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becca_wight's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This wasn’t the best written book but I definitely enjoyed reading it! Definitely picked up at the mid way point. Excited to read the next one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Cannibalism
molly918's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
reghan_32's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Such a fun and entertaining read. I love Grim!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Death of parent
Minor: Grief
vreyna20_2004's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
My fucking God. I lost braincells just listening to this damn book. I didn’t want to come into a book with the expectation of it being bad as all I saw from my for you page on tiktok was that this book was garbage and that it made no sense and that publishers don’t care about their products anymore, the last thing is subjective but I’m not going into that. But I didn’t want to have an opinion just because the majority of the people hated this book like come on you’re going to shit on a book that you haven’t even read that makes absolutely no sense to me (aka people who hate Twilight like at least read it than give an opinion) but I can say that they were right this book is absolutely horrible it makes you feel smart in the things they do the only real thing I can say to Alex Aster is the fact that there are parts in the story that sound so beautiful only for her to ruin it in the next sentence.
She, like every author honestly, likes to leave little…easter eggs (get it?) and that pun was an example of her hints. She talked so much about eggs even went on to explain the sun as being a “a yolky thing” which made me want to rip my hair off my damn scalp and eat my own ripped hair because as a writer and lover of space as well as the sun who explains THE FUCKING BURNING STAR THAT GIVES US LIFE as a “yolky thing” like what the actual fuck? And this wasn’t a one-time type of deal, Alex Aster did this TWICE!!!!! And I can shit on how her writing is sometimes good and sometimes bad but it’s the fact that someone read that and said “good enough” like I hope someone had some sense and said no to her before Alex explained the reason why she called the sun a yolk either way the description irked me.
And talking about descriptions. I’m not saying that people who have aphantasia cannot write but as someone who has vivid imaginations I could not for the life of me understand anything Alex described because she either gave no description and hoped that the reader can figure it out OR gave the simplest description only to never say anything about it ever again. I didn’t know that Azul (they’re names are stupid and I’ll get to it in a second) was black until I saw fanart because she only mentioned it once like she couldn’t even talk about anything that makes a black person besides the skin color like maybe talk about their kinky hair or something like that but no she just said, “he’s black now let’s move on.”
Now onto the fucking names. Did you know Alex Aster is Latina? Well, now you do, and she makes it obvious by their names such as King Oro who controls the kingdom and what does his name mean? Fucking gold. And Azul? Well, he is the Skyling and his name fucking means blue as in the fucking color as in the fucking color of the fucking sky!!! Can you notice how pissed off I am? Like it seemed like she pulled shit out of her ass and half assed it just to be called a “NYT Bestselling Author” when this damn story hurt my actual brain and made me feel like I was getting fucked with a rusty spoon.
The plot twist didn’t fucking do shit because I saw it a fucking mile, no I saw it lightyears away. Oh no turns out the best friend is actually the ruler from years ago and is pissed at a Wildling taking her fiancee and wah wah wah I’m going to kill her and then turns out the real curse is to kill your friend/backstabber and here comes Isla and she saves the day and finds out that Oro has her powers which means they’re made for each other and blah blah blah. I fucking hate this book my god. None of this makes sense if Celeste who turns out to be Aurora was the reason of the curses wouldn’t the others know how to stop this curse? Especially if they saw one of them gone? They just saw one of the rulers gone and just shrugged. Also doesn’t Oro also have every power? But I like him more than Grimshaw (stupid name as well) because Grim is just flirty and cried like a big ass whiny baby when Isla didn’t love him back and got all creepy even if he is the main love interest that reaction gave me the ick that doesn’t mean Oro is good either he literally has like one good moment so not much to work with especially since this fucking book is a love triangle.
All I’m saying is this shit would’ve ended a lot sooner if Isla just killed “Celeste” in the first chapter before they entered Lightlark that way I didn’t have to deal with any of these fucking idiots. And this is ya and yet Grim sucked on Isla’s nipple…what the fuck I expected it to be like heavy making out not someone getting their tits licked. I am not reading this anymore. I only read it because it was free on Audible.
She, like every author honestly, likes to leave little…easter eggs (get it?) and that pun was an example of her hints. She talked so much about eggs even went on to explain the sun as being a “a yolky thing” which made me want to rip my hair off my damn scalp and eat my own ripped hair because as a writer and lover of space as well as the sun who explains THE FUCKING BURNING STAR THAT GIVES US LIFE as a “yolky thing” like what the actual fuck? And this wasn’t a one-time type of deal, Alex Aster did this TWICE!!!!! And I can shit on how her writing is sometimes good and sometimes bad but it’s the fact that someone read that and said “good enough” like I hope someone had some sense and said no to her before Alex explained the reason why she called the sun a yolk either way the description irked me.
And talking about descriptions. I’m not saying that people who have aphantasia cannot write but as someone who has vivid imaginations I could not for the life of me understand anything Alex described because she either gave no description and hoped that the reader can figure it out OR gave the simplest description only to never say anything about it ever again. I didn’t know that Azul (they’re names are stupid and I’ll get to it in a second) was black until I saw fanart because she only mentioned it once like she couldn’t even talk about anything that makes a black person besides the skin color like maybe talk about their kinky hair or something like that but no she just said, “he’s black now let’s move on.”
Now onto the fucking names. Did you know Alex Aster is Latina? Well, now you do, and she makes it obvious by their names such as King Oro who controls the kingdom and what does his name mean? Fucking gold. And Azul? Well, he is the Skyling and his name fucking means blue as in the fucking color as in the fucking color of the fucking sky!!! Can you notice how pissed off I am? Like it seemed like she pulled shit out of her ass and half assed it just to be called a “NYT Bestselling Author” when this damn story hurt my actual brain and made me feel like I was getting fucked with a rusty spoon.
The plot twist didn’t fucking do shit because I saw it a fucking mile, no I saw it lightyears away. Oh no turns out the best friend is actually the ruler from years ago and is pissed at a Wildling taking her fiancee and wah wah wah I’m going to kill her and then turns out the real curse is to kill your friend/backstabber and here comes Isla and she saves the day and finds out that Oro has her powers which means they’re made for each other and blah blah blah. I fucking hate this book my god. None of this makes sense if Celeste who turns out to be Aurora was the reason of the curses wouldn’t the others know how to stop this curse? Especially if they saw one of them gone? They just saw one of the rulers gone and just shrugged. Also doesn’t Oro also have every power? But I like him more than Grimshaw (stupid name as well) because Grim is just flirty and cried like a big ass whiny baby when Isla didn’t love him back and got all creepy even if he is the main love interest that reaction gave me the ick that doesn’t mean Oro is good either he literally has like one good moment so not much to work with especially since this fucking book is a love triangle.
All I’m saying is this shit would’ve ended a lot sooner if Isla just killed “Celeste” in the first chapter before they entered Lightlark that way I didn’t have to deal with any of these fucking idiots. And this is ya and yet Grim sucked on Isla’s nipple…what the fuck I expected it to be like heavy making out not someone getting their tits licked. I am not reading this anymore. I only read it because it was free on Audible.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Vomit, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury
thejadylady's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Minor: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
elskede's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
thequiltyreader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
readyforit's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping
allahatarmig's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Cannibalism
madi_miss's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence