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ev_ve's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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
The plot twists WILL alter your brain chemistry. Be ready for everything to change in a split second
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Vomit, Blood, Cursing, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement and Death of parent
kotashomelibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, War, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore
scribesquadrant_sierra's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Overall Rating: (2.5/5 stars)
Spice Rating: (0.25/5 peppers)
Summary: Every 100 years Lightlark, an island that hosts a deadly game, appears for the rules of the six realms to compete in a deadly game to free the mysterious curses that have plagued their land. Isla, the Wildling ruler, is unlike the rest of the realm rulers. She doesn’t have magic to offer…or to protect her. This book follows her journey filled with curses, magic, books, and romance.
What I loved:
-Not much. This book was difficult to read.
What I hated:
-Isla, the FMC. She is one of the most unintelligent FMC I’ve ever read.
-The story. The game rules are confusing in some cases and repetitive in others. Not only that, Isla keeps breaking the rules and no one seems to care at all.
-The love triangle that doesn’t work.
-The romance. It seems awkward and forced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Cannibalism
Minor: Vomit and Fire/Fire injury
lawbooks600's review against another edition
dark
slow-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
3.0
Representation: N/A
Score: Five points out of ten.
Oh, look, another BookTok book. I got this one alongside others from the library and after enjoying another novel, Lightlark seemed right up my alley. A high YA fantasy story? That sounds like an outstanding read. I finally picked it up and read Lightlark, but when I finished it, I was underwhelmed. Maybe Nightbane could be better.
It starts with the first character I see, Isla Crown, living in Wildling, one of the six realms, wanting to restore its glory after the curse plagued the world she resides in. She has an opportunity to do so when the central island, Lightlark, rises, allowing six rulers to fight to the death to remove their afflictions. There are so many flaws in Lightlark, I don't know where to begin. The pacing is too tedious and not engaging enough for me to continue reading. A typical edition would clock in at under 400 pages, but this one had over 700 due to the large print. I couldn't connect or relate to the characters. The worldbuilding isn't there; there's no explanation as to why the ordeals are there. If curse-affected Wildlings must kill their partners, how come Isla fell in love with someone without murdering him? The writing style is rudimentary (I get it. The author could've used that writing method to make Lightlark more accessible, but it juxtaposes the setting and the text would be better off as more eloquent prose.) Did I mention Lightlark copied The Hunger Games? To equate the former to authors like Marie Lu, Marissa Meyer and Leigh Bardugo would be an insult. By the time the narrative ended, I didn't care about anything in there anymore.
To summarise, Lightlark joins a long line of underwhelming, overrated and overhyped BookTok publications that did not live up to their promises, like A Winter's Promise and The Hazel Wood.
Score: Five points out of ten.
Oh, look, another BookTok book. I got this one alongside others from the library and after enjoying another novel, Lightlark seemed right up my alley. A high YA fantasy story? That sounds like an outstanding read. I finally picked it up and read Lightlark, but when I finished it, I was underwhelmed. Maybe Nightbane could be better.
It starts with the first character I see, Isla Crown, living in Wildling, one of the six realms, wanting to restore its glory after the curse plagued the world she resides in. She has an opportunity to do so when the central island, Lightlark, rises, allowing six rulers to fight to the death to remove their afflictions. There are so many flaws in Lightlark, I don't know where to begin. The pacing is too tedious and not engaging enough for me to continue reading. A typical edition would clock in at under 400 pages, but this one had over 700 due to the large print. I couldn't connect or relate to the characters. The worldbuilding isn't there; there's no explanation as to why the ordeals are there. If curse-affected Wildlings must kill their partners, how come Isla fell in love with someone without murdering him? The writing style is rudimentary (I get it. The author could've used that writing method to make Lightlark more accessible, but it juxtaposes the setting and the text would be better off as more eloquent prose.) Did I mention Lightlark copied The Hunger Games? To equate the former to authors like Marie Lu, Marissa Meyer and Leigh Bardugo would be an insult. By the time the narrative ended, I didn't care about anything in there anymore.
To summarise, Lightlark joins a long line of underwhelming, overrated and overhyped BookTok publications that did not live up to their promises, like A Winter's Promise and The Hazel Wood.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Full trigger warnings: Death of people in the past, murder, blood depiction, physical assault and injury, building collapsegreystory's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
2.5-3 stars
I liked the premise so I finally went for it. It was eh. The writing itself was alright. Not good, not great, but not bad either. My biggest complaint was the sheer YA-ness of it all which kind of isn't fair to hold against it. I was going to say this wasn't predictable like I thought it would be but in the end, it was, it just took longer getting there than anticipated.
I also don't love the sort of love triangle. Nor the massive maturity gap in the end relationship. I had unanswered questions at the end, which was a bummer given we had to sit through that extended antagonist monologue revealing stuff (unfortunately some of the same stuff more than once because Isla wasn't getting it for some reason).
