I read MANY books, and somehow Alex weaves stories that stay with me, front and center—and make me wish desperately that I had more in front of me. lore concerning the realms is so silly, it's as if she heard that people were critical of how poorly thought out the curses were and then wildly overcorrected. it's still nonsense, there's just more of it. where were these wild beasts before? why is nightshade exclusively populated by lascivious, hostile unnamed weirdos? what do these rebels think they're actually going to accomplish? The Average Citizen. Isla actually talks to average citizens in this book, but they're all single minded and one note it feels weird. These people don't have interiority or conflicting feelings. They are simply on Isla's side or they are not. Sometimes they switch between the two, but yeah, there isn't much more beyond that. This is especially true when she meets her own Wildling people.

Alex Aster’s intricate world expands after the riveting culmination of the Centennial games, delving more deeply into Isla’s memories of her past, as her future hurtles toward two possible fates. About This Edition ISBN: I mentioned in my Lightlark review that I listened to an arc on audiobook. I read Nightbane with my own two eyes, so... I do think that made a lot of the structural issues and prose issues more relevant. But before I get into the negatives, I'd like to discuss the positive Throughout the book, Isla keeps asking herself, "What is love?" (baby don't hurt me), Grim brings up the value of pain, and they both examine being a source of life and a destroyer of life, a simultaneous cure and poison. Examine is a strong word. I feel like these ideas were raised with no real commitment to exploring them. The book does not have much to say about love or pain or the cure/poison other than reflecting how Isla loves, how Grim feels pain, and uhhh. Uhhhhhhh. I'm actually not sure about the last one, but maybe that's a next book thing. It's obviously supposed to be a big deal but the symbolism doesn't have any root to an idea or an emotion. Maybe how Isla is self-destructive? If that's it it's really flimsy. I know that sometimes just having ideas only serves the romance works fine in books, but I really kept expecting to have at least something meaningful come out of the book, and for how often those ideas were introduced, I thought that'd be it. Alas.

About Alex Aster

Nightbane was a very anticipated read for me and I am so so forever grateful I was sent a copy. Because nightbane did not only NOT DISAPPOINT, but also EXCEEDED my expectations. There's some 7th realm. I am cursed with a physical copy of this book and though the secret chapter in Grim's POV was focused on smut, there was a mention that he was battling these things called dreks so I'm gonna guess there's this evil realm that all the other 6 realms have to team up against but Isla will be the most powerful in stopping them SABAA TAHIR, #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes Welcome to the Centennial. Horny. Isla is so horny. Oro and Grim are also horny but they have more of a cap on it. This should not be a YA book for how often these characters are horny. There are multiple romance scenes written for the express purpose of titillation in which all the characters are adults. This is not written for children, or even teenagers. Because this is marketed at YA, most of these scenes end with some bullshit excuse for why they can't bone. Man, what's even the point? It's pushing the boundaries of how horny you can make something, for the pleasure of an adult audience, and still shelving the book as YA. The probably isn't the fact that it's horny, but its horniness skates along in this weird limbo gray area because of its genre, offputting and unsatisfying. I was gonna talk more about the type/count of romance scene, but I'll just leave it at the fact that the special edition of Lightlark from B&N had an extra scene from Grim's POV that you also see in this book through Isla's POV. The author REALLY loves that "I love that dress but it's in my way" line. alex aster tries to ratchet up the stakes of this book with no regard for how to effectively impart danger, distress or anguish. if you're not on board with one of the central three characters, there's simply no drama. the book becomes a benny hill skit of people portaling around and feeling horny

Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers. Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself hungry for distraction, preferring to frequent Lightlark’s seductive haunts instead of embracing her duties as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned. As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart. I actually read the first two Throne of Glass books between reading Lightlark and Nightbane. It really is a huge aesthetic and tone inspiration, and the two feel very similar. It is true that the Lightlark series is attempting to occupy the same romantasy feel as ACOTAR, but the similarities do not stop there. I think, if the book is actually attempting to do anything, it'd be a proper romantasy. EDIT (4/7/23): oooh I was so close with the title. how many bets Nightbane is a secret item/ingredient etc that Isla has to find in Nightshade We got significantly less "an x was an x thing". I still think the prose was not as terrible as everyone made it out to be to begin with, but there are construction issues and the entire thing is so poorly conceived and researched that it feels like there is. There were some neat metaphors in there. There were some less neat metaphors. Sequel is called Nightshade (duh, Isla is half Nightshade because her dad was some Nightshade general and all signs point to Isla x Grim endgame)Personally, I'm hoping the following comes true (not because I'm invested, but because I've digested enough of Alex Aster's TikTok content to infer the high likelihood I might be right): If you're here, you've probably already read, or know about the infamous Lightlark. I really didn't know what to expect going into the sequel. I mean, I don't think anyone expected a huge jump in quality, but it would be interesting to see what improvements the author made. Were there improvements? Sort of? I don't know. Oro was not Tamlin'd (at least, not really in the way Tamlin was Tamlin'd). He has some screentime until maybe 40% of the book before it becomes the Grimshaw show. i feel of course, a little deranged after having schnortzed up this book like bad cocaine, but wow. such nonsense is contained between the covers of this book, i simply must share some thoughts Lightlark logic. Like the first book, it felt like rules were bent and added on and multiplied on top of each other to make certain things possible, and ignored to make certain things possible. You can't think too deeply about anything in this thing. I was punished for remembering worldbuilding from the first book.