Lightlark

Lightlark #1

By: Alex Aster

“You might be dying, but You’re not dead yet”

Alex Aster, Lightlark

*This post contains spoilers for Lightlark

Overview:

Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons—a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm’s curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die.

Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling—a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial.

To survive, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray…even as love complicates everything.

Lightlark

Obvious Names

All the names feel like lazy placeholders that were never swapped out.

Isla Crown: We can go two ways with this. Either we look at it after the fact that her name was an Easter egg to her destiny or a way that the reader figures out the ending within the first few sentences of the story. Isla means island and crown obviously refers to ruling or winning. From this it is safe to gather that she will be victorious on the island.

Also, the key she needed to open the secret door was her crown. The key to the island was the crown…Island’s Crown. *shakes head*

Grim: A Nightshade who is dark and can generate curses.

Celeste: A Starling, dealing with stars or celestial bodies.

Oro: Ruler of the Sunlings. Name literally translates to “gold”

I could go on but it is all pretty much the same.

The names feel like the district naming trends in The Hunger Games but way more obvious.

The Centennial

As a concept it works. Realms are cursed and only once in a hundred years do they have a chance to break it. Simple enough and raises the stakes immediately.

The execution… could have been better.

It was a missed opportunity by having other people live on the land the Centennial takes place. Instead, setting it on a backdrop of ruins catering to each ruler, would have been such a great setting. All they would have had to focus on was each other and the tasks at hand. Most of the story was felt as if there were no stakes because they were sitting around and waiting for the days to pass. Each ruler could have had to be on their portion of the land, defend it, explore it, do their chosen task with the other rulers.

It would have created a more interesting story instead of them just being dropped into a city where regular life is happening all around them.

Also, I could not keep the rules and stakes of the Centennial straight the entire time I was reading. In order for the curses to be broken one of the rulers has to die. We know that the rulers immediately started killing each other at the first one. We also are told that if a ruler has no heirs and dies, the realm dies… or at least that is what I gathered. Is it really realistic that no ruler went to the Centennial without an heir and died? Especially, the Starlings who only live until 25. Did they just get lucky and time the last four Centennials with a barely age appropriate ruler having an heir?

I’ve honestly had to read several plot summaries to try and figure out what exactly is going on. There was definitely a way to do this that was clearer but unfortunately, that is not what was put on paper.

Isla’s Lack of Curse

It is interesting. It does add an element of tension.

Unfortunately, she had powers the whole time and they were stifled because it is revealed that she has Nightshade powers as well. An element that had so much potential for her and the realms’ fates, ruined. I think it would have been great if the one ruler born without powers in 500 years was the only one able to break the curse.

Without powers, you can’t be cursed and therefore can free all others who are cursed. But no. Instead, she has powers and creates a convoluted plot where she collects the powers from her love triangle and gives her in return. I think it would have been simpler if she received powers only once she truly fell in love. This could have been the resolution to who her heart is actually with and could have been dragged out until the big reveal at the end of the series.

Wait… There was a Love Triangle?

So, you’re telling me that Oro fell so in love with her that his powers transferred to her?

I never felt the pull between those two so that reveal made absolutely no sense. The Grim connection was obvious and Isla reciprocated it. Because Oro is 500 years old I never imagined him as someone Isla would be with. Also, I don’t think that is a great thing to be promoting.

Honestly, you know those ads for the matching game you get all the time with the old King in peril and you have to save him? That’s what I pictured Oro as the entire time. I swear I couldn’t get that out of my head.

The Crown

In the last pages of the book, it is revealed that the key to the secret door on Wilding Isle is Isla’s crown. The same crown that Isla wears every day nonstop. She looks at the key hole and sees the shape but can’t connect the dots until the last minute. Either she is not a good problem solver (spoiler alert… she’s not) or I guess it’s on her head so she’s not staring at it all the time?

If that were me I would have literally tried anything to see if it fit and a crown is a pretty obvious shape.

Too Many Twists

The first two thirds of the book had very little information. All the twists happened one after another at the very end of the book.

• Grim erased Isla’s past memories of him
• Celeste is actually Aurora who set the curses in motion 500 years ago
• Oro is in love with Isla
• Loving someone makes you transfer your power between one another
• The Bond breaker is actually a way of transferring powers
• Isla has had powers the whole time
• Isla is a Nightshade as well as a Wilding
• Isla’s father did not kill her mother and then himself
• Everyone Isla was ever close to knew all these things and hid them from her
• Her crown is the key to the secret door

Entirely too many twists.

With Grim, an easy solution could have been him also losing his memories of Isla. Grim having to learn his betrayal at the same time she did could have added an extra layer. This would have created sympathy for him. When the slate was wiped clean he still fell in love with her and aided her whenever she needed him. However, him having his memories makes it creepy and a strange imbalance of power.

The only twist that was absolutely necessary was Celeste being the big bad. However, she should have been the big bad for the entire series. Instead, she is destroyed and most likely Cleo is going to be an antagonist moving forward.

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Overall,

This book had promise. The concept behind it could have been executed well but unfortunately it was not. Simple things such as non-obnoxious naming could have made it much better.

Also, editing. Too much was jammed into the last 50 pages meaning nothing had the time to be fully developed.

We also have to talk about the fact that this is the first book in a series. This is a great example of a book that should have been one-and-done. Isla sacrificing herself to save everyone else would have made sense.

She was born without powers and without curse. It could have been her destiny.

Rating: 1.5/5 stars