A Scatter of Light

Author: Malinda Lo

Rating: 2/5

Eighteen-year-old Aria West was meant to spend the summer with her friends at Martha’s Vineyard. An unfortunate incident at a graduation party causes her summer plans to change and she ends up staying with her grandmother Joan West in California. She expects boredom but meets Steph the gardener instead.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

Aria’s classmate posts photos of her nude on Tumblr. Aria’s father decides she’ll spend the summer with Joan West because Aria’s friends Haley and Tasha uninvite her from their Martha’s Vineyard holiday, and he’s got a writer’s retreat. Aria’s parents are divorced, her mother is a famous opera singer (she’s related to Lily from Telegraph Club). Joan was an artist known for her photography. Aria meets Joan’s gardener Steph. They also run into each other in the grocery store and Aria meets Steph’s girlfriend Lisa and her best friend Mel. Aria goes to Steph’s open mic performance and realises she’s attracted to Steph. When Aria and Steph are together, Aria encourages Steph to pursue music but Steph has had a rough childhood. Her parents kicked her out and she and Lisa had been together since high school. Steph had to pay her way through college (before she dropped out) and is now struggling to make an income. Aria realises she wants to do some art too so tries to get back into it. Aria meets her mother Alexis in San Francisco. They have a tough relationship as Alexis hasn’t been around much, even missing Aria’s graduation. Alexis reveals she’s engaged and also criticises Aria about the nude photos. Alexis shows Aria pictures of Lily Hu, a scientist in Los Angeles. Steph and Aria spend more time together and Aria reveals she thinks she’s queer. Steph and Lisa’s relationship becomes strained. Steph and Aria kiss at a party. Though Steph thinks it’s a mistake, they continue to meet and become intimate with each other. Aria’s best friend Tasha visits her after a fight with Haley. Tasha reveals that she and Haley had been dating but Haley didn’t think she was gay. Aria doesn’t tell Tasha about Steph but they all go to a queer music festival together. Tasha figures it out and the two have a conversation about it. Two weeks before leaving for MIT, Aria sees Joan having a stroke. She calls the ambulance and Joan is taken to hospital. Aria asks Steph for a ride home after her grandmother is stabilised (her aunt Tammy and father were called and were on their way). Aria and Steph have sex. Joan’s condition improves but still isn’t great and she dies. Aria goes to Steph’s work and tells her. Steph kisses her and Lisa sees and confronts Steph about it. Steph keeps her distance from Aria but Aria stops her at Joan’s memorial service. Steph says she wants time to think and doesn’t think a relationship between them would work. Aria finds Joan’s secret art project–a sculpture of her grandfather’s head made of his research notes (he had been an astronomy professor–Aria was going to study astronomy or something at MIT).

Ten years later, Aria has her first art show. She’s also finished her PhD. She presents her work A Scatter of Light which had the original 2013 art piece in it.

Review

Oh gosh, I had such high hopes for this book! Imagine my chagrin when nothing about this book really hit right. It wasn’t badly written at all–I did finish it in, like, three days during eXaM sEaSOn so I think that’s very impressive (in showing how far I’ll go to procrastinate). However, I didn’t like the characters, the plot made me uncomfortable and everything about this book was so damn predictable. I knew Joan was going to die and perhaps it was that knowledge that prevented me from feeling sad about it when she did succumb to a stroke. I’m a very emotional consumer of media so the fact that I didn’t cry surely says something about the writing. Also, Steph and Aria hooking up was just kjKLJDFLKDSJLKF because Steph was very clearly in a relationship with Lisa. It would have been different if she had broken up with Lisa and decided she wanted to be with Aria. Or even her NOT being interested in Aria would have made for an interesting story because I am kind of sick of every protagonist getting kissed by their crushes (massively unfair).

I knew Haley and Tasha had dated–I thought that was so obvious and it bothered me that Aria didn’t put two and two together sooner. I knew Lisa would see Steph and Aria kissing (why aren’t people EVER discreet? Is that so hard?!). The one part of this book I did like was Aria and her father’s discussion on Alexis (Aria’s mother) and how her father didn’t actually love her anymore. If more of the book had been like that, it would have been great.

I thought a lot of bits dragged on far longer than necessary. I was tired of all the outfits Aria wore (which were described in a lot of detail) and I–ugh, I just felt so uncomfortable knowing Steph was cheating on Lisa. Even though I didn’t like Lisa all that much, no one deserves to be cheated on. I’m glad Steph chose herself in the end. She had a lot of crap to sort out.

Also, the ten years later scene was a bit…out of nowhere? An art show and a PhD? Within ten years?! Doesn’t it take agesssss to get both? I mean, the PhD I can understand because you can pull a Hamilton and just study non-stop but surely an art show in a prominent gallery is difficult to get on your first shot? I don’t know.

While I had told myself NOT to compare this book to Telegraph Club (they have very different vibes and I think it would be an unfair comparison), my brain kept trying to figure out how the two were linked. AND IT WOULD NOT STOP UNTIL IT HAD AN ANSWER. So I kind of wish this book had just been a standalone. There was no reason to link it to the first. (I will admit it was kind of nice to see Lily had stayed with Kath even if that bit of information could have been released as part of a novella or something, I don’t know.)