Notes I jotted down while reading: (beware there be spoilers)
* She keeps referring to Grimm as having done her a favor when he implied there'd be a duel, but I find that to be a stretch. Everyone in the challenge had a sword so it wasn't like she would have been without one, right? And if you're preparing for this event your whole life, why wouldn't you have a suit of armor prepared or part of your plans? I found this really confusing.
* The severe training memories and reminders of being trained her whole life were at odds with Isla's general unpreparedness. Some of them training memories especially made no sense. These are regular humans with some magical abilities right? It's not possible to hang from something for 5 hours straight. Even if she could, doing it once like a decade ago does not prepare one for a swordfight. That does not translate, at all.
* The whole relationship with Grimm felt rushed and built on absolutely nothing. He flirted a little bit with her and she was so attention starved she was eating it up, apparently.
* She gets a secret from the secret dude Juniper and at 25% in, it's implied she can only ever get one secret from him. Why would she waste it on asking about getting around the moon guards? The answer was to wait until the full moon because the moon guards would have to be inside because all of the moonlings have to be indoors during it. How is that not basic information you already have about the moonlings? Shouldn't she or Celeste already know this??
* More of the Grimm relationship nonsense. Isla's making choices like I guess someone in their early 20s in their first ever romantic foray would but god is it frustrating and embarrassingly foolish.
* Isla is constantly telling herself she can't trust anyone and then going and trusting everyone.
* She will literally do things that make no sense. "Isla had to be quick!" then 2 seconds later she melodramtically kneeled on the floor, sighing and dwelling on her situation with emo lenses for awhile instead of doing anything. Ma'am. Ma'am, I can't with you.
* Isla is really not the brightest at times
I liked the premise so I finally went for it. It was eh. The writing itself was alright. Not good, not great, but not bad either. My biggest complaint was the sheer YA-ness of it all which kind of isn't fair to hold against it. I was going to say this wasn't predictable like I thought it would be but in the end, it was, it just took longer getting there than anticipated.
I also don't love the sort of love triangle. Nor the massive maturity gap in the end relationship. I had unanswered questions at the end, which was a bummer given we had to sit through that extended antagonist monologue revealing stuff (unfortunately some of the same stuff more than once because Isla wasn't getting it for some reason).
Notes I jotted down while reading: (beware there be spoilers)
* She keeps referring to Grimm as having done her a favor when he implied there'd be a duel, but I find that to be a stretch. Everyone in the challenge had a sword so it wasn't like she would have been without one, right? And if you're preparing for this event your whole life, why wouldn't you have a suit of armor prepared or part of your plans? I found this really confusing.
* The severe training memories and reminders of being trained her whole life were at odds with Isla's general unpreparedness. Some of them training memories especially made no sense. These are regular humans with some magical abilities right? It's not possible to hang from something for 5 hours straight. Even if she could, doing it once like a decade ago does not prepare one for a swordfight. That does not translate, at all.
* The whole relationship with Grimm felt rushed and built on absolutely nothing. He flirted a little bit with her and she was so attention starved she was eating it up, apparently.
* She gets a secret from the secret dude Juniper and at 25% in, it's implied she can only ever get one secret from him. Why would she waste it on asking about getting around the moon guards? The answer was to wait until the full moon because the moon guards would have to be inside because all of the moonlings have to be indoors during it. How is that not basic information you already have about the moonlings? Shouldn't she or Celeste already know this??
* More of the Grimm relationship nonsense. Isla's making choices like I guess someone in their early 20s in their first ever romantic foray would but god is it frustrating and embarrassingly foolish.
* Isla is constantly telling herself she can't trust anyone and then going and trusting everyone.
* She will literally do things that make no sense. "Isla had to be quick!" then 2 seconds later she melodramtically kneeled on the floor, sighing and dwelling on her situation with emo lenses for awhile instead of doing anything. Ma'am. Ma'am, I can't with you.
* Isla is really not the brightest at times
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: War
bronzel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, and Gaslighting
Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
booksandladders's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I waited what I felt like was enough time to read this without the hype or the controversy to be prevalent in my mind, but honestly this was just a bad book. None of the premise made any sense and it was trying to be too many things instead of focusing on what could have been the good part of this: breaking the curses and learning about magic. But with how many times I rolled my eyes, hated Isla, or thought that there were stupid decisions all around being made, I just can't give this more than one star.
There weren't "trials," there was barely any fear of being assassinated, and the fact that they get paired together was just convenient rather than being part of what made sense in the story. The ebook is 384 pages and I thought it was close to being done at the like 40% mark because of how fast the book was pacing through the Centennial.
I have so many thoughts about how stupid the characters were in general, but they really don't matter because the worldbuilding, or lack thereof, was so poorly done that I couldn't even focus on how much I hated the characters. The magic system could have been the redeeming part of this story, but instead it was poorly explained, important pieces of information were sprinkled throughout, and for how much they trained Isla to be a warrior, they didn't give her ANY information on the other magical elements or rulers. Beyond that, Isla had apparently been visiting the other magical areas (which is like page 1 of the story so not spoilers) but had so little knowledge of any of the history of the island or how the magic works together.
