Book Review: Lightlark by Alex Aster

Lightlark by Alex Aster
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I struggled to finish this book. The marketing stuff I originally read about this book compared it to The Hunger Games, but I don’t seem to find those claims now- it seems to have disappeared, or the marketing was revised.

I borrowed this book from my local online digital library three times. I kept losing interest in the book, which was auto-returned with a waitlist. I kept losing interest and putting it down. Overall, by the third loan, I wanted to finish it to see if there were some redeeming qualities at the end. It did have some, somewhat, but not in a big way, and I am not so sure the journey was worth getting to the destination (the end).

In general, character motivations, the reveal at the end, the character depth, and much of the dialog fell flat and lacked dimension. The world-building was good, and the plot, though not what I expected because of how the book was marketed, was also not bad. It was not 100% uninteresting, but it was a struggle to keep going. I don’t see myself reading the second book at this point, not with a “to read” list a mile long.

Maybe I have to let this one sit for a bit and then go back again. Maybe… and then again, maybe not.

I rate this one 2 stars because the author did, in fact, write a YA fantasy book with some romance and some magic, just not to the quality or interest level that I would have expected or desired to invest my time in reading.

View all my reviews