TikTok's LightLark: The Worst YA Book Ever (And Here's Why)

[@Crowcaller]

"You pronounced Isla wrong: it's Eye-lah, not Iss-lah!" I know this. I can't go back and change the video though... Basically: I did not know Isla was a real name, but I DID know it was Spanish for island. When I looked up pronunciation, I got 'isslah' as the correct pronunciation - for island. Her name is meant to indeed be 'island', mind, aster has pointed it out in interviews (Isla the name comes from the route of Isabella, they're not related words!) But in interviews and audiobook indeed, apparently it is pronounced Eye-lah. I didn't realise this and assumed my island version was correct. Plus, in book Isla remarks on the pronunciation of her name- noting grim says it correctly 'with all the letters' and 'hissing the s'. Not exact quotes but about. So to me, that sounded like Isssslah (all letters, strong s), not Eyes-lah (weak s, less clear each letter). So that's how it happened. It is ice-lah, both the fact it's a normal name and what the author uses, but I very much thought I was correct and wasn't crazy for thinking it was Isss-lah I am very sorry though, Islas of the world. I still internally call her Iss-lah....

[@vanyavanilla7108]

At least Eye-lah is still better than how Oro is supposed to be pronounced. I was under the assumption that it was “Or-o” not “Ah-ro” it sounds unnatural to me.

[@Misa.misato]

Yeah, the assumption is understandable. That’s how I was pronouncing it in my head too because almost all of the names are words in Spanish that are in one way or another thematically related to the characters. As someone who is fluent in that language I thought the names were meant to be pronounced like you would say it in Spanish for that reason.

[@FlowerSong606]

people and their made up pronunciations of words are not really your problem though 🤣🤣

[@TheAquamarine4]

@@vanyavanilla7108 WHAT?? That’s not how oro is pronounced when you attach it to its spanish pronunciation??? Lmaoooo

[@vanyavanilla7108]

@@TheAquamarine4 that’s how it is in audio book.

[@Pharm2be]

Making your main character part of a people who have to eat hearts and then her not needing to eat hearts is such a cop out

[@KaliqueClawthorne]

Yeah - at least make her eat animal hearts of something to at least let it look like she has to.

[@niyl2188]

Absolutely. It also bugs me a bit that she acts like eating hearts is disgusting. Isn't she supposed to be from a culture where everyone eats human hearts? Makes no sense that she has the same disgusts an average not even edgy American teen would.

[@espinita.]

IT COULD HAVE BEEN SUCH A GOOD PLOT POINT Imagine if she had the urge but has to fight it

[@Saphia_]

@@espinita. Ohhh.. that'd be good. Especially if she has to fight it because since she doesn't have the curse (you know, powers cancelled out, curse cancelled out), her body cannot digest the human hearts/ or she is allergic to human hearts.

[@Valerie-wh4qz]

I don't have an opinion on this book, but this is my dog's favorite video. We place a laptop in front of her pen when we're leaving the house for a few hours and just let it play. She's an anxious dog, but not when she's watching "TikTok's LightLark: The Worst YA Book Ever and Here's Why." When she's watching "TikTok's LightLark: The Worst YA Book Ever and Here's Why" she is calm and serene.

[@Crowcaller]

Thank you for my fav comment ever I should print this out and frame it thank you I love your dog

[@applesandgrapesfordinner4626]

Good gods, you had to repeat the whole title just like that?

[@CommanderDarcy]

​@@applesandgrapesfordinner4626 it was absolutely necessary

[@xxxxx-iu4fw]

@@applesandgrapesfordinner4626 of course! How else would we know that their dog was watching the video “TikTok’s LightLark: The Worst YA Book Ever (And Here’s Why)” by the KZbinr Crow Caller?

[@_straubry]

awww

[@billvolk4236]

"Azul is a gay man who can't fly." I didn't think I would care about any of these characters, but god dammit, I'm rooting for this groundbound homosexual with all my heart.

[@Crowcaller]

He's also specifically a SAD flightless gay man

[@billvolk4236]

@@Crowcaller Would you say he's feeling a little... blue?

[@aspennntree]

i do not care one bit about any of these characters but this sad groundbound homosexual book about him when

[@shockwavecg]

It has the same insult energy as, "you're a virgin who can't drive."

[@TheLucylola]

@@billvolk4236whats the use of feeling blue?

[@aquilaorion3531]

i like that isla is allowed to wear other colors because “nature is many colors” as if the sky isn’t also many colors

[@Crowcaller]

The colours are so weird. Consider the pallette: black, white, silver, gold..... All similar tones of shades and metal tones. Then LIGHT BLUE. Not just blue. Only light blue. And then wildlings get everything else?? Like if skylings were blue and wildlings were green you could at least claim each realms colour scheme is paired up. (Shades, metals, naturals).

[@merrittanimation7721]

It's like the author watched something like ATLA and went "But why does each element culture only wear one color?" and made an unnecessarily complicated reason for it, and not just in-universe cultural norms and out of universe visual short hand.

[@joyc.e.7511]

@@merrittanimation7721 I don't think the author has even a vague grasp of how culture functions in a society. If the way her world operates is any indication.

[@pennyw2226]

d.do you like the color of the sky though

[@aquabluerose7734]

@@TuesdaysArt that's popped up like 5 times for me lmao

[@cormackbaldwin8691]

New theory re: the demonstrations (and Isla in general): Everything around her makes perfect sense, Isla just doesn't know the words for things. Azul's sword isn't bejeweled, he has a bejeweled scabbard and there's a completely normal sword inside. Oro has gilded armor and she has never heard of gilding. Grim just has an actual club and she's just like "wow that is a FAT sword."

[@Yoho4867]

I cannot get over the idea of someone mistaking a club for a sword that is too funny

[@rachelppython]

​@@Yoho4867same that's hilarious 😂😂

[@cinnapurrin]

i love this

[@mafaldaviana9060]

Her retainers were so focused on hanging her from cliffs and yeeting her into hurricanes that they forgot to teach basic vocabulary. Isla probably has the reading skills of a middle-schooler.

[@Jaddeel]

​@raytheoverlord9330 Have you ever heard of the Epic Battle Fantasy series (of games, I apologize)? All of Matt's weapons are 'swords', even the Sol Spear, Magma Hammer, Gash Club, and the UltraPro 9000 hockey stick. It works because Matt's doofy enough to actually conflate them all regardless of if it's intentional or not. This also goes for Natalie (pure mage) using various objects as 'staves' and Anna (forest girl who grew up in a hollowed out tree) considering harps to be wierd bows. The throughline is they either don't know or don't care and are -not- grandmasters in every martial arts and every style of weapon they could get their grabby hands on.

[@namechangermcgee]

the fact that even the character names are surface-level 😭 - isla, azul, and oro just mean island, blue, and gold in spanish - grim is the spooky guy, what's spookier than the grim reaper? - ruler of the star people? celeste/aurora. - the name cleo is less obviously water or moon-related so it can stay, but it just sounds so out of place in a fantasy story. it's like having a queen named tiffany - it's an old name that sounds super modern. - what made me laugh really hard is that fact that the maid's name is ella, because i'm pretty sure the author drew from the meaning "fairy maiden" that baby name sites give you... but it also just means she/her in spanish. my name is island dark'ness dementia raven crown and this is my maid, Pronouns

[@TuesdaysArt]

Ella also gives me Cinderella vibes but "Pronouns" is objectively funnier

[@Crowcaller]

Yeah it's like pick a theme. Celeste can mean light blue in Spanish apparently too. So why all these colour names but for half your tiny cast?? Why some Spanish but others not? Pick a theme And yeah, Cleo feels like... So out of place as just a normal name for the mean girl

[@FunnyFany]

My Little Pony naming convention.

[@emackenzie]

I don't know if it's related but-"Cleo" is the name of one of the main characters of H2O, and she happens to be a mermaid who got her powers from the full moon. I like to imagine that was her inspiration as that would be the cherry on top of your comment. (Also, one could argue "Ella" was from _Cinderella,_ an Iconic Maid)

[@soph996]

Lmao I hope the Tiffany remark was indeed intended as a reference to CGP Grey and not just me projecting

[@rominesque2921]

"A broadsword thicker than her thigh" That thing was too big to be called a sword. Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough, it was more like a slab of raw iron

[@Crowcaller]

Watch out!! It's grim with the FRICKIN STEEL GIRDER!

[@hambor12]

It would be a literal steel girder because the dragonslayer is far too cool for this canon

[@Thenoobestgirl]

😂

[@pennyw2226]

oh no watch out they have * looks at smudged writing on hand * ...a really long anvil with a handle?

[@ejedwards988]

War bat!

[@AxisMundi120]

If the TikTok app became sentient and wrote a book, this would probably be the book it would write.

