Light From Uncommon Stars

 Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, 384 pages.

"Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts." With a pitch like that I naturally had to read this book as soon as I could get my hands on it. Shizuka Satomi is in a long-term contract with hell. She has seven times seven years to deliver the souls of seven musicians to hell, or her own soul is forfeit. It's been 48 years and she has delivered the souls of six of her students, but she's looking for something special in the final student. She finds that something special in Katrina Nguyen, transgender runaway and gifted violinist. From there the story is mostly about Shizuka helping Katrina to heal from the abuse she's faced and discover her voice in her music (and courting retired starship captain and donut entrepreneur Lan Tran).

I love books that really commit to being both sci-fi and fantasy, but what most impressed me about this book (forgiving the totally intention pun) is it's soul. Despite the frank portrayals of terrible things (there is plenty of transphobia in particular that Katrina goes through), this book somehow feels remarkably kind. It's appropriate that TJ Klune wrote the blurb on the front of this book, because the tone of it reminds me of nothing so much as his The House in the Cerulean Sea. I would say that, most centrally, this is a book centered on the many ways that people connect with each other to make life worth living. I didn't expect a book about a woman very appropriately called "the queen of hell" to be so kind, or to feel so safe, and yet I came away from this book feeling very warm. Five stars, I definitely recommend it.