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Last Night at the Telegraph Club
A Scatter of Light
A Scatter of Light is a companion novel to the National Book Awards winner and New York Times bestseller Last Night at the Telegraph Club, and is about how the threads of family, inspiration, art, and identity are woven across generations.
Aria Tang West thought she'd be spending one last summer on Martha's Vineyard with her friends before starting MIT in the fall, where she intends to study astronomy, like her late grandfather. But after topless photos of her are posted online, she's abruptly uninvited from her friends' summer homes.
Aria's parents, a writer and opera singer with plans of their own, send Aria to stay with her artist grandmother, Joan West, in Northern California. Although Aria has never been attracted to girls before, she finds herself drawn to Joan's gardener, Steph Nichols, an aspiring musician a few years older than Aria. The only problem? Steph isn't single; she lives with her girlfriend, Lisa. But the chemistry between Aria and Steph seems undeniable, and this will be a summer that will turn her world upside down.
Aria Tang West thought she'd be spending one last summer on Martha's Vineyard with her friends before starting MIT in the fall, where she intends to study astronomy, like her late grandfather. But after topless photos of her are posted online, she's abruptly uninvited from her friends' summer homes.
Aria's parents, a writer and opera singer with plans of their own, send Aria to stay with her artist grandmother, Joan West, in Northern California. Although Aria has never been attracted to girls before, she finds herself drawn to Joan's gardener, Steph Nichols, an aspiring musician a few years older than Aria. The only problem? Steph isn't single; she lives with her girlfriend, Lisa. But the chemistry between Aria and Steph seems undeniable, and this will be a summer that will turn her world upside down.
324 pages, Paperback
First published October 4, 2022
451 people are currently reading
33376 people want to read
About the author
Malinda Lo
41 books4,897 followersHi Goodreads! I've only created this profile to claim my name here, and I don't check messages here or add friends. I invite you to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or visit my website at malindalo.com.
BIO: Malinda Lo is the bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers honors. Her debut novel Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award and the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Lambda Literary Award. She can be found on social media @malindalo or at malindalo.com.
BIO: Malinda Lo is the bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers honors. Her debut novel Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award and the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Lambda Literary Award. She can be found on social media @malindalo or at malindalo.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,243 reviews
May 9, 2023
4,75/5
Uwielbiam to zakończenie.
Podoba mi się to, że to taka powieść o fragmencie życia. Czymś co się wydaje ważne i trudne gdy się dzieje (bo i wtedy tak jest), ale po czasie może być dla nas tylko wspomnieniem, z którego możemy stworzyć coś pięknego.
Uwielbiam to zakończenie.
Podoba mi się to, że to taka powieść o fragmencie życia. Czymś co się wydaje ważne i trudne gdy się dzieje (bo i wtedy tak jest), ale po czasie może być dla nas tylko wspomnieniem, z którego możemy stworzyć coś pięknego.
July 27, 2022
A bittersweet story of first love and loss set in rural California in 2013. At first, I thought this slow-burning tale might turn out to be too languid to connect with, but, as it unfolded, I realised the pacing perfectly matched the atmosphere and the setting of a long summer filled with longing. It’s told from the perspective of a Chinese-American woman Aria, who’s looking back at her 18-year-old self, reliving the moment between leaving behind school and her childhood, and moving towards independence. A slut-shaming scandal at Aria’s school has led to a form of exile, now she’s spending the holidays alone with her widowed grandmother. Her grandmother Joan's a prominent painter/photographer, once part of the performance art scene in the 60s, whose work stimulates Aria’s imagination. And it’s at her grandmother’s house that Aria meets Steph, a genderqueer musician, who changes her idea of who she is and what she might become.
This has been billed as a companion novel to Last Night at the Telegraph Club although on the surface they’re vastly different in style and structure. But Aria’s growing connection to the local lesbian community gradually establishes a link. Through Aria’s experiences Lo’s able to explore the changes in California since the Telegraph Club era: the vibrant, public queer scene, and above all the landmark passing of a law enabling gay marriage. Aria still struggles with some of the issues that Lily faced in Lo’s earlier novel, casual racism, confusion over her identity. But she also has access to cultural spaces, ways of being, and networks that barely existed when Lily came of age in the 1950s. Through Aria’s family, Lo also gives us a glimpse of what happened to Lily and to Kath in the years since the end of their story.
Although I have to admit there were stretches of this novel that felt a little too drawn out, I loved the strong sense of place and so many of the small details: the exploration of women’s creativity; the recognition of the influence of Asian-American, lesbian artists like Bernice Bing; Aria’s fascination with astronomy, light and stars. As well as the many, unexpectedly-moving passages. Closer to Lo’s earlier work – it’s a book she’s been trying to write for over ten years – and perhaps not as instantly absorbing or as richly textured as her previous book, but still well worth the time.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC
Rating: 3.5
This has been billed as a companion novel to Last Night at the Telegraph Club although on the surface they’re vastly different in style and structure. But Aria’s growing connection to the local lesbian community gradually establishes a link. Through Aria’s experiences Lo’s able to explore the changes in California since the Telegraph Club era: the vibrant, public queer scene, and above all the landmark passing of a law enabling gay marriage. Aria still struggles with some of the issues that Lily faced in Lo’s earlier novel, casual racism, confusion over her identity. But she also has access to cultural spaces, ways of being, and networks that barely existed when Lily came of age in the 1950s. Through Aria’s family, Lo also gives us a glimpse of what happened to Lily and to Kath in the years since the end of their story.
Although I have to admit there were stretches of this novel that felt a little too drawn out, I loved the strong sense of place and so many of the small details: the exploration of women’s creativity; the recognition of the influence of Asian-American, lesbian artists like Bernice Bing; Aria’s fascination with astronomy, light and stars. As well as the many, unexpectedly-moving passages. Closer to Lo’s earlier work – it’s a book she’s been trying to write for over ten years – and perhaps not as instantly absorbing or as richly textured as her previous book, but still well worth the time.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC
Rating: 3.5
October 29, 2022
this isn't a "coming of age" story, it's about a young adult learning how to be a home wrecker and not feel a shred of guilt about it.
January 8, 2023
the main QUEER romantic storyline of a YA novel involving CHEATING? IN 2022????? SIGH!!! it just sucked all of the joy out of this book for me ngl
October 9, 2022
malinda lo has done it again. after last night at the telegraph club i did not think it was possible for me to love a queer novel to the extremes that i loved that one again, but, boy, was i wrong. a scatter of light is a rather worthy successor to the novel that came before it. whilst this may not be a direct continuation from one to the other, thanks to lo’s inclusion of a beautiful snapshot of lily and kath’s five-decade relationship that has been recognised by the united states after gay marriage was legalised in california, the ties between the two are evident.