[@Crowcaller]

This is basically what happened yeah

[@mochaleeseo]

this of the acotar series 😂

[@ratacus]

"Skylings' power is that they can fly. You know what their curse is? They can't fly" The delivery on that line was perfection. I cannot wait to see what becomes of this catastrophe of a book lmao

[@TuesdaysArt]

Having the opposite where the skylings constantly need to fly (being still in the air doesn't count, no breaks, etc.) or they'll die would make their situation more dire. Idk if that's the best logistically bc idk how a society would survive like that, but at least it's not "You're just a normal human being, isn't that terrible?"

[@dracocrusher]

Better idea. They can fly... but maybe if the winds change then they lose that ability until they shift again, right? Something that's hard to really predict. So you CAN fly to get over this cliff, but also don't rely on it too much or you'll just plummet and die. Or, better idea, they can fly, but maybe doing so weakens their physical bodies until they can't move on the ground, so you could have some sort of divide between the Skylings that spend all their time in the air and the ones who rarely use their gift because they're afraid of the risks involved. And you could have actual interesting stories or dynamics with characters trying to recuperate to build back their muscle mass or something to re-adjust to grounded life.

[@iconicweirdguy8678]

I'm pretty sure that there's a race in D&D that's like that

[@dracocrusher]

@@iconicweirdguy8678 ... Kenku...??? Plays Kenku -> Is a bird --> Cannot fly ---> Also has to mimic every sound they hear and can't talk normally without mimicking existing words ----> Somehow becomes the most endearing race in the game

[@KnucklesxReala911]

@@dracocrusher the first option sounds like they would be only allowed to glide then, still better than what the author used anyways I feel it could also be like a Icarus type of deal maybe? That they can fly, but the longer they do so, the more addictive and risk taking they get? Now that would be a wicked curse onto it

[@A.DeRial]

“The island was a pastry, crumbling into the sea.” I kind of understand the imagery she was trying to convey but all I ended up imagining was a croissant dipped in water😭

[@CatCheshire]

All I saw was a soggy piece of cake... T-T

[@Air_Serpent]

I just saw a cookie crumbling inside a cup of milk

[@bird6708]

💀

[@user-burner]

Mine went instantly to the far better toppling baked good imagery in han tyumi and the mirder of the universe

[@AnkhAnanku]

Unironically I am here for 4 hours of Cruella De’Vil’s nerdy but well-adjusted little sister talking about a book I didn’t read. May you attain the respect of the next Jenny Nicholson /gen

[@Crowcaller]

Joking tone: I can't believe I'm being roasted here...........cruella...... Really though thank you, sincerely! I love Jenny Nicolson. I wasn't sure anyone would watch a long video with almost no editing and no graphics but they have! Jenny is an icon there, she's my fav video essay ish person out there by far. She has way more clips/images but still mostly just talks without anything fancy and I so admire that

[@safala]

Oh yeah, Crow does give a bit of a Jenny vibe. I am a bit more than halfway though and I'm enjoying every second of it.

[@AidenFeltkamp]

“Cruella De’Vil’s nerdy but well-adjusted little sister” is perfect 😂 Crow Caller’s aesthetic is well defined and so good

[@IsaacMayerCreativeWorks]

@@CrowcallerI could tell you really liked Jenny Nicholson as soon as you mentioned THIRTY DOLLAR PLASTIC WANDS :)

[@finnascrem4088]

​@@Crowcallerhonestly the appeal is listening to it like a pod cast! And you have the same appeal. It's long and slow so I can listen while working easily

[@charmycharmcharms698]

What kind of sucks about Lightlark is that it sounds like an endearing passion project that a fledgling child or teen writer would create at the very beginning of their career after falling in love with their first batch of YA books, that after a period of polishing their craft, that now experienced writer would look back on and both cringe and smile at as they reflect on how far they've come. But it was thrust into the spotlight too soon under a pretense of false promises and too derivative of mainstream YA trends. Thanks for the excellent review!

[@Crowcaller]

Too soon is a weird phrase here. I totally agree with you, but the backstory we have is both what you're saying and not. Definitely DEFINITELY this was a teen passion project by Alex Aster, probably her first full book. I still love my first full novel too, tho it was never published. I think the issue is more she has stayed attached for a decade and not done much to it since. I don't fully agree with the writing phrase of "kill your darlings", but especially with Baby's First Novel you need to lose some sentimentality when editing and I don't think she ever did. Especially considering her story of basically losing her agent BECAUSE of Lightlark and her insistence on it. We don't have the full story but that sounds a lot like her agent gave her feedback she didn't like and didn't agree it was a good book as it was and Alex got upset. Certainly her attachment to this book over ten years shows a certain stubbornness, and when it went viral, it was probably harder to argue with her that it needed serious edits and revision! It's like, umm, 100s of 1000s of tiktokkers like it, so why should I listen to one old editor? I did this myself and was proven right. Obviously speculating a lot. I don't know Alex Aster. I don't want to assume her or direct any direct ill will her way. But that's my take

[@charmycharmcharms698]

@@Crowcaller Yeah- I feel like no one online should or can ever have the full picture of what exactly happened during the creation process of Lightlark, and you put the vibes I got from Lightlark into better words than I did, By “too soon” I meant that it wasn’t ready for publishing and it gained fame too soon, because it lacked polish and even continuity and sense in some parts. Of course there’s only so much editing and polishing can do and the perfect novel doesn’t exist. But it was potentially her attachment to the book for a decade that prevented her from improving on it before publishing, and yeah, her fame definitely stopped her from maybe being more willing to take criticism. It’s kind of a shame.

[@billyalarie929]

I’ve been attached to my concept for almost 20 years, BUT ALSO, I’ve grown with it and I’ve changed a lot about it. In fact I gave a better understanding of the core of my story than ever before, and I’m glad I didn’t try to publish it then, when I was 19, bc it would’ve ultimately been the product of a bunch of stolen active verbal phrases and garbage tropes that proved to be a flash in the pan and all the rest. Oh, and I also don’t come from money, and (not for nothing) I’m also disabled, including cognitive issues. Which is part of why it’s taken me this long (persistent and severe depression also have a lot to do with it). But yeah this is just a product of someone………… to quite an extreme, not killing their darlings.

[@inkblotch6152]

@@billyalarie929 same here I was doing some outlining on my story as I was listening

[@TheAdarkerglow]

Interesting choice of words, "Thurst into the spotlight". Usually, it implies that it happened beyond someone's control, when it was very much Alex Aster who did the thrusting. She wanted that spotlight, she got it, it's her own fault for not being more thorough.

[@the_last_ballad]

Isla: Trained to be a warrior: has never had an actual battle against powered humans(there's constant thieves invading their island, but they never considered capturing a few and going "if you can defeat her, you can leave the island alive") Trained to be a courtier: kept insolated and had very little social exposure, to the point she never had a friend till she started sneaking out Trained to be a seductress: never been alone with a man, completely inexperienced in romance and seduction(again, until she snuck out) It's a good thing they're revealed to be betrayers, because they spent more time abusing her, in ways that would do far more harm than help train her, than actually preparing her for the task they were setting her.

[@buchstaben-suppe]

the seductress thing is so fucking weird to me, how can you possibly be trained in that when you had no contact to the outer world? why would she need to be trained in that? what did the training involve? why make it a thing from a writers perspective- did it give her character? struggles? personality?!? it just makes me hate the book even more cause you’re just supposed to go like oooh she’s hot

[@caileyrookids]

@@buchstaben-suppe This reminds me of an actually really good series. I can't remember the name of the series itself, but look into Etiquette And Espionage (the first book). It's a steampunk setting, with the main character going to a school that trains female spies/assassins/etc. There's also a romance aspect, and vampires and werewolves. Everyone I know loved the way it was written and the little details the author included about the world.

[@deen7530]

Poppy and Terra are my least favorite characters for that reason. Everything they set out to do with Isla, they failed miserably at. They are horribly abusive and they never really get called out for it. They have no redeeming qualities and nothing to make them good characters. They just straight up suck.

[@arieldee2665]

The heart eating thing could possibly work if she had went the route that the Wildlings needed to kill those whom they love romantically and eat their hearts. It would not only fix the whole "there aren't enough hearts to feed all these people" problem while also giving more of a reason for Grim's decision to memory wipe Isla.

[@safala]

THIS!

[@joyc.e.7511]

Ooh, it neatly combines the two curses into one more comprehensive and doubly painful! It seems really obvious, now that you mention it.

[@merrittanimation7721]

It'd go from "I don't respect your independence so I'm going to mind wipe you" to "I like you but I think you're going to eat my organs so it's probably best we try to avoid each other by any means possible." It's not amazing but it's better than what we have.

[@Pandachu123]

Wildlings eating hearts reminds me of the game Pandora's Tower. Or the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. 😅

[@lydias376]

Don't they already kill the ones they love or did I misunderstand that? Do they kill they person their in love with or just go crazy?

