Why Do People Like Lightlark? Full Summary and Review

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]You know, in general, I wouldn't say that I'm a person who hates most popular books.

[00:00:06]In short, I simply like what I like. Um, for example, I really like When the Moon Hatched. Fourth Wing, I think, is fine, although there are some aspects that I think are ridiculous. Um, I love The Cruel Prince. I have a lovehate relationship with the Once Upon a Broken Heart series. That being said, I do hate this series a lot. So, this video we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about Lightark. I love talking about Lightark.

[00:00:35]I love talking about how much I absolutely despise this piece of literature, if it can even be called that. I don't think this video is going to be nearly as long as my starside one because there is not nearly as much going on in this book. It's a lot of um convoluted plot points and messy writing, but overall the story is pretty straightforward and um not overly complicated, just kind of stupid, honestly. So, let's jump right into it.

[00:01:08]Lightark by Alex Aster. To start off, let me briefly summarize what this book is about. It is about Isla Crown. I have no clue if I'm saying her name right and quite frankly I don't care. She has to go to this centennial that's um an event that takes place every 100 years on an island that appears for only a 100 days.

[00:01:29]That island is called Lightark. Now on the centennial they have to partake in this challenge. I wouldn't call it deadly trials even though that's what it's been marketed as. It's anything but deadly if we're being honest. Now, Isla Crown has to meet up with the five other realm rulers on Lightark so that they can figure out a way to break all of their curses. What are all of the realms? They are Skyling, Sunling, Moonling, Starling, Wildling, and Nightshade. And I'm going to 100% say that Alex Aster didn't go with Darkling purely because of Shadow and Bone.

[00:02:09]That's just my headc. And what are these curses, you may ask? They are the most outofpocket things with no consistency to them whatsoever. They're all over the map to be honest. The wildlings curse is that they are forced to kill anyone they fall in love with and they must survive exclusively on hearts.

[00:02:32]I don't know how this is at all sustainable or how they have survived 500 years with this curse. The sunling curse is that they cannot go out in sunlight. It will kill them. I'm going to assume instantly, slowly, who knows?

[00:02:47]It hardly matters. So, they've been nocturnal for the past 500 years, and it kind of seems like they might have a huge vitamin D deficiency problem at this point, or not, or they're all fine. The moonlings, I hate saying these words, the moonlings are forced to hide whenever there is a full moon. Otherwise, the water, sorry, or ocean will just grab them and bring and and drown them, I guess. I don't know. The Starling curse is by far the worst bec because the starings are cursed to die at the age of 25. And let me tell you how they survived for five centennials and weren't just immediately decided upon to be the realm that's eliminated because that's part of like how to break the curses. You have to eliminate an entire realm. I have no clue. Kind of seems like that would have been the obvious choice this whole time.

[00:03:49]And yet here they are. The Nightshade Realm. I'm not going to lie, I didn't entirely understand what it was the first time I read this book through cuz it it it literally reads this, right? His curse was the mirror of Oros.

[00:04:04]Oro being the leader of Sunling.

[00:04:06]Nightshades could not feel the energy and calm of night. I read that and I was like, what on earth does that mean?

[00:04:14]Afterwards, it says, "Though they used to be nocturnal, choosing to live in darkness, that all changed 500 years ago." I mean, just say they can't go out at night or darkness. See, but this is the confusing part, like night, just night specifically, because I feel like they're going to be in darkness at some point. I don't know.

[00:04:37]I found it very um I didn't understand it. I did not understand it. and the Skylings was just that they all used to be able to fly and now they can't.

[00:04:51]It's a little unclear if everybody had this ability or not because in book two we find out that the Sky Palace is up in the sky. But then also you find out that not everybody can even wield power or has magic. So, what did the Skylings who couldn't fly do?

[00:05:15]I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

[00:05:17]Let's just dive right into the book instead and um explain what happens. So, the way that this book starts out is Isa Crown appears in her room. She lives in what used to be a greenhouse except all the glass panes have been painted over.

[00:05:31]Isaac Crown has been kept in isolation her entire life because she is powerless. She does not have power to wield nature. Um, it drives the point home several times throughout this story.

[00:05:44]Moving right along though, she had portaled from somewhere. Doesn't say where. Don't worry, we'll find out at the very end. With her star stick. What does her star stick look like, might you ask? The answer is I have no idea. We have absolutely no description for this thing, but it is used quite a lot. And I can't tell you how tired I got of reading the word star stick.

[00:06:12]Are we serious right now? She puts her star stick away because she's not supposed to have this thing because she's not supposed to travel outside of her room ever. And then her guardians come in, Poppy and Tara. They are just the worst. Let me tell you how Isla didn't die by these two imbeciles is kind of remarkable actually. Poppy and Tara get her ready and um then they kind of shove her out to address her people which she hardly ever sees her people ever. She's not not really a great ruler, but she gives them some speech about how she's going to figure out a way to break the curses and free them all. Even though there have been four centennials prior to this that have just been wrought with failure. Nobody has figured out how to break these curses. And then she's shoved through a portal that only appears every 100 years for the purpose of transferring the ruler to Lightark.

[00:07:05]And she finds herself on Lightark, the island where they got to work together to break the curses. Upon reaching Lightark, she is immediately greeted by Grimshaw. And um this man is just like fascinated with her the second he sees her.

[00:07:23]Um, I would like to um bring the jury's attention to this little passage. She frowned. He should be afraid. If a wildling wished, they could make a person fall off a cliff in pursuit of them. Their power to beguile was impossible to to resist, though forbidden during the hundred days. The nightshade must have thought he was safe. He was not.

[00:07:48]We literally read in the passage that this type of magic is forbidden from her and she's like, "Oh, but he's not safe."

[00:07:57]Even though she's also powerless and has no power to to do what she just said, but yes, I'm supposed to like this main character. Yes. Also, upon this meeting, Isa goes, "Oh, have we met before?" And Grim is like, "If we had, it wouldn't it wouldn't have been just once."