”everyone was smiling, but none looked as happy as lily and kath, who were gazing at each other rather than the photographer. i zoomed in on lily and kath’s faces, feeling an unexpectedly vivid connection to them both, as if i could sense the love between them glowing like a radiant sun. after so many years, they could show their love to the world at last.”
a scatter of light is a coming-of-age novel centred around aria west, a teenage girl sent to her grandmothers for the summer after topless photos of her go viral on the internet at the hands of a guy. she arrives thinking of the trip as a punishment, wishing for a summer with her friends and cute boys, but leaves at the end of the summer, having spent weeks on end with a group of lesbians close in age led by her grandmother’s gardener steph, broken-hearted and with the confidence that comes after discovering a part of yourself that you never knew could be attributed to you and who you truly are.
this is a story of discovery, a story of owning up to who you are, a story of meeting the one person who as a queer individual changes everything for you. it is a story of heartbreak, a story of your first love that may or may not have been love, and finally, a story many of us will be familiar with.
i know that coming-out stories are nothing new. many argue that we have plenty, especially coming out stories centred around young people. the debate surrounding whether we need more is out there, and so i think that this novel strengthens the case for the need for more. when done right, as exemplified here throughout this novel, there is a sense of understanding. for many of us until it clicks on a random day in a random year, more times than not due to one specific individual that rocks our world and everything you have ever thought about ourselves, we never imagine the possibility that being queer is something that is a part of us. aria goes through this, and lo understands the process. it is a process that often ends in heartbreak, and here it does. this is something we so very rarely see, something that twisted my heart at how aria did everything she could to keep her first love that was not right for her. this may be a love story, but at its heart this is a story of realisation, for us, by one of us, that spares no detail or acts as if one’s coming-out process is easy nor one that ends in happiness with that first romance.
”she tasted like saltwater oysters. i was in love with all of her. i was not myself anymore; i was hers.”
here, lo delivers the next addition of proof that she is, or rather is shaping up to be, the finest author for lesbian, or more broadly, queer fiction.
thank you to netgalley and hodder & stoughton for the arc. it was an honour to read this, and i certainly will be buying a physical copy to treasure. as always, any quotation scattered throughout this review is from the arc i was sent and therefore may not entirely correlate with the final published work.
”everyone was smiling, but none looked as happy as lily and kath, who were gazing at each other rather than the photographer. i zoomed in on lily and kath’s faces, feeling an unexpectedly vivid connection to them both, as if i could sense the love between them glowing like a radiant sun. after so many years, they could show their love to the world at last.”
a scatter of light is a coming-of-age novel centred around aria west, a teenage girl sent to her grandmothers for the summer after topless photos of her go viral on the internet at the hands of a guy. she arrives thinking of the trip as a punishment, wishing for a summer with her friends and cute boys, but leaves at the end of the summer, having spent weeks on end with a group of lesbians close in age led by her grandmother’s gardener steph, broken-hearted and with the confidence that comes after discovering a part of yourself that you never knew could be attributed to you and who you truly are.
this is a story of discovery, a story of owning up to who you are, a story of meeting the one person who as a queer individual changes everything for you. it is a story of heartbreak, a story of your first love that may or may not have been love, and finally, a story many of us will be familiar with.
i know that coming-out stories are nothing new. many argue that we have plenty, especially coming out stories centred around young people. the debate surrounding whether we need more is out there, and so i think that this novel strengthens the case for the need for more. when done right, as exemplified here throughout this novel, there is a sense of understanding. for many of us until it clicks on a random day in a random year, more times than not due to one specific individual that rocks our world and everything you have ever thought about ourselves, we never imagine the possibility that being queer is something that is a part of us. aria goes through this, and lo understands the process. it is a process that often ends in heartbreak, and here it does. this is something we so very rarely see, something that twisted my heart at how aria did everything she could to keep her first love that was not right for her. this may be a love story, but at its heart this is a story of realisation, for us, by one of us, that spares no detail or acts as if one’s coming-out process is easy nor one that ends in happiness with that first romance.
”she tasted like saltwater oysters. i was in love with all of her. i was not myself anymore; i was hers.”
here, lo delivers the next addition of proof that she is, or rather is shaping up to be, the finest author for lesbian, or more broadly, queer fiction.
thank you to netgalley and hodder & stoughton for the arc. it was an honour to read this, and i certainly will be buying a physical copy to treasure. as always, any quotation scattered throughout this review is from the arc i was sent and therefore may not entirely correlate with the final published work.
March 7, 2023
Many regards to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Alexa, please play "Illitcit Affairs" by Taylor Swift.
A Scatter of Light is a sapphic, coming-of-age story of Aria Tang West, half-Chinese half-White, set at the dawn of Obergefell v. Hodges. Aria, who was supposed to spend a summer with her friends in their villa, found herself being forced to spend her summer at her grandma's place in California. Here, she would embark on a quest of discovery and self-acceptance through a relationship with Joan West's gardener, Steph.
Like Last Night at the Telegraph Club, this is a book about accepting self's queerness. Set in a very special context, Malinda Lo brings the readers on the journey to discover the colorful queer culture of 2015 California, where our protagonist, new to the vibrancy and the dynamics of queerness, learned to accept her identity. I also really like Malinda Lo's social commentary, although sometimes I feel like it could be more implicit. Moreover, the characters, namely Aria, Joan, Steph, were thoroughly developed: they felt pretty much like real people.
As much as the good points go, I cannot give this book more than 3.5/5 because of THAT trope. Normally I wouldn't mind, because it would provide the angst, but in this case I didn't like it at all. Sure, maybe . The other element I wish the author had better developed was the grief. The tragic event happened way too late in the book, as a consequence, Aria's mourning wasn't as thoroughly shown as it should be in my opinion. . However, I think that the ending was highly tasteful for its openness, as it is not a love story with a happy ending.
Overall, I recommend this book if you are open to some unpopular tropes, but I don't think fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club will necessarily like this one. Nevertheless, A Scatter of Light stands on its own as a meaningful coming-of-age story set in a period where queer culture became legitimized in American society, and how a new adult came to terms with her queerness in this particular context.
Alexa, please play "Illitcit Affairs" by Taylor Swift.
A Scatter of Light is a sapphic, coming-of-age story of Aria Tang West, half-Chinese half-White, set at the dawn of Obergefell v. Hodges. Aria, who was supposed to spend a summer with her friends in their villa, found herself being forced to spend her summer at her grandma's place in California. Here, she would embark on a quest of discovery and self-acceptance through a relationship with Joan West's gardener, Steph.
Like Last Night at the Telegraph Club, this is a book about accepting self's queerness. Set in a very special context, Malinda Lo brings the readers on the journey to discover the colorful queer culture of 2015 California, where our protagonist, new to the vibrancy and the dynamics of queerness, learned to accept her identity. I also really like Malinda Lo's social commentary, although sometimes I feel like it could be more implicit. Moreover, the characters, namely Aria, Joan, Steph, were thoroughly developed: they felt pretty much like real people.
