What does a deal with the devil, donuts, a transgirl, and aliens have in common?!...Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, silly!
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil. Katrina ran away from an abusive family with her prized possession, her violin. Lan fled from her home plant to escape a death plague and bought a donut shop on Earth. If this hasn't already grabbed your interest, then we probably don't have the same book interests!
The book features many different characters, often changing from POV’s during the chapter. The narration at times made it slightly difficult to tell when it changed the POV. Longer pauses before the change from characters to simulate the page breaks would have been helpful, however, this was not thatbig of deal. The narrator (Cindy Kay) was decent enough to help clue you in quickly, especially if characters names had not already been stated. I imagine this would have been a non-issue reading a physical copy of the book.
"Light From Uncommon Stars" felt like an important read for a few reasons. Accurate trans representation in media is important, and especially vital coming from trans voices themselves. Author Ryka Aoki identifies as transgender, and provides a beautiful contribution highlighting transgender experience within a science fiction novel. Topics of sex work and the fetishization of the trans community are particular notable.
Enjoyment - 5/5
I VERY much enjoyed this! I found myself choosing to listen to the audiobook rather than music, which is a big deal for me. I almost always choose music when I'm at home.
Plot - 5/5
This story kept me on my toes. Sure a deal with devil is over played troupe, but there were SO many other elements to the story that kept you confused (in a good way!!). I come on, aliens who own a donut shop!?!
Characters - 5/5
The characters were lovable and complemented each other well to move the story along.
Thought Provoking - 5/5
Okayyyyy, I'm kinda a sucker for deals with the devil, even though I just said they are an over done troupe. :D Partially why I like these troupes are because it puts me in a contemplative state. Would I make a deal with devil? What would I bargain for? The questions just continually roam in my head. Light From Uncommon Stars also touches on experiences of trans folks, which provided an opportunity to reflect. Transpobia can be rooted deeply and outside of our awareness. I appreciate this story providing me an opportunity to think about where transphobia may come up for me and how I can continue to dismantle it. Books that can push me to reflect post-completion of the story probably receive high marks for this category, and this book is no exception!
Narration - 4/5
I briefly covered this earlier. The narration switched from POV to POV mid chapter daily quickly. At times I would feel lost on who was talking. My suggestion, longer pauses to simulate a change in POV.
Overall this was a soldi read and one I would reccemnd to my readers!
Happy reading!
Bobbi
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