[00:08:15]And you know, we've already got the foreshadowing that something between Isla and Grim took place prior to the events of this book. But anyway, we'll come to that later. Further in this chapter, you find out that this is actually the first centennial that Nightshade has ever been invited to.

[00:08:31]Tell me how that makes any sense.

[00:08:34]because I kind of thought based on the prophecy you needed all the rulers and they were all in on trying to get these curses broken, but they decided not to invite the night shades because they hated them and some people thought that they were responsible for the curses being spun.

[00:08:52]Why wouldn't that be the realm you want to eliminate them?

[00:08:56]Why wouldn't you invite them to eliminate them?

[00:09:01]I just don't see how this makes any sense at all. Moving right along, we get some more introductions. We get this lovely descriptor here of Lightark was a shining cliffy thing.

[00:09:17]Just put me out of my misery. We get an insert of Oro the king and how cold he is and how guarded he is because for 500 years he can never fall in love because that would be a death sentence. Falling in love means that you give somebody you love access to your powers. How does this work? I don't know. It's just the rules. Although this doesn't work in familial instances. It's just um I guess your spouse or partner I'm assuming. So, Alex Aster is already starting off trying to convince us that Oro will never fall in love. But, you know, spoiler alert. He does. He falls in love with Isla. After 500 years, Isla, I guess, was the best that he could do, which is really sad. Later on, after they've settled in, the ruler of Starling comes to visit Isla. Her name is Celeste. And that's when you find out that her and Celeste have actually been friends for years, I think, prior to the centennial, and they had planned to have a secret alliance all throughout. How this was actually going to benefit them, I don't really know. In the next chapter, uh, we literally start off with this line. The sun had fallen. It was just a yokey thing.

[00:10:35]I'm going to call attention to every single time there is an egg referenced and you will see why at the end and it's not a good reason. It's not a good reason. I hated all of it. The rulers sit down to have a very uncomfortable dinner and Isla is served a bleeding heart.

[00:10:54]And I will choose to ignore the fact that if that heart had been harvested, it probably wouldn't be bleeding right now. it would probably have coagulated blood, but let's not get into that. I'm going to choose to skip all of this dinner because it's not really that important. And um in the next chapter, you find out that Isla's mother loved Isla's father and failed to kill him. So, I guess this part of the curse where um people were cursed to die if a wildling fell in love with them, it's optional.

[00:11:32]Um, that's what I have to believe because I I don't understand why we establish rules and then we're given more information that breaks the rules.

[00:11:42]And uh I'm confused. Um, most of this chapter is spent uh explaining rules of the game. And I love this. Rule number one, a ruler may not assassinate or attempt to assassinate another ruler until after the 50th day. Remember when this was uh marketed as deadly trials?

[00:12:02]Yeah. So, this is the whole point of the centennial to eliminate one of the rulers and by extension their entire realm. But for the past four centennials, nobody has died. So, I just feel the need to point out that in order for the trials to be classified as deadly, there needs to actually be death. On the 50th day, they're broken up into pairs. And uh when you are buddied up with somebody, you're not allowed to kill your buddy. So, um interesting. And then we've got the second rule. All rulers must attend and participate in every centennial event except Grimshaw was not invited to the past four. And we find out later that Cleo was not in attendance for the previous centennial to this one. So this rule seems um very stupid and pointless.

[00:13:03]They do some little like blood agreement ritual and we're given information about how each ruler their blood has specific properties based on which realm they rule.

[00:13:17]Um Grimms became dark as ink. Cleo's blood hardened into ice. Azul's suspended in the air for a minute before finally falling. And Isla has to fake her ability by holding petals between her fingers and then letting the blood drop and petals fall. And I just want to point this out because um this never happens again with anyone who is ever bleeding.

[00:13:42]So why is it in here? I have no clue.

[00:13:44]The next day, Isa gets dressed. Um, we get more information that the wildlings can wear whatever color is in nature as long as it doesn't impede on anyone else's realm. Because starlings have to wear silver, sunlings have to wear gold, skylings wear light blue, night shades wear black, and moonlings wear white.

[00:14:09]Riveting creativity. We get some montage about how she's so good with her star stick and over time she had learned how to go undercover to blend into a crowd so seamlessly so that no one would guess she didn't belong. I mean, okay, sure.

[00:14:24]You will find that anytime Isa may face a trial, she doesn't because turns out there was one time she did something or saw something or her guardians taught her how to and it now it's not a problem for her anymore.

[00:14:38]It's so exhausting. Now in this chapter we also get an information dump about heirs. Now the whole rules with heirs are very very confusing.

[00:14:50]The realm's leader Grimshaw's father had died for the prophecy. His son had come into power immediately back when having an heir was the norm. They weren't allowed anymore. Okay, I want to call attention to this because this will be important for later on in the series and even in this book because this whole thing surrounding the heirs is so confusing. They weren't allowed anymore.

[00:15:14]Okay, but Isla's mother had an heir and then she died because of the curse, but you find out later that's not even true. And then you later find out in the next book that Cleo had a son at one point that died. I can't even remember what killed him. And then you find out that at some point Grim was trying to have an heir.

[00:15:37]So I I'm not sure why we're told they're not allowed anymore. Clearly that is not true. And I need Alex Aster to be more specific on what she means because the whole thing is very confusing. Anyway, also in this chapter, we get this very strange meetup where she runs into Grimm and then he's like, "Do you like chocolate?" And they go and have this extremely weird chocolate date where he feeds her chocolate.

[00:16:05]Now, mind you, even though we know that there's I mean there is a history between Grim and Isla, but Isla is not aware of that at this point in time. him taking her to this chocolate shop and feeding her chocolate just feels very uncomfortable.

[00:16:21]Also, I have a question about the whole they exclusively live on hearts.

[00:16:27]Now, we know Isla is not bound by her curse because she has no power, or at least that's what we're told. But would this not be strange? Like, would anyone question this? Apparently, they can eat other stuff, but hearts are what they need to survive. And I just kind of feel like that should have been better explained. I love this line. The centennial was a deadly game based on what? Oh, here's another line I'm going to read to you. Demon, she said meanly.

