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sarah984's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I can see why other people like this book and I do think some of the commentary on race and perfectionism is worthwhile, but I just did not like this book at all.
The writing style is very florid and full of repetition (yes she smells like sea salt I KNOW) and annoying fanfic tropes (they keep calling each other by their full names??). The main character is an astronomer but does no astronomy in the book, barely thinks about it despite apparently loving it, and doesn't seem to know why she liked it in the first place. The one piece of "astronomy" in the book (aside from some poetic "you are made of star stuff" nonsense) is a paraphrase of an annoying Tumblr post about a mars rover. I think this felt so glaring to me because I read "The Disordered Cosmos" so recently and it's by an author who is theoretically so similar to this character - a Black lgbtq+ astrophysicist - but had such a strong enthusiasm for the subject matter.
The characters are mostly meant to be pushing thirty but all read very young and immature. There's a character who is a candy striper or something who reveals someone’s private medical details without their consent and no one cares. The love interest is essentially a manic pixie dream girl (also she's Japanese and this is handled very weirdly) and loves the main character even though she treats her badly. The whole thing kind of feels like a fantasy where everyone else puts aside their problems to hold your hand - no other characters’ issues that are brought up are resolved. It also feels like every character just sort of parrots the author’s political opinions despite their actual situation - the main character living off her parents’ money (she's 29 and her dad is paying her rent!) is required to make the plot work but she's joking around about how she's a broke millennial who will never be able to retire and ragging on people with "generational wealth".
The writing style is very florid and full of repetition (yes she smells like sea salt I KNOW) and annoying fanfic tropes (they keep calling each other by their full names??). The main character is an astronomer but does no astronomy in the book, barely thinks about it despite apparently loving it, and doesn't seem to know why she liked it in the first place. The one piece of "astronomy" in the book (aside from some poetic "you are made of star stuff" nonsense) is a paraphrase of an annoying Tumblr post about a mars rover. I think this felt so glaring to me because I read "The Disordered Cosmos" so recently and it's by an author who is theoretically so similar to this character - a Black lgbtq+ astrophysicist - but had such a strong enthusiasm for the subject matter.
The characters are mostly meant to be pushing thirty but all read very young and immature. There's a character who is a candy striper or something who reveals someone’s private medical details without their consent and no one cares. The love interest is essentially a manic pixie dream girl (also she's Japanese and this is handled very weirdly) and loves the main character even though she treats her badly. The whole thing kind of feels like a fantasy where everyone else puts aside their problems to hold your hand - no other characters’ issues that are brought up are resolved. It also feels like every character just sort of parrots the author’s political opinions despite their actual situation - the main character living off her parents’ money (she's 29 and her dad is paying her rent!) is required to make the plot work but she's joking around about how she's a broke millennial who will never be able to retire and ragging on people with "generational wealth".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, and Medical content
Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
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
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Mental illness
Moderate: Medical content, Abandonment, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Racism
Minor: Grief, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt
lushani's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Racism and Self harm
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
averyrembish's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, and Self harm
Minor: Medical content, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia
strangeeigenfunction's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
There's something evocative and luminous about the writing in this book. I'm not sure I would characterize it first and foremost as a romance, because it's as much about friendship and family (both adopted and otherwise) and relating to one's self as it is the romance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm
Minor: Sexual content and Death of parent
ewy's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
I wish there was more romance.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Self harm
tiffanyisreading's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
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 is fucking excellent like!!!!!! just a book about queer people living their lives and navigating the world be it romantically, career- wise, whatever it is. it brought tears to my eyes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Self harm
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
emotional
funny
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
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, especially because I felt Grace's struggles. I don't face barriers from racism between me and my chosen career, but I am very familiar with reorienting my life after accademia and with feeling lost after school ended.
📘The Gist 📘: After finishing her Doctorate, Grace's life plans quickly fall apart. At the same time, she deals with reimagining her life outside of accademia. In the midst of this pressure, Grace has an opportunity to build a relationship with a woman she accidentally married in Vegas.
