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datgirllani's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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? No
3.0
“The gods don’t listen to people like me, but I would go on my knees and beg them to let me keep you. You were once the bane of my existence… and now , you are the center of it…. My entire world was night, and you lit a match. No matter what happens to me in this life, I’ll find you in the next one. I’ll always find you. What I feel for you can never be extinguished. Like the nighttime sky, it is infinite. You and me…we are infinite.” Where do I even begin. This book, no matter if you’re team Grim or team Oro is a roller coaster of emotions. And I hate love triangles for that exact reason. Due to me being team Grim the first 200 pages was brutal to experience and painstakingly slow and hard to read. I got frustrated to the point where I had to put this book down for two days to cool off. Then it started going in the direction I wanted it to. But at what cost? My sanity. There’s the way where authors play with your emotions and you enjoy it. Then there’s the other way where it’s to the point you’re getting pissed. I was the latter. I truly am not a fan of love triangles because of this. The ending had my emotions too heightened to the point I didn’t enjoy it like I should have. I was pissed that (this next part is a MAJOR spoiler so beware) Isla chose Oro still when it came time to pick who to kill and yet Grim wasn’t mad at her he was SCARED because that meant she would die too. It took her remembering what she did to realize she didn’t deserve Oro and THAT’S when she chose Grim. At this point SHE doesn’t deserve Grim. I’m so mad I had to rant sorry. Overall if you’re like me and get mad when you feel like who you picked in the love triangle isn’t endgame then this will be a tough read. Nothing about this book was fun to read. I was STRESSED. I will also be reading Skyshade….
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, Dementia, and War
Moderate: Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Grief
Minor: Child death, Drug use, Vomit, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
barbarianmissy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
4.25
Well well well. I guess I’m a big dumb stupid idiot.
Ok, fine, WHATEVER I’m on team Grim now but I’m not happy about it. Just know that when he shows up in the next book and I’m kicking my lil feeties whenever he talks, I’m doing so reluctantly and against my better judgement.
BUT even so, I still think Oro is a better person. I actually like him a lot and he deserves some happiness too. It’s just that I don’t think he’s the right guy for Isla cause she’s a moron (said with love cause she rocks but also makes a lot of stupid, rash decisions when the fate of her people is LITERALLY on her shoulders).
The new characters were quite interesting, although since there were so many of them it was a little hard to connect with them. I will never ever trust those wee little Starlings.
Anyways, JEEZ the second half of this book was a whole lotta plot twists. It was a fun, wild ride! I’m very curious as to what is happening in the next one.
ALSO SIDE NOTE: I think that name Lynx for a pet leopard is dumb. Literally a whole different cat species. Feels disrespectful.
Ok, fine, WHATEVER I’m on team Grim now but I’m not happy about it. Just know that when he shows up in the next book and I’m kicking my lil feeties whenever he talks, I’m doing so reluctantly and against my better judgement.
BUT even so, I still think Oro is a better person. I actually like him a lot and he deserves some happiness too. It’s just that I don’t think he’s the right guy for Isla cause she’s a moron (said with love cause she rocks but also makes a lot of stupid, rash decisions when the fate of her people is LITERALLY on her shoulders).
The new characters were quite interesting, although since there were so many of them it was a little hard to connect with them. I will never ever trust those wee little Starlings.
Anyways, JEEZ the second half of this book was a whole lotta plot twists. It was a fun, wild ride! I’m very curious as to what is happening in the next one.
ALSO SIDE NOTE: I think that name Lynx for a pet leopard is dumb. Literally a whole different cat species. Feels disrespectful.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
saretta02's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
myahthebookfiend's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
slaAAYYYYYYY. what a read. I loved it. can't give it enough praise. Miss Aster, you're personally going to have to pay for my therapy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
amethyst15's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Should not be labeled as a YA book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Rape, and Sexual assault
rosesofthespring's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book kind of broke my heart. I, stupidly, let myself get my hopes up. The majority of this novel is good. I mean - actually good. Way better than I ever thought it would be. I let myself pretend that Lightlark 1 was all a dream, and I was having myself a good, self-indulgent time.
Isla's back and she's all grown up. Or, at least, she's aware of the severity of her arrested development and she's grappling with some real unchecked PTSD. She's unraveling the ways she's been used and abused by the people who were supposed to be protecting her, but she doesn't have much time to hide away and heal her own trauma. Her people are starving, an entire second realm is suddenly depending on her, and war is coming to Lightlark.
For most of the book, the writing is compelling, the pacing is immaculate, and the characters are given time to develop and shine. There are many new and returning women who get the opportunity to be complex and interesting. Even Cleo gets a chance to be sympathetic, something that was staunchly denied her in the first novel.
The book is divided into modern day and flashback/dream sequences. The writing in the flashbacks is distinctly worse, to the point where I honestly wonder if they were written first. I get the impression that the "current" timeline is Aster's modern work, but the flashback sequences are pulled straight from her high school notebooks. With very little editing. Still, overall, the dreams were worked into the story in a way that I found interesting, so I suffered through.
Everything was going so well that for a single, shining moment, I even let myself believe that maybe the guy who is a walking red flag would turn out to be less than amazing. Maybe, I thought in my foolish mind, maybe Alex Aster will be bold enough to say that the man who is nice to Isla but cruel to everyone else is not nice. Maybe the man whose first resort is always violence, who brags about the thousands of people he's killed, who is willing to kill thousands more without bothering to attempt diplomacy... will end up being slightly less than desirable.
Like I said. I was stupid.
90% of this book threatens to be incredible. The last 10% returns the story to perfect, complacent YA predictability. Then there's the cliffhanger. Remember that pacing I complimented? Yeah, that's destroyed as well.
I don't know if I'll read the third one. Reading a bad book is one thing. Reading a book that gets my hopes up and then feeds them into a trash compactor while I'm forced to watch is quite another.
Isla's back and she's all grown up. Or, at least, she's aware of the severity of her arrested development and she's grappling with some real unchecked PTSD. She's unraveling the ways she's been used and abused by the people who were supposed to be protecting her, but she doesn't have much time to hide away and heal her own trauma. Her people are starving, an entire second realm is suddenly depending on her, and war is coming to Lightlark.
For most of the book, the writing is compelling, the pacing is immaculate, and the characters are given time to develop and shine. There are many new and returning women who get the opportunity to be complex and interesting. Even Cleo gets a chance to be sympathetic, something that was staunchly denied her in the first novel.
The book is divided into modern day and flashback/dream sequences. The writing in the flashbacks is distinctly worse, to the point where I honestly wonder if they were written first. I get the impression that the "current" timeline is Aster's modern work, but the flashback sequences are pulled straight from her high school notebooks. With very little editing. Still, overall, the dreams were worked into the story in a way that I found interesting, so I suffered through.
Everything was going so well that for a single, shining moment, I even let myself believe that maybe the guy who is a walking red flag would turn out to be less than amazing. Maybe, I thought in my foolish mind, maybe Alex Aster will be bold enough to say that the man who is nice to Isla but cruel to everyone else is not nice. Maybe the man whose first resort is always violence, who brags about the thousands of people he's killed, who is willing to kill thousands more without bothering to attempt diplomacy... will end up being slightly less than desirable.
Like I said. I was stupid.
90% of this book threatens to be incredible. The last 10% returns the story to perfect, complacent YA predictability. Then there's the cliffhanger. Remember that pacing I complimented? Yeah, that's destroyed as well.
I don't know if I'll read the third one. Reading a bad book is one thing. Reading a book that gets my hopes up and then feeds them into a trash compactor while I'm forced to watch is quite another.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts