Right off the bat, I would like to mention that I’m actually reviewing this book after having read it for the second time. That being said, here are my thoughts on the first book in Alex Aster’s Lightlark Saga, Lightlark.
Reading Lightlark was definitely a very interesting experience for me, as I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Reading it got me excited to read the rest of Aster’s Lightlark Saga, which I would say is a really good thing. At the same time, however, I also can’t deny that Lightlark also has a lot of flaws, too.
On the bright side, Aster came up with a fascinating premise for a book series. The Lightlark Saga has an intriguing premise, with the idea that the magical island of Lightlark was separated into six distinct islands five hundred years ago. Each of its realms possesses unique powers, but at the same time, it has its own unique curses. These curses need to be broken by competing in the Centennial, which takes place every 100 years. That being said, the nature of the Centennial as a competition does cause the Lightlark Saga to remind me of the premise of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games book series to a certain extent, so I wouldn’t say that this book and this series, as a whole, is a truly unique concept. That being said, reading this book alone seems to have caused Aster’s Lightlark Saga to have a strange, inexplicable hold on me.
Isla Crown is a likable protagonist, but at the same time, there are a lot of cliches that can be used to describe Isla as a protagonist. The biggest and main cliché that seemed to surround the character Isla for almost the entirety of the book was that she didn’t have any powers, making her an underdog in the Centennial. That being said, I did think it was a somewhat contrived plot twist that Isla ultimately learned that she’s from both Wildling and Nightshade realms. Plus, Isla also wields all of the other powers of Lightlark at the end of the book as well through the use of the bondbreaker, making her all-powerful in many ways (Insert Massive Eyeroll here). I did, however, ultimately like the emotional ramifications that came with all of this and the ending of the book in general, though, with Isla feeling betrayed by pretty much everybody in her life, except for Oro. I definitely wasn’t expecting Isla and Oro to be in love with each other by the end of the book, or for their feelings for each other to be mutual, as I was reading Lightlark. I had honestly been expecting Oro to basically be the ultimate villain at the end of the book, especially as I was reading the parts of the book where Isla and Oro are working together to find the heart of Lightlark.
Grim definitely serves as an interesting and likable love interest for Isla. Isla and Grim have a lot of chemistry with each other, and I really enjoyed the progression of their relationship throughout the course of the book. That being said, Grim, referring to Isla as “Hearteater,” is definitely quite a bizarre “pet name” or nickname for her, since it was pretty obvious that he was incredibly enamored by Isla throughout the book and cared about her. He also gave Isla a necklace, so she could summon him if she ever needed him, and she did indeed use the necklace to summon Grim several times throughout the book.
Oro was also a fascinating character, and I really enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on Isla and Oro working together to find the heart of Lightlark Island, and as I’ve already said, I was really expecting Oro to ultimately betray Isla by the end of the book, considering he had told everybody in the competition that he was dying, and asked Isla for her help to find the heart of Lightlark island to save his life, so I was genuinely surprised when Oro didn’t betray Isla at some point in the book.
One thing that I especially appreciated about Lightlark was the fact that it’s a story that consists of a variety of morally gray characters, which I think it would need to be, given the premise of the series. The morally gray nature of the characters is one of the elements that I believe contributed to some of the book’s most interesting moments and surprising plot twists.
When it comes to world-building for the series, and the way it was executed, I would describe it as being “interesting, but shaky at best,” especially when it came to the rules for the Centennial. For example, the rule about the Centennial players not being allowed to kill each other until the fifty-first day of the Centennial seems odd to me, because the Centennial is supposed to last for one hundred days. Plus, the information that we’re given about each of the realms definitely could have been fleshed out beyond the list of their curses, which are listed at the beginning of the book.
In terms of my thoughts on the plot of Lightlark, I found it very interesting. Even though there were a lot of times throughout the book where I was definitely somewhat annoyed by how much faith Terra and Poppy, Isla’s guardians, seemed to have in her ability to win the Centennial, despite knowing she didn’t have any powers. That being said, Aster definitely managed to change my opinion about Isla’s relationship with her guardians after the whole plot twist of it being revealed that Terra and Poppy were secretly Aurora’s accomplices for Isla’s entire life. From an emotional standpoint, I feel like the revelation that Terra and Poppy had not only killed Isla’s parents, they had also concealed her true powers from her for her entire life was ultimately an excellent plot twist. Plus, the book’s overall plot had plenty of twists and turns that kept me interested and engaged, despite the things that frustrated me about the book.
One of the things that really surprised me the most about this book was how steamy this book got at times for a young adult book by actually having a love scene between Isla and Grim at one point. I definitely wasn’t expecting that!
All things considered, Lightlark is definitely a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and I’m definitely looking forward to continuing with Alex Aster’s Lightlark Saga, mostly because I found this book strangely addictive, despite whatever flaws it may have had.
That being said, my final score for Lightlark is 8 out of 10.
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