Scan barcode
A review by bookishlifewk
Lightlark by Alex Aster
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Despite the mixed (mostly negative) reviews of this book I decided to wait out the discourse before giving it a try. After reading I will say that I can understand both sides of the conversation but in my opinion, the book was pretty average.
This story follows Isla, the ruler of the infamous bloodthirsty Wildings who due to circumstances we find out later has been locked up in her room all of her life. Not only does she have limited freedom but she is heavily trained in combat for the upcoming Centennial games. These games consist of trials that will ultimately determine which ruler of the six realms will obtain imaginable power and break the curse of their realm. So the fate of her people (as we are reminded numerous times) rests upon her shoulders as she is thrust into these games with other rulers who are quite frankly unevenly matched with her.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Here are my observations and honest opinions:
Writing/Plot
Right off the bat, I was not all that into the writing. As someone who is not a big fan of third person point of view (unless done well), things were a little rough in the beginning. The world-building and magic system was shaky and in my opinion not very consistent. I found myself with multiple questions within the first few chapters as something would be randomly mentioned and not fully explained until later on. Although the world is pretty simple, coming to that conclusion took some time.
I felt that the games should have been thought out a bit more as the concept was very basic. This book was marketed to be compared to Hunger Games….and was not giving it. The contestants are to participate in the games for 100 days and within the first 50, each will host their own trial to kind of measure each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Those were done very quickly leaving pretty much nothing else to do in the games. Then enters a new plot of Isla and King Oro spending the rest of the games looking for a secret artifact.
That’s it.
I forgot to mention that going into these games, Isla was supposed to seduce the King for her place as the winner but that was beneath her. She was also supposed to help Celeste, the starling ruler with finding an ancient artifact to help cheat their way to victory and remove the curse themselves. There was just too much going on and put into these side quests that the games themselves were forgotten.
After all that was said and done. The plot twist at the end was..eh.
Characters
All six rulers had very baseline personalities that seemed to try and reflect their realms but only a few stood out the most and they were Azul being free-spirited, Cleo as cold as ice, and I guess you can count Grim as being well…grim. Otherwise, the rest of the characters blended into the background. Isla felt to be more of a self-insert type character with not much of a personality on page. Celeste was just written as a supporting character to Isla with a one-track mind on her subplot until she wasn’t. Oro as a Sunling did more brooding than the “shadow prince” we know as Grim. Which I get knowing his circumstances but his personality and even emotions were very rare. Overall, they just needed more work so I wasn’t able to connect with them. Though out of the bunch, I would say that Cleo was the most interesting.
Now the romance. As a romance/romantasy girlie, it did not hit that well. After finding out there’s a love triangle in book two I hope it gets better. Isla was unusually drawn to Grim. I get it as he’s all dark and mysterious. But we find out that they were together before the games but he erased her memory for a reason I can’t even remember why. Despite this, most of her interactions in this book were with Oro so you would think she would develop feelings for him.
Wrong.
It’s only towards the end that she somewhat feels something for him but that was after his were revealed at the same time of Grim’s betrayal. Sounds like he was a rebound to me….
Will I read the next book? Yes.
Was this the best book I’ve ever read? No, but I can see why some people like it.
As a YA book, I think teens who want a simple fantasy read would like it. Especially for those who are trying fantasy out for the first time and don’t want to jump into anything complicated.
This story follows Isla, the ruler of the infamous bloodthirsty Wildings who due to circumstances we find out later has been locked up in her room all of her life. Not only does she have limited freedom but she is heavily trained in combat for the upcoming Centennial games. These games consist of trials that will ultimately determine which ruler of the six realms will obtain imaginable power and break the curse of their realm. So the fate of her people (as we are reminded numerous times) rests upon her shoulders as she is thrust into these games with other rulers who are quite frankly unevenly matched with her.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Here are my observations and honest opinions:
Writing/Plot
Right off the bat, I was not all that into the writing. As someone who is not a big fan of third person point of view (unless done well), things were a little rough in the beginning. The world-building and magic system was shaky and in my opinion not very consistent. I found myself with multiple questions within the first few chapters as something would be randomly mentioned and not fully explained until later on. Although the world is pretty simple, coming to that conclusion took some time.
I felt that the games should have been thought out a bit more as the concept was very basic. This book was marketed to be compared to Hunger Games….and was not giving it. The contestants are to participate in the games for 100 days and within the first 50, each will host their own trial to kind of measure each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Those were done very quickly leaving pretty much nothing else to do in the games. Then enters a new plot of Isla and King Oro spending the rest of the games looking for a secret artifact.
That’s it.
I forgot to mention that going into these games, Isla was supposed to seduce the King for her place as the winner but that was beneath her. She was also supposed to help Celeste, the starling ruler with finding an ancient artifact to help cheat their way to victory and remove the curse themselves. There was just too much going on and put into these side quests that the games themselves were forgotten.
After all that was said and done. The plot twist at the end was..eh.
Characters
All six rulers had very baseline personalities that seemed to try and reflect their realms but only a few stood out the most and they were Azul being free-spirited, Cleo as cold as ice, and I guess you can count Grim as being well…grim. Otherwise, the rest of the characters blended into the background. Isla felt to be more of a self-insert type character with not much of a personality on page. Celeste was just written as a supporting character to Isla with a one-track mind on her subplot until she wasn’t. Oro as a Sunling did more brooding than the “shadow prince” we know as Grim. Which I get knowing his circumstances but his personality and even emotions were very rare. Overall, they just needed more work so I wasn’t able to connect with them. Though out of the bunch, I would say that Cleo was the most interesting.
Now the romance. As a romance/romantasy girlie, it did not hit that well. After finding out there’s a love triangle in book two I hope it gets better. Isla was unusually drawn to Grim. I get it as he’s all dark and mysterious. But we find out that they were together before the games but he erased her memory for a reason I can’t even remember why. Despite this, most of her interactions in this book were with Oro so you would think she would develop feelings for him.
Wrong.
It’s only towards the end that she somewhat feels something for him but that was after his were revealed at the same time of Grim’s betrayal. Sounds like he was a rebound to me….
Will I read the next book? Yes.
Was this the best book I’ve ever read? No, but I can see why some people like it.
As a YA book, I think teens who want a simple fantasy read would like it. Especially for those who are trying fantasy out for the first time and don’t want to jump into anything complicated.