I rarely post about a book on publication day and today is one of those days. 🙂 Last month we brought you a discussion of a unique historical fantasy, The Conductors by Nicole Glover. This month, we read Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson, a novel set in Japan with imaginative themes about abandonment and connection. Check out the synopsis below and then dive into our discussion.
Set in 1999 Japan, Satellite Love is a heartbreaking and beautifully unconventional debut novel about a girl, a boy, and a satellite–and a bittersweet meditation on loneliness, alienation, and what it means to be human.
On the eve of the new millennium, in a city in southern Japan that progress has forgotten, sixteen-year-old Anna Obata looks to the stars for solace. An outcast at school, and left to fend for herself and care for her increasingly senile grandfather at home, Anna copes with her loneliness by searching the night sky for answers. But everything changes the evening the Low Earth Orbit satellite (LEO for short) returns her gaze and sees her as no one else has before.
After Leo is called down to Earth, he embarks on an extraordinary journey to understand his own humanity as well as the fragile mind of the young woman who called him into being. As Anna withdraws further into her own mysterious plans, he will be forced to question the limits of his devotion and the lengths he will go to protect her.
Full of surprising imaginative leaps and yet grounded by a profound understanding of the human heart, Satellite Love is a brilliant and deeply moving meditation on loneliness, faith, and the yearning for meaning and connection. It is an unforgettable story about the indomitable power of the imagination and the mind’s ability to heal itself, no matter the cost, no matter the odds.
Content Notes: Depictions of attempted suicide, demensia.
Satellite Love
Whole book Discussion
Our goal this year has been to find unique books, set in different countries and sharing unique narratives. Satellite Love was a NetGalley find. I think I came across it when I was looking at An I-Novel, another book that I read in February about Japan and Japanese culture. The cover and the space connection drew me to try out this book and I shared it with you!
I’m not sure what I expected in this book, but what we read was really interesting and unlike anything I’ve ever read. There was an atmospheric element throughout that creates a sense of calm throughout, but as we learn more about the various points of view, there is an ever-present tension that grows as the story progresses.
Yes, that sense of calm was quite interesting. Considering that the storyline itself is about the struggles of a young girl, the calmness and atmospheric properties of storytelling offered a new world to think about the tough issues addressed by the book. I also found the storytelling to be quite visual – I could imagine walking with Anna and Soki in the streets of Japan, eating their food, watching the sky through the telescope… It was all very well described, but not to the point that it was overbearing.
Some major themes in this book center around the unreliability of the narrator, trauma, a sense of abandonment, and how the characters cope with that. As we travel through the story, we see that Anna has experienced some sort of trauma and many of the choices she makes stem from coping from those traumatic experiences. She also deals with an absent mother and an ailing grandfather, so there is a lot of pressure to grow up quickly by those who she should be able to rely on in her childhood.
I found the POV of the grandfather extremely heartbreaking. No one seemed to care about Anna while she was taking care of her grandfather, who would periodically forget it. Everytime we met him, he would reintroduce us to Anna, wondering about who she was. He was living in another time altogether though in the moments when he did remember her, he loved her so much.
Another character that we saw sporadically throughout the book was Soki. He was new to the town, having moved here after his dad decided to no longer be a priest for their chosen religion. This was a neat way to learn about Shintoism and Buddhism. On Anna’s journeys around the town, I loved seeing elements of the two religions, kamis, the deities, the rituals, the prayer centers… all of them! What did you think about Soki and the role he played, Ariel?
He seems to contribute to the story well in a way that propels Anna to make various choices. His philosophizing and reflections often mirror Anna and LEO in many ways as well. I liked him as a character, and I think he provided a more rounded-out cast.
A good chunk of the story centers around Anna and her imagination. LEO comes down from the sky and becomes an important part of her life. As an outcast, it is important for Anna that LEO think well of her and like her without any obligation. The only book that comes close to a similar narrative and relationship is Cecelia Ahern’s A Place Called Here and it has been a long time since I have read that. I enjoyed the relationship, even though it is based on a rough past.
Concluding thoughts on Satellite Love
Overall, Satellite Love was a wonderful read. We both enjoyed it and were diligent in coming back to it everyday. We highly recommend this unique Young Adult story.
 Satellite Love is out today! We would recommend finding it at your local library and supporting them!
Many thanks to the publisher for providing us a complimentary copy of the book with a request for an honest review.
Thank you for reading! For more book discussions, check out the books with * in the Book Review Index.
Cover Image: Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash
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