Lightlark (The Lightlark Saga Book 1) (The Lightlark Saga, 1)

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Love Interest #2: Oro, a mysterious, all-powerful golden king (“oro” literally translates to “gold” in Spanish), is 100% my favorite character. He honestly was the reason this book wasn’t a one star for me. This man knew what he wanted and was willing to sacrifice everything to make it happen. Like Isla, in a way, but he was better because he was smart about his decisions. And he actually RESPECTED Isla, unlike a CERTAIN SOMEONE WHOSE NAME STARTS WITH A G– And the funny thing is that even with all this telling, the world-building is very confusing. From what I've gathered, there are 6 realms and the realms are countries?? Isla mentions there are uninhabited countries that she could escape to, but the focus is on the Wilding, Skyling, Moonling, Starling, Nightshade and Lightlark. We are told that Lightlark is an island that appears every 100 years, but it was also at war with Nightshade; but then we are also told that Lightlark was inhabited with people from the other 4 countries (Wilding, Skyling, Moonling, Starling) but then the rulers of the realm got killed after getting cursed - and everyone thinks Nightshade is responsible for the curses? Am I losing anyone yet??? These 6 rulers are supposed to compete in a 100-day game/battle called the Centennial in which one of them must die - note, this system hasn't worked in the past 400 years, but they still keep doing the Centennial because...reasons. The book's premise was promising, but the execution didn't land. Some elements felt rushed, like descriptions of the Centennial's purpose and the romances. The twist at the end was a redeeming plot point, but even then...

I mentioned in my Lightlark review that I listened to an arc on audiobook. I read Nightbane with my own two eyes, so... I do think that made a lot of the structural issues and prose issues more relevant. But before I get into the negatives, I'd like to discuss the positive I also suspected Isla's dad was probably Nightshade so I'm glad Aster came through on predictability there. Throughout the book, Isla keeps asking herself, "What is love?" (baby don't hurt me), Grim brings up the value of pain, and they both examine being a source of life and a destroyer of life, a simultaneous cure and poison. Examine is a strong word. I feel like these ideas were raised with no real commitment to exploring them. The book does not have much to say about love or pain or the cure/poison other than reflecting how Isla loves, how Grim feels pain, and uhhh. Uhhhhhhh. I'm actually not sure about the last one, but maybe that's a next book thing. It's obviously supposed to be a big deal but the symbolism doesn't have any root to an idea or an emotion. Maybe how Isla is self-destructive? If that's it it's really flimsy. I know that sometimes just having ideas only serves the romance works fine in books, but I really kept expecting to have at least something meaningful come out of the book, and for how often those ideas were introduced, I thought that'd be it. Alas.I’m just so disappointed, honestly. In this book, in the publishing industry, in the millions of readers who will eat this up for no reason other than it’s a big title on TikTok. I wasn’t expecting this to be some sort of masterpiece, but I at least thought it would be decent. And it wasn’t even that. This book is nothing but a cash grab, and I think it’s actually insulting to readers. In the hands of a more competent author, this could've been an intriguing high fantasy. Maybe it could've been written in multiple POVs and really intereacted with its characters as rulers of dying kingdoms, and the character motivations that go along with it. I want to see what Cleo's secret was! I wanted to see how Azul faced his fears! I wanted to see how the world's consequences and the rulers' motivations interacted and intersected and led to unlikely alliances and power plays. Or, at the very least I wanted to see some cool action scenes. Even within the context of what it is, as a female-led YA book, I would've wanted... something new. Something different. Something other than another sheltered girl who's really good at fighting and falling in love. Lean into the fantasy, lean into what makes this book different. Because it just feels the same. At least define the atmosphere to be unique or noteworthy, because for all that convoluted worldbuilding, nothing feels new. I feel like the author just made the rules very convoluted and hard to follow without the logic that we saw in the Hunger Games. For instance, in the Hunger Games, we understood that children were selected as a way to lower morale in the districts; in Lightlark, the rulers are selected...but they have been competing for 400 years (Isla is the youngest realm ruler while the others are like 500 years old lmao) so I don't get what's different about each time? In the Hunger Games, the competitors are sent to the Capitol; in Lightlark they are sent to Lightlark, the original realm with power, but also the King of Lightlark is cursed so does he also compete? In the Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta meet with fashion designers to demonstrate how the Capitol demands pomp behind the tragic killing; in Lightlark, Isla has an appointment with the tailor...just because? I'm not sharing these parallels to demand the author make a carbon copy of the Hunger Games, but if you are gonna comp with such an iconic YA dystopia, you need to follow through.