[@Glampyra]

The whole "dark shoulders, Pink lips" thing made me think of those racist depictions of black people where they had bright red/pink lips and black skin. I'm absolutely sure the author didn't mean it like that but you gotta give your characters more detail than just the bare minimum

[@cat.a.lacking]

That’s EXACTLY what I thought, I agree it wasn’t intentional but man that felt uncomfortable

[@AK-rx8gp]

"dark shoulders" is so weird, it sounds like it's implying the rest of his skin isn't dark ?? Why'd she write it like that

[@applesandgrapesfordinner4626]

At the least, just say his complexion was dark or something

[@nerdyespurr]

The pink lips is very yikes

[@ridinwithjake]

Sounds like you’re the one with the problem here if that’s where your mind went. Work on yourself.

[@allie6160]

I think you put more thought into this review than the author of Lightlark put into the book

[@Crowcaller]

I agree ahahaha.......! I consider myself the top expert. I keep answering lore questions for other people that I think the author couldn't

[@HayleighPaige]

I think she wrote the book in the short space of time between when the book trailer blew up and the week before it was released - seems like she had the ideas for a while but had to scramble to actually deliver the product she said she had 😬

[@pauline1809]

so tru

[@yvechapman9342]

Pretty sure Crow Caller spent more time filming this than the author did writing.

[@DNFX4]

one day she's going to be forced to transmigrate into her book to fix the plot holes.

[@lindseyb2777]

I was literally expecting the teacup secret reveal to be “I…am…GAY!!!” and somehow “dying” is worse

[@Crowcaller]

Being gay is only for minor characters, don't be silly. Oro is too important.

[@braija]

I am dying, wow. What a friggin secret, never happened to anyone else.

[@luise.j]

lol that would have actually been so funny. Just imagine them making an elaborate plan of how to get to his powers through seduction and literally raising a woman for the explicit purpose of doing so, only for him to be gay. Like, their entire plan falling apart because they never stopped to consider that he might not be interested in women 😂

[@TuesdaysArt]

@@braija Aren't we all slowly dying?

[@littlewyzard]

literally same lmao

[@wattthefaqameye1146]

Having clan categories like sunling, starling, skyling, moonling, nightshade and then wildling is like having an elemental magic system with fire magic smoke magic, lava magic, ember magic, lightning magic and then like, plant magic. One of these is not like the others and all of the others seem to overlap and encompass each other in a way that creates such a frustratingly lopsided world. It's just bizarre, isn't the sun a star? Aren't the stars and moon included within the night?

[@Crowcaller]

They all in the sky innit. If sunlings are also day, then moonlings and nightshades should be the same. It doesn't make any sense at all and it's not even lined up clearly to powers or themes

[@JuniperHatesTwitterlikeHandles]

I think it'd make a lot more sense if the book just admitted "the wild" just means earth. Which is also a celestial object, just the one we happen to be on. Makes the gemstone stuff fit in better too.

[@bigtimefucko1732]

honestly i'd be fine with some hand-waving in that regard if the tone didn't try to be so deadly serious- it ends up feeling like (an attempt at) real-live characters existing in a cartoon universe

[@TheAdarkerglow]

@@JuniperHatesTwitterlikeHandles Earthlings.

[@JuniperHatesTwitterlikeHandles]

@@TheAdarkerglow ...................ok maybe I understand why they didn't do that. But I mean while they were at it they could have given everyone a unique name instead of all -lings except night which gets -shade. Like... Earth.... uh... Earthenware Pot 600-500 BC Etruscans.

[@iamaunicorn1232]

The energy of someone's first DnD campaign where there was 0 structure given to the players for character creation but also 0 limitations so everyone came with wildly different character concepts and the newbie DM had to haphazardly mash them together because they didn't want to make anyone change anything. Also all they could think to do was try to make a tournament arc but couldn's so fetch quests it is.

[@Crowcaller]

I wish the author was the kind of person who you could picture playing DnD

[@Kalleron]

It really does have that kind of energy! 🤣

[@TheAquamarine4]

@@Crowcaller she would think she’s too cool for Dnd

[@notlurking2128]

And the guy who made Skylings was the only one who actually power -capped, and now he's just forced to be less useful than the people who went full 2012 deviant art OC

[@samuelline9573]

You could totally fix the Skyling curse, by just changing to to be they either feel constant pain when flying or they are in pain when they AREN'T flying. Like the little mermaid where she felt pins and needles with every step she's took

[@a.w.4708]

Or they can fly but they die if not touching a ground for longer time/ for more hardcore version at all. More hardcore version would exclude them from running, jumping, sitting on a chair with their feet in the air, living above ground level etc depending of what we consider ground.

[@greenstarlover1]

Or maybe, they can't *stop* floating. Skylings would need to be held up by chains, or any other means, in order to prevent them floating into the endless skies, never to be seen again.

[@hobobohemian]

@@greenstarlover1kinda reminds me of the upside down magic series (it’s by the people who made Whatever After) and one of the types of magic is that you can fly, but one of the kids can’t stop being in the air

[@pippinnnn]

There’s nothing I love more than ridiculously long video essays, I can draw or sew for hours with something to listen to

[@Crowcaller]

Same honestly it's why I did not ciwer from how long this wound up

[@kaitlyn6021]

This is so true. Currently crocheting to this video and having a blast.

[@mastertofu]

Long video essays are great replacements for background music when making stuff. Great to find this to listen to while I draw.

[@cornflakes-does-stuff]

I was drawing while listenign to it :))

[@insertcheesypunhere]

same here. on my second round while playing video games.

[@mehirohouseki]

I feel like it would be much more interesting to have a protagonist who's one of the dies at 25 people. Like maybe she's 24 and the last day of the 100 day meeting is her 25th birthday so there's a ticking clock and she has to solve the curse or she'll die. Plus I feel like that's the most interesting society, like imagine if all your politicians were 18-24 year olds, your public officials are always changing because they die so quickly. It would be really cool to see how that has affected them as a society. Do the other factions look down on them because they're so young? Maybe they're more peaceful than the other factions because they can't afford to lose anyone to wars? Are they encouraged to have lots of kids? Also if it were a hunger games type of competition then you could have your main character not care about her life as much because she's going to die by the end of it anyway so she's willing to put herself in more dangerous situations. Plus who doesn't love a character angsting over their impending death.

[@vainpiers]

If she dies on the 100 day all her people would die

[@dustrose8101]

Also the starlings probably lost a huge amount of knowledge and experts in various fields when the curse was cast. It might not be society crippling but it would have a long-lasting effect. They'd probably be constructing libraries and writing almost everything down because the population dies so young so they can't really have elders or experts in various fields for too long. Starting training early is also a viable option but there's only so much you can stuff into a kid's head.

[@lay5395]

I was thinking about how the "we all die at 25" was such an interesting concept because... You got a whole society of orphans. You have to become a parent really young, otherwise your people stop existing. You have to undergo INTENSE training for literally everything, because you have no time. Is there child labour because of the lack of adult workforce? Massive amounts of teen pregnancy? How can there be skilled people if it takes years to build a skill? Are younger kids raised by people who are essentially kids themselves? How do these people react to people from other realms(?) being literal CENTURIES old? Has certain knowledge been lost because generations are changing so quickly? I want to fix this worldbuilding so badly because it would be so perfect for a really dark fantasy but that author just doesn't do anything with it

[@dustrose8101]

@@lay5395 You could pretty much surgically remove the starlings from this book and create a whole other book just out of them alone.

[@NotoriousLightning]

If that's what you want, you should probably be reading Logan's Run instead of this.

[@JulianGreystoke]

As a fellow author, and an indy, I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt that such mediocre books hit the lottery when I and many others have spent much of our lives honing our craft. It's kinda a kick in the teeth, really.

[@Crowcaller]

Yeah, that sort of was part of my closing point. I went off script to slightly talk about it more, and the idea of like. A lot of people fail as authors. A lot of people even get published and fail. Even mainstream. And there's killer books that go like this- a person I really like online had a book that was super successful on Wattpad that was published via them. And not, not a typical Wattpad book- a great fantasy called White Stag. It just didn't debut well, and I've seen them go through so many struggles, fighting poverty. I especially feel for them because I relate. My debut didn't go anywhere, and most of the time I worked on this review I had 2£ in my account, or even -8£. It hurts to see very very bad books go viral from people who don't seem to care and already are mega rich

[@Vickynger]

@@Crowcaller whats their name? i found several books titled "white stag" on goodreads... id love to check out the book.

[@Crowcaller]

Sorry, late to seeing this, YT is bad at that. It's White Stag by Kara Barbieri. Legit a good fantasy esp if you're into more labyrinth-nordic ideas of fey/goblins. Was from Wattpad but not in the way AFTER was. They are someone I crossed paths with years ago and we've had very similar journeys in terms of just how hard publishing a book and having it go nowhere can be.

[@TheWanderlustWolf]

@@Crowcaller Labyrinth-Nordic fey/goblins, you say... 👀

[@safala]

@@Crowcaller Finally someone who doesn't put down Wattpad as bad-book-factory. There are bad books there (I mean, After, Kissing Booth, etc.) but there are also seriously good books and authors who can't go anywhere for one reason or another when books like these get so much hype. I have read so many stories from Wattpad authors which were so darn good (in my personal opinion) and were loved in Wattpad but didn't flourish once published. It's sad to hear White Stag didn't go well once published either. I haven't read the book cause broke + it's not available in my country but it looked extremely promising from the synopsis and the reviews.

