"Defiantly joyful" is a good word for this book- a story that looks unflinchingly at the harsh realities that many trans youth face, all the while weaving a hopeful tale about love, music, found family, and mouthwatering food. It's character driven science fiction peppered with Faustian bargains, cursed violins, and aliens who run a donut shop. There's a lot happening here but somehow it manages to fit together in a beautiful tapestry.

Katrina Wen is a trans runaway and a gifted violin prodigy using sex work to survive and hopefully afford more hormones. She's early in her transition, dealing with hate and violence, living in fear, even in places that should have been safe.

Her life changes when she meets Shizuka Satomi- an infamous violinist who offers to become her teacher. But Satomi has made a deal with the devil to deliver the souls of her students to hell. And yet...she shows kindness to Katrina and in turn Katrina begins to worm her way into her heart.

Meanwhile in a donut shop and alien family is in hiding, using replicators to make donuts that never quite have that taste of home. And when Satomi happens into the store, she and the Lan (matriarch of the alien family) are immediately attracted to each other.

Like I said, there's a lot happening here but it's a surprisingly quiet, beautiful story that is raw and vulnerable in presenting the experience of being a young trans woman. And it's clear the author knows and loves music. Permeating the book is a passion for the violin, and equally a passion for food with descriptions that will probably make you hungry!

At first I didn't love the audio narration because it didn't always echo the more silly and lighthearted tone of some scenes, but eventually I really fell in love with it because it really gets across the emotional depth. I received an audio review copy of this book via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Note that this book does include semi-graphic scenes of sexual assault, slurs, dead-naming, etc.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

There was a certain moment, when the main character Kristina is given a shred of dignity.This instant resonated with depth and perspective, as she calls into question why she has to take so many hateful words, disgusted looks and avoided glances. She simply asks ‘why’?

Light from Uncommon Stars is an incredible and heartfelt book. Aoki is able to wrangle such disparate concepts as aliens, demons, violin stars and trans folks into a cohesive narrative. We follow Kristina, a trans teen who escapes her abusive father and ends up on the streets of LA. She runs into Satomi, a renowned violin teacher, also known as the “Queen of Hell”, and is brought into a world of digital fame.

Aoki delivers a modern fairy tale. This book is able to bring the unbelievable to earth, and allow a future to live among the stars. The characters are lovable, but flawed. The action is real, and the trauma is realistically revealed. But, I had three complaints - Kristina’s incessant apologies became grating about halfway through the book; Satomi’s relationship follows a somewhat YA arc of jumping from (a long drawn out) flirtation to a full emotional relationship; and what happens to Marcus???

Nonetheless, I found myself consistently reaching for this book and wanting to know more.

- Whew, there is a lot going on in LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS. Not to be cheesy about a book featuring a lot of classical music, but it's a symphony of storylines that seem disparate but come together beautifully at the end.
- It's truly one of a kind - this is the type of book where you can tell the author is writing with her whole heart.
- Such wonderful exploration of what it means to be yourself, to be embodied. Of what and who counts as family, and the lengths one will go to out of love for those people. Of how the parts of you that seem like liabilities or flaws can be what make you shine.
- I do want to make sure to point out that the summary makes this sound like a silly romp, and while there are definitely funny parts and ridiculous scenarios, it's also heavy with transphobia, racism and violence. Please see The Storygraph for all content warnings and take care if you need.

Content warnings: transphobia, misgendering, deadnaming; on-page sexual assault; depiction of consensual and non-consensual sex work; homophobia; racism; violence; death; suicidal ideation; family and parental abuse including emotional, pscyhological, and physical

I'm really uncertain how to rate and review this book. I've finally settled on a 3.5 star rating, rounded up. I think ultimately if I had had a clearer idea of what this book was going to be before going into it, I might have had an even better reading experience. As it is, I think this is definitely one that is going to need a bit of context and clarity when handselling. The comp titles for this very publicly have been Good Omens and Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I've read both of those books. The reading experience of Light from Uncommon Stars, for me, was VASTLY different from those other two. And if my expectations had not been set for those comps, again, I think I would have had an even better reading experience.