Update: I was kindly given access to an audiobook on NetGalley and can now divulge a full, honest review! Fair warning, I was right about this being an ACOTAR ripoff with terrible prose. I feel thoroughly validated lmao Miss girl was honestly very dumb, but she and Oro were the most interesting characters in this whole book.

I am a person who followed almost all the controversies surrounding the author of this book, Alex Aster, from her controversial app to all the stuff that happened in BookTok. Anyways it’s very clear to me that Aster cares about writing and storytelling, but perhaps not as much the art or craft of it. To quote Billy Joel, slow down you crazy child, you’re so ambitious for a juvenile. you might want to cry while reading a book. oh don't get me wrong. you will not get emotional reading this you will cry for it to end though then there’s the worst part of this book: the romance. it was so. bad. just thinking about the love triangle, instalove, 500+ year old love interests with huge power imbalances, and weird ass men that were supposed to be hot ( “I’m not sure what I enjoy more. Seeing the way you grip a sword . . . or the way your dress grips you.” AND HIS NAME IS GRIM 💀💀) brings me pain. I don't want to write a conclusion, so I won't. Thanks for the arc. My curiosity has been quenched. Tiktok will love this book. I can't imagine that it's translation to film will be good. I say that as a film reviewer who doubles as an avid reader. Things aren't looking good.

Also this is a minor thing but from the character reveals we've had so far and the general Eurocentric fantasy world vibes, I'm sensing the book is gonna be very white/white-passing. I know Aster is Colombian so I give her kudos for being a WOC author in such a difficult industry. But I also can't deny that she is very white-passing and that does play a role in the diversity we might see in this book.) Honestly, if you hate unoriginal names, don’t read this book. Isla is the ruler of Wildling, Celeste is the ruler of Starling, Cleo is the ruler of Moonling, Azul is the ruler of Skyling, Oro is the ruler of Sunling, and Grim is the ruler of Nightshade. And if that’s not enough: “Sky Isle for the Skylings, Moon Isle for the Moonlings, and Sun Isle for the Sunlings.” I actually read the first two Throne of Glass books between reading Lightlark and Nightbane. It really is a huge aesthetic and tone inspiration, and the two feel very similar. It is true that the Lightlark series is attempting to occupy the same romantasy feel as ACOTAR, but the similarities do not stop there. I think, if the book is actually attempting to do anything, it'd be a proper romantasy. Grim was in bed with Aurora. Oh I didn't really talk about this but like, the whole reason Aurora/Celeste even managed to spin the curses was because she promised to sleep with Grim if he found her the heart of Lightlark. Yeah the heart that took Oro and Isla like 50 days to find?? Grim found it in one night in exchange for sexy times. the plot twists would give you " i am a genius" moment because they are predictable.. really predictable

Success!

So I’ve written for far too long and I’m going to wrap it up here. To be honest, y’all, I did enjoy this book. It was so weird and bad it actually became kind of enjoyable. I know this was definitely not the review I was expecting to write (I was thinking a lot more capital letters and a lot more ranting lol) but I think I kinda shared enough of my mixed feelings about this book. This situation could been a constructive conversation about the quality of a book, privileges, the highly commercialized state of publishing, the influence of tiktok, or false advertising, and instead we’re having NONE of those. Do not invalidate anyone’s identity. This is unproductive and invasive speculation. Focus on actions, on stuff that’s actually happening. C’mon, be real. Oro was not Tamlin'd (at least, not really in the way Tamlin was Tamlin'd). He has some screentime until maybe 40% of the book before it becomes the Grimshaw show.