After Lo's stunning debut took me my absolute surprise, I knew I had to read A Scatter of Light as quickly as possible and it did not disappoint! This is the chaotic, messy and utterly riveting coming-of-age story of Aria, who struggles to come to terms with her sexuality. Lo just has a way with words - the narrative flows easily and the descriptions are beautiful yet never "bulk down" the story.
At times heart-wrenching and at times invigorating, this wonderful story will appeal to both fans of Lo's first work and anyone who's ever felt like they don't belong. Be prepared to get emotional reading this one!

After a slut-shaming incident on social media Aria's holiday plans are cancelled and she is sent to spend the summer with her grandmother. This turns out to be a life-changing summer; she meets the girl of her dreams, re-connects with her grandmother and comes out to a new group of friends. Aria is a complex character; rich but not as rich as her school friends,, neglected by both her famous mother and her father, she discovers a passion that consumes her and becomes obsessive about Steph, the girl who tends her grandmothers garden. As their attraction grows, secrets are revealed about her best friends from school and the summer culminates in a romantic clinch and a devastating loss.

Short version: untruthful marketing and a whole lot of cheating made this story very disappointing.

A scatter of deeper thoughts:
- First of all, this absolutely shouldn't be considered a sequel or even a companion novel to Last Night At The Telegraph Club. There is very little reference to that book, very little comparison. We don't get to see the places or people we saw in LNATTC and how they've changed all these decades later. We just get one small article added near the end that tells us where Kath and Lily are now. That's it.
- Even the "this book shows what it's like for queer people when gay marriage is officially allowed in the states" isn't really true. It gets mentioned at the beginning and that's about it.
- We follow Aria as she spends time at her grandmother Joan's place her last summer before college. She hangs out with Joan's gardner and her friends, which are all queer.
- it felt nice knowing that almost ever character was queer and at different stages of figuring out exactly who they are and who they can tell.
- I really liked Joan and Aria's relationship with her. Although I didn't get why Aria calls her Joan and not grandma or something similar. Felt really odd.
- I enjoy reading about messy imperfect characters, but there's a limit to how messy someone can be. And cheating and thinking that's fine, not learning and being sorry for it is where the line gets drawn.
- many people have said Malinda Lo's writing is exquisite. At times I do agree. Especially in moments of deep emotion. But at other times I didn't really like the writing, especially during descriptions or objects or places. It was simple in a way that made no sense (like a house described only as white and a hat described only as orange... That doesn't help me visualise them at all).

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.

There is just SOMETHING about Malinda Lo's novels set in the Bay Area, they feel so real and and so close to my heart despite not having personal connections with it as I grew up. Both the Telegraph Club and this book are much wider than a love story, its heart is in the queer community, and finding your place there, and they have a sense of time and place that are second to none. I was delighted to see more of that in A Scatter of Light.

Thanks to #Netgalley for an arc of #AScatterofLight

It was the first book I read by this author and w0n't surely be the last as I thoroughly enjoyed this coming of age story.
Aria is well developed and relatable character, a girl who's trying to understand who she is and her sexuality.
I found there's a lot of thought provoking part and a lot of great storytelling.
An excellent story, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

A beautiful, heartwrenching coming of age story. Aria was a sympathetic character and I really connected with her and some of her struggles. The atmosphere was lovely and matched the tone of the writing. There were many difficult parts, but it was truly a treat to read. I really love the author's writing style and the way she's just able to tell a story with all the details fully fleshed out and nothing blurry or hazy. Admittedly though, this made some portions of the book too drawn out. Definitely a more slow-paced book and took me a while to really get into it, but overall a wonderful book.

With thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book hit the right note for me pretty early on and never faltered. Aria Tang West is the daughter of a novelist and an opera singer (divorced), and granddaughter of a physics professor and an artist. She also made an error of judgement just before graduating high school which went public and has been sent to her grandmother’s near San Francisco the summer before she starts at MIT. Her grandfather died over a year ago and this is the summer she hangs out with lesbians a little older than her and falls for someone properly. She also has an unexpected summer in general compared to previous summers and hangs out with her grandmother, so it’s chill and there’s tension and not everything ends well that summer… it’s when she grows up but remains a young adult. I’m trying really hard not to spoil things. In some ways it’s more serious than the companion novel Last Night At The Telegraph Club and they are very distinctly different (the former is more of a love story and while I enjoyed it, I prefer A Scatter of Light!) - I’m really glad Malinda Lo kept going with this one from a decade ago to now - as Aria is still becoming herself with different pressures than you might guess.

I love the way Malinda Lo writes- it just draws me in. And I’m sure that I would love her stories even if they didn’t take place in the Bay Area, but there’s something about reading a book that happens in a place near to me, that makes me that much more into it. Do New Yorkers feel this about the innumerable books set it NYC? I don’t know. Anyway, this is a coming of age story set in 2008 in Marin County. I enjoyed the role In n Out played in it, lol. 4.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC

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.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for accepting my request for this book.

Malinda Lo is the best sapphic book author I've ever read. The writing style is quiet simple but simply beautiful. The story itself is beautiful. I love Aria's voice and her love story. The pacing is quiet slow but not boring at all. Absolutely one of my favorite books of the year

Anyone who remembers how much I loved Last Night at the Telegraph Club will understand how excited I was when Malinda Lo announced that she would be releasing a companion novel entitled A Scatter of Light.

A Scatter of Light takes place in the same universe and same family, but begins in 2013. It is a head rush of firsts and in betweens.

When explicit photos of Aria are leaked online just before High School graduation, she is sent to spend the summer with her grandmother. Judged like a woman but treated like a girl, Aria is feeling rightfully angry until a meeting with her grandmother’s openly queer gardener sparks a new hope for the summer.

I feel like I have been daydreaming my own version of this book for years. By that, I don’t mean that I could have written it (Malinda Lo is a genius!) but that it is the perfect maelstrom of coming-of-age in a new and ephemeral place, the last summer of childhood, heat, boredom and a forbidden queer awakening. That in between place is so infinitely compelling - exciting, confusing, exhausting - and Lo writes it so well.

The beauty of Aria’s story is that she feels like it’s happening for the very first time - and it is, for her. Just as her distant relative Lily felt when she first discovered the Telegraph Club and all of its secrets. If you’re looking for a continuation of that book then this isn’t it, but, just like Last Night at the Telegraph Club reminded us of the history of lesbians, queerness and women of colour, A Scatter of Light nods to the way our firsts are both completely our own and part of a much longer history.

Every year I get older, but I continue to be inspired by the heady potential of those transitional summers. Thank you to Malinda Lo for writing my yearning daydreams to life and bringing so much more to them. If you also live to pine then I very much recommend you place this on pre-order, or pick it up in stores on October 6th.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a companion novel, so I would suggest reading last night at the telegraph club before. It follows a Chinese American girl who navigates her sexuality and navigate her life at her grandma's house.

This book is so beautiful, it feels like art how it's joy and sadness and both are so beautiful. Family love runs deep in this book and to see how they all shape one another, as a summer with Arias grandmother changes her whole life. Realising one's true identity and sexuality is something I can connect with on a personal level so to see it depicted so well and honestly was wonderful, it was also amazing as Aria truly started to see the truth of herself she found out the truth of so many other people in her life. I love the ethical dilemmas of Aria's first love and how it was so overwhelming, Steph was a great character dealing with the her own dilemmas. Overall, I loved this book so much.

4.5 stars

I received an electronic advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Without a word of a lie, this book broke me and left me to put the pieces back together. I absolutely inhaled the last 40% of the book to the point I stayed up into the early hours to finish it because I just couldn’t bring myself to put it down.

This book delves into the subject of identity in so many different senses, yet it manages to tackle each with a precision and delicacy that is rare to find; often one aspect is sacrificed in favour of others but this did not feel like the case within A Scatter of Light.