[00:16:57]We're going to I'm going to point out every single time she calls him demon and every time the word meanly or meanness or mean whatever is used because it becomes a very annoying and repetitive. After she parts ways with Grimm and their extremely odd chocolate date, she goes to the tailor to get new gowns and like halfway through her fitting, she turns around and Grim is just watching her, which isn't at all creepy.

[00:17:29]Um, and then we get Grim's expression turns serious. If you would like me to leave you alone, I will. Say the word and I'll vanish.

[00:17:37]Anyway, before she parts ways with Grimm again, he gives her a clue as to what his demonstration will be because all the rulers have to come up with one. He tells her that she will need a sword.

[00:17:48]And this chapter ends with Isa left alone in the market wondering why the Nightshade ruler is helping her. This will be important for later. Moving along, we get a meet up with Isla and Celeste next. And their plan is something completely out of pocket and way different from everything that is going on. They are searching for this needle like object called the bondreaker. And they believe if they find this bond breaker and they both put their blood into it that it will break both of their curses and both of their realms will at least be off the hook.

[00:18:23]Now, this is kind of a selfish plan, I guess, because everybody else is still screwed, but this is what they're going with. Now, Celeste believes the bond breaker is in one of the other rulers libraries. So, you have the island of Lightark, which I guess is the realm for the Sunlings. And then surrounding that, you have Moon Isle, Star Isle, um, Wild Isle, and they believe that the Bondreer is in one of the libraries on one of the surrounding aisles. Their plan for getting into the libraries is to break in using a special set of gloves that can kind of like take in power from other rulers and then give them access to the secret annexes of these libraries so that they can search for the bond breaker. I'm not really sure why you would put an object like that in a restricted section of a library. It seems like more of a thing you would put inside your personal vault, but whatever. Celeste's job is to get the gloves and somehow get the other rulers to unknowingly imbue it with their power. Isa's job will be to sneak inside the other realms libraries, which is trespassing. Isa's plan is to disguise herself so that she blends in with each realm she's breaking into. Um, it says her dark hair would be the first giveaway to her identity. I'm assuming this means that every other realm and every single realm bling has a specific hair color, I suppose. So, her and Celeste have to make hair dye and steal clothing so that she blends in so that she can break into the libraries and look for the bond breaker. After they go over this plan, we're met with Grimm's demonstration, which is in fact dueling each other.

[00:20:11]I hate all of this, by the way. We're told the king's sword, that's Oro, was made of solid gold. I have high doubts about that. Oro is going to fight Azul.

[00:20:23]Azul is the ruler of Skyling, and Oro defeats him within seconds.

[00:20:30]I just need to tell you that afterwards Cleo and Celeste face off. Celeste loses, but that is apparently a good thing because their plan is to perform adequ ad adequately. Relief washed over her. Celeste had lost, but that didn't matter. They both planned to perform adequately, not badly enough to be marked as weak, but not strong enough to be chosen as a partner. After this match, 20-year-old Isla, I'm going to refer to her as 20 years, 20 years old because that's all I could find online.

[00:21:00]She is paired up with 500year-old Grim, who has thousands of kills on his blade.

[00:21:04]And she, Yep, she beats him. She beats him. There is a very flimsy excuse or explanation we are given in book two as to why she beats him in book two. And and I I don't I'm not buying it personally. So, yeah. 20-year-old Isa beat 500year-old Grim, even though their plan was to perform adequately. After her duel, the Moonling ruler Cleo faces off against Oro. Oro wins in less than a minute. And then it's Aura and Isla.

[00:21:38]And Isla is going to win. And then she realizes, oh wait, I have to perform adequately.

[00:21:45]So she lets Oro win.

[00:21:51]Oro is also 500 years, by the way. 500 years old. We're given a point of he knew. Somehow he knew she had let him win. Ghag. I'm so sick of this. And then in the next chapter, I'm forced to read this. Four of them were terrifyingly old and skilled, alive when the curses were spun. The original heirs of the fallen rulers who had sacrificed themselves for the prophecy. Isa was no match against them no matter how long and hard she trained.

[00:22:21]I mean clearly not but okay sure. It is also in this chapter when Celeste tells her that the bridge to Moon Isle is constantly guarded and they have to figure out a way around this problem.

[00:22:35]Moving right along because I don't have patience. They're called together for some dinner. I don't know. And Isla realizes that this is probably another surprise demonstration designed by somebody. Um, we get this very cringy line from Grimm. He says, or this is what it reads, his dark eyes seemed to get even darker as they met hers. And he said, I'm not sure what I enjoy more, seeing the way you grip a sword or the way your dress grips you. [snorts] No.

[00:23:10]Like in the most disrespectful way possible. No. Turns out this is a demonstration and it's a demonstration of power, which is unfortunate for Isla because she has none. So she just does this thing where she throws some throwing stars. And apparently nobody finds this odd that she's the only ruler who chooses not to use her magic. And um Oro ends up winning this one because he turns an entire table gold. And apparently that is very impressive. Now after this, Isla needs to find information on how to break onto Moon Isle. How does she do this? We're given the like just the dumbest out of the out of the hat trick Alex Aster could pull because we're just told, well, Isa had watched countless insiders walk in and out of this bar too quickly to have had a good time without any drink in their hands. Some left without smelling of alcohol at all. So, she just kind of like staked out a random bar and was like, "Yeah, people get information from there." Then we meet the barkeep, Juniper, and he tells her that he trades in secrets. So, Isla has to give him one. And the one that she gives him is, "I let the king win versus me in the demonstration.

[00:24:24]I could have [clears throat] won, but I didn't." I don't know why this even qualifies as a good secret. Like, what good is that information? But anyway, then he tells her that there are no guards during the full moon when the moon curse is at its strongest. All moolings retreat to the safety of their castle. Then "Good. And when is the next full moon?" Juniper answered immediately as if he'd known that would be her next question. The 20th day of the centennial.

