⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars
The Luminaries is a story about Winnie Wednesday, who lives in Hemlock Falls. Years ago her dad betrayed the Luminaries and Winnie, her mother and brother became outcasts. That doesn’t stop Winnie from trying to become a hunter.

“That’s why we’re called the Luminaries, Winnie: we are lanterns the forest can never snuff out.”

I got a gorgeous edition of Owlcrate and was very exciting to start reading this book! “Atmospheric and spooky with a forest where nothing appears as it seems”, well that got me interested in reading this book!

The story starts off quite slowly and the situation of Winnie, who’s an outcast, is painted very clearly. You immediately understand what drives her to change the situation and I immediately connected with Winnie and sympathized with her.

The worldbuilding was very intriguing and I understand the spooky and atmospheric reference hahaha. It really felt like that. The nightmares that appear in the forest are really interesting and I really want a Compendium to learn about all the different ones! It was really apparent as well that this book is part of a series, since some things were mentioned, but not really explained yet. The Dianas being the biggest example. And knowing there are more communities around the world a\s well. I’m really excited to learn more about the world in the sequel.

The characters were sooo good! I loved them, all of it hahaha. Winnie is such a believable character. Her luck isn’t annoying or comes across as convenient. It actually makes her that much more believable and connectable. Jay as well is very mysterious and I’m curious to see his secrets revealed.

personally I think he’s the werewolf after seeing what happened in the last trial!

I liked the connection Winnie has with the different Luminaries and how it compliments her journey and growth during the trials. So much happens and it was hard to grasp that the timeline of the whole book is actually a little over a week haha. As Winnie mentioned, so much changed so quickly.

The ending was really gripping! I had such a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to know what would happen next! The stakes were super high and I loved the way those stakes were raised throughout the story. while a lot is still unknown

Spoiler

who’s the werewolf, what’s the whisperer, why does it seem to help Winnie, was her dad really set up etc.

it isn’t annoying to have so much still unrevealed. It actually makes me really excited and anxious to get my hands on the next book which won’t come for a while T_T

Overall, it was such a good start to a new series with compelling characters and a really intriguing world and forest full of spooky creatures. I can’t wait to find out more about all that!