After revealing photographs of Aria are spread across the internet she finds her plans for the summer after graduation turned upside down. Instead of fun and excitement with her best friends at the vineyard, Aria finds herself travelling to stay with her grandmother Joan; a skilled artist who lives with her dog ever since Aria’s grandfather passed away. At first, Aria sees this simply as a chance to reconnect with her Grandfather in the face of heading down the same career path as he made his life’s work, but soon she ends up with far more than she could ever bargain for.

A Scatter of light is a beautiful, evocative journey of self exploration; not only delving into Aria’s journey to finding her own sexual identity, but this novel also tackles the beauty of creating art, and the sheer value of family.

The only thing that stopped me rating this book five stars was the fact that at times I felt a tad drawn out of the story by unresolved elements. This was however personal preference ( and I am in no way referring to anything relating to the “tomato incident” or the consequences of this- No spoilers)

The highlight of this book for me was Aria and Joan’s family relationship; the love between the two was clear from the very start and it filled me with such warmth to read.

I will say before I go into the review, I haven’t yet read Last Night at the Telegraph Club so any nods to that book will have been lost on me (my bad) so if I don’t mention the links, if there are any, that’s why!

…

I’m not entirely sure where to start with this review so this many be very disjointed and non sensical but I’ll try and be clear in my thoughts. There will be spoilers in this but I’ll give a warning beforehand and I’ll list any content warnings at the end.

…

Instead of spending her summer with friends at Martha’s Vineyard, Aria Tang West is sent to stay with her artist grandmother, Joan West, for the summer after and incident following a high school graduation party. Whilst in California Aria’s life is changed in unexpected ways; especially when she meets her grandmothers gardener Steph. Steph opens Aria’s eyes to a life she never imagined she could have; Steph helps her understand who she is and who she wants to be.

…

The theme of family that runs through this book touched my heart and this is where the spoilers come in so read further at your own risk.

🚨

When Joan suffers a stroke, it was unexpected and it took me back to when my own grandmother had a stroke a number of years ago. I could relate to how Aria dealt with and processed this event; it hit very close to home. It’s been a while since a book made me cry, but when this happened I was gone. Then Aria wondering how Joan’s dog Analemma would cope without her set me off again.

🚨

There were times whilst reading this book that I thought I knew absolutely where the plot was going; sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong - exactly how I like my reading experience to be. I laughed, I cried and I enjoyed.


CW // death, cheating, lack of consent, slut shaming

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3/5
Thank you so much Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Let me start by saying that this is a companion novel to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, not a sequel. It will definitely enhance your reading experience if you've already read it, but you can very easily read A Scatter of Light without having read it first.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this story and most are hard to express in a spoiler-free review (which this is) but I'll try my best.
I enjoyed the actual prose and pacing a lot more than Last Night at the Telegraph Club. I felt that we were allowed to stay in moments for longer and there were some beautiful conversations we witnessed characters having, as well as some gorgeous descriptions and fitting metaphors.
The themes in this book played out well and wrapped up circularly in a satisfying way. I connected a lot to one of the sub-plots and thought it was written well.
Beautiful and miraculous. But you know what makes it a miracle? The fact that we are present in that moment, experiencing it fully, before it inevitably changes.
As for the characters, I think overall they're more dynamic than LNATTC however my opinions of most of them slowly started to change as the story went on. Our main character, Aria, is a fine protagonist however as the story progressed I began to resent her actions and choices. I grew disconnected from her and wanted things for her that opposed her own desires.
One character that I consistently loved, however, was Aria's grandmother, Joan. My own grandmother is called Joan so I think that made me love her even more, but she's an incredible character anyway. She's warm and loving and comforting, she has so much uniqueness and wisdom to her. Her art itself was layered and interesting and thus so was she. I adored the relationship between her and Aria.
As for Aria and her other relationships, I'm more torn about. I think her friendships were complex and varied, I enjoyed seeing all the different paths her different friendships ended up taking. However my main complaint, and what has dragged my rating for this book lower, is the romance. This is the main plot line and so it's hard to pass over judgement and focus on this book's other positives when I found the romance such a large negative.
First and foremost, I felt very little chemistry between the characters. There were some stunning descriptions to do with their relationship, but not even those could distract me from my growing unease. Without spoilers, it is incredibly hard to explain to you why I disliked it so much, so let me simply say that it involved a trope that I despise. From this trope grew a storyline that I didn't at all find enjoyable to read about.
I am not, however, writing this entire story off as a bad one because I disliked the romance. I found it strange that in a romance novel I was rooting against the romance, (and I'm not entirely sure) but I think part of the message of the story was that perhaps I should feel that way about it. Regardless of the intentions the author held, I didn't find it fun to read about or very moving or emotional. Unfortunately, this wasn't the book for me. But I think if you loved LNATTC or Malinda Lo's other works, you should definitely give it a try.
That's the beauty of it, and the reason I keep trying new things. You never know who it will affect.
I'm sorry to say I felt this way, but I'm very grateful for the arc and the opportunity to give this review. A Scatter of Light comes out Oct 6th in the UK.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club was one of my favourite reads, so to say I was excited to delve back into this universe was an understatement.

