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

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I read MANY books, and somehow Alex weaves stories that stay with me, front and center—and make me wish desperately that I had more in front of me. I feel like the author just made the rules very convoluted and hard to follow without the logic that we saw in the Hunger Games. For instance, in the Hunger Games, we understood that children were selected as a way to lower morale in the districts; in Lightlark, the rulers are selected...but they have been competing for 400 years (Isla is the youngest realm ruler while the others are like 500 years old lmao) so I don't get what's different about each time? In the Hunger Games, the competitors are sent to the Capitol; in Lightlark they are sent to Lightlark, the original realm with power, but also the King of Lightlark is cursed so does he also compete? In the Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta meet with fashion designers to demonstrate how the Capitol demands pomp behind the tragic killing; in Lightlark, Isla has an appointment with the tailor...just because? I'm not sharing these parallels to demand the author make a carbon copy of the Hunger Games, but if you are gonna comp with such an iconic YA dystopia, you need to follow through.

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 update: the overall star rating for this not-even-fully-released-yet book is killing me. i will still be reading (because i’m nosey). this was the explanation alex made on tiktok when someone asked her why the quotes weren't in her book: "All those moments are in there. Either not word for word, but there, or only in the final copy not the arc." im sorry but that makes zero sense. why would you use the quotes that aren't in your book for the sole purpose of promoting your book??? and how would you not know which quotes are in your book when the book is right in front of you? one of the tropes that are mentioned in alex's videos that are allegedly in the book is the "forced proximity" trope. which means they are forced to be right next to each other at all times. this isn't even the case in the book, every character has their own rooms and they are only gathered together during games and stuff. another trope is the "villain gets the girl" one. so... which one of these characters is the villain? asking for a friend.This kind of success has happened before. Ernest Cline had a movie deal for Ready Player One before the book was out. Then again, both RPO and Lightlark are highly commercialized novels, which I do consider an issue when regarding the industry as a whole and what becomes popular.

I liked how ambitious Isla was, but the most annoying thing about her was her obstinate stubbornness and then almost immediate opinion changes. 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. recommend: if you want to read what everyone else is reading so you know what’s going on? yes. in any other context? no.

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So I’ve written for far too long and I’m going to wrap it up here. To be honest, y’all, I did enjoy this book. It was so weird and bad it actually became kind of enjoyable. I know this was definitely not the review I was expecting to write (I was thinking a lot more capital letters and a lot more ranting lol) but I think I kinda shared enough of my mixed feelings about this book. Sequel is called Nightshade (duh, Isla is half Nightshade because her dad was some Nightshade general and all signs point to Isla x Grim endgame) my point in this review is not that this book is good. i don’t think it is. it’s that comparatively, i find it unfair for y’all to shit on it but then go read (insert book) and sleep with it under your pillow every night.

Her romance with Grim just felt like an old man grooming a teenager and then trying to get in her pants. He was an ancient being, centuries old and Isla was maybe in her early 20s. Grim was a creep! He felt like a sexual predator and often made unsolicited comments on her body (i.e. how her dresses fit tightly, how he had wet dreams about her/thoughts about her). The bond between them felt artificial (it's sort of explained later in the book, but it's a cop out for the insta-love from Grim's side, & there's little foreshadowing). At least with Oro there was more bonding with the search for the heart and even then I think Oro served better as more of an older brother figure than romance. If you're here, you've probably already read, or know about the infamous Lightlark. I really didn't know what to expect going into the sequel. I mean, I don't think anyone expected a huge jump in quality, but it would be interesting to see what improvements the author made. Were there improvements? Sort of? I don't know. Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers. Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself hungry for distraction, preferring to frequent Lightlark’s seductive haunts instead of embracing her duties as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned. As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart. Publishers, again, said “no thanks”. “People were saying: ‘Oh, I really like it. But I don’t think it will sell,’” says Aster, who believes the book industry was slow to wake up to the power of BookTok. (No longer: every YA publisher worth its salt is now working with “book influencers” on the platform, after watching them send sales through the roof). “There’s such a big disconnect between the people making decisions in boardrooms and the readers who are hungry for these types of books,” Aster says. Update: I was kindly given access to an audiobook on NetGalley and can now divulge a full, honest review! Fair warning, I was right about this being an ACOTAR ripoff with terrible prose. I feel thoroughly validated lmao

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I’M HOOKED. I have read this book 3 times since it was released. The second time was because the plot twist is massive (one of several) and the type that makes you immediately want to re-read to see how you could have missed it. The third time, I re-read because I missed the world. Also, because I learned this was going to be a movie, so I wanted to experience it again. Last time I wrote this, I was up to the start of the Centennial. Now my thing about the Centennial is that it's the dumbest concept despite instigating the sequences of events in this book. It's 100 days but in the first 50 days, all the rulers have to do demonstrations for the people of Lightlark to observe. It's supposed to be like the training days in the Hunger Games where the tributes show off their skills to secure donors during the games but the idea falls flat in Lightlark because the people who live on Lightlark don't...do anything. They watch? They attend parties? But their role is so unnecessary. Another component of these demonstrations is for rulers to scope out each other's powers but the "winning" isn't always straightforward. For Grim's demonstration, everyone had to battle it out, but the King of Lightlark, Oro, had a demonstration where everyone had the chance to show their greatest secret. Like?? Oro ends up being the winner of these demonstrations and is allowed to choose who to pair up for the next 75 days. 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." 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 We are told that Isla feels dread, that her people are dying, but I never felt an urgency in the atmosphere of the story. The fact that Isla has time to go on a chocolate-eating date with one of the other realm rulers makes me doubt the stakes of the Centennial.