dbguide2's Reviews (863)

It’s very interesting, looking at the synopsis before and after reading the book; which just shows the power of a good synopsis and how it can fool you. Which was the case with this book. I was actually interested in reading it due to the synopsis and then all the drama happened but I decided to just forge ahead and go for it. Really, I should’ve stopped at the sample where I could tell this book would be a very difficult one. Will I be reading the sequel and hating every minute? Absolutely.

Like I said, it looked promising from the outside and then it kept falling apart and unraveling until nothing made sense anymore (all this well before the 50% mark, mind you). The synopsis promised adventure, curses, love, intrigue, even a game that sounded so good. What we get is a smidge, about like 4.3% (if I’m being honest, probably lower, I’m not good with stats) of all of that. I haven’t read Aster’s other (middle grade) series so I don’t know if it’s her voice. Maybe her writing and editing (Lightlark) so quickly in order to keep interest made nothing really work.

I could definitely see that Aster’s previous series was Middle Grade. I’m not saying that you have to write heavy and confusing sentences for teenagers to decipher (they get enough of that in their language classes) – this just read too juvenile for most YA books. Maybe Aster could be good – if she just spent more time on this. Apparently she’s been working on this for over 10 years. Someone said the names read like placeholder names – and it DOES. It does read like she never changed the names even though she kept meaning to.

What I noticed was her overuse of popular tropes – and how they weren’t even well executed. I will admit, I could tell that she does love the tropes she used, but it needed a LOT of work. I don’t mind them being used at all, I’m just asking for them to be written well. Don’t just try to mush all the tropes to say you’re using them – especially if you aren’t able to execute them well. Also to me it looked like Aster wanted the tropes of the book so badly that she thought she could just go ahead, the actual writing would come after (it doesn’t). Also like everything about the book is very YA but Aster goes on about spicy scenes on her social media? Make it make sense. 

Isla Crown is the main character. Isla means island and she lives on an island and she goes to another island. As for Crown being her last name when she’s the ruler of her realm – that’s like because I wear glasses, my surname is Glass (Which it isn’t).

The other names and their characters were just as bad. Oh, wow, here’s this guy named Grimshaw. His voice is as dark and striking as midnight. He’s super tall, his eyes are black as coals, and his hair is like ink. I wonder what realm he belongs to. Maybe the “bad” realm (Nightshade)? And of COURSE he is! Azul, ruler of Skyling – Azul… azure AKA SKY. Oro is Spanish for Gold and he’s the Sunling realm’s leader. What colour is the Sun? GOLD. Listen, I’m not saying that you have to sit and think up a name for like months, but also… maybe sit and think of names a bit more? 

The Realms are Sunling, Wildling, Starling, Moonling, Skyling, and Nightshade. I’ll give you 3 guesses as to which is written as the bad realm (even though I just said it in the previous paragraph). Once again, she really could’ve spent more time choosing names for them all.

Another thing I didn’t like was the constant mentions of the realms and what they could do. When they barely even did any of that. We constantly heard that the Nightshade Realm is the worst one, that they’re so evil. But then nothing they actually do can really be classified as evil in my opinion? Like the Wildling realm, who actually eat hearts, could technically be considered the evil realm more than Nightshade. The entire book is one whole string of tell, don’t show (and even the telling was bad). 

We get told that Isla is the most perfect, most beautiful, most amazing person ever to exist! She’s just absolutely beautiful and gorgeous. She doesn’t care what she wears but will also choose to wear beautiful, skintight clothing because that’s what she’s been taught to do. She can sing most wonderfully (and she was never taught to do this, it sounded like she could just sing perfectly from birth?? I don’t know if other Wildlings have the same power) – looks like Aster can ALSO sing so like… I just found that a tad bit funny. 

I laughed so many times because we’re constantly told that Isla is beautiful and has been practicing for every single battle that can ever be fought as soon as she was able to walk BUT she’s also clumsy! She’s the BEST strategist to EVER strategise but none of her plans actually ever work. She’s so amazing at seducing people but also hates to do it. Also I just don’t understand how she was taught to wield LITERALLY every single weapon ever, PLUS able to seduce people, PLUS being able to dance, PLUS knowing how to strategise ALL WHILE knowing how to speak to other people in certain ways? And she knows how to read and write – there is absolutely no way she went through all of that at her young (18-20, I think) age. Even if she was isolated in her room, I really don’t believe it. 

I very much dislike the fact that we’re promised diversity in the book and we get absolute crumbs. Cleo has a throwaway line about how her sexuality, and the line also reinforces the stereotype that bisexuals sleep around. Azul is black and gay (so two minorities for the price of one, I guess!) but I didn’t realise he’s not white until I was reading reviews and it was mentioned. We get about two lines of his (late) husband. 

Isla is not white. All we get told is that her skin is a few shades darker than another ruler. The author is Indigenous Latinx and she said she wrote Lightlark, and specifically Isla, because she wanted to read that type of book and character on the shelves when she was a teen. Which is great for Aster. But that doesn’t… necessarily always mean the character of colour will be written well (and that’s me reading other Latinx readers’ reviews to see what they had to say).

