“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.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: This is being touted as a companion novel to “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” and it really isn’t that at all. The characters from that book make a cameo of sorts but the story does not involve them. I didn’t like this book as much as “Last Night at the Telegraph Club”, I feel like both the historical setting and the characters in this book just weren’t as interesting. Previous to reading this I have also read the following books by Lo: “Ash” (loved it), “Huntress” (loved it), “Adaptation” (didn’t like it) and “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” (loved it).

This book is set mostly in 2013 when gay marriage was legalized in California. Aria has her summer plans upturned when a boy she made out with posts topless pictures of her across his social media without her knowledge. This causes an uproar and now Aria is being sent to spend the summer with her grandmother in a rural area of California while people “forget” about the incident. While there, Aria is introduced to Steph, her grandmother’s gardener who is genderqueer. Steph in turn introduces Aria to the local working-class queer community. Amid all the celebration around gay marriage and the general craziness of San Francisco, Aria starts to become more comfortable with being who she wants to be.

This is very much a coming-of-age story and a day-to-day story that shows us what Aria is going through during that critical time in life when you transition from high school to college. We follow a number of issues that Aria is dealing with, aside from her own sexuality. Aria is dealing with a lot; her relationship with her absent opera singing mother, her struggles with her two best friends from high school, and the upcoming school year at MIT where she is going to study astrophysics. We also find her grandmother is fighting some health issues which has a pretty big impact on Aria as well.

I enjoyed this but I didn’t love it. I think that is mainly because the “historical” setting just doesn’t seem that historical to me (this was only 10 years ago). The social issues covered in here just aren’t as ground-breaking as the issues covered in “Last Night at the Telegraph Club”. I also felt like Aria was bland; she isn’t facing the heroic struggles that Kath and Lily faced because Aria lives in a much more stable time. Aria is dealing with a lot of change but it is a lot of change that everyone deals with as they grow up. It was engaging and easy to read but I didn’t find myself super excited or intrigued by the story.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this, it was a nice departure from all the fantasy books I read. The story is engaging and I enjoyed the characters and reading about their day-to-day struggles. I didn’t enjoy this as much as “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” because the historical setting and the characters just weren’t as interesting to me. I would still recommend reading this, it is well written and I am not unhappy that I read it. I definitely plan on checking out Lo’s future books.

Review – A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo (4/5 stars)

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