[@commandrogyne]

The idea of isla having two powers that cancel out is actually a great comedic beat ngl. Very discworld. She has the power to grow plants, but she also has the power to kill them so she has a thumb constantly fluctuating between green and brown. The world is saved when the prophecy is fulfilled by killing a ruler and then immediately bringing them back to life.

[@the_last_ballad]

I'm just imagining a wave of dessication and regrowth just moving from one side of a person to another.

[@a.w.4708]

The same about Skylings... If only were they more important to the plot.

[@KaliqueClawthorne]

I would say the problem with this is, that this makes her ''Special'' in that book instead of being a real problem.

[@theflyingspaget]

It'd be nice if that stuck.

[@ditzydoodle8381]

"I. Am. Dying." Proceeds to push cups onto the floor. Oro sounds like a cat who wasn't fed on time. Lmao

[@dizzyella8204]

"Its probably Sarah J Mass's fault" 😂😂😂 that woman has done irreparable damage to the YA genre at large

[@dizzyella8204]

Leigh Bardugo has also done irreparable damage to YA men with the Darkling but I can forgive her since a) she's aware he's abusive and wrote him that way and b) i actually like her stuff 😂

[@Crowcaller]

She's done so much and I can never forgive her

[@ButterflyScarlet]

@@dizzyella8204 *Leigh Bardugo holding up a billboard sign that says "THE DARKLING IS NOT A GOOD PERSON. BEING ATTRACTIVE AND HAVING A SAD BACKSTORY DOES NOT JUSTIFY ABUSE"* *SaB fans, ironically enough:* That sign can't stop me because I can't read!

[@Thenoobestgirl]

Lol I still love her stuff tho

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

@@Crowcaller same and yet I have to admit. I like the first three books of her A Cout of Thorns and Roses... My guilty pleasure

[@TuesdaysArt]

"I'm begging you, Moonlings-stop going near the coast on Murder Moon Night. It's been 500 years." I can tell you from experience that knowing something is dangerous doesn't stop people from doing it. Florida literally sends out statewide warnings during hurricanes and some dingus who thinks they're more powerful than Mother Nature herself will decide to go to the beach that day. Some Floridians are so desensitized to it that they joke about it. Granted, Florida hasn't been around for 500 years and it's not like hurricanes happen on a normal schedule, so perhaps it's not comparable. As funny as the thought of "fantasy Floridians joking about the murderous menstrual cycle of the sea" would be, I highly doubt that was the author's intention.

[@corvus6971]

As someone who lives in florida, the unspoken motto is basically 'Below A Cat 1, It's Just Fun'

[@insertcheesypunhere]

im a floridian, and yeah. some moonlings are definitely having full moon parties, getting wildly drunk or way too confident. alternatively, there could've been moonlings who can't leave the coast because of financial reasons. the slums spilling out into the sea, with a grim countdown towards the next full moon, wondering if the shutters you built will hold. cleo becomes an even crueller villain this way, so unwilling to fix the problem that's killing her people that she refused to even try one year. an immortal queen who never has to face the issues her most vulnerable people do.

[@joyc.e.7511]

@@insertcheesypunhere That's a really cool idea! Although I doubt the author even put that much thought into the reasoning of the world.

[@insertcheesypunhere]

alas

[@eldritchexploited5462]

Peggy's Cove moment

[@rosa-acicularis7368]

The last part really resonated with me. I'm also disabled by chronic illness. I can't work or do the things I want to do. It's hard to see people of privilege get praised for mediocre work when I have to work twice as hard to accomplish half as much

[@Crowcaller]

Yeah, I really try not to talk about myself that much but this book did genuinely annoy me extra because. Well, she did kinda still win in the end, didn't she? This review took several days of filming literally because I have a disabling physical illness and afterwards I was ill for a week from burnout. And too the idea of like, I tried. A lot of people tried. But so few succeed, and to see the ones that get special treatment coming from people like Aster who have had special treatment their whole lives ... Sucks

[@mafaldaviana9060]

I feel like making Isla an actual wildling would have been so much more interesting. Having your protagonist do something as gruesome as literally eating hearts would have given us this super fascinating portrayal of a girl who, despite her horrifying curse, is still painfully human and just wants to free herself from this burden. And she would also have to deal with the impending doom of having to kill your lover, even as she's helplessly falling in love with these two men, which would not only add tension to the romance aspect, but also make her all the more anxious to break the curse because she feels herself about to snap. And you could even throw the nightshade curse in there for a bit of foreshadowing. Maybe she sometimes feels her skin inexplicably burn at night, and we never figure out why until the twist. The wildlings have some of the most interesting curses (along with the starlings IMO) and the author just went "nah, she's Not Like Other Girls(TM)". I have never read this book but I am so mad right now.

[@bridgetphelan4742]

48:00 On the topic of "i hung from a tree for 5 hours at 11" or whatever age- My sister was a gymnast and as a kid (probably around 7-10) they would make her and the others put weights on their ankles and hang from a pull up bar- a family friend who was a pediatric physical therapist or something (it may have been an ortho) came to pick her up, saw this and ran in to yell at the coaches. Turns out doing that at a young age on developing bodies can permanently stunt and damage the muscles, bones and ligaments. So I'd like to believe that this kick has like arms that are drastically short compared to the rest of her.

[@KaliqueClawthorne]

That sounds so horrifying Personally, I just thought about the fact that this an actually choke you to the point where you loose conciseness. I don't know when but I once read an article, that people hanging from things in movies like that is not only weird because it takes so much strength but also at some point you can't really breath anymore.

[@sentretsparkle]

The realms just feel like they were designed to be like Harry Potter houses; just as bland and vapid, but way more confusing. If this book became popular you'd know there would be people making "which realm are you from" personality quizzes and "Nightshade moodboard!" tumblr posts and hour-long essays about how Skylings are actually really cool and the best realm and NOT useless we swear

[@ria4257]

yes yes the different factions and houses and realms and courts just feel like they are there to make quizzes of and most of the time add nothing to the plot

[@faultofdaedalus2666]

FEEL LIKE WE'RE REALLY GLOSSING OVER THE WHOLE "CREATE BLACK HOLES" THING. also if the sunlings can't go out during the day and the nightshades can't go out at night... how do they like. do anything together. how do a sunling and a nightshade try and kill eachother, just snipe eachother from their house windows???? edit: proprietary blacksmithing techniques? does copyright law also exist in this universe? edit edit: what if the wildlings and the starlings have a trade deal with the starlings ship over everyone who dies at the age limit so the wildlings can harvest 'em for hearts

[@str4ng3-b34ut1ful]

i had to scroll down to see if anyone else was talking about the black holes asdfsgs

[@dodojesus4529]

If it fits godzilla it fits this

[@buchstaben-suppe]

YES PLEASE BLACK HOLES?? yk how much power that is?? you could wipe out the entire planet if you wanted to! this is just another hint that points to the author not knowing shit and putting stuff in the book just cause it sounds cool

[@dodojesus4529]

@@buchstaben-suppe could? Would! Any black hole that exists for even a fraction of a fraction of a second will annihilate the planet

[@Saibellus]

they just chase each other along the day/night line as it spins around the earth, trying to shoot each other from different time zones. they have very cardio-heavy cultures.

[@dizzyella8204]

This is the most 2012 YA book that I've ever heard of published in 2022. Like its funny how she got this idea in 2012 and then just...never left 2012

[@Crowcaller]

So concerned for what the sequel will be, as I assume it'll be all knew. Likely way more just SJM and from blood and ash

[@dizzyella8204]

@@Crowcaller good lord 😭ive heard of blood and ash is absolutely atrocious

[@NapaCat]

@@dizzyella8204 It is. So, so, _so_ bad.

