Book Review :: Lightlark by Alex Aster

Lightlark by Alex Aster
ISBN: 1419760874
Series: Lightlark #1
on 23 August 2022
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 412
Goodreads

Welcome to the Centennial.

Every hundred years, the island of Lightlark appears for only 100 days to host a deadly game, where the rulers of six realms fight to break their curses and win unparalleled power. Each ruler has something to hide. Each curse is uniquely wicked. To break them—and save themselves and their realms—one ruler must die.

To survive, Isla Crown must lie, cheat, and betray. Even as love complicates everything . . .

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What is Lightlark by Alex Aster about?

Lightlark by Alex Aster is the story of Isla and the Centennial. Every century, the island of Lightlark magically reappears for the Centennial—a high-stakes competition that only the leaders of six different realms get to join. It’s an invite you can’t refuse, full of danger, power, and a chance to break the ancient curses that have haunted their lands for ages.

But here’s the twist: to end the curses, someone has to die. And of course, every ruler is hiding a secret or two. Or three or four, as it turns out.

“The Centennial was many things. A game. A chance at breaking the many curses that plagued the six realms. An opportunity to win unmatched power. A meeting of the six rulers. A hundred days on an island cursed to only appear once every hundred years. And for Isla— Almost certain death.”

Isla Crown, the young leader of Wildling, is under a ton of pressure. Her people are cursed, just like all the other lands, but for the Wildlings, anyone they fall in love with ends up dead, and they need to heart hearts to survive. Desperate to lift the curse, they’re all relying on Isla to win the Centennial.

To make it through, Isla has to deceive, betray, and maybe even fall in love to get it done.

My thoughts on Lightlark

This has been likened to The Hunger Games, even though it’s more fantasy than dystopian, and the people competing in the challenges are rulers of kingdoms rather than tributes from a randomly selected chaotic death draw. So maybe it’s not really like The Hunger Games. Though after 50 days, then it’s everyone for themselves and you can off anyone you need to. So it’s a little like The Hunger Games.

However, as Isla enters the Centennial she must partake in challenges set by each of the other realms to showcase her skills as a ruler. She meets the other rulers of the realms, befriends some, and puts others on the enemy list. One in particular is Grim, who is the ruler of the Nightshade realm, with whom Isla has an almost immediate connection, though she hates that she does.

Then there’s Oro, the ruler of both the Sunling realm and Lightlark itself. The Sunling curse is that they can’t go out in the sun. Skylings are ruled by Azul, and their curse is that they can’t fly (when they should be able to). Cleo rules the Moonling realm, cursed by the sea; anyone caught on the water at the full moon will die. Starlings can’t live past 25, and their ruler is Celeste.

I will just say, hopefully with not a lot of hints towards what happens, but there is a relationship that develops throughout the story and when the nature of said relationship changes (not between Isla and Grim, which I feel is a relationship waiting to happen and so not a spoiler), it seemed weird to me. They hadn’t really been written in a way where I was like “oooh okay this is going to happen” or “this should happen” but it was weird to me. It actually continued into Nightbane, the second book, which I read afterwards and I still wasn’t on board with.

I did enjoy this aspect of the stories – these realms with different curses. Though it seems to me like some realms were definitely worse off. Death to those you fell in love with AND having to eat hearts? The worst of the lot for sure. Not being able to fly? Meh. No biggy. They did seem unfairly balanced.

“There are lies and liars all around you…”

There are some twists and turns and information revealed as the story goes on that I won’t get into, but I did like this as it kept you on your toes a bit, especially with an ending like that. Again, no spoilers.

Overall, I did enjoy this, and as I mentioned, I read the second book in the series shortly after. Apparently, booktok was key in hyping up this book, but I’m not on TikTok that much so I can’t really comment. I’d love to know if you saw this book on TikTok or Instagram and what you thought of the hype! Let me know in the comments.

Have you read Lightlark by Alex Aster? What did you think?