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A review by melliedm
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
reflective
fast-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
2.0
“Plaster of Paris, chicken wire, and concrete were not strong enough to bind the space-time continuum”, and heart, whimsy, and originality are not enough to bind Light From Uncommon Stars.
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I liked it’s creativity, I liked what it was trying to say, and I liked it conceptually. When it comes to the execution, however, I don’t think the final product worked for me.
I found the perspective-switching mid-scene and sometimes as frequent as every few paragraphs offputting and confusing, with the character voices to feel too unified/similar to make those perspective switches feel like they made a marked difference outside of being jarring. I also felt that the novel did a lot of telling as opposed to showing, frequently giving us far too much information so that we couldn’t engage with the unpredictable nature the book seemed to flirt with. The one time the book did not telegraph what was coming clearly, it instead telegraphed the opposite—which could have worked if we had not been given false information from an internal perspective. The false information coming from an external perspective would have felt earned, but the internal made it feel like we were intentionally lied to in order to achieve a last minute twist.
Despite my complaints and the fact that this wasn’t a hit for me, Light From Uncommon Stars still managed to be charming and an easy read. You can just fly through the pages, which is a fantastic trait. I think that there are many people who would absolutely love to bask in Light, I just wasn’t one of them.
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I liked it’s creativity, I liked what it was trying to say, and I liked it conceptually. When it comes to the execution, however, I don’t think the final product worked for me.
I found the perspective-switching mid-scene and sometimes as frequent as every few paragraphs offputting and confusing, with the character voices to feel too unified/similar to make those perspective switches feel like they made a marked difference outside of being jarring. I also felt that the novel did a lot of telling as opposed to showing, frequently giving us far too much information so that we couldn’t engage with the unpredictable nature the book seemed to flirt with. The one time the book did not telegraph what was coming clearly, it instead telegraphed the opposite—which could have worked if we had not been given false information from an internal perspective. The false information coming from an external perspective would have felt earned, but the internal made it feel like we were intentionally lied to in order to achieve a last minute twist.
Despite my complaints and the fact that this wasn’t a hit for me, Light From Uncommon Stars still managed to be charming and an easy read. You can just fly through the pages, which is a fantastic trait. I think that there are many people who would absolutely love to bask in Light, I just wasn’t one of them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Outing, Deadnaming, Sexual content, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Racism
Minor: Gun violence and Fire/Fire injury