Reviews with content warning for Blood - Lightlark

This book was a bit like the Hunger Games meets the fantasy world with a little less killing. Really enjoyable YA book that was a fast paced easy read. I was left trying to work out who was the traitor throught finding all had a good reason.

I listened to this as an audio book and probably my favourite narration to date. In particular I really enjoyed the voices she attributed to each character.

Ended on an annoying cliff hanger which is my main complaint.

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becxaa's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-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

4.0

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readyforit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

4⭐️0.25🌶️(one nondescript scene where she gets to 2nd base, pretty much uneventful)

I was promised hunger games with this book but it felt more like fantasy survivor to me! A group of chosen ones go to an island where they take part in various tasks of physical and emotional strengths, alliances are formed and broken, trust is betrayed, and the winner gets to be all-powerful.

I thought the first 7ish chapters were pretty slow due to world-building, but after that I pretty much flew through the book. I started listening to the audiobook alone and I just could not keep up with all the names and places, so I recommend a print version if you’re going to listen to the audiobook.

You have to be okay with isla being an unreliable narrator because she’s so naive, which isn’t necessarily her fault, but it leaves the reader in the dark and confused a lot. There are twists and turns CONSTANTLY. And when you think the climax has climaxed, you get more twists! I think this is a book that needs multiple reads to catch everything. It will be interesting to reread now that I know how it ends. I didn’t love how isla was changing alliances every chapter it seemed. She said multiple times in the book “___ is the only person I trust now.” And it changed every time a plot point happened. Like pick a lane.

I’m not a huge fan of love triangles and idk why they run rampant in YA books. Once again I see a lot of similarities with ACOTAR and Rhys/grim and tamlin/oro. Honestly I didn’t really see a lot of chemistry with either of the love interests! The story is mainly a mystery, with a small romance subplot thrown in at the end. I feel like it was done kind of poorly. Maybe I will feel differently after reading the next book.

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allahatarmig's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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acbwalsh's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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lkristin2018's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I thought that even though Isla’s age wasn’t precisely defined, and perhaps she was legally an adult, having her love interest literally centuries older than her felt icky. Also, the curses endured by the various kingdoms were not at all in proportion to each other. One kingdom simply loses the ability to fly, while another one must regularly eat human hearts in order to survive, and will die if they fall in love. I find it almost impossible to imagine a society where people exist on eating human hearts. Even if a person only eats one a month, it means twelve other people have to die every single year of that person’s life. It just doesn’t feel sustainable. Yes, it’s fiction, but I can’t suspend my disbelief quite that far.

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