A review by coralie_michon
Lightlark, by Alex Aster
2.5
Honestly wasn't at all what I expected it to be... I was expecting games, challenges, tensions, battles, and alliances. What I got was a book that had to lie in its marketing in order to get attention.
The world-building was inexistent, I was confused the whole time about how everything worked, what was the magic behind it all, and what was the history of the realm. The characters were bland and had one characteristic each that was overexploited. The main character drove me crazy, stop complaining and act bestie. The plot was unclear. The ending was alright, some questions were answered thankfully, but like,,, the plot twist was poorly executed. The idea was good, but it was rushed which made it hard to follow. Everything in this book, every subplot was kinda always poping out of the blue without any good justification or previous hint which was annoying. They also disappeared as fast as they appeared, with no closure. lots of information was shoved down our throats, but none of the important concepts/ideas ( such as the centennial for example ) were properly explained which was probably the worst part,,
SPOILER
What the fuck was the love story?! I fully expected an enemies-to-lovers story between Isla and Grim. All I got were snippets of their past year and dreams about "sensual" moments (?!) (how the f*ck did they meet? Why would he erase her memory? Why? What? I have so many questions). I also pictured Oro as a very old man ( that’s on me tho ) the whole time and finding out he was in love with Isla really was not expected and unwelcome. it was also never hinted that this was a thing before like 95% in. This was too much. It was unnecessary and just added to the confusion.
Why is the main symbol of the book an egg? like she could’ve used literally anything else???? an egg????
But the book was kinda addictive, I really wanted to finish it that is why it was not 2 stars. So much potential. All ruined by poor writing and story building.
The world-building was inexistent, I was confused the whole time about how everything worked, what was the magic behind it all, and what was the history of the realm. The characters were bland and had one characteristic each that was overexploited. The main character drove me crazy, stop complaining and act bestie. The plot was unclear. The ending was alright, some questions were answered thankfully, but like,,, the plot twist was poorly executed. The idea was good, but it was rushed which made it hard to follow. Everything in this book, every subplot was kinda always poping out of the blue without any good justification or previous hint which was annoying. They also disappeared as fast as they appeared, with no closure. lots of information was shoved down our throats, but none of the important concepts/ideas ( such as the centennial for example ) were properly explained which was probably the worst part,,
SPOILER
What the fuck was the love story?! I fully expected an enemies-to-lovers story between Isla and Grim. All I got were snippets of their past year and dreams about "sensual" moments (?!) (how the f*ck did they meet? Why would he erase her memory? Why? What? I have so many questions). I also pictured Oro as a very old man ( that’s on me tho ) the whole time and finding out he was in love with Isla really was not expected and unwelcome. it was also never hinted that this was a thing before like 95% in. This was too much. It was unnecessary and just added to the confusion.
Why is the main symbol of the book an egg? like she could’ve used literally anything else???? an egg????
But the book was kinda addictive, I really wanted to finish it that is why it was not 2 stars. So much potential. All ruined by poor writing and story building.