A friend of mine recommended this book by Ryka Aoki a few weeks ago and I immediately borrowed the audiobook from my library and downloaded it onto my phone while we were still having that conversation. Have I mentioned how much I love my various library apps? Also, I did not realize until just now that the book was nominated for a Hugo award for Best Novel last year.
This book has so much going on, I don’t even know where to begin. I think (but I don’t remember for sure) that the opening scene started with Katrina running away from home, so I’ll start there. She’s a transgender teen whose parents are awful, so she’s decided enough is enough and she’s heading out. She’s had her emergency bag packed for a while now, full of all her necessities … and her violin.
Katrina does what a lot of homeless LGBTQ kids are forced to do to survive, and it’s not pretty. One morning, she’s sleeping on a park bench when a woman offers her half a donut and asks Katrina to play her violin.
Turns out the woman is none other than Shizuka Satomi. That name means nothing to Katrina, who has had to teach herself to play violin because her dad doesn’t think playing violin is manly. But to everyone who studies violin seriously and wants to play professionally, Satomi is THE teacher to have. Over the past 48 years she has only had 6 students and they all went on to have massively successful careers … before meeting untimely ends.
Satomi has earned the nickname the Queen of Hell, but most people don’t realize how close to the truth that is. Turns out she made a pact with a devil 48 years ago. In exchange for wealth and fame, she would surrender her soul. But the first time she played with her cursed bow, she played an unusual piece and no one applauded, which left her contract in a kind of limbo. She got to keep her soul, but she still had to provide something to Tremont, the demon with whom she made the bargain.
They settle on a deal in which Shizuka has 49 years to provide hell with 7 souls. She teaches her students, and when they’re ready, she gives them the cursed bow to play, and their souls belong to hell. I can’t remember for sure, but I think something was said at one point about Shizuka explaining to her students what will happen if they use the bow. So, yes, she’s helping harvest souls for hell, but it’s not like her victims don’t know what’s going on. She just makes sure to choose students who are, not only talented, but power hungry enough to be willing to exchange their souls for fame and success.
It’s been a decade since Shizuka has taken a new student, and while the world of violinists is panting to know whom she’ll choose next, it turns out Shizuka is drawn to Katrina. Her playing is only rudimentary because of her lack of formal training, but there’s a quality to her music that draws in Shizuka .– and, as it turns out, everyone else who listens to her music.
So they start working together, but they also grow close to each other, which makes it very difficult for Shizuka to knowingly damn Katrina. But if she doesn’t provide her seventh soul within the next year, she’ll be considered in default on her contract and her soul will be taken to hell.
You’d think that would be enough for one book, but no. There’s a whole other storyline involving literal aliens from another galaxy who have taken human form as Vietnamese immigrants living in California who own and run a donut shop. They are on the run from something called the Endplague, which is apparently something that happens to every civilization once it reaches its peak. People start turning on each other, and the plague has hit their local empire, so they decided to GTFO.
The captain/mom of these aliens is Lan Tran and she and Shizuka immediately strike up a flirtation, which quickly grows into something more serious. If you think they can’t have a real relationship because they’re different species, you’d be wrong. If you think they can’t have a real relationship because neither can know who/what the other truly is, you’d be wrong about that, too. Lan discovers pretty early on that “Queen of Hell” is more than just a nickname, and she confronts Shizuka about it. At first it seems like that’s the end of their relationship, but once Shizuka explains her side of things, they manage to move past it.
I can’t remember how Shizuka finds out that Lan and her family are really aliens, but that comes out pretty early on, too, enabling them to deepen their relationship pretty quickly.
I won’t tell you how it ends. I’ll just tell you this book was a lot of fun and you should definitely check it out. If you’re into audiobooks, I highly recommend this one on audio.