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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Warning, this review is all over the place because I am jet-lagged and trying to remember what I read lmfao. Also, there will be spoilers.
I finally finished this on my flight home from Sedona, and I have something to say. You know, I give it like…1.5 stars because there were some parts I genuinely had a fun time reading. However, too much of this was underdeveloped and just poorly written. If I had to read the words meanly or yolky one more time, I would lose it. There were so many fragments and sentences that confused the hell out of me because they were just so poorly worded. I feel like this was another case where the author rushed to finish it and didn’t give it the time and care it needed.
Here’s one example sentence because it’s the only one I have rn, and I’m too lazy to look for more.
“A crown of flowers had been placed atop her own, bright red against her dark hair. ” On her own what?
So, Lightlark is compared to The Hunger Games, and I think ACOTAR? It’s not like either at all. Bear with me because the world building in this is all over the place. I wish that the beginning had spent more time getting to know Isla instead of thrusting her straight into the Centennial. One of the reasons THG worked so well is that we spent a significant amount of time getting to know Katniss before she was put into the games, and she also explained the games to us before they ever happened. Instead, all the information is given almost as if the author just thought of it then and there and didn’t go back to adjust things to fit better. There’s no foreshadowing that might help the reader figure out what’s supposed to happen with anything.
I will do my best to explain the fucking plot of this book as comprehensively as I can.
Okay, so there’s the island Lightlark, and then there are six(?) different realms separated from that island. All these lands are cursed because of some shit that went down about 500 years ago, and then all the rulers sacrificed themselves and transferred their powers over to their heirs. Most of the people fled the island because it was unstable now, and each realm had its own curse that was somehow linked with its powers. Wildlings who are one with nature and like seductresses have to kill the person they fall in love with and must eat a human heart each day to survive. Skylings…I genuinely can’t remember their curse and don’t feel like going back and looking so…oops. Moonlings have super high tides during the full moon, and it swallows anyone outside. Starlings die at age 25, so their realm is super underdeveloped. Sunlings can’t go out in the sun. Nightshades can’t go out at night. So, every 100 years, Lightlark is accessible, and at this time, all the rules of the realms are invited to the island to attend something called The Centennial.
To break the curses, one ruler must die, but this will also destroy that ruler's entire realm. Now, Oro, who happens to be both the king of Lightlark and the ruler of the Sunlings, is also a part of the Centennial, and if he dies, then all of Lightlark dies, so why in the hell is he allowed to participate in this alleged ‘to the death’ competition? What do the people in these realms do while they wait for the Centennial to be over? Are they just freaking out for the next three and a half months, wondering if they will all blink out of existence?
So, the rules of the Centennial make not a lick of sense. For the first 25 days, each ruler has to choose a trial to show their worth. And by worth, it means what realm deserves to survive the Centennial. But I thought this was meant to be a fight-to-the-death type thing. But apparently, these trials will end in a vote to decide which ruler should die to end the curse. So does this mean there won’t even be a Hunger games type battle? After the quarter mark, they get partners whom they cannot kill. They can’t kill anyone until after the 50-day mark. But aren’t they just going to vote on who to kill? So…what is the point of any of this?
So, Lightlark centers around Isla, the ruler of the Wildlings. Isla’s mom didn’t follow the rules of her curse and kill the man she loved like she was supposed so instead, he killed her. After their daughter was born, of course. As a result of her mother failing to kill her father, Isla was born with no powers. Yet, each of the -ling realms is powered by their ruler's magic, and as Isla doesn’t have any magic, her realm is slowly dying, as are her people. Her guardians kept her in a glass dome all her life as a way to keep this secret, and they’ve basically abused her, trying to train her for the Centennial. They have this whole plan set up for her that she’s going to seduce King Oro because it’s said that whoever wins his love will also win his power or something, but Isla is like, uGH fuck that I’m going to do my own thing. Isla found a star stick that allowed her to teleport between realms, and she went to the Starling realm and made besties with the ruler there, Celeste(honestly, they should've just gotten together, they were the only ones in this book with any chemistry). Together, they made a plan not to follow the rules of the Centennial and search for an object called a Bondbreaker together. The Bondbreaker needs enough blood to kill a ruler to work, and they think if they split the cost, it’ll be fine. Allegedly, this bond breaker can break both their curses without killing them. If the blood trick works, that is.