📒Representation📒: BIPOC mc and sc, wlw, women in science, queer sc
💕 For readers looking for 💕: explorations of life transitions between accademia and careers, romance, emotional and mental health
📘The Gist 📘: After finishing her Doctorate, Grace's life plans quickly fall apart. At the same time, she deals with reimagining her life outside of accademia. In the midst of this pressure, Grace has an opportunity to build a relationship with a woman she accidentally married in Vegas.
📒Representation📒: BIPOC mc and sc, wlw, women in science, queer sc
💕 For readers looking for 💕: explorations of life transitions between accademia and careers, romance, emotional and mental health
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Self harm, and Grief
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Sexual content, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
ergaich's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
beautifully written. explores the struggles of identity through race, class, education in such a touching way. however, i found the ending a bit rushed and unsatisfying
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Racism, Sexual content, and Self harm
Minor: Abandonment, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, and Sexism
queerolderdaughter13's review
dark
emotional
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
5.0
(I don’t think this have spoilers but read at your own risk I guess)
FIRST OF ALL,WOW.
HOLY SHIT.
PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.
This is a wlw book but it focus more in mental health than in the romance but the romance is like super cute and real and the mental health is so fucking accurate and I really related to that as someone with a shitty mental health.
Just wow.
The main character is a black lesbian,who have a PhD in astronomy.The love interest is a Japanese lesbian,who have owns a podcast.
The main character is named Grace and she went to Las Vegas and accidentally married this girl she doesn’t know.Now she’s trying to find the girl while dealing with her own mental health as all her plans for future crash down because being an adult is fucking complicated.
The mental health representation,the racism representation,the lgbt representation,etc etc is just wow.
I love this.So much.
I see this book (in my personal opinion) as a love letter to blackness,to space,to the confusing universe.To those who never give up,and to those who do give up.A love letter to people with bad mental health,to sapphic love,to the lgbt community,to those with childhood trauma,and who were forced to grow up too quickly.To the stars,and to Orange trees,and to nature,to astronomy,to different cultures,to those who struggle with living in a racist homophobic and sexist society,who feel like the world is crushing down in top of them.To those who don’t know what to do with their lives.A love letter to found family,to friends,to mythology,to radio podcasts,to those who have high hopes and expectations for themselves,and to those who were seated those expectations in themselves at a young age and now than they don’t full fill them,and they feel worthless.
A reminder to breathe,let your body and mind rest.Seek help if you need it.
Check tw’s before reading.
(TW’s:
-discussion and depictions of mental illness
-self-harm (scratching skin, nails digging into skin as anxiety coping mechanism)
-past suicide attempt by side character
-depictions of anti-Blackness and homophobia in the academic and corporate settings
-casual alcohol consumption
-minor drug use (marijuana)
-discussions of racism experienced by all characters of color
-past limb amputation due to war injury (side character)
-past parent death (side character) )
(+ some of my fav quotes than maybe convince you to read it?)
“She is okay because she must be, to muster the strength to set up more job interviews. She must be as formidable as the black, swirling universe. It keeps going, and so shall she. She has to.”
“I think lonely creatures ache for each other because who else can understand but someone who feels the same dark, black abyss?”
“No one told her astronomers, the ones that publish research every few months and get tenured at universities and navigate programs at NASA, that those astronomers don’t have sun-gold hair. They don’t have sun-browned skin. Those astronomers don’t have ancestors that looked at the stars as a means of escape and not in awe.”
“It is all in us, Professor MacMillan said of the bits and pieces collected in her office. These things, essentially small rocks and stones now, were once a part of the universe. I know many astronomers think I take a romantic approach to the science, but how can we not when presented with such grand facts? That something so small was once a part of something bigger than what our human brains can grasp?”