[00:24:53]Could you not have just like thought that through and determined for yourself that they couldn't be out there during a full moon? This seems like such a stupid waste. Like just use your brain. Moving right along. Um Isa manages to steal clothes to blend in with the other realmings. And then we are taken to Celeste's demonstration. She brings in a mirror. She tells them, "You have to touch it and face your fear." And um Isa takes the longest at six minutes to conquer her fear and make it back to the room. It it literally is just like you put your hand on the mirror and then you're taken into some sort of illusion and you have to conquer your fear. After Celeste's demonstration, you find out that um she used the mirror to collect the essence of all the other rulers and then imbued the gloves with them. So now they can access all the other rulers libraries. So Isla moves right along and decides to break into the sky isle library first. Now, she's supposed to find these secret sections of the library. They're all hidden, and she finds them all with literally no problem at all, ever. I mean, this this she sees like a skylight and and she's like, "Oh, maybe that's where it is." Hoping Celeste was right and Azul's essence was indeed imprinted on the fabric, she rolled them on, then pressed her gloved palm against the glass. It dropped open along with an elegant pair of metal stairs that unfolded before her eyes.

[00:26:23]Isa's grin was a primal thing. Pure satisfaction. She had uncovered a ruler's secret. She had figured it out alone. A powerless young ruler. It took her like two minutes to do this. By the way, the bond breaker isn't there, and she's met with disappointment. Also, she had to dye her hair to even pull this off. And I'm assuming it's just washable hair dye. and and she'll have to make another hair dye concoction when she goes to invade the Moon Isle Library.

[00:26:54]Isla's demonstration is next. So, the following day or several days later, she calls all the rulers together and they have to demonstrate something that their realm has created that would be beneficial to everybody. Um, Isa's is an elixir that heals wounds but doesn't take the pain away from the wounds. She literally holds her hand or her arm over an open fire and lets it burn for a couple moments and then heals it right up, but it still hurts afterwards.

[00:27:25]Also, she didn't win this demonstration.

[00:27:27]So, that's kind of funny. Azul won the demonstration with some air highway messaging system. I guess they thought, yeah, that would be great.

[00:27:38]I mean, portaling magic seems easy to come by, but whatever. Also, after after she burns her arm, she This is what it reads. She must have looked triumphant to the audience, pain-free. She was not not being able to take it any longer. Not without falling to her knees and breaking like an egg in front of them all. She removed her arm.

[00:28:02]Why the egg? But yeah, she heals her arm. It still hurts. Whatever. And then the next night, it is still hurt and she can't get her dress off. And then we have to read this. If you need help undressing, allow me to offer my services, hard eater. She jumped at the deep voice spinning around. Grim sat in a chair bathed in shadows nearly all the way hidden. He's just in her room, I guess. And this is not supposed to be the creepiest thing ever. Also, Grim's contri contribution to this um challenge that she put forth was nothing. He said, "We have nothing to offer anyone." and then he left. So Isla says, "You made a mockery of my demonstration, demon." I don't know. Is this supposed to be banter? It It's not I'm not enjoying it.

[00:28:52]He kind of gives her, and this is so out of pocket, he kind of gives her some backstory to before the curses were spun. And we read this, a reminder that if Nightshade slipped up, they could kill my father's only heir. I lived here for 20 years until until he didn't say the words. But Isla knew the next part well until the curses were cast in all the rulers of realm died in sacrifice on one horrific night.

[00:29:18]Until power was transferred to heirs for the last time. But that's not true because Isa is only 20 years old and and all like I don't understand how the whole thing with heirs works. They kind of part ways with this. So why are you here? She demanded. To get revenge? To try to invade Lightark again? Another thought formed in her mind, and she pald. To ensure the curses don't get broken. Grimm raised an eyebrow. Why are you here, hard eater? What are you after? This seems kind of stupid. Aren't they all here to break the curses? Why?

[00:29:52]Why are we talking like this? And the next day, we get Cleo's demonstration, which happens in the dead of night, and nobody is prepared for it. It is a test of desire. I don't even understand like what even happens in this demonstration.

[00:30:09]It's so badly described. Um, there had been no warming warning, no time to change. That was how Isla had ended up in the freezing snow globe that the stadium had been turned into in nothing but a tank top and tiny shorts.

[00:30:26]Sorry, isn't this fantasy? This demonstration is, I guess, happening in some sort of weird snow globe thing. A true ruler must deny the selfish wants of their heart for the good of their realm. You will be guided through the maze by your own heart. It will lead you to what you desire most. Um, so yeah, this maze is just this this sorry demonstration is just determined by who can finish the maze the fastest. I don't know. Oh, and just when you think Isla might struggle here because she's in a tank top and tiny shorts, don't worry.

[00:30:59][clears throat] But she had been tested in the elements before. Terra knew some of the trials might involve harsh weather conditions.

[00:31:06]When Isla was 17, she was left blindfolded in the middle of the woods during a hurricane. Do you see what I mean? How it's remarkable that she even survived her two idiotic guardians.

[00:31:17]Like, how is this not straight up a murder attempt? By the time she tore the fabric from her eyes, her guardians were long gone. The trees were bent in grotesque shapes from the wind. Dirt and leaves stuck to her skin, and bugs had already started gnawing at her ankles.

[00:31:32]Forests were deadly to those who couldn't control them. It was it was why the king's choice to venture into them was so shocking. It took her three days to get home. In that time, she drank spoiled water and sat shaking beneath a hastily made canopy of palm frrons, the fever in her head like a bell ringing over and over.

[00:31:51]Okay. So, I guess because of this one experience she had, this challenge is now supposed to be a breeze. Even though it seems like she didn't farewell the first time.

[00:32:03]I am not sure who even wins this challenge or if it's important. But Isla gets to the end, takes a warm bath, and she's like, "I'm going to break the curses, even if it means breaking myself." yada yada yada. She wakes up the next day feeling on the brink of death. you know how it goes.

