Malinda Lo

Last Night at the Telegraph Club author Malinda Lo returns to the Bay Area with another masterful queer coming-of-age story, this time set against the backdrop of the first major Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage. 

Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friends—one last round of sand and sun before college. But after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria’s parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, artist Joan West. Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother’s gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable—for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to. It’s the kind of summer that changes a life forever.

And almost sixty years after the end of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, A Scatter of Light also offers a glimpse into Lily and Kath’s lives since 1955.

A Scatter of Light

Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer with her best friends - one last round of sand and sun before college. but after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria's parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, the artist Joan West. Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother's gardener.

Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable - for Aria, her family, and the queer community Steph introduces her to.

It's the kind of summer that changes a life forever.

Julia Rutgers

[ . . . ] 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 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

I carefully took the flower from her fingertips. I studied the interior of the bloom, the butter-yellow petals soft and pliant, the tiny white-tipped stigma at its deep gold core.

I ran the words around in my mouth as if I were tasting something new. They were lush and round, like berries. If I were to paint them, they would be ripe orange and pomegranate red.

[ . . . ] the water sighed onto the shore

I was captivated by that imagined image: the diver hanging in mid-water as if suspended between past and future, as if trying to make a choice.

In the titular poem, "Diving into the Wreck," the narrator puts on scuba gear and dives into the ocean to explore a shipwreck. I saw the ocean that Rich described, colors shading from blue to green to black as the diver descended. I saw the diver with her oxygen tank strapped to her back, poking through the ruins of something that had once been beautiful, taking photographs to record it. I saw the body of the diver morphing, female to male, male to female, the shape of her/him outlined by the shifting light.

[ . . . ] I looked out and down, and far below me the Rocky Mountains looked the way they do on topographical maps: wrinkled blue and brown, unreal.

If only, I thought. If only this wasn't real.

The constant hum of recycled air seemed to press against me, pushing me deeper into the hard plastic window shade. I began to imagine my body passing through it, envisioning my skin and bones as individual cells and then singular atoms and then only photons-energy itself. And each photon, each tiny particle of light, could be instantly inside the wall of the airplane and simultaneously beyond it. My whole body could be suddenly outside, thirty thousand feet above the earth's surface. I imagined the whirling air around me, nitrogen and oxygen and water vapor in the clouds and in me, the dawning sunlight scattered by microscopic particles of water and the atoms of my body.

As Saturday evening settled into Saturday night, growing shadows blurred the city's hard edges and turned them into soft-focus suggestions.

[ . . . ] twirling slowly in the air like graceful dancers made of silver mesh.

Lindsay

I didn’t know it was possible to want to be in a place that ached like a bruise.

Lily Hagen

“But I’m in love with you,” I whispered.

That ache: If I could bottle it, it would make you drunk.

Kiran Aftab

** spoiler alert **
           i loved the coming of age and learning about her identity aspect, but i don’t condone cheating🤩

Sarah Sammis

Beyond the inciting event and Aria's own muddled feelings, there's not a lot of drama in this novel. It's a slow, contemplative piece that is serene at times and messy at others. Aria's emotions run hot and cold too and because of her youth she misreads many situations as she's trying to figure herself out.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2023/comm...

Award-winning author Malinda Lo returns to the Bay Area with another masterful coming-of-queer-age story, this time set against the backdrop of the first major Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage. And almost sixty years after the end of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lo’s new novel also offers a glimpse into Lily and Kath’s lives since 1955. Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friends—one last round of sand and sun before college. But after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria’s parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, artist Joan West. Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother’s gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable—for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to. It’s the kind of summer that changes a life forever.

lissa

was rlly excited for this bc i loved last night at the telegraph club but….!

main character was not relatable (or believable) at all which is ok! just not something i care to read. 

author said she worked on this book for over a decade and i think that shows in the way there are soooo many interesting side pieces that are not fully explored. 

i’m glad i read this, but i’m disappointed :/

Hannah

“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.”