[@marymccann3500]

My sibling and I are of the opinion that two big changes and six small ones would help make this book more interesting, if not necessarily better. LONG COMMENT. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. YOU WERE WARNED. *1- Celeste and Aurora are not the same person.* Aurora can be the one who's cast the curse all this time, but in this hypothetical rewrite, Celeste is just the most recent in a long line of female rulers who've been doing everything in their power to keep their people afloat. Aurora serves as a major antagonist in the shadows throughout the story- she attempts at several points to kill certain leaders, and causes the earthquake at the ball instead of it being Oro faltering. In the climax of the book, Aurora takes on Celeste's face temporarily, but Celeste, leading Azul and Cleo, arrive on the scene and manage to fight the immortal off long enough for the rulers to regroup and come up with a strategy to defeat Aurora once and for all, prompting everyone to bury the hatchet and unite to destroy the person who's made their peoples suffer. *2- Grim is not Isla's love interest. He's her father.* Hear me out. Grim is the last of the original rulers pre-Curses (Cleo is the second-oldest remaining at 300+ years, /*Azul at 200+, and the remaining three are 25 or younger). He's the oldest of the rulers and acts as something of a mentor to the younger ones, as he's been through enough Centennials (yes in this rewrite he's been to all of them) to know that wanton murder will not get anyone any closer to breaking the curses. He was in love with Isla's mother (does Isla's mom have a name in the book? Let's call her Gaia, I'm not feeling creative) and she with him, and the two spent centuries spending what little snippets of time together that they could. When Gaia found out she was pregnant they planned for Grim to sneak the child off to the Nightshade Newlands where she could be raised by one of his close friends and generals. However, when Gaia died, Grim had no choice but to watch his daughter be raised by strangers from afar, unable to protect her from their abuse and only able to teleport in briefly to check on her while she sleeps and soothe her wounds with Moonling draughts. He's also the one to place the Starstick in her room, so that she can escape for a little while and live her own life away from her tutors. Grim acts as Isla's protector throughout this rewrite, watching over her and keeping her from making stupid decisions, along with keeping peace between the other rulers. He's the one to resolve the earthquake situation, mass-warping everyone there out of the collapsing building but putting himself in a coma through both overuse of his powers and exposure to the night sky. Before he conks out for the last third of the book, he hands his crown to Isla, tells her it's her birthright, and says that she is the "ruling line come to an end", as with her birth she's united the Nightshades and the Wildlings under one heir, making the ruling line go from six to five. Once the original sin has been committed, the prophecy is technically fulfilled and Isla, now in sync with both her Wildling and Nightshade heritage, is able to fight by her father's side He stays comatose until after the final battle with Aurora, where he apologizes for never saying anything but promises to do everything in his power to be a good father to Isla starting today. And for the six small changes? 1- The Centennial is not a death game, it is a cooperative event. The rulers are united in researching the Original Offense, in trying to find the Heart, and in funneling as much magic into their individual realms as they can before they have to leave. The citizens are the ones trying to organize assassinations, having grown weary of the centuries of suffering and seeking to end this game one way or another. 2- Since Grim is no longer Isla's love interest and Celeste is no longer a secret villain, Celeste is Isla's secondary love interest. They've known each other since childhood and Celeste has always been a little bit in love with Isla, but she's willing to step aside if that's what Isla wants (Oro is also willing to step aside). 3- The realms outside Lightlark aren't rigidally segregated. They travel between and work together to mitigate or work around the curses. Starlings spend their last years with either Moonlings or Wildlings to help ease the pain of the curse, and on the plus side the Wildlings get their hearts in the end! Nightshades peddle their combat abilities to protect the Newlands. Skylings already use their mail powers. Wildlings and Moonlings have a bit of a rivalry over healing- Wildling elixers, draughts, potions, and brews are good for immediate injuries, but Moonling healing is best for long-term conditions. 4- The curses are changed. Skylings can still fly but have lost the ability to control it, sometimes careening into oceans because they can't control their descent, sometimes flying so high they suffocate, sometimes being unable to touch the ground at all. Moonlings (stolen from a commenter on KrimsonRogue's video, if you see this point yourself out!!!) have a state of lunacy each full moon where they tear at their own skin, try to kill each other, break and destroy things indiscriminately, and generally put themselves and those around them in severe danger. Wildlings still eat human hearts, but only while pregnant or giving birth, and otherwise just stick to normal food with a preference for meat. 5- Power given is stronger than power taken. Aurora took the powers of the rulers who died the night the Curses were laid. With her stolen power she's stronger than any one of them, but it's not as strong as the rulers standing together as one. She relies on the spirits and mortals she's enslaved to do most of the fighting, and when she's left with none of them, Isla (temporarily gifted the powers of the other realms) smites and destroys her once and for all. 6- Lightlark is barred not by a random storm, but by the Sea of Ghosts, which is where Azul's sister (NOT HUSBAND! Husband lives) and Gaia are trapped. In the climax when Aurora's power weakens the rulers are able to bring some of the ghosts to their side, including Gaia, and the freed ghosts help keep the rest of Aurora's thralls at bay, letting the rulers fight the witch head-on. The Ancient Creatures also join the final battle on the side of Lightlark, fighting to protect their home. With this you get a story about cooperation in the face of cruelty and adversity, about standing together when tragedy strikes, and about breaking the chains of suffering. Have the rulers band together to take down the woman who's doomed their people to suffer and have them make alliances, friendships, and bonds to destroy the person who sought to divide them all. Would it be good? I don't know, but it would certainly be more interesting and coherent than what we were given.

[@WeirdHylian]

I would totally read that 😁

[@crimsonrosellas]

Better idea and themes then Lightlark could ever.

[@ashnights2212]

The Grim idea alone is genius

[@swimmyswim417]

These are good changes! Especially the Grim is her father switch. I have my own ideas on how to make Grim an actually ok love interest, but this is a fun twist.

[@Tesseract_King]

Excellent changes.

[@thenagito]

If I had a nickel for every time a character named Celeste was secretly evil and was hiding her identity behind that fake name, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[@a.w.4708]

Where was the first time? I recall one evil Celeste from bad ya, but she was just standard Evil Barbie type (though she got redemption arc and sadly died)

[@thenagito]

@@a.w.4708 Celestia Ludenberg from Danganronpa

[@SyerasSanctum]

*I'm the Grim Reaper* has a "Celeste" who initially looks like she might be an antagonist, but ends up helping the protagonists later in the story.

[@goodnight-moon564]

This is my favourite comment

[@PhileasLiebmann]

"This book feels in every way extremely expired by Sarah J. Maas and I despise what that woman has contributed to this world." I love you

[@jasminv8653]

'built on a pinterest board' with the whole story's worldbuilding (and let's be honest, characters and plot macguffins) based on 'stolen photographs' is imo the best summary of why This Type of Book is so grating to read sometimes as a fantasy fan. It was a really good point you made there! Same goes for how Lightlark seems afraid to define itself in any way - that's another problem current YA greatly suffers with imo. Thank you.

[@Crowcaller]

Yeah, very much it feels like she saw a bunch of art and photos by other people and rather than imagine prompted by that, she sought to write exactly what she saw into her book verbatim. One of her pictures on her tiktok original vid is a classic 'girl in nice dress underwater dramatically ' so there's a fully useless scene where our lead is underwater dramatically. I think it's a very literal application of 'nice aesthetic I'll do that too' rather than anything transformative

[@ariannay766]

this is hilarious because the premise of Miss Peregrin's Home For Peculiar Children is "based on stolen photographs"... even that premise can be done right Lightlark just does every premise wrong

[@a.w.4708]

This is one of the writing mistakes I was sure hardly anybody makes even in amateur internet writing community I am in... And the average age of said community is like 15, with some people being 11 (and others 27, but still). This book generally make mistakes I've described in kind of writing advice series with some hesitation coming from not being sure if people really make said mistakes beyond the absolute beginner phase.

[@lovelyghosts3955]

What if Isla was a chef, or liked food/cooking? Even if the Wildlings can only eat hearts, there's plenty of recipes around the world for cooking animals hearts. Since Isla is the only one who can eat non-heart related food, it could be a fun part of her character that she really likes cooking a variety of foods. And maybe that could be the (admittedly dumb) reason she calls the sun yolky and compares the moon to an egg Also, I love ur shirt

[@violetking4822]

that is such a good idea omg. and then, like, it would make sense she was so emotional about chocolate (and could give a hint to Grimm already knowing her, that he knew she would like that)

[@swimmyswim417]

That would be a great character trait, and the author could make more of the descriptions Isla is narrating food-based through that lens. I like this idea a lot, could’ve added more flavor to her character if it was done intentionally.

[@BooksandBuns]

Not gonna lie, I have a character who's rather food oriented & makes really good stews, & I was genuinely thinking of having him call the ocean a 'giant fish stew' & then have his friends make fun of him for that cause I love the idea of a character just being so damn hungry, they call something inedible an edible thing

[@chansesturm7103]

@@swimmyswim417 I see what you did there.

[@PinoccThePiccolo]

@@BooksandBuns Haha that's such a cute idea, and just a funny little character moment.

[@nicodinisi]

She also needs an anatomy lesson because holding on to a tree branch has very little to do with arm strength. She was basically just training her forearms.

[@Crowcaller]

Frankly I think hanging on a tree branch has even less to do with training for sword fighting

[@nicodinisi]

@@Crowcaller 😂

[@eleanorserocki7948]

Waiting nearly 4 hours for the Joke "'where do you get off?' I don't: I'm a sex repulsed Asexual" is honestly a reward in and of itself. What a masterpiece of media.

[@sorrel7554]

Okay here's my pitch that doesn't save Lightlark but is an incredibly simple change that fixes a lot of obvious problems with the narrative: It was Isla's decision to have Grim wipe her memories. She's in on the plan and wants to help and is worried her love of Grim will make that impossible for her. You can still have your big twist memory wipe reveal but it makes the whole situation much less fucked up (it's still fucked up bc obvious grooming going on but it's an improvement). Grim gets to continue crushing on her and flirting because he's not the one staking the success of the plan on her not being in love with him. Isla gets agency.