Which is not to say I had a terrible reading experience. I very much didn't! There were points where I got unexpectedly emotional and teary-eyed. I think I personally would comp this more to my reading experience of The Weight of the Stars, which was like angry at the injustice and cruelty of the world for about 90% of the book and then warmness the other 10%.

The book centers primarily around Katrina, a young woman kicked out of her home by her transphobic, abusive family who finds comfort and safety through a series of fortunate events relating to her violin prodigiousness. Aoki doesn't shy away from the realities of being a young trans woman in a world that is antagonistic to anyone who strays from the "norm," including the representation of sex work in order to survive. Katrina is also resilient and hard on herself and giving and loving, and I know this experience is realistic and would never want to attempt to restrict the truths that an author is infusing in their work if that's what they want. On the other hand, I would've loved for Katrina to not need to be so resilient.

Katrina is taken in by Shizuka Satomi, a former violinist and current teacher to the stars, who is actually looking for the final student's soul to deliver to hell. Decades ago, she made a deal in exchange for seven violin students for hell, and Katrina represents her seventh. She's on a timeline, but things get complicated not only because she's getting closer to Katrina, but also because she's getting closer to Lan Tran.

Lan Tran is the owner of Starrgate Donuts, which she runs with her extended family. Lan is also an alien who has built a stargate in the giant donut over the shop. Lan contains multitudes. She and Shizuka are drawn to each other, and seemingly without even stopping to think about the consequences, reveal their secret selves to each other. Their relationship is now without miscommunication - one is the "Queen of Hell" and one is from space, after all - but they also are supportive and serve as sounding boards for each other to try to understand the various complicated situations in their lives.

There are some top-tier side characters as well, my personal favourites being Shirley and Astrid.

I think this was an incredibly ambitious book, and I wish there had been one or two or five less threads. There were so many pieces being weaved together that some of them just kind of fell flat or dropped off. (Like, what was the point of what Markus did? Was it literally just a mechanism to get them on the ship? I just...) I might even have preferred it to be more like a novella length and pared down a little. The pacing was incredibly slow, and the writing style is definitely not going to be for everyone, as I could hear some folks saying it feels choppy and disjointed. That wasn't my take, I personally like having lots of little breaks like that, but I could see that being a point of frustration. There's a focus on the power of art to create connection and understanding, which I'm always a sucker for.

It definitely doesn't feel like a warm hug to read, which the two comp titles did for me. There were moments of warmth and tenderness, but I certainly didn't feel defiantly optimistic or hopeful after reading it. I felt like wanting to leave the planet. Looking at the tone of the book holistically, it feels inconsistent, at turns senseless and cruel and mercurial and then buoyant and soft and vulnerable. But then also LIFE is senseless and cruel and mercurial and then buoyant and soft and vulnerable. So I'm back to I don't know how I feel about this book. What I can say for certain is that this is a book I will be thinking about for a long while. And that's a recommendation all on its own.

Content warnings: anti-trans experience and sentiment, racism, parental physical abuse, deadnaming, war themes, on page sexual assault

This one is difficult to review. It's supposed to be similar to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and it is, but it's also less cozy. Katrina's life as a baby trans girl is difficult and traumatizing. I wish that the book would have given some of the content warnings at the beginning (ie: sexual assault) because it was JARRING in a book that was pitched as comforting. It felt like maybe the tone in general needed work? This book ultimately does turn out to be about found family and elder queers and I did truly enjoy it a lot. But get ready for periodic abrupt tonal shifts.

Thank you to NetGalley for a preview copy of the text in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of “deal with the devil” fantasy lately (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Dead and the Dark), and despite how old this particular motif is, each has served up an original and unexpected take.