Now, here’s what I want to know. If Isla has this star stick, why didn’t she hop on over to grab Celeste and then teleport to Lightlark and start searching for the bond breaker early? Yes, I know that Lightlark isn’t accessible because of storms, but do magic portals matter in the face of storms? Can’t she open a door directly into the library of each of the Isles? She could’ve searched these libraries so much simpler and quicker if she just thought to use her damn star stick. Also, if this bond breaker exists, why did no one else think to use it? If Celeste and Isla break their realm's curses without having to go through the crap the other rulers go through, won’t they be pissed? Wouldn’t they try to seek vengeance for Celeste and Isla, basically cheating the system? If they had four other Centennials before this, why are no realms freed from their curses? If the Starlings all die at age 25, why doesn’t the ruler choose not to have any heirs and then die? If the ruler has to die to end the curse but dying also kills the realm, then what is the point of any of this? Or did I misunderstand that entirely? Honestly, if I did, I'm not surprised, given how convoluted this book is. (Me in the future, having finished the book and laughing at myself)
Throughout the first 25% of the book, nothing happens. All the rulers fap around and show off how powerful they are. The first trial is a duel, yet Isla doesn’t think of bringing any weapons to this competition. She entered well, aware that it was a fight to the death. Another trial is for the rulers to display their powers, but Isla gets away with using a throwing star blindfolded and knocking off King Oro’s crown because everyone is so impressed by how ~skilled~ she is. One time she sings on a balcony, and she’s so unnaturally good that the king of Lightlark applauds for her and then saves her when she almost plunges to her death like an idiot. Isla is supposed to be playing all coy so that people underestimate her, but she can’t resist showing off and being the best sword fighter ever.
Oh, it's later revealed that Isla can't use her star stick to places she's never been before, which would've been helpful information much earlier on. But then, how did she get to Star Isle? How did she get anywhere when she was falling through puddles of stars? Did she just free-fall and hope she wouldn't land smack dab in the ocean? I think that if this story had maybe started several weeks before the Centennial and it began with Isla finding the star stick and then just getting sucked to the Star Newlands because maybe she activated it or something, and it just immediately took her to like the place of its origin or something, and then we get to see Star Newlands and see her meeting with Celeste, etc. That would have been a cool place to start, tbh. But no. We get thrown into Isla getting ready for her special day with little to no backstory on who she is as a person.
Eventually, Oro and Isla are paired and he tells her he wants to search for Lightlark’s heart. (Still unclear what the other rulers are doing. Are they also trying to find a way to break the curse?) But anyway, for the rest of the book, it’s Oro and Isla looking around the island fruitlessly for this heart. Oro laughs meanly at Isla 10000 times. The sun seems yolky af. Grim shows up to be weird a few times. Isla wants to bone him. Some other stuff happens. Some people try to kill Isla, and Isla jumps to conclusions with just one piece of evidence. It must be CLEO. She is so stubborn but in the most annoying way. Like girl, use your brain. Do some critical thinking, I beg.
Eventually, they figure out that the heart of light lark is the sun, and it will only appear at sunrise. So they wait in a cave; the sun cracks open because it is an egg(heavy sigh) and then Isla touches it and gets shot in the heart with an arrow by a big blue faerie man. Grim save her, and they bone or something. (I think they boned before this, but I’ve already forgotten.) Isla survives, then goes to Oro to be like, okay we got this heart, now who do we kill? He wants to kill Grim, and she’s like nO WE CAN’T I LOVE HIM. So she goes behind his back and tells her best friend Celeste that she knows where the bond breaker is(in Oro’s super special secret library), and they go to this place where only Wildling powers will work conveniently.
