Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Lightlark by Alex Aster

34 reviews

espurrr's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I found the premise and the world building to be underdeveloped and honestly a bit silly. This author loves sentence fragments and frequently uses the em dash, so the writing feels choppy and unrefined. The mystery is engaging and the twists are fun. I also found the characters enjoyable. I'll probably continue on with the second book for an easy, light read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

chaptermaggot's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

brieoqueijo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a very happy surprise, I was expecting a 3.0 stars at most, and maybe even a rant review, but this was really fun!! 


!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!


!!!!!I MEAN IT!!!!!!

Ok, so here are my critiques: 

At the beginning I was kinda hating Grim, he was acting kinda creepy and it wasn’t sexy, just creepy

Isla was so dumb at the beginning, she literally almost died twice cause tripped????? Like girl you’re a warrior and can’t even stay standing up? Get a grip 

BUT as the book went on I started really liking both her and grim, and I was thinking to myself like damn how I am supposed to ship her with oro? Cause he’s always acting like he has a stick you know where. But then he was just ✨oro✨ and we love him for it

I enjoyed the plot twists at the end (all hundreds of them), I definitely wasn’t expecting for grim and isla having a history before the games, I really thought it was just that old insta love shite

I could see celeste being evil from like a mile away, but it still was done nicely, and I think it was a great ending to the curse to kill that whoe

THE WAY I THOUGHT SHE WAS GONNA TELL ISLA GRIM WAS HER ACTUAL FATHER I ALMOST DIED IM SO GLAD MS ALEX ASTER DIDNT GO FULL ALABAMA OUT OF NOWHERE 

And finally, I got kind confused at the end about how is oros and islas relationship right now, cause it kinda felt like “x months later” but they don’t seem very intimate?? I hope we haven’t lost their first kiss cause I wanted to read all that yearning 

And finally, I’m still kinda devided between both love interests but grims last sentence of “remember us and than you’ll come back to me” kinda gave me the ick idk

That’s it, will be starting book #2 right now xoxo

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

ksilvio's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

thejadylady's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Minor: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

elskede's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was a bit like the Hunger Games meets the fantasy world with a little less killing. Really enjoyable YA book that was a fast paced easy read. I was left trying to work out who was the traitor throught finding all had a good reason.

I listened to this as an audio book and probably my favourite narration to date. In particular I really enjoyed the voices she attributed to each character.

Ended on an annoying cliff hanger which is my main complaint.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

readyforit's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

4⭐️0.25🌶️(one nondescript scene where she gets to 2nd base, pretty much uneventful)

I was promised hunger games with this book but it felt more like fantasy survivor to me! A group of chosen ones go to an island where they take part in various tasks of physical and emotional strengths, alliances are formed and broken, trust is betrayed, and the winner gets to be all-powerful.

I thought the first 7ish chapters were pretty slow due to world-building, but after that I pretty much flew through the book. I started listening to the audiobook alone and I just could not keep up with all the names and places, so I recommend a print version if you’re going to listen to the audiobook.

You have to be okay with isla being an unreliable narrator because she’s so naive, which isn’t necessarily her fault, but it leaves the reader in the dark and confused a lot. There are twists and turns CONSTANTLY. And when you think the climax has climaxed, you get more twists! I think this is a book that needs multiple reads to catch everything. It will be interesting to reread now that I know how it ends. I didn’t love how isla was changing alliances every chapter it seemed. She said multiple times in the book “___ is the only person I trust now.” And it changed every time a plot point happened. Like pick a lane.

I’m not a huge fan of love triangles and idk why they run rampant in YA books. Once again I see a lot of similarities with ACOTAR and Rhys/grim and tamlin/oro. Honestly I didn’t really see a lot of chemistry with either of the love interests! The story is mainly a mystery, with a small romance subplot thrown in at the end. I feel like it was done kind of poorly. Maybe I will feel differently after reading the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping

acbwalsh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cannibalism

lkristin2018's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I thought that even though Isla’s age wasn’t precisely defined, and perhaps she was legally an adult, having her love interest literally centuries older than her felt icky.  Also, the curses endured by the various kingdoms were not at all in proportion to each other.  One kingdom simply loses the ability to fly, while another one must regularly eat human hearts in order to survive, and will die if they fall in love.  I find it almost impossible to imagine a society where people exist on eating human hearts.  Even if a person only eats one a month, it means twelve other people have to die every single year of that person’s life.  It just doesn’t feel sustainable.  Yes, it’s fiction, but I can’t suspend my disbelief quite that far.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Blood and Alcohol

6 ritual suicides described as self sacrifice and a separate suicide with specific method are mentioned in the book