beautiful book, the way the author is able to capture such a tumultuous time in the characters lives, historical etc. is so well done. I’m surprisingly very satisfied with the ending it felt like the logical conclusion that the story was ultimately about the journey they were going through and not the destination so much.
Adored the glimpse into Kath and Lily’s story too <3 and the time jump to 2023

treena

Abrianna

A Scatter of Light by @Malinda Lo🎨overall rating - ☆☆☆☆☆tears - 💧💧I cannot possibly put into words how amazing this book was. I went into it expecting a romance (i did not read any synopsis or anything lol), but I was pleasantly surprised to read a heart wrenching coming of age story! If you want a story full of emotions, this is the one for you!Thank you @penguin and netgalley and malinda lo for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review! This book hits shelves on October 4, 2022

thank you to penguin young readers group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

last night at the telegraph club was an underlying panic. a worry of being caught for who you are during a time when that was a danger in itself. a scatter of light is a quiet but ever growing hum. a sureness. the increasing acknowledgment that you are something more than you originally thought. and finding a way, someone who you trust, to explore that facet of yourself.

if you asked me to describe this book, i’d have no other way to than by saying it feels quiet. whole. it’s a warming silence that fills my soul with love and hope. while we all know that this book is meant to be a companion to last night at the telegraph club, as i’m sure others have and will continue to mention, it stands incredibly capable as it’s own entity. these two books, in many ways are so opposite of each other, i forget that they essentially accomplish the same goal. it’s a story about a young girl, who learns about her sexuality. it is not a coming out story, but so much more.

it’s aria’s self-discovery that we follow. it’s meeting steph, and mel, and lisa, and experiencing the modern queer arts scene in san fransisco through them. it’s an acknowledgement of decades of queer history and activism in the background, guiding these characters through this 2013 summer. it’s a connection between steph and aria, one that they explore in the serene nature (and pick up trucks) of the northern californian landscape. truly, they have a relationship that, while so much happens, it feels like their time together is so insular. so intense. and i see myself so much in both aria and steph that it hurts a bit and leaves me feeling raw. it all feels so… liminal, in a way.

and, it’s a slow book. it feels like i’m moving as fast as aria did. gradually increasing speed as events and relationships begins to develop. but truly, i will not be able to explain the place in my mind where this book holds strong, adjacent yet opposite to its’ predecessor. i just— i think that’s why it all feels the way it does, a calming force to enrapture my mind. an eternal flame, if you will.

i guess, finally, before i somehow find a way to talk in circles more, i’ll leave with this. this book is so beautifully written that i wrote down so many quotes that resonated with me. but i’ll only share two. two opposite statements, but both ones that set the mature tone we see quite well:

“she might have been kneeling before me, but i was the supplicant”

“i wanted to remain here on the edge between my two selves, double exposed, all hunger and heart”

i hope others resonate with this story and its companion in the way i have. i hope these characters can help other queer teens find the love and acceptance they deserve. to the end of time, you’ll see me shout about these incredible novels.

ash (smokedshelves)

thank you to penguin young readers group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

last night at the telegraph club was an underlying panic. a worry of being caught for who you are during a time when that was a danger in itself. a scatter of light is a quiet but ever growing hum. a sureness. the increasing acknowledgment that you are something more than you originally thought. and finding a way, someone who you trust, to explore that facet of yourself.

if you asked me to describe this book, i’d have no other way to than by saying it feels quiet. whole. it’s a warming silence that fills my soul with love and hope. while we all know that this book is meant to be a companion to last night at the telegraph club, as i’m sure others have and will continue to mention, it stands incredibly capable as it’s own entity. these two books, in many ways are so opposite of each other, i forget that they essentially accomplish the same goal. it’s a story about a young girl, who learns about her sexuality. it is not a coming out story, but so much more.

