Katrina, who is a talented amateur violinist, soon comes into the orbit of Shizuka Satomi, a renowned violin teacher also known as the Queen of Hell. Shizuka is bound by a contract that obliges her to deliver seven souls to hell, and so far, she has delivered six. Anyone who makes it through the book without exceeding their daily recommended caloric intake should consider it an achievement. It is not who we are kissing, but our very heights, our voices, and the size of our hands that catalyze hatred and violence.

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant Zara Hossain has been leading a fairly typical life in Corpus Christi, Texas, since her family moved there for her father to work as a pediatrician. She’s escaped her violent father and come to crash in Los Angeles with a queer friend, except now that she’s actually here, he’s not exactly as welcoming as she'd hoped. Better yet, they foster her career with affection and respect, and Shizuka follows Katrina’s lead in their teacher/student relationship, helping her play video game theme music when she’s feeling it and Bartók when she’s feeling that. What would happen if someone played their existence not only to its inevitable end, but also to its inevitable beginning? Sometimes a book sneaks up on you, so viciously quiet you don’t realize how much it has affected you until you reach the final pages.I'll open the discussion with prompts in top-level comments, but others are welcome to add their own if they like! I won't go into detail any more, but the lives of Shizuka, Katrina, and the alien captain Lan Tran all have their lives interconnected by chance, a wonderful narrative blooms. But she also hasn’t been in a position to dispense generosity, and Aoki understands that this, too, has been a lack. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Sh An adventure set in California’s San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts. YA giant Clare makes her adult debut with a whirlwind epic fantasy featuring secret plots, ancient magic, and hidden identities.

And the more his anxiety grows about what his sexuality means for himself, his friends, and his social life, the more he wonders whether he can just take it all back.Shizuka Satomi is a renowned violin teacher, though no recordings of her own performances are in evidence.

Told in brief snippets, the book is full of important themes like connecting with others, redemption, the immigrant experience, the benefits of community, the noble art of listening, how uplifting it can be to have an outlet and a voice even in an awful situation, and how even in dark times you can find a friendly face. I figured it was for some bingo square last year that I ended up filling with something else, or maybe a friend's recommendation, and for fun I decided to start it without reading the synopsis or anything. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. While he’s not quite sure what that special thing is, he is convinced that once he finds it, bullies like Brent Mason will stop torturing him at school. I fell in love with these characters and did not even realize how desperately I needed this story right now.By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Raised among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to join their ranks. May is a fabulous month to celebrate all these books and authors, so if there are any missing from your bookshelf, please use the links below to rectify that! Yeah, that one threw me at first—but it’s the secret to the incredible richness of Light from Uncommon Stars. If you are an inveterate reader, the odds are good, better than good actually, that fellow readers or close friends (sometimes, happily, they are both) that at some point they will recommend a book to you.