As much as the good points go, I cannot give this book more than 3.5/5 because of THAT trope. Normally I wouldn't mind, because it would provide the angst, but in this case I didn't like it at all. Sure, maybe . The other element I wish the author had better developed was the grief. The tragic event happened way too late in the book, as a consequence, Aria's mourning wasn't as thoroughly shown as it should be in my opinion. . However, I think that the ending was highly tasteful for its openness, as it is not a love story with a happy ending.
Overall, I recommend this book if you are open to some unpopular tropes, but I don't think fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club will necessarily like this one. Nevertheless, A Scatter of Light stands on its own as a meaningful coming-of-age story set in a period where queer culture became legitimized in American society, and how a new adult came to terms with her queerness in this particular context.
October 10, 2022
This is a beautifully written story of a girl caught between past and future coming into herself and her queer identity. Set primarily in 2013 after the Supreme Court found that banning same sex marriages violates equal protection under the law. Aria is 18 and it is the summer between high school and college. She had lots of summer plans which fell apart after a boy took pictures of her without a shirt on and published them on the internet. She is quickly uninvited and her parents feel she needs the supervision of her grandmother for the summer. The first person she meets is Steph, her grandmother’s gardener and she quickly makes friends with Steph and her group of friends who all happen to be queer. Aria is soon. Caught off guard by feelings of a crush on Steph which wouldn’t be a problem if Steph wasn’t in a relationship with another girl in the group Lisa. The summer is full of reflection for Aria. Truly a wonderful story, poetic and full of beauty.
October 14, 2025
Aria is a character I could not force myself to like. Inserting herself into an already-established friend group, obsessing over Steph, a girl who was in a fully committed relationship and wrecking that relationship, causing Steph to cheat on her girlfriend just made her nasty as hell.
Read
September 8, 2023Although it’s beautiful, I never quite warmed up to this book. There was a lot in it that got me thinking; I loved the conversations around art and astronomy and the writing was very touching at times. There wasn’t a lot of plot to it, which would’ve been fine, if the main character wasn’t so distant. I think the character was fully developed and complex, the problem is that she wasn’t entirely suitable as a protagonist. She kept a lot of things bottled up, and as a result, I, as a reader, didn’t know how to feel either. I was too removed from her emotions, her motives, her wants. In other words, she wasn’t giving. Still, Malindo Lo is a skilled writer and I have a feeling Last Night at the Telegraph Club will give me all the things I was missing here. Can’t wait to read it.
September 23, 2022
“all at once i could see who i was becoming as opposed to who i once was. i was split in two: my future and my past. i wanted to remain here on the edge between by two selves, doubly exposed, all hunger and heart.”
halfway through a scatter of light i started reeling, with my only thought being an emphatic “fuck”. this was not what i had expected. then i thought “okay let’s run with it” & now i’m stuck in emotional limbo; cracked wide open.
let me go back. aria tang west knows who she is. after a party goes wrong, she gets exiled to the california bay area to stay with her artist grandmother, joan. there she meets steph, her grandmother’s gardener who shows her a new world of art, people, & the queer community during the first major legalisation of gay marriage. suddenly aria doesn’t quite know who is she or what she wants to be anymore.
a scatter of light is billed as telegraph club’s companion piece but truthfully? it’s strong enough to hold it’s own. its the queer past meets queer present & future, with that connecting thread of something larger than all of us—lily sends her love along a telegraph wire; aria sends her love in a brushstroke.
i feel destined to love this book. so much of it revolves around women’s creativity and lesbian artists. i see myself as a twenty-something retired artist, now as someone who wants to write about art. art is timeless; art is connection. what you create is going to end up affecting people you don’t know & have never met. that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? that you keep creating & going because you never know who you’ll affect?
circling back, i said this book was unexpected. grief books are my favorite sub-genre & i had not expect this to fall into the category. but it did. a pleasant surprise. it takes the heavy weight of first loves & first loss, of falling in love with someone you never expected to & someone you shouldn’t. then paints it with a brushstroke through through the stars, through the flash of a disposable lens, through yellowed newspaper clippings.
how could i not fall in love?
✼ thank you to PRH international for sending me an arc of a scatter of light in exchange for an honest review
___
initial thoughts:
fuck.
4.5
November 12, 2022
I have a lot of thoughts...
First of all: warning. I'm not going to talk about any of the big moments in the book in terms of spoilers, so I'm not marking my review as spoilers -- especially because this is information that *I* personally would have liked to know before reading. That said, if you want everything to be a surprise (especially the capacity in which Lily and Kath's roles are in this book), this is your final MINOR SPOILER WARNING.
I loved, loved, LOVED "Last Night at the Telegraph Club". I read it for my YA literature class, and it quickly became one of my absolute favorite books of the year. When I saw that this book was a companion novel -- one that was specifically marketing itself as a companion novel AND promising in the synopsis that it would continue the story of Lily and Kath I immediately picked it up and started reading.
I am sorely disappointed.
It's not that I wanted it to be a rinse and repeat of "Last Night" and it's not that I was opposed to the idea of new characters with new stories. It's just it WASN'T a companion story. Lily was referenced off hand twice in the main plot of the novel. Finally after NINETY FIVE percent of the book, there was a small news article that Aria read about the two of them that offered insight into what would have much better served as its own novel. Eddie was referenced fairly often, and Aunt Judy was referenced. Every other character was not only not mentioned, but also sorely missed.
I wonder if "A Scatter of Light" was initially supposed to be a companion to "Last Night" or if that was something added in a very late stage. There were many opportunities to have more subtle tie ins (Aria even visits Chinatown with her mother and they talk about Eddie), but there's this very large gap where I keep feeling the promises of tie ins that wind up going unanswered. Not a single character from Last Night at the Telegraph club ever appears in the book. Aria doesn't even interact with any of them aside from listening to mentions of them when referenced.
There was also very little reference to any of the places in "Last Night". No mention to the titular Telegraph Club when discussing Pride in San Francisco or Shirley's family's restaurant when visiting Chinatown. If I had read this without the marketing telling me it was a companion to "Last Night" -- even after having read "Last Night" -- I doubt I would've even realized the two were connected.
Aside from my disappointment on that front, I could have forgiven a lot of it if I at least liked the story... But I just didn't. I didn't like that we were supposed to root for Aria while she was homewrecking, or root for Steph while she was cheating. I didn't like that Aria made fun of Lisa for being worried about Steph cheating when Steph was literally cheating on Lisa WITH Aria.
The worst offender though was that any point where Aria would hear about something bad happening to anyone else -- ANYTHING, no matter how bad -- she would turn it into being about her and Steph. I was infuriated.
I also didn't much like the ending. There's vague endings of course, but this one felt mostly unfinished. Almost every character in the epilogue was new, almost all the information was new (there was no point where Aria seemed to be actually passionate about art until then), and then just like that it was over with a slight nod to the title rather than the actual story.