And this is the one part I liked because it was so dramatic and entertaining. So Isla got it wrong literally every single time, and it was her bestie Celeste all along that was the bad guy. Turns out she was really this chick Aurora in disguise who was alive 500 years ago when the curses were cast. And she was the one who cast them because she was pissed that Oro’s brother fell in love with her best friend instead of her, so she killed her and then accidentally cast all the curses on everyone, but she was unaffected. So, she has been disguising herself for centuries as her own heir. (Uh, did she get pregnant? Because she had to have a child heir that her people would’ve seen right…well, I guess maybe not, since they all die at age 25 anyway….? I’m trying to fathom how this would work out, and I cannot compute rn.) But anyway, Aurora ends up stabbing Isla with the bond breaker that is really a band maker. Eheu. So it just transfers all of Isla’s powers to Celeste, and guess what.
Isla conveniently had Wildling and Nightshade powers all along! It turns out that her dad was a Nightshade who could somehow beat the Wildling curse. And Aurora somehow convinced Isla’s guardians to kill her parents and then convinced her she was powerless. Also, if you fall in love with a ruler, you get their powers, and both Grim and Oro are in love with Isla. (Naturally) so now, Aurora has all the powers ever. Also, it turns out that Grim knew the whole time about Aurora and her plan, and he took Isla’s memories away against her will because she wouldn’t have been able to seduce Oro otherwise convincingly. This is the part that I was highly entertained by, tbh. I was not expecting Grim to be a POS like that hahaha. Nor was I expecting Oro to fall in love with Isla because there was absolutely NO CHEMISTRY THERE AT ALLLLL. Like, of course, it was gonna happen but come on. That was so bone dry. But anyway, Aurora reveals her master plan, and Isla feels betrayed, she teleports back home with her starstick, throws on a whole suit of armor and teleports back. Beats the shit out of Aurora, stabs her in the heart with the bond maker, breaks all the curses and gets all that bitches powers, and now Isla is in love with Oro, somehow. The End.
Now listen. I am a person who hates when characters are overpowered but I was thoroughly entertained by the ridiculous ending. Like, honestly I do think if this was actually given the care it needed, it could’ve been a three-star read for me. But it was just so poorly constructed and horribly written. The characters were really flat, the chemistry was invisible, with the exception of Celeste and Isla’. A lot of things needed to be fleshed out much earlier on and far more. There were some parts of the scenery descriptions that I liked, tbh. And as I said, I enjoyed the ending.
I finally finished this on my flight home from Sedona, and I have something to say. You know, I give it like…1.5 stars because there were some parts I genuinely had a fun time reading. However, too much of this was underdeveloped and just poorly written. If I had to read the words meanly or yolky one more time, I would lose it. There were so many fragments and sentences that confused the hell out of me because they were just so poorly worded. I feel like this was another case where the author rushed to finish it and didn’t give it the time and care it needed.
Here’s one example sentence because it’s the only one I have rn, and I’m too lazy to look for more.
“A crown of flowers had been placed atop her own, bright red against her dark hair. ” On her own what?
So, Lightlark is compared to The Hunger Games, and I think ACOTAR? It’s not like either at all. Bear with me because the world building in this is all over the place. I wish that the beginning had spent more time getting to know Isla instead of thrusting her straight into the Centennial. One of the reasons THG worked so well is that we spent a significant amount of time getting to know Katniss before she was put into the games, and she also explained the games to us before they ever happened. Instead, all the information is given almost as if the author just thought of it then and there and didn’t go back to adjust things to fit better. There’s no foreshadowing that might help the reader figure out what’s supposed to happen with anything.
I will do my best to explain the fucking plot of this book as comprehensively as I can.
