Review: Lightlark by Alex Aster
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Introduction:
Welcome to the Centennial.
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.
Review:
Reviewed by Dakota Watson
Once again, this is one of those books that everyone raves about, but when you finish it, you’re left wondering if you read the same book as everyone else. In my honest opinion, it was terrible. I am not gonna lie, Lightlark had a lot of potential. However, all that potential was squandered due to extremely poor execution. The writing was utterly monotonous and devoid of any appeal. The pacing was terrible, burdened with an excess of irrelevant and needless descriptions that added nothing to the narrative. The plot was stagnant, with characters merely wandering around in search of something, yet there was no action or suspense to keep things engaging. It was incredibly slow and tedious and the entire book was riddled with plot holes that I couldn’t wrap my head around.
Isla as a main character and as a ruler of a kingdom was hopeless and embarrassingly stupid, if I may say so. She fell into every conceivable trap possible. Every other character seemed aware of what was happening, while Isla merely pretended to understand, remaining powerless and clueless. Watching her bumble around was almost embarrassing. It was difficult to root for her. None of her decisions made sense to me, as they were all foolish.
And where do I even begin with Grim.. He was is your typical romantasy 500+ years old hot as eff misunderstood bad boy with a heart of gold. There was nothing original about his character or his backstory that hasn’t been overdone with different angles by so many authors. Just like with Isla, I did not feel any emotional connection with Grimshaw either. Plus their romance felt lukewarm, lackluster and forced for the most part.
Also, what in the world was that with that love triangle, if you can even call it that? This book abandoned its entire plot just to focus on pushing Isla and Grim together, with their conversations revolving solely around how attractive they found each other. When they were finally separated, Oro entered the picture, and Isla immediately started fawning over him instead. She claimed to trust no one, yet she did everything to keep her love interests entertained. Despite the terrible writing, the romance was so exaggerated that both Grim and Oro would harm themselves if Isla was within two feet of them.
Talk about wasted potential! Sigh!
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