Light From Uncommon Stars is a WEIRD book. And I loved it. Sure, on the one hand Aoki serves up a deeply real portrayal of the vulnerability and danger inherent in being a trans person in America. Kristina is a top notch queer protagonist. Aoki doesn’t shy away from the trauma trans folx often face, but Kristina is resilient; she finds ways to survive and thrive and has passions separate from her trans identity. Light From Uncommon Stars is also set against the rich cultural and geographic backdrop of immigrant communities in LA.

Buuuut then there’s also an infamous violin teacher who coaches her students to the greatest heights only to then have them disappear mysteriously when she harvests and sends their souls to hell.

Annnnd a queer alien mother who works at a donut store in an Asian American neighborhood of LA and has a fraught relationship with her holograph-AI-clone daughter.

Equal parts real and totally out there, Light From Uncommon Stars is sure to entertain and delight. The pacing is great, and Aoki seamlessly packs a lot of plot and character development into these 363 pages.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for giving me advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

<i>Light From Uncommon Stars</i> is a joy, a revelation, a rare book that is utterly unique in all its elements. This is a book that explores what it means to be transgender in modern America--and not through a side character, but through the protagonist, Katrina. It's about the profound power of music through the violin--and not simply classic compositions, but a celebration of video game music! It's also about deals with the devil and aliens running a southern California donut shop and what it means to be truly alive. This all sound like it'd make a messy hodgepodge of a novel, but Aoki makes it WORK.

Truly, this is one of the best books I've read this year--one of the best, period. It moved me to tears more than once. If this doesn't get award nominations next year, I am going to rage.

<i>Light</i> is not a fluffy, easy read, though. It has trigger warnings galore. There are blatant depictions of the domestic and sexual abuse, sex work, homophobia, and racism--but there is also brilliant hope and triumph. These characters slog through the darkness to find the light, especially Katrina. Oh, Katrina. There is a scene where she goes shopping, and with heartfelt support finds a dress that makes her feel truly beautiful, and wow. This book abounds with moments of wow.

Wow. Just wow. This has... a lot in it.

This was a fantastic story about found family, fighting for your identity, accepting that some things are bigger than yourself, and finding the strength to embrace who you are and who others are as well. The characters are all fully realized and add their own depth to the story, and their struggles are the reader's struggles, their joys are the reader's joys.

That said, I felt the pacing was off at times. I found myself bored of certain plot points, just waiting for the perspective to shift back to other characters. I loved the story of Katrina and Shizuka. I wish that the story had focused more on that, or that it could've even been its own story entirely. I found them much more engaging than the Tran family. However, for this story to work, it needed the Trans -- so I accepted those parts of the narrative, but it was difficult to focus my attention on them.

At the same time, I must give credit to Ryka Aoki for writing such a complex story. There's a lot of moving parts here, and they all had to line up perfectly in order to deliver a satisfying ending. And honestly, Aoki hit the mark spot on. This is a beautifully coordinated waltz of a story, with masterful execution. Aoki gives us a story that reads like the same complex violin pieces that Katrina plays, and with the same precision and mastery.

This book as an interesting premise but I had trouble connecting with the story. The writing jumped around and felt disconnected and choppy.

Thank you Netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

What does a violin teacher from Hell, a trans runaway, and an alien donut shop owner have in common? Well, I was skeptical too, but then I read Light from Uncommon Stars and now I feel like anything is possible.

Thanks Tor Books for a gifted copy of this book.

This book is incredible. Full stop.

Beautifully written and smartly displayed. It gave me TJ Klune and Becky Chambers vibes. It gave me donuts and so much delicious Asian food. It made me think of my violin-playing youth. And it was a massive love letter to the Asian communities of LA. I honestly was so astounded by the beauty, the embrace, and the creativity this book provided. It's definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

I don't even know where to begin with how to explain my feelings. Let's start with the characters. There are several different characters that this book follows, but the main ones are Lan, an interstellar alien trying to escape from a deadly plague that's ravishing star systems around the universe. She's escaped to Earth where her family work to rebuild their ship and as a cover they run an old donut shop. Shizuka was a violin virtuoso back in the day, but not anymore. In fact, she's spent the last 49 years cultivating young violin students, bringing them great fame and fortune, only to lose them all to tragic ends. Why? Because she works for the devil and collecting the souls of virtuoso is what she does. Katrina is a young trans youth who's recently run away from home. Without a place to stay, money to get food, or anyone to turn to, she's made her way doing sexual favors. That is, until one day, when Katrina plays her violin in the park and Shizuka just happens to hear.