Malinda Lo is an absolutely phenomenal writer, and I truly think her writing was excellent in the novel. I just didn't (personally) care for the story.
First of all: warning. I'm not going to talk about any of the big moments in the book in terms of spoilers, so I'm not marking my review as spoilers -- especially because this is information that *I* personally would have liked to know before reading. That said, if you want everything to be a surprise (especially the capacity in which Lily and Kath's roles are in this book), this is your final MINOR SPOILER WARNING.
I loved, loved, LOVED "Last Night at the Telegraph Club". I read it for my YA literature class, and it quickly became one of my absolute favorite books of the year. When I saw that this book was a companion novel -- one that was specifically marketing itself as a companion novel AND promising in the synopsis that it would continue the story of Lily and Kath I immediately picked it up and started reading.
I am sorely disappointed.
It's not that I wanted it to be a rinse and repeat of "Last Night" and it's not that I was opposed to the idea of new characters with new stories. It's just it WASN'T a companion story. Lily was referenced off hand twice in the main plot of the novel. Finally after NINETY FIVE percent of the book, there was a small news article that Aria read about the two of them that offered insight into what would have much better served as its own novel. Eddie was referenced fairly often, and Aunt Judy was referenced. Every other character was not only not mentioned, but also sorely missed.
I wonder if "A Scatter of Light" was initially supposed to be a companion to "Last Night" or if that was something added in a very late stage. There were many opportunities to have more subtle tie ins (Aria even visits Chinatown with her mother and they talk about Eddie), but there's this very large gap where I keep feeling the promises of tie ins that wind up going unanswered. Not a single character from Last Night at the Telegraph club ever appears in the book. Aria doesn't even interact with any of them aside from listening to mentions of them when referenced.
There was also very little reference to any of the places in "Last Night". No mention to the titular Telegraph Club when discussing Pride in San Francisco or Shirley's family's restaurant when visiting Chinatown. If I had read this without the marketing telling me it was a companion to "Last Night" -- even after having read "Last Night" -- I doubt I would've even realized the two were connected.
Aside from my disappointment on that front, I could have forgiven a lot of it if I at least liked the story... But I just didn't. I didn't like that we were supposed to root for Aria while she was homewrecking, or root for Steph while she was cheating. I didn't like that Aria made fun of Lisa for being worried about Steph cheating when Steph was literally cheating on Lisa WITH Aria.
The worst offender though was that any point where Aria would hear about something bad happening to anyone else -- ANYTHING, no matter how bad -- she would turn it into being about her and Steph. I was infuriated.
I also didn't much like the ending. There's vague endings of course, but this one felt mostly unfinished. Almost every character in the epilogue was new, almost all the information was new (there was no point where Aria seemed to be actually passionate about art until then), and then just like that it was over with a slight nod to the title rather than the actual story.
Malinda Lo is an absolutely phenomenal writer, and I truly think her writing was excellent in the novel. I just didn't (personally) care for the story.
April 27, 2022
I enjoyed this a lot, but it has nothing in common with Telegraph Club.
I will say, as someone who was 20 in 2013, that Malinda Lo gets that part exactly right. the inexorable descent into queer toxicity was cringey and laughable only in that it felt so, so true. Steph and Mel and Lisa feel like people I knew. You can see what's coming from a mile away, and it's so painfully real and accurate to my experience. I loved that aspect.
This book more closely resembles Malinda Lo's foray into contemporary fiction from the mid 2010s, which makes sense because she says in the acknowledgements that that's when this book began percolating. Telegraph Club had a richness of scene, a bigness to it that's totally absent here. A Scatter of Light holds up as contemporary (or, shudder, historical) fiction, but it's not winning the National Book Award. I also thought the connections between Aria and Lily/Kath felt shoehorned and unnecessary, and didn't really add anything to the story, though they make up a huge part of the pre-pub marketing for this book. This book stands up well on its own, so none of that feels needed.
Will teens like this book? Who knows! But I, a 28-year-old, saw my life in it, and I can't wait to talk to my friends about it when it comes out.
I will say, as someone who was 20 in 2013, that Malinda Lo gets that part exactly right. the inexorable descent into queer toxicity was cringey and laughable only in that it felt so, so true. Steph and Mel and Lisa feel like people I knew. You can see what's coming from a mile away, and it's so painfully real and accurate to my experience. I loved that aspect.
This book more closely resembles Malinda Lo's foray into contemporary fiction from the mid 2010s, which makes sense because she says in the acknowledgements that that's when this book began percolating. Telegraph Club had a richness of scene, a bigness to it that's totally absent here. A Scatter of Light holds up as contemporary (or, shudder, historical) fiction, but it's not winning the National Book Award. I also thought the connections between Aria and Lily/Kath felt shoehorned and unnecessary, and didn't really add anything to the story, though they make up a huge part of the pre-pub marketing for this book. This book stands up well on its own, so none of that feels needed.
Will teens like this book? Who knows! But I, a 28-year-old, saw my life in it, and I can't wait to talk to my friends about it when it comes out.
June 18, 2022
“it was astonishing, and i remember it even today: the realization that the world was not as it seemed. that the stars that appeared to hang motionless above me both moved and did not move, because the earth below me was not actually still. that what i saw might not be reality, but that it was possible to understand it through careful observation, through the instruments that scientists had built to peer into space.”
while writing this review, all i can think is “no thoughts, just tears and anger.” and yet, as i pull a somehow comprehensible review out of my ass, i want you to know that i have never meant that more. i sit here in complete awe of this free-spirited story, because it was so far from what i was expecting, from my telegraph-club shaped vision of 2013 and malinda lo. as i got into it, i let go of anything i knew, and just let this story drive me. let aria make mistakes and fall in love with others and art and life, and talk to me. before i knew it i was sobbing.
let’s rewind. it’s 2013, and aria tang west, resident new-englander, is barred from her planned summer trip to martha’s vineyard with her besties before she goes to MIT in the fall. instead, she’s sent to joan’s house, her artist grandma who lives in marin county of california’s bay area. fog, ocean, wind, art, and a large number of gay weddings given california’s law allowing same sex marriage that just passed. aria tang west, meet steph. joan’s butch gardener steph. enter: the lesbians.
leaving you on that cliffhanger from my riveting retelling, because aria tang west? i didn’t think i’d like her. i can’t explain it, but she’s eighteen and pretty and smart and popular. and then,,, of course. malinda lo knows how to write better than just about anyone. aria is messy and brave and as she meets steph and her friends, as she falls in love with this new world of people and art and dykes, i get her. i think this book doesn’t live in a realm of plot, it just exists. do i think it’s as versatile as telegraph club was? not at all. but that’s so special. it’s about aria and steph and a life-changing summer and joan and her art and aria’s passion for science-y things and being in such a specific, in-between point in your life.