it’s aria’s self-discovery that we follow. it’s meeting steph, and mel, and lisa, and experiencing the modern queer arts scene in san fransisco through them. it’s an acknowledgement of decades of queer history and activism in the background, guiding these characters through this 2013 summer. it’s a connection between steph and aria, one that they explore in the serene nature (and pick up trucks) of the northern californian landscape. truly, they have a relationship that, while so much happens, it feels like their time together is so insular. so intense. and i see myself so much in both aria and steph that it hurts a bit and leaves me feeling raw. it all feels so… liminal, in a way.

and, it’s a slow book. it feels like i’m moving as fast as aria did. gradually increasing speed as events and relationships begins to develop. but truly, i will not be able to explain the place in my mind where this book holds strong, adjacent yet opposite to its’ predecessor. i just— i think that’s why it all feels the way it does, a calming force to enrapture my mind. an eternal flame, if you will.

i guess, finally, before i somehow find a way to talk in circles more, i’ll leave with this. this book is so beautifully written that i wrote down so many quotes that resonated with me. but i’ll only share two. two opposite statements, but both ones that set the mature tone we see quite well:

“she might have been kneeling before me, but i was the supplicant”

“i wanted to remain here on the edge between my two selves, double exposed, all hunger and heart”

i hope others resonate with this story and its companion in the way i have. i hope these characters can help other queer teens find the love and acceptance they deserve. to the end of time, you’ll see me shout about these incredible novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

“I felt the weight of that moment all the way through my body, every nerve alive. I think she felt it, too. We could have made a lot of other choices that night, but we made the only one we wanted to make.”

Bi-racial Chinese/Caucasian, Chinese, LGBTQIA+ (Queer, lesbian, bisexual, genderqueer, questioning), polyamorous side character.  

Stroke, death, homophobia, grief, infidelity, cancer mention, sexual harassment (unconsenual publishing of lude photos)

 Aria wasn’t planning on spending the summer at her Grandmother's house in California, but it’s where she is. She definitely wasn’t planning on falling for her grandmother's gardener, Steph. First of all, Aria is straight, and second, Steph has a girlfriend. Nothing seems to be going as she planned, and the summer before she goes to MIT is going to change everything she knows about herself, with no going back. 

A scatter of light shows us that even in the darkest of nights there is a scattering of stars; each one of them unique and beautiful in their own way.

Aria was a realistically written character: freshly 18, I saw glimpses of my teenage self in how she felt at times. I can’t say I liked her, because she made decisions that I actively condemn. I knew everything she was doing was wrong, but there was a part of me that couldn’t help but root for her anyway. This is a testament to Lo’s writing. The prose is almost poetic, it lifts the story from the pages and prints the words right on the reader's heart. 

The book was definitely character driven, and follows Aria’s emotions and coming to terms with some truths about herself more than the choices she makes. It follows her relationship with different family members, with friends, and with herself and her sexuality. I never wanted anything more than the book offered, and I gulped down everything it gave me with a thirst I haven’t known for a while. 

My emotions are still a blur as I write this review; I’m stuck in an emotional Limbo after spending half a day being driven into the unknown by a teenage girl figuring out her life. I wouldn’t be able to turn back if I tried, and I wouldn’t want to. Full of character mistakes, queer love, heartbreak and the reality of being queer in the modern day. Steph, the love interest, wasn’t a nice character-she wasn’t someone I liked, but it was easy to understand Aria’s love for her. It was easy to understand her lust, and I loved watching the relationship evolve, as much as I hoped it wouldn’t-as much as I wanted them to remain friends and to not do anything they might regret. 

The stark reality of being queer now versus being queer in the 60’s hits you like a punch in the good when reading it from the same author; the same style, the same words, but na million miles and worlds apart. I won’t give spoilers, but it gave a conclusion to Last Night at the Telegraph Club that made me tear up. It felt a fitting end to that story, that slotted perfectly into Arias. I would definitely recommend reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club before you read this; though it definitely can be read as a stand-alone it truly shines as a follow up to its predecessor. 

Beautifully written, with a story bound to resonate with so many queer youth, its ture glory comes from the emotional toll it takes and the mirror it holds up to so many aspects of queer experience. 

