Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo

40 reviews

mangofraiche's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Infidelity, Dementia, and Death

paperquilt's review against another edition

fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Dementia, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racism, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Infidelity

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Grief, and Death

Minor: Drug use and Dementia

emmabunny's review against another edition

emotional reflective relaxing 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Homophobia

sundayfever's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.5

A good queer YA read. Vividly made me feel like I was in SF. Kudos for being a YA book where the teenage romance doesn't continue into the future - it felt more realistic, with a bittersweet ending. Don't get why the blurb says the main character joins a working-class queer community, when she does no reflecting on her own class privilege at all in the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Infidelity, Body shaming, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia

bi_n_large's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Bullying

Moderate: Grief, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Racism

caseyaboutthroughout's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia

uss_mary_shelley's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, and Homophobia

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Aria spends the summer before starting college discovering who she really is and who she wants to be. 

I was so excited for this book. I read Last Night at the Telegraph Club earlier this year and was absolutely blown away by Lo’s writing, the history, and the characters she created. As a companion novel to Telegraph, I expected the same magical experience with A Scatter of Light. Sadly, I didn’t feel it. 

The two main characters, Aria & Steph, felt so overly dramatic - especially considering they are older than the characters in Telegraph. I physically cringed multiple times at some of the things they said/ did. I didn’t find either of them very likable, and I couldn’t root for them. 

Part of what made Telegraph so magical was the history. A Scatter of Light is also set in the past, but a much more recent past - 2013, right when Prop 8 was overturned, making gay marriage legal in California. This is mentioned a few times in the book, but I wish more attention had been given to everything going on at the time, rather than focusing so heavily (almost entirely) on the “relationship” between Aria and Steph. 

There is also one scene in which Steph implies that she is struggling with her gender, but it is completely brushed over and never explored. It felt like a last-minute throw in for some additional diversity as there was no other trans/non-binary/gender queer rep in the book. 

The best part of the book was the (very brief) glimpse we get into the lives of Lily and Kath (the main characters from Telegraph) in 2013. No spoilers, but I was glad to see where they had ended up, nearly 60 years later. 

Maybe my expectations were too high, but overall I was just really disappointed with this book. Telegraph has a permanent home on my shelves, but A Scatter of Light is probably going to be one of those getting unhauled at the end of the year. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia, Biphobia, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Grief, Infidelity, and Medical content

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed this for the most part except

I’m not a fan of cheating storylines and since that’s basically the second half of this book it kind of knocked it down a few stars; I think the part that got me most excited was when we saw how Lily and Kath from Last Night at the Telegraph Club ended up (and they weren’t even the main focus of the book so 🤷‍♀️ ).

 
Otherwise I think this was a nice book and I liked the family discussions as well as the conversations Joan and Aria had about art

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia and Toxic relationship