[@Crowcaller]

Yep, fully agree. She still can be shocked and it's a bit weird for him to then come onto her without her memories... But if she'd been cool and arranged the memory wipe it's a big twist like "omg I'm not who I thought I was"

[@safala]

Also, maybe she's not just 20, sorry less than 20. There's no reason for her to be barely a legal adult. She could be 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 99, just less than 100, really and look 20-25 because idk, mentally they age like normal humans but physically they age slower the older they get because they live long. Or like, nature has different lifespans. Maybe the wildlings all are bonded to a special plant species or variety each and their lifespan depends on that plant. Some are like seasonal plants, they live a very short time and die. Others are like trees, years and years, even centuries or millennia-long lifespan. Also, maybe depending on which plant or animal species they bond to, some can clone. So maybe clones share memories or can read each other's mind. This seasonal life also solves, or at least reduces, the eating heart problem. Cloning is useful in a world where romance is cursed. Maybe throw in a 'if you kill the plant the person has bonded with, they die'. So people are always trying to safeguard their plants. The little plants are easy to safeguard, despite having a short life span. The trees and medium-sized plants are harder to keep safe, esp. from rot, pests and disasters despite having relatively good to awesome lifespan. Anyway, back to my original point. Make Isla 40-99 years old (the older the better), make her look 20-25 and make her and Grim know each other when she was like 25-30 and continue on as you wrote. We solve the grooming problem _and_ the story is probably a bit more engaging with a bit of background and also, having to wipe the memories of your lover of decades/ having to forget your lover of decades is more angsty than wiping the memories of either your girlfriend of less than a year or a child you groomed. Maybe also make it uncertain if her memories will ever return or make it uncertain if she'll love Grim again for a bit of spice.

[@EmyN]

Ikr

[@ariannay766]

YES. it makes so much more sense for this to be a plan grim was not fully on board with, something Isla convinced him into, given how he acts, and its so much less morally fucked

[@edelette6529]

Literally one change and it (doesn't really fix) but it sort of fixes some stuff!

[@frenzy2061]

Author's overuse of epithets/constantly referring to a character by whatever species or gender they are etc. is such a huge pet peeve of mine too. Just use the characters names for god's sake. Anyway, I'm almost finished watching this now and I just wanted to say that I've really enjoyed this whole review! You put more thought into the world than the author herself did.

[@Crowcaller]

Thank you for reminding me of the word EPITHETS I know so many words and thus forget so many words

[@frenzy2061]

@@Crowcaller No problem! I learnt the meaning of the word specifically to complain about people's overuse of them lol

[@bigbadgammagnome]

That's such a rookie writer mistake that always annoys me Why do some writers just hate using character names?? Especially when they're established main characters and not, you know, a background character or some unnamed character

[@ariannay766]

on one hand, yes, I do use epithets, because sometimes my sentence structure falls in a weird way where I've used both a character's name and pronouns too much in a short range of time... on the other, I really try not to overdo it,,, like don't be the fanfic writer who refers to a named character as "the blond" eight times or something like that

[@BooksandBuns]

@@ariannay766 epithets exist for a reason. If they didn't. They wouldn't be used in writing, period. I don't get this hate towards epithets because reading 'Isla did this, Isla did that' gets just as annoying as 'the wildling did this, the wildling did that'. Bad authors over use adverbs & adjectives all the time as well, & these don't get almost the same level of hate as epithets do. Like, literally just don't over do it & you'll be fine! If you overdo anything, your writing will be bad, that's why others tell you not to use the same descriptive term within a sentence of each other (unless, of course, done for emphasis), so why should epithets be any different?

[@asdfghjklasdfghjkl321]

The fact that you are not the only creator who called "The Wand" that Disney Children Toy Wand because she didn't freaking describe what it looks like it is sending me 💀😭😂😂😂😂

[@Crowcaller]

WE DONT EVEN KNOW HOW BIG IT IS!! it blows my mind she has a magic item--- called a star stick and we have no details about it besides her sticking it down the back of her dress

[@BrookieC]

im picturing it as one of those stupid magicians wands that have flowers hidden in them

[@PhileasLiebmann]

I actually imagined it like a really gnarled piece of wood, something like the wand from Willow (now I'll really be shocked if anybody has any idea that I'm talking about here), that's so crooked and bent you can't really even point it at something or even grip it well. And every time she "hides" it in her clothing it looks super obvious and conspicuous, but just nobody cares or dares to mention it.

[@edgarallenhoe3518]

@@Crowcaller I have a very silly question, but it's been on my mind since I watched this for the first time over a week ago. When you brought up the star stick, you used the exact phrase "$30 princess wand," which I've only heard one other place. ...were you referencing jenny nicholson's escape from tomorrow video??

[@Crowcaller]

@@edgarallenhoe3518 yes............. Indeed........... I love Jenny Nicolson probably fav youtuber

[@NapaCat]

My personal changes to improve the book: 1) Grimdark is renamed but also isn't actually scary. He doesn't do morally terrible things but Sunling propaganda makes him out to be terrible. Also Aurora wiped him and Isla's memories of each other. 2) Oro isn't a love interest but just friends with Isla by the end. 3) Aurora wasn't Celeste, merely possessing her sometimes. Also Aurora wasn't spurned, but was actually betrayed by Oro. 4) Azul/the Skylings have a different role. They are notoriously unreliable and are a wildcard. 5) Cleo is trying to end the Centennial by herself by alternative means, but is a jerk to everyone because she doesn't want people finding out.

[@fairycat23]

I like these ideas!

[@a.w.4708]

I like most of it beside Sunlings propaganda making Grim bad when he isn't (super overused trope at this point), I would made him ruler with known war crimes similar to Oro, but maybe with trouble with exressing emotions so he looks like he has no remorse or positive feelings (there are such people in real life, I for example sometimes unknowingly to me smile when I feel bad for what I've done, which of course looks really bad. On the other hand when I am happy or grateful I just can't express it properly). I am also not a fan of the cheating solution, since everybody still revolves around romance and it is just putting all the blame on golden guy which is also overused manouver IMO... And I feel like it doesn't resolve the problem with continuum. Like... The curses which were cast on and kind of resulted in six rulers sacrificing themselves were because their descendants still living 500 years later had love troubles? Or do I not understand something?

[@NapaCat]

​@@a.w.4708 By 'betrayed' I mean not cheating, but an actual betrayal of a non-romantic variety, a serious one. Nothing having to do with cheating or 'you abandoned me and our child' or the like.

[@babyface3396]

I barked out laughing at the necklace with "a diamond the size of a small potato." Not only is that such a fantastically unromantic way to describe it, but she's a wildling. Aren't wildlings the ones who can just pop gems out of thin air like they're nothing? Why would she ever be impressed by someone giving her a gem? lolol

[@crobatoverlord7378]

Maybe that's the point. She isn't really impressed. Hence the comparison with a potato.

[@EL-jq1sq]

The Starling curse was actually totally unrelated, it was cast by Leonardo DiCaprio because he got tired of having to break up with his girlfriends Jokes aside, thanks for making this a video. I don't mean this in any way to pressure to make more, I'm just glad I could take it in when otherwise I wouldn't have been able to due to my reading difficulties. Anyways, great review!

[@laurenl1088]

That’s an amazing joke 😂

[@Bloodanna]

... So, the MC of this book let people *die* for food (hearts) she didn't need? Wouldn't it make more sense for her to tell the people that she was getting her own and not let people die for no reason?

[@Crowcaller]

Oh yeah. She doesn't think about it really, it stops being brought up after the one like, chapter three scene where there's a group dinner and she's presented with a heart to eat. She gets one weekly, so that's 14 hearts during the centennial! We do know she specifically gets them from prisoners (death penalty confirmed on the tiny cursed idyllic isle of Lightlark) so I guess "I'll kill random people myself" really wouldn't fly

[@a.w.4708]

It really shows how the heart eating was just another aesthetics... Sth like "I am a wampire but the special kind that doesn't need blood and is immune to light and other vampire-killing stuff so I am just super beautiful and super strong and immortal and have superowers" of 2010s wattpad-style novels.

[@ribbonquest]

I feel bad for everyone named Celeste. Everyone with that name in fiction is evil, except the 5% who are dead protag moms.

[@swimmyswim417]

…I feel so called out 😅 I have an OC Celeste who’s the problem child of her extremely accomplished family. She starts up a lesbian pirate gang, but gets stuck in a self-destructive spiral and loses an arm trying to fight a sea monster to win back her ex-girlfriend. It doesn’t work, and she gets mutinied against for excessive drunk dueling. It’s such a pretty name for characters who can’t catch a break.

[@itsgonnaBmay]

​@@swimmyswim417she sounds iconic

[@tigaliyt]

I know a story where Celeste is the alias of someone who's not a mum, but very much dead. But actually no, but actually yes, because time travel shenanigans. So this checks out.