Okay, so there’s the island Lightlark, and then there are six(?) different realms separated from that island. All these lands are cursed because of some shit that went down about 500 years ago, and then all the rulers sacrificed themselves and transferred their powers over to their heirs. Most of the people fled the island because it was unstable now, and each realm had its own curse that was somehow linked with its powers. Wildlings who are one with nature and like seductresses have to kill the person they fall in love with and must eat a human heart each day to survive. Skylings…I genuinely can’t remember their curse and don’t feel like going back and looking so…oops. Moonlings have super high tides during the full moon, and it swallows anyone outside. Starlings die at age 25, so their realm is super underdeveloped. Sunlings can’t go out in the sun. Nightshades can’t go out at night. So, every 100 years, Lightlark is accessible, and at this time, all the rules of the realms are invited to the island to attend something called The Centennial.
To break the curses, one ruler must die, but this will also destroy that ruler's entire realm. Now, Oro, who happens to be both the king of Lightlark and the ruler of the Sunlings, is also a part of the Centennial, and if he dies, then all of Lightlark dies, so why in the hell is he allowed to participate in this alleged ‘to the death’ competition? What do the people in these realms do while they wait for the Centennial to be over? Are they just freaking out for the next three and a half months, wondering if they will all blink out of existence?
So, the rules of the Centennial make not a lick of sense. For the first 25 days, each ruler has to choose a trial to show their worth. And by worth, it means what realm deserves to survive the Centennial. But I thought this was meant to be a fight-to-the-death type thing. But apparently, these trials will end in a vote to decide which ruler should die to end the curse. So does this mean there won’t even be a Hunger games type battle? After the quarter mark, they get partners whom they cannot kill. They can’t kill anyone until after the 50-day mark. But aren’t they just going to vote on who to kill? So…what is the point of any of this?
So, Lightlark centers around Isla, the ruler of the Wildlings. Isla’s mom didn’t follow the rules of her curse and kill the man she loved like she was supposed so instead, he killed her. After their daughter was born, of course. As a result of her mother failing to kill her father, Isla was born with no powers. Yet, each of the -ling realms is powered by their ruler's magic, and as Isla doesn’t have any magic, her realm is slowly dying, as are her people. Her guardians kept her in a glass dome all her life as a way to keep this secret, and they’ve basically abused her, trying to train her for the Centennial. They have this whole plan set up for her that she’s going to seduce King Oro because it’s said that whoever wins his love will also win his power or something, but Isla is like, uGH fuck that I’m going to do my own thing. Isla found a star stick that allowed her to teleport between realms, and she went to the Starling realm and made besties with the ruler there, Celeste(honestly, they should've just gotten together, they were the only ones in this book with any chemistry). Together, they made a plan not to follow the rules of the Centennial and search for an object called a Bondbreaker together. The Bondbreaker needs enough blood to kill a ruler to work, and they think if they split the cost, it’ll be fine. Allegedly, this bond breaker can break both their curses without killing them. If the blood trick works, that is.
Now, here’s what I want to know. If Isla has this star stick, why didn’t she hop on over to grab Celeste and then teleport to Lightlark and start searching for the bond breaker early? Yes, I know that Lightlark isn’t accessible because of storms, but do magic portals matter in the face of storms? Can’t she open a door directly into the library of each of the Isles? She could’ve searched these libraries so much simpler and quicker if she just thought to use her damn star stick. Also, if this bond breaker exists, why did no one else think to use it? If Celeste and Isla break their realm's curses without having to go through the crap the other rulers go through, won’t they be pissed? Wouldn’t they try to seek vengeance for Celeste and Isla, basically cheating the system? If they had four other Centennials before this, why are no realms freed from their curses? If the Starlings all die at age 25, why doesn’t the ruler choose not to have any heirs and then die? If the ruler has to die to end the curse but dying also kills the realm, then what is the point of any of this? Or did I misunderstand that entirely? Honestly, if I did, I'm not surprised, given how convoluted this book is. (Me in the future, having finished the book and laughing at myself)
Throughout the first 25% of the book, nothing happens. All the rulers fap around and show off how powerful they are. The first trial is a duel, yet Isla doesn’t think of bringing any weapons to this competition. She entered well, aware that it was a fight to the death. Another trial is for the rulers to display their powers, but Isla gets away with using a throwing star blindfolded and knocking off King Oro’s crown because everyone is so impressed by how ~skilled~ she is. One time she sings on a balcony, and she’s so unnaturally good that the king of Lightlark applauds for her and then saves her when she almost plunges to her death like an idiot. Isla is supposed to be playing all coy so that people underestimate her, but she can’t resist showing off and being the best sword fighter ever.