“You are made up of stars and the black glittering universe,” she says quietly. “It may be too romantic for most of the people in this field, but it’s true. But you are still just a human. Just a small thing that has to find its way like everyone else in this enormous world. It will not be simple, Grace Porter, and it will not be easy. You may have to make a lot of noise, and the universe’s silence can be oppressive and thick. But you want them to hear you, and they will. So do not, not even for one second, stop making noise.”
“Grace
7:39 p.m.
having an existential crisis. lol text it.
Yuki
7:45 p.m.
[fuckboi voice] wow...without me?”
“Yuki
8:04 p.m.
um excuse me this is what wives are for. in my gay fantasies growing up i always wanted my wife to text me late at night then we’d run away together and join like a circus”
“But it’ll be hard whether you’re in Portland or Florida or the North damn Pole. I don’t want you to stop because it’s hard. I know that’s real easy for me to say, but it’s true. Stop if you need a break, honey, but don’t stop because they want you to. You got too much potential.”
“Grace sighs and stares at her phone. It’s hard to explain that you are tired, bone-deep, rib-deep, belly-deep tired. It’s hard to explain that someone held their hand out to the stars and said all of these can be yours, and you believed it. You believed the climb and the barrier and the gate would not break you. You spent eleven years ignoring that your mind and body said, Stop, breathe, be kind to yourself, and you punished yourself for even thinking it.”
“Even as a child, I wondered why so many of the bad things, the scary things, were women. I asked my grandmother once, and she told me it was the way of the world. Sometimes monsters became women, because women who deviated were monsters. I didn’t understand that until later.”
“This is a story about how deviation from the norm can create scary, monstrous things. What my grandmother didn’t know was that years later, society would still create Yamauba. We would still be seen as dark, terrible things simply for refusing to fit a particular narrative. Perhaps the truly terrifying thing is to step away from what you’re supposed to do and what you have planned. Perhaps you, the monster that you are, find yourself feeding on what you could not bear yourself.
“Perhaps Yamauba were created because we did not want to name something we brought forth with our own hands,” Yuki says. “Perhaps flesh- eating monsters are simply people who break their molds and their boxes, and find themselves demanding all they have been denied.”
“Sometimes people feel ownership over the things that make us us,” Yuki says into the mic. “Sometimes the things that are familiar to us and feel safe to us, remnants of our childhood and old lives, are locked away by someone who wants us to be different and look different and follow their rules. Sometimes lonely creatures are not of their own making.”
“My ‘capitalism is a plague’ radar was going off,” she says. “Figured I’d come join the fun.”
“Everything that is buried will be unburied. Everything that is pushed down will find its way out. It is the way of the universe.”
FIRST OF ALL,WOW.
HOLY SHIT.
PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.
This is a wlw book but it focus more in mental health than in the romance but the romance is like super cute and real and the mental health is so fucking accurate and I really related to that as someone with a shitty mental health.
Just wow.
The main character is a black lesbian,who have a PhD in astronomy.The love interest is a Japanese lesbian,who have owns a podcast.
The main character is named Grace and she went to Las Vegas and accidentally married this girl she doesn’t know.Now she’s trying to find the girl while dealing with her own mental health as all her plans for future crash down because being an adult is fucking complicated.
The mental health representation,the racism representation,the lgbt representation,etc etc is just wow.
I love this.So much.
I see this book (in my personal opinion) as a love letter to blackness,to space,to the confusing universe.To those who never give up,and to those who do give up.A love letter to people with bad mental health,to sapphic love,to the lgbt community,to those with childhood trauma,and who were forced to grow up too quickly.To the stars,and to Orange trees,and to nature,to astronomy,to different cultures,to those who struggle with living in a racist homophobic and sexist society,who feel like the world is crushing down in top of them.To those who don’t know what to do with their lives.A love letter to found family,to friends,to mythology,to radio podcasts,to those who have high hopes and expectations for themselves,and to those who were seated those expectations in themselves at a young age and now than they don’t full fill them,and they feel worthless.
A reminder to breathe,let your body and mind rest.Seek help if you need it.
Check tw’s before reading.