[00:32:23]Um, and then she has to gather the wherewithal to break into the Moon Isle Library because it's a full moon and she's got to capitalize on the opportunity. She dyes her hair white and dresses in white clothing and crosses the bridge with no problem because the guards are inside because it's during a full moon. And then she is uh sticking to the shadows because obviously if she's caught out during a full moon, they're going to know right away that she is not in fact a moonling. She comes to a problem when she finds the castle sitting on a hill of white rock. Now, you may think that this is where she struggles or faces a challenge, but don't worry, she does not. The cliff was nearly flat, but there were pockets. She had been trained to see the tiniest of holes, the invisible recesses. Oh, what does that even mean, honestly? Uh, we continue on further. One of Terara's lessons, her guardians, had made her watch the monkeys that swept across the forest effortlessly, climbing trees with ease. They didn't plan out every movement. They swung knowing there would always be something for their arms or tail to latch onto. "Climb until your muscles learn the movements. Leave your mind out of it," Terara said. And Isa climbed the tree, the cliff, the wall again, again, again.

[00:33:39]This is so stupid. Oh, my bad. She watched the monkeys. Of course, she knows how to do this. Moving along, she makes it into the castle. She is seen.

[00:33:48]They chase her. She ends up hiding in a room and um the door to the room she was hiding in flies open. But don't worry, before they could even yell for help, she had hit them in six different places. Special points Terra taught her to target. I just think of the kung fu panda thing that Taiong does.

[00:34:09]Because that's that's what came to my mind. She is chased into a library and then the ocean made another move against the palace raging. She expected this close to the exterior to feel the hit in her bones. The sea colliding directly against the stone in front of her. But as she braced herself for the impact, the wave hit, and the rock in front of her did not shake nearly as much as it should have, which meant there was something else behind this wall.

[00:34:38]I mean, what I mean, call me dumb if you want, but that just seems dumb. And apparently, this is the secret nook to the library that she is found. Again, just happen stance. She slips the gloves on. She um goes into this secret annex.

[00:34:56]And then the guards are uh not within reach anymore. She's she's completely out of sight. She's in the secret library. Oh, yay. Goodie. The secret room of the library does not have the bond breaker. Isa portals out with her star stick. And um yeah, we're met with more disappointing failure. Oh no, where is the bond breaker? After she portals away, she takes two days to recover and she has strange dreams of Grimm. You will learn that she dreams a lot of Grimm. And yes, there is a reason, don't worry.

[00:35:28]Um, and then we kind of get to the halfway mark and the pairing of the teams. Why do they pair up into teams?

[00:35:38]Let me read the actual prophecy. Only joined can the curses be undone. Only after one of six has won. When the original fence has been committed again and a ruling line has come to an end, only then can history amend. And I guess they interpreted this as, "Oh, we must be joined. That's why we buddy up." And I'm sorry, but that just seems like the stupidest assumption you could come to.

[00:36:01]Like that's the conclusion you came to.

[00:36:03]The king makes the pairs. They are Grim and Azul, Cleo and Celeste, and then Isa and Oro. And Isa's like, "Oh my gosh, why would the king want me?"

[00:36:17]just just as it turns out the king wanted to be matched with Isla because he is trying to identify the heart of Lightark.

[00:36:29]That's his goal. So we have Celeste and Isla who are on a side plot and the king is also on a side plot. He believes that finding the heart may help them undo the curses. But um it's interesting because he's like, "Oh, there are ancient creatures on the island and they're mad because they were abandoned by the ruler of Wildling. So you can't use your magic, otherwise they might detect you and try to kill us." And I just think that is just the most convenient thing to throw in here to avoid Oro having to ask her why she can't use her freaking powers. They go off flying all over the place looking for the heart of Lightark.

[00:37:06]They have no idea what it looks like. He just assumes it's probably some sort of flower. It appears differently every 100 years, I guess. And um she's afraid whenever he has to pick her up and fly with her. I don't know why the king can fly. That seems really weird. Oh, yeah.

[00:37:22]Because he can access the other realms powers, but only the Moonling, Skyling, and Starling.

[00:37:29]I don't know why he can't access the Nightshade or the Wildling power. I think it's because their islands had been abandoned or something and nobody lives there now. I I I I don't [clears throat] know to be honest. When they are flying, we get this line. Oro left meanly, amused by her fear. Meanly.

[00:37:49]Why? Why are we using that word? Isla ends up filling Celeste in on what her and the king are doing just to keep her in the loop. And we spend kind of a lot of time of Oro and Isla looking for the heart. And in the meantime, the plan to find the bond breaker is kind of put on the back burner almost. At some point, Isla is kidnapped and there's like a bunch of moonlings who try to kill her.

[00:38:13]Uh, and it's very out of pocket. I don't know why this happens because apparently Cleo was not behind this. And I guess the people were just desperate and they're like, "Somebody needs to die and we've had four centennials of nobody dying and the curses aren't broken." So they just decided to take matters into their own hands. But Isa believes that Cleo had put them up to this and she ends up like murdering a couple of them. And this this chapter ends with when they were done. Isa looked down and smiled. Once she might have had the urge to vomit, but she had been on the island 40 days.

[00:38:48]In that time she had duled famed rulers, survived countless trials, swallowed down unspeakable pain, pulled barbs from her back with her bare hands. She stood straight and steady, remembering how the men had threatened her. And then she writes, "Try harder in blood." And Celeste had like aided her towards the end. So this was them doing it together.

[00:39:08]I just think it's funny how we're told like, "Well, she's been here for 40 days, so she's a different person now."

[00:39:14]After the assassination attempt, she marches into a Starling shop to buy another weapon. and Grim is there and they have this whole tit for tat about like why are you avoiding me but then also stay away from me consistently and and this whole thing is so odd. He's like we really should stay away from each other. He said that is why you didn't see me. So he had been avoiding her. Why? She asked though she could fill in a thousand answers. He shrugged his shoulder. I'm the famed nice shade ruler. Thousands of kills on my blade.