this book is going to be pitched nonstop as a companion novel to last night at the telegraph club. i was promised closure with lily and kath, and that didn’t disappoint, but as much as i loved hearing a similar voice to telegraph club, familiar tones and a sort of parallel action, i think it’s almost stronger to let this book be on it’s own. malinda lo cinematic universe if you will: lily hu on one plane, aria tang west on another, tears and sobs connecting them.
i’m sending love to anyone who needs it right now, because the way this book made me tremble and basically collapse in on myself in sadness and shock driven sobs was humbling. so, i love you. stay safe out there.
thank you penguin teen for an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review! out october 4.
content warnings: release of nude photos without consent, hospitalization, death of a family member
while writing this review, all i can think is “no thoughts, just tears and anger.” and yet, as i pull a somehow comprehensible review out of my ass, i want you to know that i have never meant that more. i sit here in complete awe of this free-spirited story, because it was so far from what i was expecting, from my telegraph-club shaped vision of 2013 and malinda lo. as i got into it, i let go of anything i knew, and just let this story drive me. let aria make mistakes and fall in love with others and art and life, and talk to me. before i knew it i was sobbing.
let’s rewind. it’s 2013, and aria tang west, resident new-englander, is barred from her planned summer trip to martha’s vineyard with her besties before she goes to MIT in the fall. instead, she’s sent to joan’s house, her artist grandma who lives in marin county of california’s bay area. fog, ocean, wind, art, and a large number of gay weddings given california’s law allowing same sex marriage that just passed. aria tang west, meet steph. joan’s butch gardener steph. enter: the lesbians.
leaving you on that cliffhanger from my riveting retelling, because aria tang west? i didn’t think i’d like her. i can’t explain it, but she’s eighteen and pretty and smart and popular. and then,,, of course. malinda lo knows how to write better than just about anyone. aria is messy and brave and as she meets steph and her friends, as she falls in love with this new world of people and art and dykes, i get her. i think this book doesn’t live in a realm of plot, it just exists. do i think it’s as versatile as telegraph club was? not at all. but that’s so special. it’s about aria and steph and a life-changing summer and joan and her art and aria’s passion for science-y things and being in such a specific, in-between point in your life.
this book is going to be pitched nonstop as a companion novel to last night at the telegraph club. i was promised closure with lily and kath, and that didn’t disappoint, but as much as i loved hearing a similar voice to telegraph club, familiar tones and a sort of parallel action, i think it’s almost stronger to let this book be on it’s own. malinda lo cinematic universe if you will: lily hu on one plane, aria tang west on another, tears and sobs connecting them.
i’m sending love to anyone who needs it right now, because the way this book made me tremble and basically collapse in on myself in sadness and shock driven sobs was humbling. so, i love you. stay safe out there.
thank you penguin teen for an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review! out october 4.
content warnings: release of nude photos without consent, hospitalization, death of a family member
July 20, 2025
i could give it points for doing something different, but sometimes i would rather enjoy the story i’m reading
Aria is being punished with spending the summer with her grandmother. Even though Aria loves her grandmother, she’s eighteen and isn’t looking forward to staying in the middle of nowhere, very far away from her friends. She wasn’t expecting to make new friends, fall in love for the first time with a woman, or want that woman even though she isn’t single.
But, the more time Aria spends with Steph, the hardest it is to remember that she’s off limits.
I have to admit I went into this blindly because Last Night at the Telegraph club was one of the few 5-stars I had last year, so I gave all my faith to this author. I wasn’t expecting this to be a book with cheating, or that it wasn’t really a romance after all.
I had two big problems while reading this:
1. It’s very difficult to cheer for your main character when she’s the other woman: she’s going on dates with a woman who is in a closed relationship.
2. It’s even more frustrating when you don’t see the chemistry between the two main characters. Not only are they doing things that could lead to cheating, like meeting alone, but you don’t even ship them together.
I finished the book and my thoughts were: ‘that was the story you wanted to write? What was the point of this?’ I spent a whole week trying to reset my expectations, since I went into this expecting something like Last Night at the Telegraph Club, that was a historical romance book that had so many themes and so well connected and executed, but I reached the conclusion I didn’t like this.
I don’t consider A Scatter of Light a romance or a historical book. I didn’t learn anything with it (reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club was so interesting) and it was more a coming of age story (YA) than a romance, while Last Night at the Telegraph Club felt more mature, in the New Adult category. But trying to shift my perspective in the book didn’t change the fact that the only things I liked about it were the writing style and the ending, which I think will be frustrating for most readers, but I think it was the only possible ending.
I found Aria and Steph very bland. On top of that, I was annoyed at Aria for ignoring the fact that Steph had a girlfriend, even more frustrated with Steph for not breaking up with Lisa if she’d rather be with Aria. I enjoyed more secondary characters like Mel and Aria’s grandmother. Another thing that annoyed me was that Aria didn’t really seem to care about her high school friends, or her friends in general. She seemed to only care about Steph and being able to make her fall in love with her despite being in a relationship with another person.
Overall, I wish I could appreciate the boldness it took to write a young adult book that deals with cheating, but I hate cheating. I missed learning with the historical setting, following interesting characters I could actually care about, and feeling that the themes and subplots were closed, because there were storylines like the relationship between Aria and her mother felt all over the place.
Rating: 1.5/5
Aria is being punished with spending the summer with her grandmother. Even though Aria loves her grandmother, she’s eighteen and isn’t looking forward to staying in the middle of nowhere, very far away from her friends. She wasn’t expecting to make new friends, fall in love for the first time with a woman, or want that woman even though she isn’t single.
But, the more time Aria spends with Steph, the hardest it is to remember that she’s off limits.
I have to admit I went into this blindly because Last Night at the Telegraph club was one of the few 5-stars I had last year, so I gave all my faith to this author. I wasn’t expecting this to be a book with cheating, or that it wasn’t really a romance after all.
I had two big problems while reading this:
1. It’s very difficult to cheer for your main character when she’s the other woman: she’s going on dates with a woman who is in a closed relationship.
2. It’s even more frustrating when you don’t see the chemistry between the two main characters. Not only are they doing things that could lead to cheating, like meeting alone, but you don’t even ship them together.
I finished the book and my thoughts were: ‘that was the story you wanted to write? What was the point of this?’ I spent a whole week trying to reset my expectations, since I went into this expecting something like Last Night at the Telegraph Club, that was a historical romance book that had so many themes and so well connected and executed, but I reached the conclusion I didn’t like this.
I don’t consider A Scatter of Light a romance or a historical book. I didn’t learn anything with it (reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club was so interesting) and it was more a coming of age story (YA) than a romance, while Last Night at the Telegraph Club felt more mature, in the New Adult category. But trying to shift my perspective in the book didn’t change the fact that the only things I liked about it were the writing style and the ending, which I think will be frustrating for most readers, but I think it was the only possible ending.
