Light from Uncommon Stars

[cornerofmadness]

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really wanted to love this novel, a mash up of SF/urban fantasy, trans female lead (by a trans female author) but I never connected well with any of the characters.

Before I begin let me begin with the triggers because this thing is nothing but a few hundred pages of triggers leading off with trans phobia (in major ways, huge gobs of it) self loathing, body dysphoria, homophobia, abusive parents, selling your body to survive, racism and there's probably more I'm forgetting because I waited weeks to do this.

Katrina Nguyen is a transgendered violin prodigy (and the center of 98% of all the above mentioned triggers) she's on the run from her family, trying to survive, when Shizuka Satomi hears her play. Satomi has made a deal with the devil. She has to give seven souls to him or he takes hers. If she does it she'll get her own music back.

Also in this is an alien family pretending to be Asians and running a donut shop that's a front for their star ship as they flee intergalactic war and other horros.

No, these stories don't mesh perfectly but they are interesting but the real issue for me isn't the two genre mash up. Satomi's sapphic relationship with the ship's captain is interesting. My issue is Katrina doesn't grow one iota. She's so mired in her trauma and her bad transitional experience that she seems incapable of change and that was disappointing.

I wanted more from this than I got but I think it's more of a me not it thing.



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