The story surrounds these three individuals and their lives become more and more intertwined learning about each other, themselves, and what they're all capable of doing when given a little bit of love. The beauty of this story is surrounding their relationships and how they each grow so drastically in the pages within. Honestly, it's so incredible reading this book and watching how these people become the people they're supposed to be.

Of course, the story wasn't without its truths. There was a lot of heartbreaking depictions of Katrina as she struggles with being loved by someone unconditionally, with coming-to-terms with what's happened to her in the past, and how she finds herself through her music and the support of Shizuka and Lan. But there were also some uplifting moments where Katrina and Shizuka's relationship really made you believe in the good of people; even if they're actually conditioning their souls for the devil.

It was interesting to see Shizuka grow as well because she's been literally grooming children for death and eternal damnation. To see her change little by little with Katrina just makes you think there's possibility for bad people to be good again. And Lan, she changes immensely as well. Coming from a pragmatic people who don't understand why people would want a variety of donut flavors or why they waste their time with video games, you see how important these things are to humans and how this level of entertainment can be the exact thing the universe needs to keep moving forward.

Then, there was the violin play. Honestly, the violin was its own character in this book. As someone who has played violin for 10 years of her adolescent life, actually played Schradieck and tried her hand at Paganini, these violin references were SPOT ON. Even down to the kinds of bridges used and the kinds of sound the instrument can make if you use the right strings. It's literally so accurate that I thought Ryka Aoki was a long-time player like me. It was surprising when I realized that Ryka Aoki doesn't actually play the violin. She really fooled me because she had everything from the makers of violins to the differences a bow can make read like she was as experienced at the violin as Shizuka was.

The descriptions of the violin reminded me so much of The Red Violin; one of my all-time favorite movies. It was this idea that the violin held someone's soul and the music it played was seductive, embracing, and completely spell-binding. There was something free and beautiful about the violin that everyone coveted it and throughout the movie, you see how it makes its way around the world and touches everyone that plays it. You can watch the trailer here. So much of that feeling was deeply held to the violin parts in this book. I was honestly so moved by the way Ryka Aoki wrote the violin and the way it touched both Shizuka and Katrina's lives.

The ending is where you see everything come together. Honestly, I was so surprised. I had a feeling the ending would go a certain way; an ultimate sacrifice, but then it was completely thwarted and put a huge smile on my face. It was an incredible ending to finish off such an incredible experience.

Faustian elements, cursed villains, queer story/gays in space? This book was made for the gays and I loved every minute of it. The story was so unique and had such great representation. Can't wait for more from this author!

This book was tender, queer as hell, and delightfully weird. I loved every second of it.

Light From Uncommon Stars is an utterly unique story that merges fantasy and science fiction seemingly effortlessly. The novel follows three women - Katrina Nguyen, an Asian American trans woman and a self-taught violinist; Shizuka Satomi, also known as the Queen of Hell, a world-famous violinist looking to collect a seventh soul to deliver to Hell; and Lan Tran, a single mother of three who runs a donut store (and also happens to be an alien escaping the Endplague on her home planet).

Katrina and Miss Satomi's lives intersect when Katrina is playing her violin in the park, drawing the attention of famous violin teacher Shizuka Satomi. At the time, Katrina has just run away from home with only her violin and the essentials, leaving behind her abusive and transphobic parents. She becomes the seventh student (and unknowingly the planned seventh soul) for the Queen of Hell when her "friend" (and abuser) pawns her violin, which is the last straw causing her to leave her temporary housing, leading her to run into Miss Satomi again. They get her violin back, and Katrina finds a home with the Queen of Hell and her housekeeper and friend, Astrid.

