reading crustacean hat Light From Uncommon Stars von Ryka Aoki besprochen
yeees
5 Sterne
bursting with ideas, and truth, and kindness <3
hardcover, 368 Seiten
Am 27. September 2021 von Tor Books veröffentlicht.
Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.
When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.
But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something …
Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.
When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.
But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.
As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
bursting with ideas, and truth, and kindness <3
The blurb I read touted this as "Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in a defiantly joyful adventure", which is not how I'd describe it. Though I quite liked the prose itself, I was either annoyed or irritated by every single character, I hated the Faustian/sci-fi crossover, found the endless descriptions of music and food tedious after a time, and thought the ending was obvious and then silly. If this is your type of thing, you'll like it. I'm not overly sentimental and found it mawkish. Not for me.
Yes there were really hard parts, yes I was triggered at times, but Aoki managed to expertly balance this with such heartfelt and grounded writing that I never felt unsupported when the story ventured to the cliffs edge. This has been added to my list of all time favorites and will be slotted in as a challenging comfort read I return to to remind me that it’s ok when life gets hard and the worlds ugly - I just have to find the friendly face in the dark.
I’m so happy I listened to this, Cindy Kay was the perfect narrator. She also narrates the Sing Hills novellas, so check those out too if you want more expert story telling.
I had a problem getting used to the writing style at first, but as I got used to it I could see the beauty of the story
My main take from the story is that it gave me a better perspective on what it’s like to grow up as trans. It has a lot of hurt, but it’s also a reminder that kindness can go a long way.
🎻 There is a lot of music interwoven in a beautiful story. The author describes musical performances in a way that I could even imagine the sound, just from words and emotions. I also liked that it has a high geek factor, there are mentions of Star Trek and references to music from games and anime.
Beautiful story worthy of a recommendation 🧡
Finished this book in about a week. I've heard of Ryka Aoki before but I did not know she was trans, so I was even more hyped to read this book and learn more about her. The writing level is appropriate for something oriented at the YA audience, especially with how it drops pop culture references (lmao Lindsey Stirling, Sword Art Online, and totally-not-undertale) and reaches to the occult and sci-fi. It was easy to breeze through.
I enjoyed the world building and character building a lot for those at the center of the stage, the food is given a lot of care 🤤, it really took the story forward from the start. You start to get draw into the cadence of their life. While the ending felt like what I thought was sufficient for a YA novel, I was disappointed how some characters really did not get their justice/recognition. …
Finished this book in about a week. I've heard of Ryka Aoki before but I did not know she was trans, so I was even more hyped to read this book and learn more about her. The writing level is appropriate for something oriented at the YA audience, especially with how it drops pop culture references (lmao Lindsey Stirling, Sword Art Online, and totally-not-undertale) and reaches to the occult and sci-fi. It was easy to breeze through.
I enjoyed the world building and character building a lot for those at the center of the stage, the food is given a lot of care 🤤, it really took the story forward from the start. You start to get draw into the cadence of their life. While the ending felt like what I thought was sufficient for a YA novel, I was disappointed how some characters really did not get their justice/recognition. There are times that this book feels like a typical YA novel and I wish it said more, but there are other times I remember how important it is that it's doing exactly what it's doing (I say as a queer trans Asian person myself). Just... maybe for someone younger than me (in my 20s)?
As others mentioned, this book could use some content warnings on the traumatic experiences that the main character especially experiences. I also noticed that aspects about inter-Asian discourse aren't really touched on: there's a celebration of primarily East and Southeast Asian cultures, not really a mention of many other cultures like South Asian or issues of colorism.
Käuflich erhältlich
https://www.litalist.com/book/9781250789068
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