[@missrebel634]

I just think about the game Celeste

[@pixelraid5742]

quickly checks my stories to see if I named anyone Celeste... Celeste Aster, the Elf training to be a hero who has Celestial powers (sun, stars, moon, mars). She want's to prove she's just as strong as her 4 older brothers. and... the other is a Cat, a perfectly normal Cosmic Cat

[@zoeb3573]

"I'm not sure what I enjoy more: seeing the way you grip a sword, or the way your dress grips you." has big "I hate to see her go but I love to watch her leave" energy

[@mosaic.owl.studios]

There's a reason old-timey cartoon characters (and some live-action characters) who are searching for gold will bite into the gold they find to "test" it. They're looking for that softness, they're looking for the gold to bend in their teeth. Do people not remember nearly every every single Bugs Bunny story? The gold-hungry prospector ALWAYS bites the gold.

[@liamwayne6703]

The amount of Looney Tunes episodes with Bugs Bunny is in the hundreds. The amount with both Bugs and Gold, must be a handful at best. What the hell are you talking about?

[@samantaluna3870]

Those 10 years of rejection is so slimy. Theres nothing wrong with having previous books, actually many writers would promote themselves like that, but I think her PR told her she had to promote herself that way to gather more interest, perhaps?

[@Crowcaller]

I haven't actually bothered to like. Trawl her tiktok BC I hate that app, but I'm fairly sure it's more that's what she said. It is quite PR and gets quoted a lot in coverage of the story on websites, the anguished ten years of rejections for this project The People love.... But I believe that's how she framed it herself. It sounds more dramatic and attention grabbing than like, "I had a good idea and spent a couple months writing it"

[@widowsiren8694]

When you were describing the issue with chocolate in the story despite the wrong climate and the constant storms, I remembered you pointing out the inconsistancy with the instant plant-growing people having greenhouses and thought "Huh, maybe that's why they have greenhouses.", to grow crops out of season or out of climate. That would've been an easy justification if it was mentioned within the book. Maybe with an added line about how growing trees takes more effort and skill than growing flowers or plants with shallow roots and the trees need a single place to stay like orchards in our world.

[@sealaluna]

I'm only half an hour in on the part where you are explaining the curses/realms and i'm already scratching my head over the fact that this is an actual published book lmao

[@Crowcaller]

Tiktok hype made every editor see only dollar signs and not the need to edit

[@Blitzcomo]

The repetition of the "I read bad books" phrase was. Strangely extremely poetic. Much love to you

[@Crowcaller]

You see I read bad books

[@ellipszilonq]

"An author, not a writer" What a gorgeous burn

[@Crowcaller]

It's a very multiuse diss you can find quite a lot of applications for....

[@jesterbonbon]

damn your version of the wildlings being just like a cold distant casusl sex culture is so much cooler than what the actual book comes up with 😭 i love the idea that their body language and such would be interpreted differently by the other cultures and there could be this emotional intelligence issue. not the most revolutionary story idea for this genre but i like the idea that this culture shock is so much more fundamental to isla.

[@friendlyghosthost1830]

The whole murder plot would make more sense if it was a last resort or if there where originally MORE than 6 rulers.

[@Crowcaller]

Yeah. Or really again if.... The no heirs thing didn't exist and they were allowed to just die. They could go down to one person every centennial! But obviously it'd never solve the curse, and doesn't make sense in the prophecy, but at least that way you could have it be a hunger games rip off

[@mararuto]

I kind of think that would actually explain why the elements are so disjointed? Like the reason there are five celestial/sky elements and one earthly element could probably be explained with the excuse that all the other earth or maybe sea rulers got picked off early. Could also raise the question as to why the celestials specifically survived lol

[@a.w.4708]

@@mararuto why Celestials survived could be explained by them having the most useful powers... And maybe least bad curses? Maybe other courses were like "If you touch any plant you die" or "you are allergic to water". I think wildlings could also hunt down most of the near nature based realms to extinction for hearts... And Skylings survived because everyone was forgetting about them constantly. Also noone can afford losing the pillar of civilisation the wind-powered postal Services are.

[@mararuto]

@@a.w.4708 I didnt even think about the wildlings but that is a really good point! The people that lived close to them probably got absolutely decamated pretty quickly

[@claudiecow]

Light lark feels like it was written by someone who doesn’t really - well - write. Like someone who has read a bit, and had an idea for a book and then had a go at it. Tbh I think the editors as well were trying to just get this published ASAP to cash in on the hype (and from the sound of it, successfully) rather than actually look at what they were working with and yknow, edit it. Isla was written by someone who I don’t think struggles much - and being so unbelievably OP is a terrible conduit for a reader to engage with and experience the weird pedestrian story with.

[@winniesims9706]

Had to come back to this comment because I just saw the author studied creative writing at an Ivy League … and then wrote this …

[@claudiecow]

omg no way I so badly need to know what course it was and what her writing was like before because !!! Sis this is not it !!

[@fictionalneritive]

I love how you say "Here's him on the subject" like you're doing a news interview. I appreciate this detailed review. I've been over the romanticism of a love interest that somehow knows everything about you and so they must be the one. Every iteration of this feels creepier and creepier.

[@Crowcaller]

Honestly it's a bit weirder than total knowledge with grim since he doesn't even go out of his way to seem like he knows everything he likes. He pretends methodically to seduce and fake fall for her. At least of it was like "wow grim set up my dream date with all these obscure lucky guesses of what I like" you'd know he knew her before. It's weirder to purposefully pretend otherwise and tone it down. Also yeah, ya has a very weird thing of immortal 500 year old men but somehow there's been a couple that are like, watching you or influencing you... Before you knew them..... Which is so creepy and grooming. Literally ACOTAR feyre like paints the night sky as a child because.... Innate mate link...? Bro...... Before she met you, an old guy, she was literally like 6 years old. I've read multiple books where the LI literally has met MC as a child! Nasty!

[@hauntedsunsets]

I laughed actually out loud, a full on cackle at hearing about the skyling curse. holy shit. it was already unbalanced but at least the other weaker ones like sunlings and moonlings were kind of thematic, there's SOMETHING interesting there. but no skylings are now domestic birds who get their wind unethically clipped

[@bestaround3323]

They have it so much worse than the wildlings but at least they aren't as bad off as the moonlings.

[@alicefade]

This whole ordeal of lightlark has taught me 1 very important thing- Don’t make/base books off (a) trope(s). Like I’m a writer I’m currently working on the third draft and I’ve generally tried to stay clear of making aesthetic boards, relaying common tropes and the like being the soul purpose of my work. Using these types of things is bad no they can be really helpful when creating a story/characters/places but when then they become the ONLY thing the books about it everything becomes flat.

[@Crowcaller]

I should say... I looooove aesthetic boards and Pinterest. But indeed, as this book shows, a novel needs to be more than surface deep. Tropes are inevitable - check out TV tropes if you haven't, the grandfather of all this. Everything can be categorised in some way and that's okay. You can even learn about writing stories by learning about tropes and what is conventional or how they've been done before, to see what works and what doesn't! The issue is just .... Well, see video above? It's when a book doesn't do much more than 'enemies to lovers' and 'heres six cool images I want to include'. People will steal someone else's art to create a character then pick the hottest few story elements and call it a day, you know? There is though A LOT to be said about the aesthetic board ification of publishing and pitching queries but too much for here XD

[@dustrose8101]

Aesthetic boards are ideally used for initial inspiration or when you're trying to capture the preexisting vibes of your story. It's supposed to DEVELOP, you're not supposed to just stitch aesthetics boards together with no thought and call it the story! Thats not how it's supposed to work!

[@alicefade]

@@Crowcaller Completely agree! Having categories isn’t a bad thing nor is having aesthetic boards. Like y’a said though those things only go so far and stealing peoples characters and slapping a coat new paint on them is just lazy.

[@SneakyCoyoteProductions]

Here's the thing though... Tropes are building blocks. EVERY story in existence holds tropes inside of it. It's not necessarily a bad thing to identify the tropes you want to highlight in your work and then tailor your story so that the chosen tropes work to their best effect. It's more when people don't understand what the trope is and how it's functioned. From watching this video... this book sounds more like someone was tossing as many fantasy/ romance tropes into a story that they could, especially ones that have been popular lately ("deadly games," "houses/clans/groups," etc.), but making very little effort to actually think through how such tropes function and also try to tell a coherent story. Like... this story sounds like weird.

[@gearhead743]

@@SneakyCoyoteProductions so true, been reading the Discworld books and I love how they dissect tropes.

[@edgarallenhoe3518]

There are several elements in here that were handled so much better in the hunger games. Obviously the psychological impact of killing and Katniss's ptsd are a big part of the second two books, but even the training aspect. Katniss starts the series a skilled fighter who is deeply traumatized by her upbringing, and the book understands what aspects of her childhood were the traumatizing ones. Learning to use a bow is a happy memory for her because it connects her to her father and it represents taking control of her own survival, BUT having to be the sole provider for her sister and mother is scarring. Her adaptation to suffering contributes to her success, but (1) that is because the world she lives in is horrific, and (2) it also causes her serious problems that she has to work through over the course of the series.

