Lightlark is a novel that features Isla Crown, ruler of Wildling, one of the six realms endowed with a wicked curse- the inability to love without murder and to devour a human heart every month for survival. In order to free her realm of this curse that has haunted them for six hundred years, Isla must participate in the Centennial, the special one hundred days that the island of Lightlark appears in order for the rulers of all realms to break their curses and wield fierce power by finding the heart of Lightlark. However, one ruler must die, and along with them, their entire realm. While Isla is highly skilled, she has a secret. She does not have power. In order to free her realm, Isla must lie to those she calls friends and enemies. While attending different trials to test the rules and realms, Isla is paired with Oro, the king of the island, in order to find the heart of Lightlark. As the Centennial continues, Isla discovers secrets while maintaining her own, recovers from betrayals, and trusts the right people all while fighting for her life and saving her realm.
This was an odd read. I am not sure how I am supposed to start out my review of this book because I don’t know what I just read. Now, I should mention that I have read many books in my short life, making sense of novels that do not make sense.
This novel did not make sense.
Due to the sad fact that I am unable to spoil the novel, I’ll have to stick to the basics here. Firstly, the curses. I’ll only mention the ones that made me annoyed. Wildling had a curse that was very “wicked”, as the novel stops the plot just to remind you of this many times. They are unable to love someone without killing them and have to eat human hearts each month to survive. There are many things wrong with what I just read. First of all, how is the population of Wildlings supposed to thrive if they are all dying when love happens? Also, where do the human hearts even come from? There are so many questions to be answered! Second of all, there is the Starling curse. Before I get to that, can we talk about the names of the realms? I couldn’t stand reading the names without thinking that a kindergartner made it up during recess. The Starling curse reveals that those that inhabit the realm are cursed to die before they turn 25 years. There are various mentions of both love interests, Grim and Oro, being over 500 years of age. Why was the Starling lifespan reduced to around 1/20 of what is supposedly a “normal” lifespan? By mentioning Grim and Oro, I think it's finally time that we talk about how AWFUL both of these love interests were. It's all a game to our clueless main character on which one is worse (but she doesn’t care)- would you rather choose one who betrayed you and erased all your memories together or would you rather choose the one who exposed your secret to the other rulers, leaving you vulnerable? The second option, duh.