I found Aria and Steph very bland. On top of that, I was annoyed at Aria for ignoring the fact that Steph had a girlfriend, even more frustrated with Steph for not breaking up with Lisa if she’d rather be with Aria. I enjoyed more secondary characters like Mel and Aria’s grandmother. Another thing that annoyed me was that Aria didn’t really seem to care about her high school friends, or her friends in general. She seemed to only care about Steph and being able to make her fall in love with her despite being in a relationship with another person.
Overall, I wish I could appreciate the boldness it took to write a young adult book that deals with cheating, but I hate cheating. I missed learning with the historical setting, following interesting characters I could actually care about, and feeling that the themes and subplots were closed, because there were storylines like the relationship between Aria and her mother felt all over the place.
Rating: 1.5/5
October 6, 2022
well.. first of all, this should not be branded as a "companion" novel to last night at the telegraph club when the characters from that novel are barely mentioned nor are they relevant to the story here. secondly, I thought every character in this book was boring as all hell. not once did I feel sympathy for them either especially with cheating involved as a plot line. I don't care if it's fictional, if you're trying to get me to feel sorry for people that are willingly cheating and saying it's okay to do so I will be immediately annoyed. it did not come off as a "flawed coming of age story," it came off as the characters being downright annoying and stupid, at least to me. the writing itself is not bad and I love this author a lot but the premise of the story is somehow messy and boring at the same time. grrrr
November 19, 2022
1. I did not like the cheating
2. It was really boring
3. It was pointless
4. The characters have no personality
5. Steph is annoying (also, the way the author described her gender was odd)
6. It barely related to Last Night at the Telegraph Club
2. It was really boring
3. It was pointless
4. The characters have no personality
5. Steph is annoying (also, the way the author described her gender was odd)
6. It barely related to Last Night at the Telegraph Club
November 12, 2022
I NEED MORE CLOSURE WTF THE ENDING
December 22, 2023
I was exhausted, but I remember feeling a queer sense of clarity, as if a lens had just come into focus, and all at once I could see who I was becoming as opposed to who I once was. I was split in two: my future and my past. I wanted to remain here on the edge between my two selves, doubly exposed, all hunger and heart.
°°°
it's impossible not to compare this book to last night at the telegraph club, and unfortunately they are entirely different beasts. they have some important common threads, but don't quite feel like companion novels.
nonetheless, a scatter of light is a well-crafted sapphic coming of age novel, complete with summertime sadness angst, electric forbidden romance, deep science metaphors, artsy vibes, complicated family relationships, heartbreak, and a splash of grief.
the backdrop of summer 2013, the summer of the supreme court's decision to legalize gay marriage, is intense. this was ten years ago, not ancient history, but far enough back to reflect upon. it's an apt time to have a gay crisis and first love.
some details of this novel are questionable. the romance is between 18-year-old aria, who is new to her sapphic awakening, and early-20s steph, who is a genderqueer musician in a long term monogamous relationship. yep. this is an infidelity romance. and... yeah, not all first loves are all sunshine, and cheating does happen often. but was it really necessary in this story? all it did was make me dislike the love interest, which makes any romance unappealing. also, steph's girlfriend is someone who visibly struggles with insecurity and trust issues. there are intense romantic moments between aria and steph, but i couldn't enjoy them because WHAT ABOUT LISA'S FEELINGS? 😭
the only positive thing i can say about the infidelity factor is that it amps up the angst. quite painful to see aria continue hoping to be chosen by steph, and all of it is emotional and morally sus and messy, which i suppose is suited to finding yourself.
the grief
the ending
i spent much of the book waiting for an update on lily and kath from last night at the telegraph club, though it comes brief and late. we learn that though the update on these beloved characters is small, it's heartening to see their version of queer joy over the decades. and it's interesting to compare lily's 1940s san francisco with aria's 2010s san francisco. we have to look back to see how far we've come.
also, i have to note that i love the way malinda lo writes. her settings are so evocative! the small town in summer, the big old artsy house with its hilly gardens. it's a vibe.
October 5, 2022
Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Wow I cried so much at the end of this.
A Scatter of Light follows Aria Tang West as she is sent out to live with her grandmother for a summer. Aria expects to be bored the whole summer, but then she meets Steph, her grandmother’s gardener. Steph brings Aria into her friend circle (which happens to be a bunch of lesbians) and shows Aria the queer scenes in Cali. Aria then begins to question her sexuality, especially when she can’t get Steph off her mind.
This book is a journey of questioning. Coming into who you are. Figuring who you are after loss. Navigating toxic friendships and forging new stronger bonds. I loved everything about this book. It had it all for me. The last 20% or so had me sobbing the whole way through. This one has small cameos of characters from LNATTC, but it’s not a full on sequel. Aria’s story is her own and it’s one I’m so happy I’ve read.
Wow I cried so much at the end of this.
A Scatter of Light follows Aria Tang West as she is sent out to live with her grandmother for a summer. Aria expects to be bored the whole summer, but then she meets Steph, her grandmother’s gardener. Steph brings Aria into her friend circle (which happens to be a bunch of lesbians) and shows Aria the queer scenes in Cali. Aria then begins to question her sexuality, especially when she can’t get Steph off her mind.
This book is a journey of questioning. Coming into who you are. Figuring who you are after loss. Navigating toxic friendships and forging new stronger bonds. I loved everything about this book. It had it all for me. The last 20% or so had me sobbing the whole way through. This one has small cameos of characters from LNATTC, but it’s not a full on sequel. Aria’s story is her own and it’s one I’m so happy I’ve read.
June 29, 2024
A Scatter of Light is a queer awakening & coming of age story set in California when gay marriage was becoming legal, around 2014. It also offers a peek at the later lives of the character from The Last Night at the Telegraph Club (which I love!!)
Aria had exciting plans with friends for the summer after high school graduation, but nude photos taken and spread without her permission get her uninvited and carted off to live with her artist grandmother near San Francisco. She's less than pleased, but she finds herself being drawn to her grandmothers gardener- a young woman a couple of years older than her, and begins to question what she thought she knew about her own sexuality.
I should say up front that Aria makes some less than stellar decisions, but I liked how the story ended up handling that at the end, even if I was cringing along the way. But the thing is, she's young and emotional and going through a lot of huge changes. I know I made some poor decisions at this time of my life too. I do think this does a great job of capturing the slow realization that maybe you aren't so straight after all, and then dipping your toes into queer culture and you learn what that means about yourself. It's a great book.
Aria had exciting plans with friends for the summer after high school graduation, but nude photos taken and spread without her permission get her uninvited and carted off to live with her artist grandmother near San Francisco. She's less than pleased, but she finds herself being drawn to her grandmothers gardener- a young woman a couple of years older than her, and begins to question what she thought she knew about her own sexuality.
I should say up front that Aria makes some less than stellar decisions, but I liked how the story ended up handling that at the end, even if I was cringing along the way. But the thing is, she's young and emotional and going through a lot of huge changes. I know I made some poor decisions at this time of my life too. I do think this does a great job of capturing the slow realization that maybe you aren't so straight after all, and then dipping your toes into queer culture and you learn what that means about yourself. It's a great book.