Oh, it's later revealed that Isla can't use her star stick to places she's never been before, which would've been helpful information much earlier on. But then, how did she get to Star Isle? How did she get anywhere when she was falling through puddles of stars? Did she just free-fall and hope she wouldn't land smack dab in the ocean? I think that if this story had maybe started several weeks before the Centennial and it began with Isla finding the star stick and then just getting sucked to the Star Newlands because maybe she activated it or something, and it just immediately took her to like the place of its origin or something, and then we get to see Star Newlands and see her meeting with Celeste, etc. That would have been a cool place to start, tbh. But no. We get thrown into Isla getting ready for her special day with little to no backstory on who she is as a person.
Eventually, Oro and Isla are paired and he tells her he wants to search for Lightlark’s heart. (Still unclear what the other rulers are doing. Are they also trying to find a way to break the curse?) But anyway, for the rest of the book, it’s Oro and Isla looking around the island fruitlessly for this heart. Oro laughs meanly at Isla 10000 times. The sun seems yolky af. Grim shows up to be weird a few times. Isla wants to bone him. Some other stuff happens. Some people try to kill Isla, and Isla jumps to conclusions with just one piece of evidence. It must be CLEO. She is so stubborn but in the most annoying way. Like girl, use your brain. Do some critical thinking, I beg.
Eventually, they figure out that the heart of light lark is the sun, and it will only appear at sunrise. So they wait in a cave; the sun cracks open because it is an egg(heavy sigh) and then Isla touches it and gets shot in the heart with an arrow by a big blue faerie man. Grim save her, and they bone or something. (I think they boned before this, but I’ve already forgotten.) Isla survives, then goes to Oro to be like, okay we got this heart, now who do we kill? He wants to kill Grim, and she’s like nO WE CAN’T I LOVE HIM. So she goes behind his back and tells her best friend Celeste that she knows where the bond breaker is(in Oro’s super special secret library), and they go to this place where only Wildling powers will work conveniently.
And this is the one part I liked because it was so dramatic and entertaining. So Isla got it wrong literally every single time, and it was her bestie Celeste all along that was the bad guy. Turns out she was really this chick Aurora in disguise who was alive 500 years ago when the curses were cast. And she was the one who cast them because she was pissed that Oro’s brother fell in love with her best friend instead of her, so she killed her and then accidentally cast all the curses on everyone, but she was unaffected. So, she has been disguising herself for centuries as her own heir. (Uh, did she get pregnant? Because she had to have a child heir that her people would’ve seen right…well, I guess maybe not, since they all die at age 25 anyway….? I’m trying to fathom how this would work out, and I cannot compute rn.) But anyway, Aurora ends up stabbing Isla with the bond breaker that is really a band maker. Eheu. So it just transfers all of Isla’s powers to Celeste, and guess what.
Isla conveniently had Wildling and Nightshade powers all along! It turns out that her dad was a Nightshade who could somehow beat the Wildling curse. And Aurora somehow convinced Isla’s guardians to kill her parents and then convinced her she was powerless. Also, if you fall in love with a ruler, you get their powers, and both Grim and Oro are in love with Isla. (Naturally) so now, Aurora has all the powers ever. Also, it turns out that Grim knew the whole time about Aurora and her plan, and he took Isla’s memories away against her will because she wouldn’t have been able to seduce Oro otherwise convincingly. This is the part that I was highly entertained by, tbh. I was not expecting Grim to be a POS like that hahaha. Nor was I expecting Oro to fall in love with Isla because there was absolutely NO CHEMISTRY THERE AT ALLLLL. Like, of course, it was gonna happen but come on. That was so bone dry. But anyway, Aurora reveals her master plan, and Isla feels betrayed, she teleports back home with her starstick, throws on a whole suit of armor and teleports back. Beats the shit out of Aurora, stabs her in the heart with the bond maker, breaks all the curses and gets all that bitches powers, and now Isla is in love with Oro, somehow. The End.
