War

razzberry_pi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

excellent read but hard to describe. 

weaves together fantasy and scifi elements with themes around found family, the power of music, and the meaning of a legacy 

touches on both the amazing things that technology can do, but also how care and craft cannot be completely replicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Deadnaming, Outing, and War

Minor: Incest, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

additional cw beginning of the book touches on a main character running away from home and dealing with precarious housing as well as somewhat dangeous sex work

analenegrace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

This was a beautiful book that melded so many genres in a way that I found very successful. All the characters are incredibly compelling and represent the many different ways womanhood happens and exists. Trans characters are more important than ever, especially by Trans authors. I was never entirely sure where the plot was going to go, which can often make a book frustrating, but instead, Aoki made me constantly drawn back in. It's a hard book to summarize, but things like found/chosen family, the importance of art to humanity, and queer joy made this book so powerful, I imagine I will be thinking about it for quite a while!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Incest

emzhay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Transphobia

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Ableism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Incest and War

apollinares'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? It's complicated

3.0

I thought I'd enjoy this book more based on recommendations from friends and other reviews, but a lot of what people praised about it felt a bit overstated/almost cheesy, to me. The sci-fi element (from the name of the book, to the promise of starship shenanigans in the blurb) felt kind of hastily done, and a lot less thoroughly world-built than Shizuka's origins/development (Faustian bargains, Hell, etc). It almost felt like a disservice to Lan as a tritagonist, to have so much less of her history, thought, and motivations explored and revealed. 

There were many things I liked about the book, I'm just disappointed I didn't enjoy it more. Katrina's arc was well executed, albeit cliché at times; as a trans writer, I feel like Aoki can make her trans protagonist as universally relatable as she wants, she has that right (speaking as a trans person myself). Also, many trans people will pour their heart and soul into a hobby as a means of escape, to the point of obsession, and get so good at it that it feels mary-sue-ish - I'm guilty of this with art, and one of my trans roommates is making a phenomenal video game right now. I bring this up because cis friends who have read this book see Katrina's violin playing skills as "overpowered", for lack of a better term, and I completely disagree, trans people are just that cool. 

Lan and Shizuka's relationship was everything I loved in a meet cute - two older wlw (When do you see that??? I love that!!! They're giving owl house Eda levels of pining) struggling to flirt and falling flat on their faces. And the misunderstandings! Ugh, when Shizuka

got a call from Astrid about making dinner and Lan assumed a "housekeeper" was a romantic partner, and got really sad about it, it was so cute.

Or when

Shizuka saw Lan in uniform and had a gay little freakout, I may have squealed in delight despite being way too old for that myself.

Older wlw absolutely carried this book for me,

age gap be damned. They're both consenting adults, and yes, one's in her mid 40s while the other's almost 80, but has Shizuka really lived these past 46 years, suspended in a weird violin-murderhobo stasis? I don't think so. Let her kiss a hot starship captain I beg of you.

So, what didn't I like? I've already mentioned the story's treatment of Lan - her voice and inner world just feels much emptier than that of Katrina or Shizuka, and she deserved more as a tritagonist. Also, regarding Marcus:

the treatment of Marcus was... not great. He killed some people and never really got a resolution. The other loose ends were all tied up, and Marcus was just sort of left with nothing. For a book that is all about community and healing and support, this kid, who was clearly hurting, never got the support and rehabilitation he clearly needed. He was just forgotten about by his own family, who seemed to move on from his absence far too quickly.

Similarly, nothing ever came of

Katrina's friend Evan. I would have liked to see something occur there - like, there were all these threads that got converged at the end, there was even an undocumented immigrant Floresta hires in the epilogue - a random new character shoved in there - and you're telling me Aoki didn't have time for a petty moment with Katrina and Evan's friends, except with the power dynamic now flipped? Come on.

Some of the more cringe-worthy moments like

Astrid walking in on Katrina

gave me the worst second hand embarassment. And Lucy's character felt just a bit cliché with her inferiority complex and the way she spoke about/dealt with it. 

All in all, a fun read with excellent representation that unfortunately fell short in many places. My library doesn't stock the Wayfarers series, so I continue in my fruitless search for good queer sci-fi that doesn't "masquerade as sci-fi" through a contrived title and cover.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Transphobia

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Outing, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Body shaming

Minor: Misogyny, Deportation, Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Mental illness, War, and Xenophobia

shinypurplepants's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.5

This was not my cup of tea. There were ideas I liked here but the way they fit together was disappointing. I especially hated Lucy and the whole violin-making family and their storyline. It felt like it only showed up to interrupt more interesting scenes and I didn't care for the internalized sexism of the Maestro.

The book tries to be so whimsical and uplifting but it's got all these random edgy passages of violence that serve no purpose to the narrative. Physical assaults, sexual violence, use of slurs, harassment, abuse, self harm. Every character seems to have unaddressed internalized -isms that the books chooses to just ignore rather than help them through it. It drags down any elements of lightness the book was working to cultivate. I did not enjoy this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: War, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Rape, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Deadnaming, Body shaming, Abandonment, Sexism, Racism, and Hate crime

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.