The found family aspect with these three was absolutely my favourite part of the novel. Katrina finding people who not only accept but love her as she is, and the maternal love for Katrina that sneaks up on Satomi was beautifully written. From seemingly small acts of kindness like retrieving and paying for Katrina's hormones, fixing and teaching her violin to the big things like teaching her to love her body and be herself unapologetically, this was a beautiful mother/daughter story if I ever saw one. I also very much enjoyed our slow-burn romance between Lan Tran and Miss Satomi, it was nice to see an older sapphic couple, and their connection was so instant with them being so warm to one another while pushing each other to grow.

There aren't enough adult fiction novels featuring trans protagonists, and I adored Katrina's story. I felt it was especially great that Katrina is a sex worker, and she is not ashamed of that part of herself, nor is she shamed by any of the people who come to matter to her. Through Katrina as well as Shirley, Ryka Aoki really drives home that a person is not defined by the body they were given. As a trans person, I found this book very empowering and I know that it will be something that will be even closer to the hearts of transfeminine readers. This is a story I will come back to again and again.

This book covers many heavy topics, including but not limited to detailed transphobia and internalized transphobia/transmisogyny & homophobia, anti-Asian racism, sexual and parental abuse and more. Please take care while reading!

What a wonderful book!! I expected Light From Uncommon Stars to be just filled with Sci-Fi space exploration, which put me off reading it at first. After watching a webinar featuring the absolute dazzling Ryka Aoki, I knew I had to give it a shot. This book, simply put, is magical. Science fiction, but erring more on the side of Magical Realism than world-building, which I really enjoyed. I've seen this book compared to Good Omens, and I can attest that it is very similar in times in tone and irreverence.

The main message of this book is found family and sacrifice for the ones we love, which is MY JAM. Katrina is such a wonderful character, full of life, hope, and growth. Her transformation as she finds her voice throughout the book and shares it with the world is stunning. I can't wait to recommend this book via reader's advisory to all my patrons, and will VERY eagerly be watching anything else that Aoki publishes!

This novel in its totality is unlike anything else I’ve read in recent years, though there are elements of it that feel familiar and make it easy to slip into the tale. There are a lot of fascinating aspects to this story: individuals fleeing an empire at war and their futuristic technology, donuts and plenty of delicious things, a well-known violin teacher and her latest student, a deal with the devil. It honestly all sounds rather disjointed, but Aoki successfully wove it all together into a cohesive, readable tale. It can be hard to read at times considering the difficult experiences included or mentioned, but it ultimately gives the reader the same safe spaces and community that our characters eventually find in the story.

Shizuka Satomi, revered and feared violin instructor, is known as the Queen of Hell in the classical music world. As it turns out, the name is more apt than most people know – Shizuka made a deal with the devil to deliver seven talented, tortured souls to hell. So far, she has sent six souls to the fire, and while seeking her seventh, meets Katrina Nguyen. Katrina is a young runaway trans girl who is seeking safety and peace to play violin and be herself, and to Shizuka, is the perfect seventh soul to complete her deal. To further complicate things, Shizuka begins to fall for Lan Tran, the local donut lady who is actually an interstellar starship captain in hiding from the Galactic Empire. Lyrical and moving, Ryka Aoki’s new novel Light from Uncommon Stars surprises and delights at every turn.

This sort of mash-up should clash like discordant notes played off-key, but instead it sings like the most harmonious melody. The novel somehow combines science fiction aliens and a fantastical deal with the devil into a larger, cohesive whole, and this is only by the skill of the author. Aoki’s novel is queer, light, and witty, but with a darker edge that does not shy away from the lived experience of many trans people, with lyrical and dreamlike prose that employs extensive musical allegory. The author examines questions of identity, purpose, existence, and the ineffable beauty of music: how one person can competently play a piece of music without that spark that makes music special, and another can play like a beginner but infuse their feelings and message into the song, lighting the world on fire. For a defiantly joyful, queer meditation on family and identity, try Light from Uncommon Stars.

