Reviews

Lightlark by Alex Aster

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tatianasousa97's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

carrotnyx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I would actually rate this book 4 stars but I want to balance out some of the unreasonable hate this gets

Ok this a wonderful book I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the simple but interesting magic system and world building. The plot was also amazing and kept me hooked until the very end. There were some hints to the major twist in the beginning but when it came I was still a bit surprised.

Here are couple things I did NOT enjoy:

The main character. For me this is the worst con but sadly Isla Crown was like an exaggerated generic YA protagonist. Because the narration follows Isla’s thoughts and feelings she just seem so arrogant and selfish. For example,

when she described how she sang it was a major ick. There is nothing wrong with having a talent for singing but it’s just the way it’s described that makes it seem so pretentious.

Also, this selfishness bleeds into the plot later on.

I know she wants to save Grim and all (which is fine) but she just completely discards the rest of Lightlark (ESPECIALLY ORO) to suffer with the curses.

I understand why she did certain things but I do not relate to it at all. All of her decisions were so bad and it just made me frustrated. And I’m a teenager so someone isn’t their twenties definitely shouldn’t be doing stuff this idiotic. DISCLAIMER: Despite how it sounds, I don’t hate her. Overall she is quite an enjoyable character.

The romance. Grim was absolutely disgusting. I don’t understand how some of you find stalking and using a naive girl for her body (WHO IS AROUND 20) WHEN YOU ARE CENTURIES’ OLD. So gross. Idc if age works different because it’s very clear that they have a very different amount of experience in life. Also there was no chemistry. They just suddenly start making out.

I was actually dreading the ending because I thought they were endgame. So glad they’re not.

At first Oro wasn’t too bad (if you ignore how I thought he looked like an old man in the beginning). The relationship he has with Isla is actually very sweet and wholesome.

They actually didn’t kiss or have any sensual moments at all! As they should because their relationship just started. My heart melted every time they were to together. Until I realized their relationship wasn’t platonic :|

Pretty sure their age gap is even worse than her and Grim’s.

Plot holes? This is very minor but I just didn’t understand some small things? Like in beginning of the book Isla falls off her balcony and ~someone~ saves her. But she immediately knows it was Oro??? How did she know? Am I dumb? There were other instances like this but they were all small enough for me to ignore.

Here are some things that annoyed me in critical reviews:

The world building. Some were saying that the world building is too confusing and complicated. At least for me, the world building was very basic. Especially compared to other YA novels. Different types of people/nations have different powers and curses. The leader of each nation typically has the most power. These nations have a common island named Lightlark. The king of Lightlark is Oro and he has four of the nations powers but not their curses. The other two nations no longer remain on Lightlark. That is most of the world building and I just explained it in four sentences.

Confusion (?) Many people were just generally confused on what and why things were happening. Similar to the world building “problem”. I wasn’t really confused besides the “plot holes”. They were confused on what the Centennial is for?? I seriously doubting whether they actually read the book or just skimmed it.

Oro. Why is everyone hating on Oro? I feel like Grim is so flat and basic compared to him. A lot of people are saying the romance between Isla and Oro is sudden. I agree slightly BUT not for the same reasons. There were many hints that led up to it from him clapping for her to him, the untrusting king, trusting her to him smiling and laughing when she’s around. I don’t truely understand why he falls in love with her but it’s clear he does early on. The only things is: I really hoped they would have a wholesome platonic mentor/student kind of relationship. This is YA so I knew that wouldn’t happen, therefore it didn’t feel sudden for me.

I actually won’t be reading the next book mainly because I’m not interested in reading about Isla now that she’s all-powerful and because I’m pretty sure she will get back together with Grim. I like where this book ended and I don’t want it to be ruined 👍

UPDATE: I just realized Isla is not in her twenties and is in fact NINETEEN! That just makes the romance grosser.
UPDATE 2: Also now I think that many people were confused because they skipped the prologue. That actually makes a lot more sense because the prologue gives a valuable amount of foundational info.

temptingpages's review against another edition

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5.0

"Wildlings had always been proud of their bodies, beauty, and ability. They had always loved wildly, lived freely, and fought fiercely."

Overall Rating: 5/5
Spice Rating: 1/5

I loved this book personally. There is sexual tension but that is it in the spicy catergory. Isla is a strong, determined Wilding who wants to help her people and I loved her! There are twist and turns along the way that makes you change perspectives constantly.

annekrwsk's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

3.75

sisenberg9's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

courtofcass's review against another edition

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3.0

So many things didn’t make sense.

Girl how the fuck does your crown fit into a key hole? Is it a magic shapeshifter?

I also imagined the star stick as one of those plastic wands kids have.

The ending? Pretty sure that was a dream since she was horny over Grim the whole book. Didn’t make sense.