Lightlark (The Lightlark Saga Book 1) (The Lightlark Saga, 1)

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while threatening a ghost] Isla pulled her new dagger from her waist and brandished it. “Don’t take another…float.” Honestly, if you hate unoriginal names, don’t read this book. Isla is the ruler of Wildling, Celeste is the ruler of Starling, Cleo is the ruler of Moonling, Azul is the ruler of Skyling, Oro is the ruler of Sunling, and Grim is the ruler of Nightshade. And if that’s not enough: “Sky Isle for the Skylings, Moon Isle for the Moonlings, and Sun Isle for the Sunlings.”

But I digress. Where were we? Right, the stupid demonstrations, the endless chapters of Isla's searching, and then Act 2 is where we have Isla paired up with Oro. You would think, the time they spend paired up would give insight into Oro's character. Nope. Nuh-uh, friends, his character is so bland. the publisher and netgalley were really just passing the audiobook arc around like a blunt at a party (thank you to them for real tho) but that meant i have some friends who also got to read this, who i had to pester with questions the entire time i read this book because wow. incomprehensible. 😚✌🏽 may god have mercy on your soul. Listen, I am a seasoned fantasy reader. More than that, I was a Supernatural fan in my heyday. I have made sense of many things that do not make sense. you might be tired reading about great FMCs and might want to read about a FMC who always follows other people's plans, who is always saved by someone else, and who thinks "im so smart!!" but is dumb af

Dropping it to one star for visibility and also because I thought more about the plot twist and realized none of the actual actions lined up with the convoluted motivations. ok also the other two female realm rulers are basically identical when you look at their character art. they’re both white and very pale with light hair and their realms are night sky based. their names also both begin with the letter C. idk why you would do that. the curses attached to all of the realms are uneven and silly and the mechanics needed to break all of them are absolute gobbledygook. i had my friends explain the rules to me like five times, which is bad considering i got all of the mistborn worldbuilding while listening to the audiobooks too. Also, for people who are critical of Aster as an industry plant, I highly suggest you read more about her sister, Daniella Pierson, and how she made a creative agency focusing on tiktok marketing called Newsland along with her newsletter. Industry plants do not exist in publishing, but money and connections do lend privilege, which is nothing new.

I knew very little about this book’s origins before I started reading it. All I knew was that it had blown up on TikTok and was being made into a movie. I also need to complain about the word yolky. I have come to despise the word. The sun was called yolky TWICE. EDIT (4/7/23): oooh I was so close with the title. how many bets Nightbane is a secret item/ingredient etc that Isla has to find in Nightshade recommend: if you want to read what everyone else is reading so you know what’s going on? yes. in any other context? no. Isla. If a major criticism of Lighlark is how Isla is stupid and makes rash, emotional decisions, then the major criticism of Nightbane is how she's now aware she's stupid and makes rash, emotional decisions, feels insecure and stupid about it, and then continues to do so anyways. It's not imposter's syndrome if it's warranted sweetie. She's so insecure about all of this, she almost feels like a different character from the first book, but maybe that's because she had little personality to begin with and her appeal relied on how good she was at fighting and also how sexy she is. But she's also horny in this book too don't worry.In the hands of a more competent author, this could've been an intriguing high fantasy. Maybe it could've been written in multiple POVs and really intereacted with its characters as rulers of dying kingdoms, and the character motivations that go along with it. I want to see what Cleo's secret was! I wanted to see how Azul faced his fears! I wanted to see how the world's consequences and the rulers' motivations interacted and intersected and led to unlikely alliances and power plays. Or, at the very least I wanted to see some cool action scenes. Even within the context of what it is, as a female-led YA book, I would've wanted... something new. Something different. Something other than another sheltered girl who's really good at fighting and falling in love. Lean into the fantasy, lean into what makes this book different. Because it just feels the same. At least define the atmosphere to be unique or noteworthy, because for all that convoluted worldbuilding, nothing feels new.

Now onto the premise. There are six rulers of six different realms trying to break their curses by competing in a Centennial, a game that takes place on an island that only emerges every hundred years. Simple enough? No it isn't. I don't know who finds the 500 year man and 18 year old girl romance appealing, but I'm so tired of it. It's laughable. Even if they look 20... seriously? Every time I remember the character's ages, and how they actually act in the book, I have to laugh. Even just the fact that she beats them both in combat. It's like... okay. Both of these men led their armies in a war against each other 500 years ago and have been practicing fighting since and they just got their asses beat by an 18 year old. She wasn't even doing anything new that they haven't seen or her puting her own spin on it. She just beat them. Funny. I know it's YA and the main character needs some quality that gives her worth like that, but it's just so jarring. AND NO SPOILERS BUT THE FACT THAT EGGS AND YOLKS ACTUALLY ENDED UP BEING SIGNIFCANT IN THE CLIMAX OF THE WHOLE STUPID BOOK UGHHHHH There's some 7th realm. I am cursed with a physical copy of this book and though the secret chapter in Grim's POV was focused on smut, there was a mention that he was battling these things called dreks so I'm gonna guess there's this evil realm that all the other 6 realms have to team up against but Isla will be the most powerful in stopping them I am unfortunately a bit of an aspiring writer myself (derogatory) and do not find my work to be anything good, or special. But making peace with this inspires me to be better, to work harder. I can take it, and I’m sure Aster can too.alex aster tries to ratchet up the stakes of this book with no regard for how to effectively impart danger, distress or anguish. if you're not on board with one of the central three characters, there's simply no drama. the book becomes a benny hill skit of people portaling around and feeling horny Grim was in bed with Aurora. Oh I didn't really talk about this but like, the whole reason Aurora/Celeste even managed to spin the curses was because she promised to sleep with Grim if he found her the heart of Lightlark. Yeah the heart that took Oro and Isla like 50 days to find?? Grim found it in one night in exchange for sexy times. then there’s the worst part of this book: the romance. it was so. bad. just thinking about the love triangle, instalove, 500+ year old love interests with huge power imbalances, and weird ass men that were supposed to be hot ( “I’m not sure what I enjoy more. Seeing the way you grip a sword . . . or the way your dress grips you.” AND HIS NAME IS GRIM 💀💀) brings me pain.

There could have been so much done with all these magic lines and islands and cultures? But basically it's stated they exist and that's it. There's no going into these places and describing them or their people or their magic or why we should care about any of them or how beautiful they can be. I was really excited to dive into this world and none of that occurred at all. The snow villages of the Moonling new lands. The airy jubilees of the Skyling newlands. A few lands that hadn't been settled by any of the six realms at all." With maybe one of the most interactive cover reveal processes ever (letting readers vote on TikTok and then revealing the winner on a Times Square Jumbotron), it’s probably safe to assume that the early hype around Lightlark is going to be enough to propel it to the top of many people’s TBRs. But these kind of super popular YA Fantasy books are usually hit or miss for me, so I went into Alex Aster’s debut excited, while also managing my expectations.But TikTok is not, she says, “something that anyone can game”. “People see what has happened to me. And they’re like: ‘Oh, I can just make a video and get a six-figure deal.’ I wish it was like that. I wish it had been that easy,” she says. For Aster, BookTok is about the BookTokers – the reviewers who read a book, love it and send it viral – such as @thecalvinbooks; @moongirlreads and @aymansbooks. The latter is the handle of Ayman Chaudhary, who is particularly excited about Lightlark. “Alex perfectly laces together an intricate world [while] also giving us a heart-wrenching romance,” she says.