nogoodnik hat Light From Uncommon Stars von Ryka Aoki besprochen
a book that wants to be a lot of things, and succeeds at many of them
4 Sterne
a beautiful story of defiant joy and love of the gifts of art and other kinds of creation. a rich homage to its setting and all of its diverse histories. an unlikely found family, if you don't think about it too hard. at times, characters and their stories felt over-dense or, no pun intended, underbaked (what happens with the other 6 musicians who Shizuka condemns to hell? you get the sense that if the story had painted them with a bit more remorse, or any detail at all, really, all of a sudden Shizuka as a character would have to represent more than just a wish fulfillment trope with a scary reputation and secret heart of gold...), all in all weaving into a rich, dense piece of art that I could keep thinking about and looking at from a thousand different angles.
i want to rate this higher for …
a beautiful story of defiant joy and love of the gifts of art and other kinds of creation. a rich homage to its setting and all of its diverse histories. an unlikely found family, if you don't think about it too hard. at times, characters and their stories felt over-dense or, no pun intended, underbaked (what happens with the other 6 musicians who Shizuka condemns to hell? you get the sense that if the story had painted them with a bit more remorse, or any detail at all, really, all of a sudden Shizuka as a character would have to represent more than just a wish fulfillment trope with a scary reputation and secret heart of gold...), all in all weaving into a rich, dense piece of art that I could keep thinking about and looking at from a thousand different angles.
i want to rate this higher for getting at why I love classical music that brings out the beauty in the atonal and experimental as a trans person, on top of everything else that's wonderful about this book, but also lower for how much I felt was underexplored, which to me is a good sign for a 3.5 rating.
all in all, it's hard to be upset about a book feeling overfull, like a stocking too-stuffed with lovely treats.