A review by maddiereadswords
A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo

4.5

So here's the thing: this book is really heavy and messy and there's very little about it that was actively pleasant to read, but it was so beautifully written and so palpably real that I kind of can't help but love it anyway. I think it also helps that most of this book is set in 2013 and while I'm a little younger than Aria, the descriptions of some of the outfits and the songs and the atmosphere of it really took me back to that era of finding myself as a teenager in the early 2010s. Maybe Aria's not really an aspirational protagonist, and maybe some of her choices (and those of the adults around her!!) aren't always the best, but it felt so raw and real that I fell like it's going to stick with me for a while. (Also there's really not much of Lily and Kath in here, but what is there is so sweet and it did have me a little emotional, I can't lie.)
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