Something I don’t like about the Wildlings’ realm is that it’s constantly seen and referred to as the wild ones, the savages ones. They’re able to seduce everyone, which… is not the greatest thing when that realm is basically classed as the Latinx community and the community is often stereotyped as people who sleep around. 

Some extra, tiny thoughts (because this is a long review): Lightlark was a shiny, cliffy thing. The sun was a yolky thing. Aster wrote Lightlark before breakfast, I can see. There were so many plot twists – like NINE happened in 1-2 chapters (overrated perhaps but oh well). I don’t really think it could have been written well and you’d have to be a good writer (so, not Aster).

The world-building in this is both hilariously simple and it also makes absolutely no sense. I was telling my friend all about this and my friend was like “the world-building is lacking” and I’m like YOU WOULD THINK. We get told every other page of the curse (but only get told much later more about the curse), There’s a prophecy but we only actually get TOLD the prophecy around the 50% mark. We get told about the different realms, their powers and their curses about every 5 pages – so really I should’ve have known everything by page 100. YET, there I was, sending a THIRTY MINUTE voice note to my friend, trying to explain the plot while also going every few seconds “I’m sorry if this is confusing, because I’M Confused. 

I haven’t read an R.L. Stine book in YEARS so I was hyped when I saw I was approved for it. It’s under 300pgs so reading goes really fast – which considering it’s a middle grade book makes sense, obviously. So while I managed to read it quickly enough, it unfortunately wasn’t a pleasant read. I disliked all of the characters and couldn’t get myself to try to like any of them. It seemed like the main character’s main personality trait was disliking her brother, and she didn’t have any other real traits. Maybe liking theatre could be her other trait, I guess.

There was something big that happened which is linked to the biggest spoiler – so of course I won’t say it. But I didn’t like how they handled it and spoke about it. It revolves around a specific topic and (in my opinion) what they said didn’t paint the topic in a good light. They didn’t outright say that said topic was bad; just their way of handling it I wasn’t a fan of. If you really want to know, just message me privately and I’ll tell you. 

The story wasn’t wrapped up nearly . It seemed like it just stopped right after the plot twist and that was that. It also just… praised Arnie’s bad behaviour (even after we knew the cause of it) in a way I didn’t like.

I don’t have anything else to say other that at least it was a quick read? I do eventually want to reread the Goosebumps series. I only ever read whichever ones my library would have; so I have no idea how many I’ve read and I don’t remember all their titles precisely. Who knows when that’ll happen and if I like them or if that experience will mirror this one. 

I felt for Everly quite a lot throughout the book and definitely related to her. I knew exactly what she was feeling because I’ve definitely had those thoughts and more before. I also liked that she was an adult and she felt like she didn’t have everything together. We were able to see her coming more out of her shell as the book carried on and even her helping others with their anxiety! That’s a big thing being able to help others because you know how they feel and are able to give advice. 

Everly and Chris worked really well together. They were quickly able to understand each other and Chris wasn’t dismissive of Everly’s anxiety – something I appreciated seeing. Their becoming friends and then obviously ending up at the end were all felt very natural – something to commend Sullivan as authors aren’t always able to write natural relationships. 

I liked that we were able to experience the dates with her – the bad and the good. And that all of them sort of led back to Chris. Their romance was so cute! I smiled so many times throughout reading because I really enjoyed how kind and sweet Chris was. He wanted Everly to have fun, cared about her a lot – if she would enjoy the dates, how she felt on them etc. I think him caring meant a lot for her and probably made it easier to fall in love with him. 

Seeing as it’s a trilogy, and each book follows a different brother, we got a chance to see Noah and Wes (book 2 and 3 respectively). I liked that they were close with each other and encouraged each other. They had an easy banter and a good balance between sibling insults and “I’m pushing you because I love you”. 

I started reading the e-arc and struggled through the first two chapters. Then I decided to pick it up in audio as well. Best decision I ever made as it helped a ton. Also changing the font on my Kindle to OpenDyslexic has made a world of a difference.

I wouldn’t have gotten into the book without the audio and I would’ve probably marked it as 3-stars, which means I missed out on all that the book has to offer. I even thought of dnfing it, so I sort of recommend the audio above the e-book/physical. Or a hybrid read if you’re able to.

This is a beautiful story and I think I was focusing too much on the Howl’s Moving Castle comp to realise the inner workings of the book. I was waiting specifically for Howl and Sophie lookalikes, but didn’t really get that (well I’ve only watched he movie but I hear the characters differ in the book). But I quickly realised that didn’t even matter!

I liked Quinta and Twain about the same. I think they complemented each other well and Pacton wrote them both well. I liked reading about Quinta’s insecurities and Twain’s drive. It made them more real to me and like them more. They both had dreams and wanted to dream more.

