A review by marie_thereadingotter
The Luminaries by Susan Dennard

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

 

  I had so much fun reading this, I took part in the "Sooz your own adventure" in 2019 that sparked her to revisit this idea. There were a lot of Easter-eggs from that in this book that added to the fun. 

 

   Winnie is a great character. Her actions and attitude match her age, which is honestly a breath of fresh air when it comes to YA. She deals with her problems in very much a "teenager" way. Her distrust for how her and her family was treated after the first trial compared to how they were treated before was believable, but I would have liked to see more of an internal conflict with her wanting to be back in the fold and the resentment about the treatment. She does confront people about it, and airs her feelings. But being conflicted about it would add something. Sure, she always wanted to be a hunter. But at the same time, she would have to work with people who threw her and her mother to the curb basically at the drop of a hat.

 

   This book has three mysteries in it. One, what is killing the other Nightmares in the forest. Two, who is the "Daywalker" (werewolf), and what is the cryptic message Winnie's father left her? The "who is the werewolf" seems, to have been answered but I also wonder if that was a red-herring. It might not be, but maybe that will be answered in the sequel. The mystery of "what is killing the other nightmares" was also some-what answered but only Winnie really knows as nobody else has seen it yet. I'd say that is the negative part of this book. Too many questions were asked and none of them were fully answered. 

 

   The clan stuff, even though I had some per-knowledge of the world, is still confusing. I might have to look the blog post explaining this again. But I also think it should have been explained a touch better in the narrative. This book could have used another maybe 50 pages to flesh somethings out, and to maybe answer at least one of those questions.   

 

 I have some theories about who the Diana is, but I will leave that out for now. I am looking forward to the sequel.