You know a book is good when you can't stop thinking about I was hooked from the first chapter with Katrina's heartbreaking runaway. Shizuka is a far more sympathetic character than the blurb would have you believe, and the entire cast is filled with unique voices and personalities you can really root for.

There is a severe lack of fiction that prominently features transgender characters, especially transgender characters of color, so this was such a refreshing find.

Thank you Ryka Aoki and Tor for giving me an ARC.

HIGHLIGHTS
~AIs = BFFs
~gaming music is just as valid as classical music, you snobs
~make sure you have the right violin bow
~the donut shop is run by aliens

I feel like I should have enjoyed Light From Uncommon Stars much more than I did. I’m more than a little heartbroken, and feel guilty, that I’m not waxing poetic now, gushing with praise. On paper, if you listed out all the tropes and themes, all the delightful details like the the donuts, it reads like a checklist of everything I love.

But I just didn’t love the way it was all put together.

I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t love it, either – even though I thought I would, and wanted to so badly. I feel so jealous of everyone who did, does, and will love it – I wish I did too.

Sigh.

For a start, it’s super unfair to pitch this as Good Omens meets the Wayfarer series. That sets expectations way, way too high. But even if you say, well, Light has some common elements with both – demons and space-travel respectively – Good Omens is more coherently whimsical, and the Wayfarer books are deep, quiet, thoughtful feel-good sci fi. I think Light From Uncommon Stars wanted to be whimsical, and tried to do the deep-but-feel-good thing. But I don’t think it succeeded at either. The most whimsical part of the book is probably the donuts, in the donut shop that is secretly a sci fi stargate – but the writing is so bare and blunt that most of the time, the donuts are as appealing as rocks. And as for being a feel-good book, the story kind of lectures the reader about how uplifting music is and how we can always rewrite our song…but right up to the final pages Katrina, the trans character, is still enduring dead-naming and fetishization and sexual assault, almost to the point of misery-porn.

And I think the idea is supposed to be a) it is hard and often extremely sucks to be trans, and b) an attempt at empowerment – Katrina has done sex work and in that was holds power over those who see her as a fetish.

Which…sure? A lot of the time and in a lot of places, it can be terrible or at least difficult to be trans. And sex work absolutely can be empowering. But it’s a pretty bleak picture Aoki is painting here. These are real and important topics that shouldn’t be swept under the rug, but I never felt any real optimism or hope from the story. There’s no ‘it gets better,’ and if this were another book I’d say that was the point, that it was deliberate, but here it feels like the story was trying to be hopepunk, or at least leave the reader warm and glowing, and just…failed.

The climax of the book, the moment that is supposed to be Katrina’s triumph, is packed full of descriptions and explorations of transphobia. And Katrina is acting in defiance of all of that, I get it. But it deflates any sense of triumph. It doesn’t feel like a win. So…what exactly am I supposed to be feeling here, except depressed?

And all of this is written in what feels like a very simplistic way. The entire alien plotline, for example, felt picture-book simple. The way they talk to each other is…robotic, which I guess might have been deliberate? But there’s also the apparently random scene-breaks that appear every few paragraphs, sometimes mid-conversation, throughout the book – and often without actually jumping to another point of view or another scene. It makes the book feel extremely jerky, constantly stopping-and-starting, like a stalled car.

There’s so much lecturing. So much telling-not-showing. And some of those lecture-bits have beautiful lines in them, or poignant messages, but…they’re not fun to read.

I found the prose blunt and dry, the constant scene-breaks jarring, and thought the awfulness and attempted-whimsy undercut each other instead of somehow balancing or combining. And I’m sorry, because I wanted to adore this book so much. But I just don’t.

I do hope it’s wildly successful, because we need more books going in the direction Aoki was going for. I hope I’m just an outlier, and that you give it a try despite this review. I hope you love it the way I wanted to.

I was so excited to read this book, described as Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship, and donuts?? Yes please!

What I loved: the story’s focus on strong women. I loved the theme of overcoming life’s challenges, helping other people, defying expectations, found family, and second chances. The world-building was also very creative.