Although allowing the reader to feel a realistic process of emotions and flow of events, the plot occasionally seems disjointed at points as it jumps from one point to the next. 

 You want an emotional read with imperfect characters. You want a true coming of age novel that shows just how messy and complicated life can be-one that doesn’t draw a line between who’s the hero and who’s the villain.

 You don’t like books where the flaws of the main character are a focus. You like romance books to be 100% about the relationship, with less focus on the other parts of coming of age.

Jessie Winchester

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

“I felt the weight of that moment all the way through my body, every nerve alive. I think she felt it, too. We could have made a lot of other choices that night, but we made the only one we wanted to make.”

Publisher: Dutton Books

Release date: 6th October 2022

Pages: 336

Representation: Bi-racial Chinese/Caucasian, Chinese, LGBTQIA+ (Queer, lesbian, bisexual, genderqueer, questioning), polyamorous side character.  


Trigger warnings: Stroke, death, homophobia, grief, infidelity, cancer mention, sexual harassment (unconsenual publishing of lude photos)


Summary:  Aria wasn’t planning on spending the summer at her Grandmother's house in California, but it’s where she is. She definitely wasn’t planning on falling for her grandmother's gardener, Steph. First of all, Aria is straight, and second, Steph has a girlfriend. Nothing seems to be going as she planned, and the summer before she goes to MIT is going to change everything she knows about herself, with no going back. 

A scatter of light shows us that even in the darkest of nights there is a scattering of stars; each one of them unique and beautiful in their own way. 


Aria was a realistically written character: freshly 18, I saw glimpses of my teenage self in how she felt at times. I can’t say I liked her, because she made decisions that I actively condemn. I knew everything she was doing was wrong, but there was a part of me that couldn’t help but root for her anyway. This is a testament to Lo’s writing. The prose is almost poetic, it lifts the story from the pages and prints the words right on the reader's heart. 

The book was definitely character driven, and follows Aria’s emotions and coming to terms with some truths about herself more than the choices she makes. It follows her relationship with different family members, with friends, and with herself and her sexuality. I never wanted anything more than the book offered, and I gulped down everything it gave me with a thirst I haven’t known for a while. 

My emotions are still a blur as I write this review; I’m stuck in an emotional Limbo after spending half a day being driven into the unknown by a teenage girl figuring out her life. I wouldn’t be able to turn back if I tried, and I wouldn’t want to. Full of character mistakes, queer love, heartbreak and the reality of being queer in the modern day. Steph, the love interest, wasn’t a nice character-she wasn’t someone I liked, but it was easy to understand Aria’s love for her. It was easy to understand her lust, and I loved watching the relationship evolve, as much as I hoped it wouldn’t-as much as I wanted them to remain friends and to not do anything they might regret. 

The stark reality of being queer now versus being queer in the 60’s hits you like a punch in the good when reading it from the same author; the same style, the same words, but na million miles and worlds apart. I won’t give spoilers, but it gave a conclusion to Last Night at the Telegraph Club that made me tear up. It felt a fitting end to that story, that slotted perfectly into Arias. I would definitely recommend reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club before you read this; though it definitely can be read as a stand-alone it truly shines as a follow up to its predecessor. 

Its shining glory: Beautifully written, with a story bound to resonate with so many queer youth, its ture glory comes from the emotional toll it takes and the mirror it holds up to so many aspects of queer experience. 


Its fatal flaw: Although allowing the reader to feel a realistic process of emotions and flow of events, the plot occasionally seems disjointed at points as it jumps from one point to the next. 

Read this if: You want an emotional read with imperfect characters. You want a true coming of age novel that shows just how messy and complicated life can be-one that doesn’t draw a line between who’s the hero and who’s the villain.

Skip this if: You don’t like books where the flaws of the main character are a focus. You like romance books to be 100% about the relationship, with less focus on the other parts of coming of age.

A Scatter of Light

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