A Scatter of Light lived up to all my expectations. It was a heartwarming yet bittersweet coming of age story, where we see Aria find herself over one intense summer.

As Aria comes into her queerness, we see how her family, especially her artist grandmother, plays a huge role in shaping who she becomes.

It's a story of first love and loss, and there is a lovely connection to Last Night at the Telegraph Club.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder&Stoughton for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn't entirely my cup of tea but it was by no means a bad book. It's meant to be YA but I thought there were quite a few fluctuations in register. Some of the language was really oversimplified and it led me to thinking this was maybe targeted at the younger end of YA, only to then completely shift tone in a couple of sex scenes, which were much more detailed than your usual YA "fade to black" chapter end.

I don't normally divide reviews into bullet points but I think it may be helpful here just to sort out my mixed feelings about this book.

good things:
- exploration of non-binary gender identity in a time setting when most people were lacking the language to talk about this
- it can be enjoyable for a book to be about mundane things and not always about a chosen one saving the world, although sometimes this makes for boring dialogue. One of my biggest pet peeves is dialogue that sounds unrealistic and sometimes you'll encounter the opposite issue - I think the narration here strikes a good balance between the two.

bad things:
- unnecessary and constant descriptions of what the characters were wearing, even the adults and not just their clothes, makeup too! Some of this is ok if it's relevant to the plot or character building, but not all the time.
- I didn't feel that anyone's race made a real difference to the story when this would have been such a perfect opportunity to explore intersectionality
- we are constantly told that Steph and Lisa "have a history" and that Steph simply cannot leave Lisa even though she's clearly unhappy. I don't think the character of Steph was supposed to be likeable in this, but a little bit more insight into why she felt she couldn't leave the relationship might have helped understand her actions a bit more. All we know about it is from a passing comment from a side character.
- I didn't like the epilogue, I don't feel it wrapped things up well at all. It reeks of privilege and packs little bits of information about various characters that could have been expanded on. For example, I'd rather know more about Tasha ten years later than learning the names of Aria's university friends, who we have not met at any point during the novel and add nothing.
- other elements such as the relationship between Aria and her mother are also underdeveloped, the mother ends up being a very two-dimensional character (realises she's been absent and offers Aria financial help to make up for it - this plot point is quickly forgotten)

I'm not sure if this is just me being "too old" to appreciate this book - I was already 30 in 2013 and don't really relate to this kind of queer awakening. I don't want to penalise it just because it doesn't represent my exact life experience.

A well written delve into life right at the cusp of adulthood. It deals with love, loss, sexuality, race, gender, friendship - all the big things you grapple with. I enjoyed reading about this town and the people Aria meets, but I did find it hard to connect to. I could see all the emotion but never quite felt it. That said, I appreciate this snapshot of a summer. It feels like a real moment in time kind of read.