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November 13, 2022
So, when my eyes read the phrase A companion novel to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I though that there would be more of a glimpse into Lily and Kath's lives in the early 2010s...but it was really just a glimpse.
Instead, this was a coming of age story of Lily's distant niece, Aria, who was exiled to her grandmother's house outside San Francisco after a really awful event right before graduation. There, Aria meets new friends, and realizes that she's not straight after all. It's both a coming out and coming of age and finding yourself without really and truly finding yourself story, if that makes sense.
I loved the writing, but had both an easy time and a hard time with Aria's voice. She's so...disconnected emotionally from the events she's going through (highly relate) that's she's mostly just going through the motions. There's a lot of telling what she's doing, how she's feeling, and the disconnect doubles when you slowly realize that she's relating this summer through the lens of distance and time, adding another layer of disconnect to the dissociation.
It was...an odd narrative choice to make, to have a first person POV that was so detached from everything around her, and yet it worked.
There's a lot that happens in this book, and several trigger warnings: death of a close relative, cheating, nonconsensual taking and releasing of nude photography.
I think what I wanted in the epilogue was something more concrete, something that showed Aria had connected with herself and bridged the gap between how she'd grown used to bottling everything up inside, tamping her emotions and feelings so far down that not even she felt them anymore. I think that maybe that was what was supposed to do, but I didn't make the connection.
But this is a really good book. It felt real and raw in a way that I haven't felt in a while, reading YA contemporary books, and I think a lot of it is because how hard I related to Aria and her own disconnection to the world, because disassociation is a huge coping mechanism (not recommended, btw).
Instead, this was a coming of age story of Lily's distant niece, Aria, who was exiled to her grandmother's house outside San Francisco after a really awful event right before graduation. There, Aria meets new friends, and realizes that she's not straight after all. It's both a coming out and coming of age and finding yourself without really and truly finding yourself story, if that makes sense.
I loved the writing, but had both an easy time and a hard time with Aria's voice. She's so...disconnected emotionally from the events she's going through (highly relate) that's she's mostly just going through the motions. There's a lot of telling what she's doing, how she's feeling, and the disconnect doubles when you slowly realize that she's relating this summer through the lens of distance and time, adding another layer of disconnect to the dissociation.
It was...an odd narrative choice to make, to have a first person POV that was so detached from everything around her, and yet it worked.
There's a lot that happens in this book, and several trigger warnings: death of a close relative, cheating, nonconsensual taking and releasing of nude photography.
I think what I wanted in the epilogue was something more concrete, something that showed Aria had connected with herself and bridged the gap between how she'd grown used to bottling everything up inside, tamping her emotions and feelings so far down that not even she felt them anymore. I think that maybe that was what was supposed to do, but I didn't make the connection.
But this is a really good book. It felt real and raw in a way that I haven't felt in a while, reading YA contemporary books, and I think a lot of it is because how hard I related to Aria and her own disconnection to the world, because disassociation is a huge coping mechanism (not recommended, btw).
September 29, 2022
3.5 stars
A Scatter of Light follows Aria Tang-West, who after her nude photos get leaked at school she gets sent away to spend the summer with her grandmother. Whilst there she learns many life lessons and things about herself, including befriending a local lesbian friendship group and having her first taste of love and desire.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as much as last night at the telegraph club, partly because Lily was such an endearing main character and Aria is kind of bland in comparison and partly because I cannot stand cheating storylines.
Malinda Lo's writing is so gorgeous. It is very descriptive but in a simplistic way that makes you really able to visualise and imagine you are there with the characters experiencing what they are experiencing. It is very compelling to keep reading and is subtly emotionally wrenching - in a way that it sneaks up on you with how much it is making you feel and all of a sudden you are having a breakdown T_T
Once again Malinda Lo manages to capture queer culture in a specific time frame in such a caring and empathetic way. In this book as well she explores more working class queer/lesbian culture which I thought added a lot of depth and interesting themes to the book.
My main gripe with this book was the fact the main relationship was essentially an affair and while I think queer relationships should be allowed to be just as messy as straight relationships I will always hate any sort of cheating storyline (no matter what gender combo it's just not my preference to read about). Some people might really enjoy this kind of drama and angst but for me it just frustrates me because it is a form of miscommunication and I always hate that. I don't think the author was intending to portray a healthy relationship so this isn't a criticism of the book, just a personal preference. I think however this book is an excellent portrayal of that messy first love/sexual awakening/queer awakening experience and how you can't always control who you desire.
I also loved the more modern feminist themes in this book, including how women are often slut shamed for things that are not their fault and forced to bear the consequences for men's actions. Having said I didn't like the main romantic relationship the highlight of this book for me was the friendships Aria had, both with her old friends (I thought this was an excellent portrayal of teenage girl friendships and how they can get messy but ultimately have a huge undercurrent of love) and the new ones she makes in California. I also loved the relationship Aria had with her Grandmother, Joan, who is a famous photographer and helps Aria discover her artistic side. I also thought the portrayal of memory and legacy through Joan's character was beautiful and extremely touching.
In conclusion this is an extremely well written book with a touching coming of age story, however I was slightly let down by the main character and the main relationship. I would still recommend it, especially if you were a fan of last night at the telegraph club as we do get a little glimpse and Lily and Kath's lives during the years gone by :')
A Scatter of Light follows Aria Tang-West, who after her nude photos get leaked at school she gets sent away to spend the summer with her grandmother. Whilst there she learns many life lessons and things about herself, including befriending a local lesbian friendship group and having her first taste of love and desire.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as much as last night at the telegraph club, partly because Lily was such an endearing main character and Aria is kind of bland in comparison and partly because I cannot stand cheating storylines.
Malinda Lo's writing is so gorgeous. It is very descriptive but in a simplistic way that makes you really able to visualise and imagine you are there with the characters experiencing what they are experiencing. It is very compelling to keep reading and is subtly emotionally wrenching - in a way that it sneaks up on you with how much it is making you feel and all of a sudden you are having a breakdown T_T
Once again Malinda Lo manages to capture queer culture in a specific time frame in such a caring and empathetic way. In this book as well she explores more working class queer/lesbian culture which I thought added a lot of depth and interesting themes to the book.
My main gripe with this book was the fact the main relationship was essentially an affair and while I think queer relationships should be allowed to be just as messy as straight relationships I will always hate any sort of cheating storyline (no matter what gender combo it's just not my preference to read about). Some people might really enjoy this kind of drama and angst but for me it just frustrates me because it is a form of miscommunication and I always hate that. I don't think the author was intending to portray a healthy relationship so this isn't a criticism of the book, just a personal preference. I think however this book is an excellent portrayal of that messy first love/sexual awakening/queer awakening experience and how you can't always control who you desire.
