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A review by marie_22
The Luminaries by Susan Dennard
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
3.75
3.75 stars
I haven’t had this kind of reading experience in a long time, this story really pulled me in and while it took me a while to finish it, I enjoyed spending more time in this world with these characters.
The whole concept of a mysterious forest full of monsters felt quite unique to me, I can’t remember the last time I’ve read something similar. It was really atmospheric, even creepy at times (I’m easily scared, though) and it would have probably been an even better reading experience had I read it in autumn. The way we just jumped straight into the story very much added to this atmospheric and creepy feeling, imo. I’ll admit, I was a bit confused about everything in the beginning, but I figured it out eventually (well, mostly). I don’t want to give away more about the plot because I think going in kind of unaware of it really makes it that much better, at least it did for me.
Winnie was a great main character. The author really managed to portray her in a realistic way, she is just a bit of a mess but so relatable and the author really made it work because I liked her a lot. It took me a while to warm up to Jay, I was questioning why everyone was so into him, but I get it and I would have probably loved him, too, had I read this as a teenager (he’s in a band, he rides a motorcycle and ofc he’s built…)
Now, it wasn’t without its flaws. I’m still a bit confused about some things and I found the whole Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, … family thing really annoying for some reason. I could never remember who belonged to which family and what family was doing what. Also, the last 10% or so annoyed me, I did not like the ending.
But I don’t care too much about that because I had such a great time reading this, and I can’t wait to start the second one!
I haven’t had this kind of reading experience in a long time, this story really pulled me in and while it took me a while to finish it, I enjoyed spending more time in this world with these characters.
The whole concept of a mysterious forest full of monsters felt quite unique to me, I can’t remember the last time I’ve read something similar. It was really atmospheric, even creepy at times (I’m easily scared, though) and it would have probably been an even better reading experience had I read it in autumn. The way we just jumped straight into the story very much added to this atmospheric and creepy feeling, imo. I’ll admit, I was a bit confused about everything in the beginning, but I figured it out eventually (well, mostly). I don’t want to give away more about the plot because I think going in kind of unaware of it really makes it that much better, at least it did for me.
Winnie was a great main character. The author really managed to portray her in a realistic way, she is just a bit of a mess but so relatable and the author really made it work because I liked her a lot. It took me a while to warm up to Jay, I was questioning why everyone was so into him, but I get it and I would have probably loved him, too, had I read this as a teenager (he’s in a band, he rides a motorcycle and ofc he’s built…)
Now, it wasn’t without its flaws. I’m still a bit confused about some things and I found the whole Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, … family thing really annoying for some reason. I could never remember who belonged to which family and what family was doing what. Also, the last 10% or so annoyed me, I did not like the ending.
But I don’t care too much about that because I had such a great time reading this, and I can’t wait to start the second one!