[00:39:52]Everyone hates me. No one trusts me for good reason. They shouldn't. You shouldn't. This is just like the most There's no depth to this at all. It's just it's so much telling and not showing. I hate it. Further into the conversation, we're like, this is this is what we read. What are the nightshade lands like? She asked, not really knowing why. Even with her star stick, she hadn't dared travel to their territory. Terra's warnings about them had kept her away. This is such a stupid thing to put it in here because we learn that the star stick can't reliably take her anywhere she has not seen before.

[00:40:31]So, with her star stick, whenever she uses it, I guess she just ends up wherever the heck she ends up. She has no clue where she's going to go. And so that's why it seems like her thinking, "Oh, this is why I've intentionally intentionally avoided the place." But it's like, "No, it doesn't seem like you have that power considering how your stupid star stick works." Afterwards, she goes and visit Wild Isle, which has basically been abandoned. She lives in the wildling Newland, but the Wild Isle is all dead and abandoned. The only thing of note here is the place of mirrors. And the place of mirrors is the only place on the island where all powers other than wildlings are repressed. This will become important for later. And I'm not even sure why it is that way. I guess that's that's just the way that it is. The place of mirrors. After visiting Wild Isle, she goes back to the agora and she runs into Grimm again.

[00:41:31]And um while they're just like talking, we get this. She crossed her arms, mouth already open in reply. When the sky cracked open like an egg, and a rainstorm ensues, and everyone started scrambling. I'm pretty sure this storm only happens so that her and Grim can flee to some building and just have a weird moment.

[00:41:57]But this this part is also funny. What was she doing? She had always thought of herself above such desires, stronger than her mother, more focused. Grim had told her she couldn't trust him. He had proven it time and time again. I love this line because it is backed by absolutely zero evidence.

[00:42:14]Grim literally gave her a clue as to what his demonstration was going to be so that she could be prepared.

[00:42:20]But yeah, he's been proven to be untrustworthy.

[00:42:25]Literally never. I don't know why this line is in here. I hate it. It doesn't make any sense. After this weird moment, they get back to the castle, part ways, and then we go on another excursion with Oro and Isla. Oro thinks he has a lead, but in order to get the information that he wants, he has to promise a spectre that the spectre can possess the most beautiful girl on the island.

[00:42:51]So, he brings Isa because of course, Isa is the most beautiful girl on the island. Also, afterwards, after it possesses Isa for a few moments, it steps out and it's like barely helpful.

[00:43:04]It goes, "What you seek is not on Star Isle. Not this time." A warning, King.

[00:43:09]The underbelly of the island is rising up. Darkness at is at work. We feel it.

[00:43:15]Feel what? Isa asked. Dread. And then the spectre disappears. So, I guess the only clue it gave them is that it is not on Star Isle. Now, in exchange for offering her body up to this the spectre, she wants Oro to allow her into his library so that she can break into the secret section in search for the bond breaker. He denies the request. And I think this is hilarious because she goes, "Of course, he would have a spectre use her body for his own purposes, yet deny her a simple request." Which is hilarious because um the reason for her request is deceptive.

[00:43:54]She tells him that she just wants to like look at books or some some other BS. And it's like um no, you want to break into his secret section to look for an ancient relic so that you can get yourself out of the curses and not have to worry about anybody else. She ends up just telling him, "I'm going to go to your library anyway." And he just doesn't stop her. So then she goes in and you know, it takes her two seconds.

[00:44:20]Of course, at the very end of the hall sat a hearth big enough to swallow her whole. The flames inside crackled almost like a beckoning. She stopped in front of it. The skyling hidden section had been at the very top of the tower. High in the sky, the moonling one had been engulfed in water. Perhaps Sunling's secret was hidden in flames. And of course, as she touches it, or she actually just kind of like walks through the fire and presses her hand to the stone wall and it opens up and there's the secret section. And the third one she has found in no time at all because Isla Crown is just the best. She is just so good. So she leaves that one empty-handed. They have no clue where the bond breaker is at this point and no backup plan. So they might be screwed. She has another runin with Grimm and this weird passage where he smelled like stone and storms and something spiced like cinnamon. I mean, okay, that doesn't really sound appealing, but okay. We have this very drawn out scene between them and she is like I don't know feeling things for Grim and I can [snorts] only assume that's because of their history. I don't know it's um it's still cringey. I hate Grim so much.

[00:45:36]I think he's just he's just a very basic character archetype and not really a character with any depth. And then next we have this scene where the island is starts to crumble and uh people kind of die because thick slabs of marble are raining down. There's debris. So uh lightark doesn't have a lot of time left. And basically we are told that or rather led to believe that if they do not break the curses this centennial, lightark is probably going to fall and then they're likely all going to die. We cut back to Oro and Isla once again traversing the islands at night looking for the heart of Lightark. Oro grins meanly at her again. And then they have a runin with these very strange like I don't even know what to call them.

[00:46:27]They're like this tribe that lives out in the wild and somehow don't belong to any realm faction or whatever. These people make a deal with the duo that they will give them a clue as to where the heart is, but in exchange they want Isla to visit them in the future.

[00:46:48]Oh, okay. Sure. Um, and they tell them the heart blooms somewhere new every time. I have seen it. I know not where it is now, but it seems to always choose a place where darkness meets light.

[00:47:01]Again, this this hardly seems help like in this scuffle, Oro was injured and Isla has to drag him into a cave before the sun rises, otherwise he will die in some form or another. She ends up staying with Oro the entire day until he can leave the cave. They have a very long conversation.

[00:47:22]They, you know, talk about who might win. Oro says he he wants to let her win because I guess there's a winner. like whoever breaks the curses gets a bunch of power, I guess. I'm not really sure how that works. They end up traveling to Moon Isle next. I think it's like a couple days later. Um, and then this is so confusing, this line. In the middle of the silence, a dark blue birdlike ocean made into wings landed on her shoulder and screeched right into her ear.