I also loved the more modern feminist themes in this book, including how women are often slut shamed for things that are not their fault and forced to bear the consequences for men's actions. Having said I didn't like the main romantic relationship the highlight of this book for me was the friendships Aria had, both with her old friends (I thought this was an excellent portrayal of teenage girl friendships and how they can get messy but ultimately have a huge undercurrent of love) and the new ones she makes in California. I also loved the relationship Aria had with her Grandmother, Joan, who is a famous photographer and helps Aria discover her artistic side. I also thought the portrayal of memory and legacy through Joan's character was beautiful and extremely touching.
In conclusion this is an extremely well written book with a touching coming of age story, however I was slightly let down by the main character and the main relationship. I would still recommend it, especially if you were a fan of last night at the telegraph club as we do get a little glimpse and Lily and Kath's lives during the years gone by :')
October 9, 2022
Malinda Lo's previous novel, Last Night at the Telegraph Club is one of my favourite LGBTQ+ novels of all time, and A Scatter of Light is now up there beside it.
A Scatter of Light is a tender exploration of sexuality, identity, art, and young love. Malinda Lo captures the raw messiness of teenage years and how nothing is ever simply black or white all within a few hundred pages. She deals with love and loss, happiness and heartbreak, but does so in such a captivating and well-rounded manner - I didn't feel as though the storyline was unfinished, which I often find with other standalone novels. I particularly enjoyed how she presented Steph's gender expression.
One of my favourite aspects of the book was the connection between Aria and her Grandmother, Joan. For the last hundred pages, I was a sobbing wreck - Nina Lacour fans, you'd love this book...
Her writing is captivating, so much so that I read this book in two sittings, not wanting to put it down.
Overall a fantastic YA novel with LGBTQ+ (and Asian) representation. If that's your kind of book, definitely add this to your list.
Thank you to the publisher and to Pride Book Tours for providing me with a copy to review.
A Scatter of Light is a tender exploration of sexuality, identity, art, and young love. Malinda Lo captures the raw messiness of teenage years and how nothing is ever simply black or white all within a few hundred pages. She deals with love and loss, happiness and heartbreak, but does so in such a captivating and well-rounded manner - I didn't feel as though the storyline was unfinished, which I often find with other standalone novels. I particularly enjoyed how she presented Steph's gender expression.
One of my favourite aspects of the book was the connection between Aria and her Grandmother, Joan. For the last hundred pages, I was a sobbing wreck - Nina Lacour fans, you'd love this book...
Her writing is captivating, so much so that I read this book in two sittings, not wanting to put it down.
Overall a fantastic YA novel with LGBTQ+ (and Asian) representation. If that's your kind of book, definitely add this to your list.
Thank you to the publisher and to Pride Book Tours for providing me with a copy to review.
October 9, 2022
This is a book about slowly unfolding self-discovery, the practice of making art, and the beauty of astronomy. It’s about grief and messy first love and different ways of looking at time. It’s a quiet, moving coming of age story that explores complex and difficult emotions–it’s definitely not something that can be distilled easily into a few hashtags.
The motifs of astronomy, time, and art weave effortlessly through this pensive coming of age story. Despite everything going on, this is a quiet story about Aria coming to terms with herself–not just the label of being queer/bisexual/lesbian/other, but with her own emotions. A Scatter of Light captures the tumultuous, heady feeling of teenage first love: how it’s all-consuming, illogical, and often ephemeral while feeling like the most important thing in the world.
If you appreciate introspective, character-driven YA, I can’t recommend this highly enough, whether or not you’ve read Last Night at the Telegraph Club.
Full review at the Lesbrary.
The motifs of astronomy, time, and art weave effortlessly through this pensive coming of age story. Despite everything going on, this is a quiet story about Aria coming to terms with herself–not just the label of being queer/bisexual/lesbian/other, but with her own emotions. A Scatter of Light captures the tumultuous, heady feeling of teenage first love: how it’s all-consuming, illogical, and often ephemeral while feeling like the most important thing in the world.
If you appreciate introspective, character-driven YA, I can’t recommend this highly enough, whether or not you’ve read Last Night at the Telegraph Club.
Full review at the Lesbrary.
October 2, 2022
Quick thoughts:
I do love messy queers, and this is no exception. Ugh, my heart.
Full review:
I’m an absolute sucker for books that center messy characters especially when it comes to coming of age stories with queer characters, and Malinda Lo absolutely delivers in A Scatter of Light.
This story follows Aria Tang West who is forced to spend her summer with her grandmother (Joan) in San Francisco after nude pics of her surface following the night of her graduation party. All Aria wants is one last summer with her friends before she’s off to MIT in the fall.
Aria is a hot mess but instantly relatable. She starts off so sure of her future and place in the world until she meets Steph Nicols. From that moment on, we see Aria question everything about herself from from exploring her queerness and new labels to her biracial (half Chinese half white) identity to life after high school.
Now I did say this book is messy and that’s because Aria and Steph make all sorts of questionable decisions without always thinking through the consequences. But that’s what makes this so great because it mimics real life. It was so hard not to root for these two no matter what.
And since this is a companion novel to The Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I loved how the author fit Lily and Kath into this storyline and getting an update on their lives.
Thank you Penguin Teen for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
I do love messy queers, and this is no exception. Ugh, my heart.
Full review:
I’m an absolute sucker for books that center messy characters especially when it comes to coming of age stories with queer characters, and Malinda Lo absolutely delivers in A Scatter of Light.
This story follows Aria Tang West who is forced to spend her summer with her grandmother (Joan) in San Francisco after nude pics of her surface following the night of her graduation party. All Aria wants is one last summer with her friends before she’s off to MIT in the fall.
Aria is a hot mess but instantly relatable. She starts off so sure of her future and place in the world until she meets Steph Nicols. From that moment on, we see Aria question everything about herself from from exploring her queerness and new labels to her biracial (half Chinese half white) identity to life after high school.
Now I did say this book is messy and that’s because Aria and Steph make all sorts of questionable decisions without always thinking through the consequences. But that’s what makes this so great because it mimics real life. It was so hard not to root for these two no matter what.
And since this is a companion novel to The Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I loved how the author fit Lily and Kath into this storyline and getting an update on their lives.
Thank you Penguin Teen for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
October 3, 2022
I received an arc of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, and that had no impact on my feelings on the book.
An absolutely breathtaking story about coming out and coming into your own. If you're expecting a full-on companion to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, this is not that--it's small cameos, not a full story arc. So many moments had me tearing up and I'm surprised that I didn't cry.
An absolutely breathtaking story about coming out and coming into your own. If you're expecting a full-on companion to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, this is not that--it's small cameos, not a full story arc. So many moments had me tearing up and I'm surprised that I didn't cry.
September 19, 2022
3.5 rounded up to a 4, i think
January 8, 2023
gave me the ick but also made me cry
full rtc
full rtc
November 30, 2023
Infidelity isn't romantic.
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