Now listen. I am a person who hates when characters are overpowered but I was thoroughly entertained by the ridiculous ending. Like, honestly I do think if this was actually given the care it needed, it could’ve been a three-star read for me. But it was just so poorly constructed and horribly written. The characters were really flat, the chemistry was invisible, with the exception of Celeste and Isla’. A lot of things needed to be fleshed out much earlier on and far more. There were some parts of the scenery descriptions that I liked, tbh. And as I said, I enjoyed the ending.
At the very beginning I honestly thought I was not going to like the book that much. It starts slow and it was hard for me to connect with the characters. I’m
The last 5 chapters really surprised me and had me hooked until I finish it, it was very entertaining and easy to read and I do love that. Is not a 4 starts for me because the end didn’t make want to jump and read the rest of the series.
I do love Isla’s strength at the end and afraid to say I actually like Oro
The last 5 chapters really surprised me and had me hooked until I finish it, it was very entertaining and easy to read and I do love that. Is not a 4 starts for me because the end didn’t make want to jump and read the rest of the series.
I do love Isla’s strength at the end and afraid to say I actually like Oro
3.75⭐️ I was entertained and intrigued throughout this book. Also, the twists at the end definitely threw me for a loop. I did guess one of the main twists, but the other was wild. Some things were a little rudimentary, like the love story of Oro and Isla at the end… it kind of came on quickly and it was just a bit jarring. There wasn’t really a build up and all of a sudden they’re in love? But I’m interested and definitely moving on to the next book in the series.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
OMG- WHERE DO I EVEN START........... (ill be posting a more thorough and intricate review but rn my mind is like still taking it all in i consider this my fun rant:)
okay okay first of all overall this was an amazing and strong start to the series loved the world building loved how it was like intracite but not too inricate to the point where it wasnt understandable a perfect balance i also liked the writing style alot
second ALEX ASTER OMG she knows how to write characters and the slowburn BUT THEN THE WAY IT ALL CAME CRASHING DOWN IN THE LAST 30 PAGESSSSSSSSS
ALEX ASTER BABEBEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS I THINK YOU NEED TO BE PUT IN PRISON BEACUSE WHAT WAS THAT MY MIND IS REELINGGGGGGGG IDC IF HE "BETRAYED" HER IM STILL TEAM GRIMMMMMMMMMMM ALL THE WAY ORO SRSLY GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER............
ANYWAY GOD THAT WAS A GOOD BOOK I SWEAR MY HARD WAS POUNDING SO MUCH AT THE END I LEGIT THOUGHT I WAS READING A THRILLER LMFAOO
i will definetlyyy be picking up the 2nd one but from my sources i hear the 2nd one is all about isla and oro tell me thats a joke.........
okay okay first of all overall this was an amazing and strong start to the series loved the world building loved how it was like intracite but not too inricate to the point where it wasnt understandable a perfect balance i also liked the writing style alot
second ALEX ASTER OMG she knows how to write characters and the slowburn BUT THEN THE WAY IT ALL CAME CRASHING DOWN IN THE LAST 30 PAGESSSSSSSSS
ALEX ASTER BABEBEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS I THINK YOU NEED TO BE PUT IN PRISON BEACUSE WHAT WAS THAT MY MIND IS REELINGGGGGGGG IDC IF HE "BETRAYED" HER IM STILL TEAM GRIMMMMMMMMMMM ALL THE WAY ORO SRSLY GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER............
ANYWAY GOD THAT WAS A GOOD BOOK I SWEAR MY HARD WAS POUNDING SO MUCH AT THE END I LEGIT THOUGHT I WAS READING A THRILLER LMFAOO
i will definetlyyy be picking up the 2nd one but from my sources i hear the 2nd one is all about isla and oro tell me thats a joke.........
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