It just felt like so much of this was multiple ideas sewed together to make a semblance of a story rather than a thoughtful exploration of what it means to learn about yourself, your abilities, and the way you can work together to overcome obstacles. I wanted the negative reviews to just be because of the "controversy" of the novel but instead they were just right about how poorly this book was written and how well it was marketed.
I am going to read book 2, which I have heard basically nothing about. In fact, I didn't even know it was released. This is called a "saga" but I only see two books on Goodreads, so I'm interested to see if it ends up being a duology because of everything that happened.
I can't recommend this one at all. If you are looking for something similar, I would recommend The Night Circus or The Crown's Game. I can't believe I let this be the last book I read in 2023.
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There weren't "trials," there was barely any fear of being assassinated, and the fact that they get paired together was just convenient rather than being part of what made sense in the story. The ebook is 384 pages and I thought it was close to being done at the like 40% mark because of how fast the book was pacing through the Centennial.
I have so many thoughts about how stupid the characters were in general, but they really don't matter because the worldbuilding, or lack thereof, was so poorly done that I couldn't even focus on how much I hated the characters. The magic system could have been the redeeming part of this story, but instead it was poorly explained, important pieces of information were sprinkled throughout, and for how much they trained Isla to be a warrior, they didn't give her ANY information on the other magical elements or rulers. Beyond that, Isla had apparently been visiting the other magical areas (which is like page 1 of the story so not spoilers) but had so little knowledge of any of the history of the island or how the magic works together.
It just felt like so much of this was multiple ideas sewed together to make a semblance of a story rather than a thoughtful exploration of what it means to learn about yourself, your abilities, and the way you can work together to overcome obstacles. I wanted the negative reviews to just be because of the "controversy" of the novel but instead they were just right about how poorly this book was written and how well it was marketed.
I am going to read book 2, which I have heard basically nothing about. In fact, I didn't even know it was released. This is called a "saga" but I only see two books on Goodreads, so I'm interested to see if it ends up being a duology because of everything that happened.
I can't recommend this one at all. If you are looking for something similar, I would recommend The Night Circus or The Crown's Game. I can't believe I let this be the last book I read in 2023.
Like my reviews? Buy me a Ko-Fi!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit and Blood
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
drug use (non consensual), on page sex scene, alcohol consumption, poisoning, drowning, falling from heights, blood, vomitelislittlelibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Unfortunately, I wasn't really a fan of Lightlark. My library has a copy, so I decided to read it to see what everyone was talking about. Now, the book is an easy and fast read, so that was good! However, both plot and characters failed to connect to the reader (or at least to me). There were quite a few potholes, etc. as well. The premise was interesting - a game on an island that appears every 100 years. However, I feel like this marketing is misleading. Yes, there is an island, but it doesn't just appear, many live on it. Essentially, the rulers of the realms are just brought to the island every 100 years. Also, I'd say that the games aren't what I expected. There are games (kind of?), but they are not the main focus of the plot, they are just there. It should also be noted that romance is a really big part of the plot. If you're looking for an easy read with mainly romance and a little plot as well, this might be for you, but if you're expecting a dangerous game and plotting around that, this will probably not fulfill that.
That being said, will I read the second book? Probably, if I find myself wanting an easy and quick read.
That being said, will I read the second book? Probably, if I find myself wanting an easy and quick read.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cannibalism, Blood, and Death
thereadingmarshmallow's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The book has a good base. The story is there, the plot is there, and the characters work. My main issue with this book is that nothing is fully explained. The FMC has decent development but the world building isn’t there like I would like for it to be. I don’t feel as though I can engage with the book like I want to because I don’t understand what’s fully going on, what their struggle is like.
That being said, I enjoy the plot and it was consumable. It took me a bit longer to get through it because I didn’t feel as engaged as I would like.
That being said, I enjoy the plot and it was consumable. It took me a bit longer to get through it because I didn’t feel as engaged as I would like.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Blood, and Toxic friendship
jessicaludden's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
“Love on Lightlark is a dangerous thing.”
I really enjoyed this. I was definitely confused in the beginning when it came to world building but I got to a certain point in the book and everything started clicking. I was really into the world building, I understood character motivations, and I liked the developing relationships. The plot of this book was really intriguing and I enjoyed the search for this ancient relic. There were many plot twists and betrayals at the end that had me on the edge of my seat. Overall I enjoyed it and I’m excited for the sequel!
I really enjoyed this. I was definitely confused in the beginning when it came to world building but I got to a certain point in the book and everything started clicking. I was really into the world building, I understood character motivations, and I liked the developing relationships. The plot of this book was really intriguing and I enjoyed the search for this ancient relic. There were many plot twists and betrayals at the end that had me on the edge of my seat. Overall I enjoyed it and I’m excited for the sequel!
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Murder