By Maria-Nefeli Andredaki,
Piggybacking on my latest article about Alex Aster, it is time to talk about my newest obsession: the Lightlark series. Lightlark’s premise, in the author’s words, is the following: “A book about a cursed island that only appears once every hundred years to host a game that gives the six rulers of [each] realm a chance to break their curses. Each realm’s curse is deadly and to break them, one of the six rulers must die. To survive, Isla Crown must lie, cheat, betray even as love complicates everything”.
Lightlark is an island to which the six realms have access every one hundred years, when the Centennial is hosted. The six realms consist of Wildling, Skyling, Sunling, Nightshade, Moonling and Starling and each of their rulers are called to take part in the Centennial, for the chance to break their realms’ deadly curses.
But how did the realms acquire these curses? Without spoiling too much, finding out how the curses are spun is a big part of the plot, creating a mystery around their origin and driving the main character, Isla, to move heaven and hell to find out the truth. We do know that the curses are extremely old, which is why some of the rulers have taken part in previous Centennials (since most of them are hundreds of years old themselves). Plus, the curses are realm-specific. For instance, the people of Skyling are cursed not to use their flying abilities, on which their whole civilization was built. On the other hand, the people of Sunling and Nightshade are not able to be out in the sunlight or during nighttime respectively, since they will get burnt or lose their abilities.
As far as the main characters are concerned, Isla Crown is the typical YA heroine, who was trained from a really young age to be super cutthroat, able to withstand pain and easily defeat her enemies. While this character archetype is severely overused in YA fantasy, I can’t help but long for it in a nostalgic way, considering that these were the the kind of characters that accompanied me throughout my teenage reading years. The thing is that, while reading, you will realize that Isla is very limited in the things that she can do and often relies on others for help and guidance. It takes a long time for her to become her own person by gaining knowledge and experience and, in my opinion, it is very refreshing to see a flawed main character who is shaped by her mistakes, experiences, and circumstances, instead of just acting like a confident, skilled assassin from the very first page. Not only that but, if you follow the next book of the series, Isla will actually gain villainous traits, as a part of discovering her identity.
Grim is the typical dark, brooding character that is always too mysterious and inexplicably heartbroken for the reader to understand, also known as the “touch-her-and-you-die” character. Oro is equally cruel and unmoved but represents the light side, often associated with the “good” side. However, if you read Lightlark, you will soon realize that there is no good or bad side and that everyone serves their own agenda, making it even harder for Isla to discover herself and choose the lesser evil (or not).
Lightlark has a big fandom, as well as a lot of critics. The complaints about the pace of the book, the omission of important information leading to reader manipulation, and the constant twists and turns are all valid and should act as a guide for the next books in the series to improve. However, we cannot overlook the fact that the story makes for an addictive fantasy read that can transport you from everyday reality to a world of mystery, intrigue, and high stakes. I don’t know about you all but I am curious to see how this love triangle plays out and, more than anything, I am hoping for a main-character-turns-into-the-villain situation.
Reference
- Alex Aster. “Lightlark”. Amulet.