[00:47:56]I mean, okay. So, I guess there's this really annoying bird on Moon Isle, and it pops up a couple different times. If it didn't, I probably wouldn't even bother mentioning the thing, but it is important at the end. On Moon Isle, they end up visiting this oracle who freezes and unfreezes, I guess, whenever she needs to say something important. Um, but really the only thing she offers is that it's closer than you know. I believe they determine through this or maybe she just says, "Oh, yes, she does." She tells them that the heart of Lightark is somewhere on Moon Isle. After this visit with the Oracle, she uh returns back to her room on Lightark. She draws a puddle with her star stick so that she can glance in on her realm and she sees that a lot of her people are dying and she feels guilty because she doesn't have any power and can't renew the land and whatever. And in a moment of weakness, Oro finds her and she ends up telling him that she has never had any power, nor has she ever used any power. This leads to the next event of Oro calling all the rulers together and announces that there's going to be a change in teams and he then pairs himself up with Cleo and he pairs Grim up with Isla and this is for the purpose.

[00:49:19]He he literally tells them all that this is because Isla has no power. And then they all kind of look at her and Grim grabs hold of her and portals her away.

[00:49:29]And that's when she finds out that Grim knew the entire time that she never had any power, which is also alluding to the fact that they knew each other prior to the events that are happening now. She kind of sulks for a bit at the fact that Oro betrayed her. Um, eventually gives herself a pep talk and decides she's going to just find the heart of Lightark herself. She has more dreams about Grim, of course. I'm sure those are important.

[00:49:54]Um, oh, we get this lovely descriptor.

[00:49:57]The island was a pastry crumbling into the sea day by day. But at dusk it was pretty. The sun was a running yolk, smearing gold and orange and red across the sky as if desperate to leave its mark. Why? Why with the yolk? But back to the matter at hand. Isa breaks onto the moon aisle or travels there. I don't know. Maybe she just crosses the bridge.

[00:50:19]Cleo finds her. They have a little whatever tit for tat. She ends up freezing Isla and tells her that, you know, she doesn't care if she dies, I guess. Cleo later claims that this wasn't meant to kill her, but I have doubts. And uh yeah, she's left in a block of ice, slowly freezing to death.

[00:50:41]She is broken out of the ice by a group.

[00:50:45]I I think it's like those strange little abandoned I don't even know what to call them. She refers to them as cannibals, which I believe that is accurate because I think they do kill people. So, I guess the cannibals break her out of the ice and then there's a fire attack on them, which can only be Oro, obviously. And then she wakes up in her bed and we find out that the only reason Oro betrayed her was so that he can uh realistically pair himself up with Cleo without having anyone question the decision so that he could gain access to one of the places on her aisle, which previously he would not have been able to do without her.

[00:51:23]Isa then comes to the conclusion that Cleo must have spun the curses because of how evil she seems and cruel, which honestly maybe not a bad assumption except that she had no proof. But she tells Celeste anyway that Cleo must have been the one to spin the curses. A little while later, uh, Celeste is attacked, but not killed. She's in a suspended comeomaosse state and this kind of just renews Isla's need to find the heart of lightark since the bond breaker was probably a dead end. Um, so Oro takes her to this place where they have to dive down into water. And it's interesting because uh she kind of strips down until she is wearing a tiny tank top that reached just above her navl and a pair of high-waisted tight shorts that ended high on her thigh. She wasn't in her underwear, but only wearing scraps of fabric she felt bare in front of him. I mean, if you think that's bad, let me just read this next part about Oro.

[00:52:29]She heard him slip off his pants, then socks, then shoes.

[00:52:35]And I have questions. Apparently, Oro is a magician.

[00:52:42]Uh yeah, we're also told that she has a dagger in the middle, like tucked in the middle of her chest in the wiring of her bra. So, we have wired bras and tank tops and tiny shorts in a fantasy book.

[00:52:56]Somewhere along the way, you find out that the cannibals used to be wildlings who renounced their power and weren't affected by the curses because of it.

[00:53:06]So, there's that. And I guess they're extremely extremely bitter. Also, I feel the need to insert that on the Wild Isle there is also this vault that Isa has been trying to open and can't get it open. And the way that she gets it open is kind of strange, but she gets it open at the very end, and we will come to that later. Her and Oro continue looking for the heart of lightark. They encounter that stupid bird again and she says, "Make another sound in your stew," she said meanly. "Can we please delete the word from the vocabulary?" She ends up visiting um Celeste at some point and we get this kind of Harry Potter moment where she finds Celeste clutching a ring that belonged to Azul. And that's when she realizes that it was Azul who tried to kill Celeste. I'm not really sure why she's surprised. This is the whole premise of the centennial. One of the rulers has to die. And I mean, she knows all of them.

[00:54:08]Obviously, it's going to be somebody, you know, or someone you didn't expect to want to kill somebody else. I I mean, after she finds out Azul was the one who poisoned Celeste, we get this very strange encounter with Grimm where he comes and just confesses how much he loves her and how much he thinks about her. And then they have this uh kind of make out scene that honestly doesn't feel appropriate for a YA book. And you know, I have a little bit of a problem with that. Afterwards, you know, she sleeps a lot. She dreams of Grim.

[00:54:42][snorts] I think she makes a note of how it familiar it is to like be with Grim and which is just another clue. And then at some point she has an epiphany about this really stupid bird and she tells Oro, I know where the heart is. So what do they do? They go back to the moon aisle and they wait for I think it's dawn. They wait for dawn.

[00:55:07]They camp out during the night and they wait for dawn. While they were waiting for dawn to come, Oro asks Isla to sing Prim because she's just got the specialist, most beautiful voice. And then this happens. In the rising light, she squinted right below the nest.

[00:55:22]Something was floating in the air, untethered to gravity. "Yes, they followed the stupid bird to its nest."