I think the shop then found them at the right time, for them both. The shop is full of dreams and pulls in dreamers. I definitely do think it shows itself to people when they need it. I like the shop – I did think they would spend all their time in it but I like what we got.

I think this is definitely a book where you should read more about the other comparison/inspiration – The Radium Girls. Pacton took that inspiration, really ran with it and made it mystical and wonderful. It spoke to burning yourself out to work for others who won’t care about you or how it harms you. As well as dismal working conditions – which happens in any era – in any type of workplace unfortunately. 

I liked that she took the real-life events and added fantasy elements to it. It was well-done and was a good part of the overall plot. This is my first book by Pacton and her first fantasy book, but to me she managed to tie all the different parts of the plot together neatly – which isn’t always easy. 

I started reading the e-arc and struggled through the first two chapters. Then I decided to pick it up in audio as well. Best decision I ever made as it helped a ton. Also changing the font on my Kindle to OpenDyslexic has made a world of a difference.

I wouldn’t have gotten into the book without the audio and I would’ve probably marked it as 3-stars, which means I missed out on all that the book has to offer. I even thought of dnfing it, so I sort of recommend the audio above the e-book/physical. Or a hybrid read if you’re able to.

This is a beautiful story and I think I was focusing too much on the Howl’s Moving Castle comp to realise the inner workings of the book. I was waiting specifically for Howl and Sophie lookalikes, but didn’t really get that (well I’ve only watched he movie but I hear the characters differ in the book). But I quickly realised that didn’t even matter!

I liked Quinta and Twain about the same. I think they complemented each other well and Pacton wrote them both well. I liked reading about Quinta’s insecurities and Twain’s drive. It made them more real to me and like them more. They both had dreams and wanted to dream more.

I think the shop then found them at the right time, for them both. The shop is full of dreams and pulls in dreamers. I definitely do think it shows itself to people when they need it. I like the shop – I did think they would spend all their time in it but I like what we got.

I think this is definitely a book where you should read more about the other comparison/inspiration – The Radium Girls. Pacton took that inspiration, really ran with it and made it mystical and wonderful. It spoke to burning yourself out to work for others who won’t care about you or how it harms you. As well as dismal working conditions – which happens in any era – in any type of workplace unfortunately. 

I liked that she took the real-life events and added fantasy elements to it. It was well-done and was a good part of the overall plot. This is my first book by Pacton and her first fantasy book, but to me she managed to tie all the different parts of the plot together neatly – which isn’t always easy. 

I liked this book. It was a good debut and I’ll want to read from this author again. I’m such a big fantasy reader that I sometimes forget just how nice a light fantasy/magical realism can be. 

I did, however, really want this to be a 5 star book, and while I did really enjoy it, it just didn’t grasp onto that 5 star rating that I wanted it to. There wasn’t anything wrong with the book, I think I was just expecting a lot more from what I got from the synopsis and comps – perhaps more action. But that didn’t deter me too much from liking it, which is good. 

I liked the three main characters, but not one specifically stood out to me – but that was also good. I like it when I don’t have an immediate favourite. I liked the bond they created with each other and the romance between Theo and Jaime. It was sweet and I liked how it was friends first, then the romance. 

I have… an issue with books being comped as Six of Crows just because they feature a group pulling off a heist. Which I know is mostly trivial because it is a very popular book so if you use it as a comp – you’re almost guaranteed readers. But it doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.

So while I understand the comparison to Six of Crows, I also… don’t. But I tried to not let it affect how I read the book. I chose to do a hybrid read, not because I wasn’t enjoying the ebook; but because the audio narrator (Robbie Daymond) also narrated The Trials of Apollo, which I really enjoyed.
 

It was quite interesting to see an issue/difference between the two editions. So, an earlier version of the e-arc had a hearing aid turned into a listening device. DeWitt changed it and there was a new version on NetGalley (I had to remove my version from Kindle and re-download, but no problem). 

The original arc had a scene where they used an old hearing aid and turned it into a listening device. Hearing aids are expensive? And they sort of.. treated it like a spy toy. I also thought it was weird/bad to only bring in mentions of the sister Kerry (whose hearing aid it was) when they could use her old hearing aid (I do believe she didn’t even know they were using it?). Especially as Kerry barely had a personality. The audio still had the hearing aid, but a later scene the hearing aid was changed to an AirPod turned communicator. 
 

I liked the characters and then there were times where they annoyed me (Gabriel and Morgan, I’m looking at you). The plot was okay, given that it was definitely a character-driven story. I think because DeWitt focused more on the characters (not a bad thing) the plot fell to the side a bit so the whole “heist” plot line wasn’t as clean or well-written as it could have been. It also felt… very Gossip Girl – the whole thing of teens running around and doing everything that they wanted to do.

I liked Jack for the most part. I did find him annoying but I like Daymond’s voice helped with that as he’s used to narrating another annoying character (Apollo/Lester). I think Jack and Remy were probably my favourites of the group and I liked their relationship a lot. It was sweet and well-written