What I didn’t love: I never fully fell into the rhythm of the story. The perspective bounced around a lot; the chapters were very short and choppy. I would have loved to spend time with just one perspective per chapter; all the back-and-forth was very confusing and disorienting. This format seems like it would be a huge challenge for audiobook listeners, as well. It’s also possible there was a bit too much going on: we had demons, aliens, and fully sentient AI coexisting in a human world complete with messy human problems like greed and transphobia, as well as alien problems like the end plague.

At the end of the day, I liked a lot of things about this book but I didn't love it.

Synopsis: 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.

Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki, is a very strange book in the best way possible. It’s a story about music, trans individuals, aliens, loneliness, video games, Faustian bargains, San Gabriel Valley, donut shops, and more. It is wholly its own thing, despite the blurb on the back saying it’s Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – two of my favorite books. With its powerful characters, unique premise, and mishmash of subject matters, Uncommon Stars is probably the most original book I have read this year.

Uncommon Stars has a lot going on, but the story essentially revolves around three central protagonists, one primary and two secondaries. Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, is our primary protagonist. She was chased out of her home by a family that doesn’t understand her and finds herself on the street with nothing but her violin to remedy her situation. This is fortunate because one of our secondary protagonists is Shizuka Satomi, the world’s foremost violin teacher.

However, Shizuka has her own story that she is currently living as well. She made a deal with the devil to deliver seven souls of promising violinists to hell in exchange for getting her own music back. If she doesn’t find her seventh soul soon and send them down the river, her music will be lost forever. Finally, we have Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, mother of four, and owner of a famous LA donut shop. Lan is an alien fleeing an intergalactic war and has set up shop on Earth with her family, only to find herself tangled in the life of the lovely Shizuka. How will all these different threads come together to weave a tapestry? You will have to read this delightful book to find out.

Getting down to the brass tacks, this book is wonderful. It has some issues/kinks to work out, but they are easy to overlook with how good the story feels. It’s a very emotional book that will have you crying constantly. Katrina is a powerful protagonist and provides a rare deep dive into what life as a trans individual is like for some. Her story is incredibly sad while also being quite hopeful and warm at the same time. The struggles of both Shizuka and Lan also both add wonderful subplots that make Uncommon Stars just feel bursting with love and emotion. Aoki finds a balance between tragic realities and feel-good stories, stuffing the reader with serotonin while executing on her themes to a high degree.

Chief among the themes is the power of music, which resonated with me on the highest scale. Aoki clearly loves the violin and her affection for it bleeds through the pages and into the reader’s heart. There is also a love of San Gabriel Valley, California, and Asian American culture that wraps you up and pulls you in. There are tons of small vignettes, like one from the POV of a violin repair woman, that is connected to the main story but wholly their own thing. Every mini-story Aoki tells has this gravity to it that just pulls you in so that no matter what she is writing about she manages to make you care about it. It forms this brilliant quilt of stories that surprises and delights – but not every stitching is perfect.

While many of the micro-stories blend together seamlessly, some don’t quite manage to weave themselves into the degree I was hoping for. For example, Lan, our spaceship captain, kinda just feels like an IT team for the more centralized duo of Katrina and Shizuka. Lan’s story is great but doesn’t overlap with the other two protagonists enough. Lan feels like she is really there just to provide agency to move the plot forward at a number of key junctions. In addition, the pacing of the book is a bit uneven. The first half of the book is perfect, but around the midway point, the story starts to drag a lot. It does eventually wrap up with a powerful finale, but there was a chunk of pages that didn’t feel like it added much to the story.

Overall, Light from Uncommon Stars is an easy recommendation for anyone who is looking to feel warm and fuzzy inside or wants to learn to appreciate a whole slew of new subjects. The characters are wonderful, the story is both topical and heartfelt, and Aoki is a very talented writer. The novel’s eclectic nature is one of its greatest strengths, despite the occasional kink, and there is certainly nothing else out there like it.

Rating: Light from Uncommon Stars – 9.0/10
-Andrew