[00:55:28]And and this is what we get. "Is that an egg?" she asked. Just as the words left her mouth, the egg fell slowly. Too slowly it plunged the ground and cracked open. From its shell emerged a shining golden yolk.

[00:55:43]It rose from the ground in tandem with the sun rising from the horizon just across the cliff. The full egg represented the moon, she said, her voice from singing. The yolk is the sun.

[00:55:56]How many times had she thought the full moon looked like an egg? That the sun looked yokey. She turned to Oro, eyes wide. That's it, she said. That's the heart.

[00:56:09]The heart of Lightark is an egg.

[00:56:13]I can't even fully explain how stupid this is. I hate this so much. Like, that is what you came up with. An egg.

[00:56:25]That's the heart of Lighark. An egg. Are you Are we being serious right now? Oro tells her to go claim the heart of Lightark. I'm not even sure what part of the prophecy is in is is like leads them to doing this, but she goes and she grabs it and then an arrow strikes her through the heart and Oro is left in the dark of the cave because now it's sunlight and he can't reach her as she is dying. She blacks out. She wakes up. Grim is there. Um the arrow is gone. She's fully healed. She's like, "How am I okay?" He's like, "I don't know. Must have been the heart. It probably recognized you or something.

[00:57:03]And then Grim also tells her that in the back of this shop, he found this rare healing elixir and he gave it to Celeste to wake her up. So then Isla runs to greet Celeste. Momentarily, she is very happy until she meets up with Oro later.

[00:57:22]They're so happy that Isla is still alive, but then he tells her that it's been decided that Nightshade should be the realm to die. And Isla is now torn because she had kind of struck up this romance with Grimm and she does not want Grimm to be the one to die. She wants it to be the Moonlings, I believe. I am just going to summarize the ending events of this book. We find out um that Celeste is actually not Celeste. She is Aurora. Aurora, an ancient being who was there when the curses were spun. And it turns out she was the one to spin them.

[00:57:57]She's disguised herself every so often so that people will think that she's a new ruler. And um this has kind of been the driving plot of the book, I guess.

[00:58:07]We find out that Aurora somehow convinced Grim that the original offense that led up to the curses being spun was a wildling loving the the king of lightark. So Grim was convinced to take the memories from Isla. all the memories of her and Grim because they had a relationship for a year. It was up to a year prior to the events of Lightark. In light of this information, Isla gets angry at Grim. Uh we get into a scuffle.

[00:58:43]Uh, she ends up fighting Aurora and Aurora at at some point came across the bond breaker and we actually find that it is a bond maker and she used it on Isla which like transferred Isla's powers to her but then Isla got it and stabbed Aurora with it so that Aurora's powers transferred to her and then at some point Aurora is killed and Isla because she took all of Aurora's powers is now the ruler of Wildling and Starling. And because of this technicality, the Starling people don't die with Aurora. They are kept alive and Aurora is dead. And Isla is the ruler of two different realms. Also, at the end, you find out that Isa's parents were killed by Poppy and Terara. And I can't even remember why. I'm sure it was a dumb reason, but this is just another point of like, so why was the parameter of the curse mentioned that a wildling has to kill the person they love, but then it's not that doesn't happen. Um, yeah. Oh, and also Aurora dies by like falling into this crevice. And Isla falls with her, but is saved when Oro uses Isla's power to uh grab her with a vine and pull her back up, which is then some big reveal about how, oh, Oro loves Isla or Isa loves Oro, so Oro can now access her magic. Oh, and another point of fact is that Isla could actually use her magic the whole time. She just didn't know how to. And I Yep. Along with her also always having had her power, apparently she does not only have wildling magic and starling magic, she can also use nightshade power because her father was a nightshade. How this works, I don't know. We were told that if two rule realm llings got together, their offspring would only be granted one magic power, but that does not apply to Isla. And the very, very last bit of this book is Isla going to the vault in the place of mirrors. She finally realizes that it's her crown that goes into the hole and then it opens the vaults. And I just I I have a lot of trouble picturing what this vault key looks like or this vault lock. It's very strange. So yeah, there it is.

[01:01:16]Lightark. Um, what do I rate it? One star because I have no clue what the heck was even that. I mean, we get just it's just so surface level writing like the skyling, moonling, sunling. Are are are we serious right now? Not to mention the very just bad pros that is all throughout this insufferable book. On top of that, most of the characters are not even likable. There is almost zero depth to most of them or all of them.

[01:01:47]Oro is like the only one I remotely cared about. He's the only one that I felt like had any development at all.

[01:01:53]Isa feels very just like a Mary Sue. She can just do anything at any point in time. She's so good. She can fight well.

[01:02:01]She can beat 500y old warriors. She can sing perfectly. She's the most beautiful girl on the island. She can climb castle walls and cliffsides and make it into hidden sections of any library. I mean, oh my gosh, does she have any flaws at all? Oh my. I just I can't take it. And I will be uploading a video of Nightbane next. I've already read that one.

[01:02:25]It's just as bad, by the way. It might even be worse. I don't know. I've been told Sky Shade is the worst one of all.

[01:02:31]I don't know how that's even possible, but I guess I'm going to find out.

[01:02:35]Thank you for watching. I will be back.

[01:02:39]I am just hate reading all of this right now. That's what I'm doing. Hate reading. We hate read. I'm sorry. I am a hate reader, I guess. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone likes this book. And that is probably the most frustrating thing of all because like what what are the redeeming qualities here? the immersive storytelling, the so cleverly and intricate world building. I I mean, what what is it? Is it the basic one-dimensional just villain dark shadow man grim who we're just constantly told is bad and dangerous, but we never actually see an example of that. The fact that people love the lightark series is honestly so disheartening. Are like these are the standards. These are the standards.

[01:03:29]How low is the bar? I guess those are my closing thoughts. I will never understand it. I I won't understand it.

[01:03:37]I'm still going to read it so that I can have an opinion on it, but I don't get it. Just me personally, I don't get it.

[01:03:45]Anyway, that's all.