A review by avanthiannotates
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.5

This was delightful in ways I absolutely did not imagine and did not see coming. There was so much about this that was truly just so beautiful.. and so heartachingly raw.
This was also written in such an interesting way that admittedly, I had to re-wind a fair bit because I didn't realise there was a character POV switch (even though it's written in 3rd person which I love). And I really loved how they utilised the 3rd person POV to give us a wider breadth of knowledge and understanding about the characters reacting to the same situation and how that could impact later scenes where we may only see it from one or two POVs. It was really delightful and honestly considering making a 5-star rating.

If you love aliens, AI, found-family, queerness, transness, music (violins), multiple weaving storylines, doughnuts, demons and ducks, this may be the story for you.

My fave quote:
"One does not play memories of music; one plays music itself. And lifetimes, from beginning to end, are as sheets of music, ready to be played"
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