Lightlark

Yes, you heard me. That’s the plot. No need to read the rest of this review.

What, you still want a summary?

Oh alright.

Isla Crown is the leader of the Wildings, one of the six magical groups that used to live on the magical island of “Lightlark” before an evil curse punished both the island and its residents. Now the six magical groups (Wildings, Starlings, Moonlings, Sunlings, Skylings, and Nightshades) suffer under curses that twist their magical abilities. Starlings die at twenty-five. Sunlings can only go outside at night. Skylings cannot fly. The ocean attacks Moonlings. And Wildings must eat human hearts to survive. Only every hundred years do the leaders of each of the six realms have a chance to come together to break the curse—the only problem, to break the curse, one of the leaders has to die. And if a royal dies, their kingdom dies with them.

Isla is the youngest to attend this centennial. As a Wilding, she should have the power to control plants and beguile men’s hearts (because men are basically plants, right?). However, Isla has a secret—she was born without powers, so while she isn’t subject to the Wilding’s heart-eating curse, she also has no special advantages. But her guardians have a foolproof plan for her to succeed—Isla must seduce King Oro of Lightlark (who carries four of the six powers…and is somehow the only one who can fly despite the curse because TikTok has a thing for wings), and use his power to break the curse and save her people. But Isla has no interest in following her guardians’ plan. Instead, Isla and her best friend Celeste (the leader of the Starlings, cursed to die at the age of twenty-five) hatch a plan to find a sacred artifact that can save both their kingdoms.

Meanwhile, King Oro recruits Isla to help him find a different mysterious object to break the curse. He needs a Wilding’s knowledge of botany, but Isla must keep her lack of powers a secret. Will she ever be able to trust the Lightlark king?

Meanwhile, the leader the Nightshades, Grim (Yes, that is his name. No, this isn’t ACTOR fanfic.), starts up a passionate flirtationship with Isla (he hand feeds her chocolates, then declares his undying passion for her after, like, four conversations). Is Grim truly helping her out of the goodness of his heart? Or does he have an ulterior motive for helping the vulnerable nineteen-year-old who has never spoken to a man before him? (Spoiler Alert: He wants to get into her pants.)

Oro and Grim were enemy generals in a war that took place FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Now, they’re fighting a new war over who can seduce a teenage girl first. Creepy.

Slow down. Surely the relationships aren’t that creepy

But, you might say, Isla is over the age of consent. And yes, technically, according to modern U.S. standards, she is. Well, to that I ask: what would you think of your forty-five year old uncle bringing a nineteen-year-old date to the family reunion? Creepy, right? Legal, but creepy. In my humble opinion, immortals (even hot Shadow Daddies) should at least wait until someone’s brain is fully developed to date them. (Is the immortal dating pool so small that they can’t find anyone over twenty-five?)

But, you might say, Oro and Grim are immortal and look young, so developmentally they are the same maturity level as Isla. No. No, they are not. (Remember how I mentioned that they were both GENERALS in a WAR?) They are very clearly adults, while Isla is barely leaving adolescence. Plus, Isla has led an incredibly sheltered life where (by her own admission) she hasn’t been allowed to speak to men. She also doesn’t always make the most mature choices (which is a bit annoying to see sometimes, but it makes sense for her character because she is nineteen). (Also, for those of you pointing out that the sequel gives more justification for why Grim is so interested in Isla, I say the information revealed in the flashbacks makes it even worse.)

But, you might say, this would be harmful in real life, but this is clearly fiction—they’re not actually real people in real relationships. To this, I say, THE BOOK’S STATED TARGET AUDIENCE IS  AGES 14 TO 18! While adults might be able distinguish between healthy real-life relationships and harmful fictional ones, children and adolescents aren’t always able to (because, you know, undeveloped brains). Presenting this kind of relationship as normal and healthy is dangerous.  

But, putting aside all the harmful, predatory behavior from the male love interests, how was the book?

It was decent. The worldbuilding was engaging, but if you stop to think about it too long, it seems questionable—for instance, Wildings have to eat a heart every two weeks to survive. Even if they only have a population of 10,000, their country is killing at least 260,000 people a year. So that means over the five hundred year curse, they’ve killed over 130,000,000 people. (For context, that’s higher than the number of people who were killed in World War I and World War II combined.) And that’s assuming their population is only 10,000 people! Also for some reason crossbreeds between kingdoms gain powers from both parents (that are in no way diminished), but also are only subject to the curse of one kingdom? So, in that case why aren’t the countries all interbreeding to save their people?

Isla as a character was fine, although she’s basically a carbon copy of current trends FMC romantasy heroines (an impulsive fighter who isn’t afraid to speak her mind—think Feyre from ACOTAR). She did sometimes make choices or say things that made me groan with frustration, but she’s a teenager, so I’ll give her a pass.

Grim and Oro were possibly the most generic love interests in romantasy history. (Think Rhysand and Tamlin from ACOTAR, but blander.) Isla’s banter with Oro was okay, Grim’s declarations of undying affection were uncomfortable. I will say, this is one of the only YA love triangles where I wasn’t actually sure who Isla was going to end up with for most of the book. (Logically, it has to be Oro because romantasy male leads have to be the most powerful man in the realm. But Grim was the Rhysand Shadow Daddy, so he put up a good fight.)

But the plot itself was interesting, and the twist at the end was lovely. If I maintained my suspension of disbelief long enough and ignored the characters’ personalities, I actually enjoyed the book. Sadly, the sequel (which I’m ashamed to admit I read), is even worse. The flashbacks are the most interesting part of the novel, and the present-day conflict makes ZERO sense. But that’s a review for another time.