(TW’s:
-discussion and depictions of mental illness
-self-harm (scratching skin, nails digging into skin as anxiety coping mechanism)
-past suicide attempt by side character
-depictions of anti-Blackness and homophobia in the academic and corporate settings
-casual alcohol consumption
-minor drug use (marijuana)
-discussions of racism experienced by all characters of color
-past limb amputation due to war injury (side character)
-past parent death (side character) )
(+ some of my fav quotes than maybe convince you to read it?)
“She is okay because she must be, to muster the strength to set up more job interviews. She must be as formidable as the black, swirling universe. It keeps going, and so shall she. She has to.”
“I think lonely creatures ache for each other because who else can understand but someone who feels the same dark, black abyss?”
“No one told her astronomers, the ones that publish research every few months and get tenured at universities and navigate programs at NASA, that those astronomers don’t have sun-gold hair. They don’t have sun-browned skin. Those astronomers don’t have ancestors that looked at the stars as a means of escape and not in awe.”
“It is all in us, Professor MacMillan said of the bits and pieces collected in her office. These things, essentially small rocks and stones now, were once a part of the universe. I know many astronomers think I take a romantic approach to the science, but how can we not when presented with such grand facts? That something so small was once a part of something bigger than what our human brains can grasp?”
“You are made up of stars and the black glittering universe,” she says quietly. “It may be too romantic for most of the people in this field, but it’s true. But you are still just a human. Just a small thing that has to find its way like everyone else in this enormous world. It will not be simple, Grace Porter, and it will not be easy. You may have to make a lot of noise, and the universe’s silence can be oppressive and thick. But you want them to hear you, and they will. So do not, not even for one second, stop making noise.”
“Grace
7:39 p.m.
having an existential crisis. lol text it.
Yuki
7:45 p.m.
[fuckboi voice] wow...without me?”
“Yuki
8:04 p.m.
um excuse me this is what wives are for. in my gay fantasies growing up i always wanted my wife to text me late at night then we’d run away together and join like a circus”
“But it’ll be hard whether you’re in Portland or Florida or the North damn Pole. I don’t want you to stop because it’s hard. I know that’s real easy for me to say, but it’s true. Stop if you need a break, honey, but don’t stop because they want you to. You got too much potential.”
“Grace sighs and stares at her phone. It’s hard to explain that you are tired, bone-deep, rib-deep, belly-deep tired. It’s hard to explain that someone held their hand out to the stars and said all of these can be yours, and you believed it. You believed the climb and the barrier and the gate would not break you. You spent eleven years ignoring that your mind and body said, Stop, breathe, be kind to yourself, and you punished yourself for even thinking it.”
“Even as a child, I wondered why so many of the bad things, the scary things, were women. I asked my grandmother once, and she told me it was the way of the world. Sometimes monsters became women, because women who deviated were monsters. I didn’t understand that until later.”
“This is a story about how deviation from the norm can create scary, monstrous things. What my grandmother didn’t know was that years later, society would still create Yamauba. We would still be seen as dark, terrible things simply for refusing to fit a particular narrative. Perhaps the truly terrifying thing is to step away from what you’re supposed to do and what you have planned. Perhaps you, the monster that you are, find yourself feeding on what you could not bear yourself.
“Perhaps Yamauba were created because we did not want to name something we brought forth with our own hands,” Yuki says. “Perhaps flesh- eating monsters are simply people who break their molds and their boxes, and find themselves demanding all they have been denied.”
“Sometimes people feel ownership over the things that make us us,” Yuki says into the mic. “Sometimes the things that are familiar to us and feel safe to us, remnants of our childhood and old lives, are locked away by someone who wants us to be different and look different and follow their rules. Sometimes lonely creatures are not of their own making.”
“My ‘capitalism is a plague’ radar was going off,” she says. “Figured I’d come join the fun.”
“Everything that is buried will be unburied. Everything that is pushed down will find its way out. It is the way of the universe.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexism and Misogyny