[@CazuhLynn]

@@plasticmodels Thank you. I felt the same way about the books and especially Katniss.

[@thatrantinggirl7376]

@@plasticmodels ooh do you mind explaining further? I’ve always thought of the hunger games as a pretty good critique of exploitation under capitalism!

[@bigbadgammagnome]

@@plasticmodels I definitely think Hunger Games holds up better than most YA novels of the same style, but I do wish there were more critiques of it like this. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough but I only ever see huge praise for the series and I'm like... Really?? As much as the first book has some flaws, I feel it especially gets worse as it goes on. Idk. Perhaps I'd have to reread them. But even as a teenager who was not of a critical writing mind yet, I really hated most of Mockingbird. I feel like the pacing in that book is really bad particularly nearing the end but it's been *so* long since I've read the book. I just remember really disliking it. And it's not even because the ending isn't super happy, it's a dystopia, I get that! One of my favourite dystopias has an extremely bittersweet ending. That kind of "we won, but at what cost?" Kinda thing. Could just be a me thing tho, I think I get what HG was trying to go for with the ending I'm just not a fan. I haven't properly analysed it.

[@bigbadgammagnome]

@@plasticmodels yeah that makes a lot of sense. That could be why I felt so disconnected while reading it

[@rubatozis]

Language teachers always tells us to ask "who, when, where, how and why" about happenings in stories. Seems like Alex Aster missed the "why" part way too many times

[@zvvilq63]

3:06:44 "Isla is a trained warrior, but she hasn't seen any war." god thats such a good character description that could've been used it's fullest

[@hambor12]

This is literally the conceit of The Major-General's Song from The Pirates of Penzance

[@goldenalpaca3881]

my least favorite protagonist tropes are; the powerless hero overwhelming the gifted through level grinding. A person under 21 besting veterans twice their age easily the underdog that's actually extremely overpowered (as if making them start weak somehow justifies their power level dissipating all tension) Isla is so holistically infuriating, its fascinating

[@buchstaben-suppe]

she is so annoying and i haven’t even read the book. she’s a seductress even though she had never interacted sexually with anyone; she is able to sway and manipulate people with her charm even though she has no experience making friends or interacting with ppl at all; she’s a battle goddess even though her training shouldn’t have gotten her that far(she can defy gravity by hanging from a tree branch for 5 HOURS? the f*cking world record is 80 minutes and to google that took me 5 seconds); shes an assassin and doesn’t get bothered by killing people even though she had never murdered a man before; she’s not like OTHER girls; the whole food thing cause of course the curse doesn’t affect her cause she’s so special.. ugh the list goes on and everyone loves her and is impressed by her immediately, she is praised throughout the whole book even by the villains! like.. how is that even fun to write i can’t comprehend (my only explanation is that it has to be a self insert) she literally has no weaknesses, her only weakness, having no power, gets eliminated when giving her ALL the powers PLEASE for the love of god HOW did alex ever think she is a good character?? it’s an overpowered mary sue is what it is and nobody likes those and it makes me so mad that a book like this sells well and gets attention when there’s authors out there 100 times better than her who will never make the breakthrough.. who literally struggle to pay rent and aren’t able to live their dream. it’s just so sad

[@Graphi]

mama mia i just randomly found this and this is going to gloriously enhance my evening of drawing. thank you creators who make videos several hours long. i have never heard of this book before and yet i am jumping in place waiting to hear it be ripped to shreds.

[@Crowcaller]

Ahaha enjoy and please share, for the love of the salt

[@Avgust_khari]

YOU GET IT

[@okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

When you got near the end of the plot summary I was SO sure the big plot twist was that Isla was also actually over 500 like the rest of the main cast and had a whole previous life connected to Grim and the events leading to the curse, and somehow THAT is why she isn't cursed and doesn't have powers and THATS why Grim is so drawn to her - because he finally gets to interact with her again for the first time in 500 years. It just seemed like such a glaring difference that she's 19 and they're all 500+. That would've been a fun plot twist tho so of course that's not what happened. Also I'm SO upset because the idea of a magic island that's cut off from the rest of the world for 100 years at a time, where the only connection to the outside world during the time the storm is raging is teleportation and maybe weird crystal communication junk thats probably rare and exclusive to people with money and power - THATS A COOL IDEA!!! Especially when you factor in that the residents of the island have longer lifespans, so they can live to see how the rest of the world seems to rapidly change every time the storm clears every hundred years, meanwhile people outside of the island might go their whole lives without getting a chance to see what it's like inside. Damnit, I want that story now!! ALSO also, this entire video I was sure Alex Aster is like 23, and so when you dropped that she's 27 I nearly jolted. She's only a year younger than me! If she's 27 and has been writing this for 10 years... Idk man im reeling.

[@deen7530]

Yeah I also thought the Grim plotline was gonna end in a reincarnation plot twist.

[@Pandachu123]

The whole island thing being visible once every 100 years really reminds me of the Mirage Island from Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and their remakes Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire. It's a very, very, *very* rare event (like some kind of playground rumor rare 😂) in the game where you could only find it if a specific NPC in a nearby town says the island is visible. It's the only place where you can capture wild Wynaut and get some rare berries. It just reminds me of that event.

[@Jwilhoftstg]

Imagine the interesting concepts that could come from the starling curse. People would attend their own Funerals, and death would br much more accepted. Also what about people born on leap days? Maybe they live to be 100, since technically their birthday only occurs once every 4 years. You could even give leap kids special powers. Honestly that alone could be a great book concept. Maybe a magical dystopia type book?

[@rubythorns2349]

I know this comment is old but I really like the leap year idea. There could be something like a week long conception festival that the Starlings take part in nine months before February 29th. On the surface, it just seems like an excuse to be really horny but you can actually see how desperate these people are to have children that will live longer. It can even be made to provide commentary on bodily autonomy and consent - women who are in their last year of life but who will give birth around the leap day aren't really given a choice because the perceived value of their child *possibly* being born on leap day and having the potential to live past 25 (with no guarantee that they won't die from other means) outweighs any of her feelings about it. The reality being that these women aren't allowed to live the last part of their life for themselves - they are forced to give it to their pregnancy and the child that they won't even live to raise. You can really see how the desperation of the Starlings to find any way around their curse comes from a sympathetic place but has actual harmful consequences on the people.

[@allthosegoodwomen]

One of my least favorite tropes of modern YA fantasy is “what if we did the Darkling but made him good,” completely ignoring how the point of that character was to call out the archetype of “sexy bad boy who is hundreds of years old.” This book in general feels like an amalgamation of scenes from other books while ignoring the purpose of those scenes (ex. the scene where Isla is supposed to hide her skills at the games but doesn’t is a direct copy of a similar scene in Throne of Glass, except in that book it was meant to show the immaturity and recklessness of the mc and in this it was just…there.) Getting back to the Grishaverse (my one true love), Inej Ghafa is the perfect example of how to create a character who grapples with the idea of killing people but is still allowed to be a badass. It’s possible; some authors are just lazy. Read Six of Crows, guys. To conclude this mishmash of thoughts, I absolutely love this video and will probably have it on repeat for the next week ❤ We all appreciate your sacrifice

[@thehermit8618]

You're completely right. This feels like Aster thought about a bunch of cool scenes, like a movie trailer with the impact and the cuts and the dramatic music and wanted to stretch it into a book so you see a bunch of disparate, jumbled, overdramatized scenes punctuaded by a whole bunch of nothing because the narrative is desperately marching from one "le epic dramatic instagramable" snappy scene to the next with absolutely no regard about how these scenes work in the story or themselves. Doesn't help Alex Aster is so obsessed and reliant on tropes that she almost uses them as some sort of writing style.

[@mckinleyt98]

referring to people as "the nightshade" or "the blond man" always reminds me of not just fanfic, but specifically gay fanfic - i assume because the author feels like they can't refer to characters by pronouns if they are the same gender, so they just think of something else. i remember noticing this kind of thing years ago and it has tormented me ever since lol

[@megarakadmea]

So the Moonlings are literally the Water Tribes from Avatar. So we know she is aware of good writing.

[@martaflorcremades1128]

And the people who used to fly nd now the cant sounds like old airbenders. It just feels like very bad avatar

[@CoolStoryTimeBro]

This is the "Handbook for Mortals" of the 2020's

[@Crowcaller]

Less shady.... Maybe. It's a BIIIIIT shady lol

[@samantaluna3870]

Ohhhh, SHADE. 🤣

[@andyenglish4303]

That's ridiculous. This book doesn't have a random Carrot Top cameo.

[@CoolStoryTimeBro]

@@andyenglish4303 This book would be 1000% more entertaining if Carrot Top was hosting the death games

[@Pyreo]

I watched the whole thing, so I've really got to give you kudos for sheer entertainment value. In-depth analysis of why bad books are as bad as they are is a demanding subject and thank you for putting in the effort to bring the main points and quotes into an accessible review. You obviously put tons of work into a very long video that still prioritised attention to detail. I hope it blows up in popularity and leads the audience of these books to some better options.

[@Crowcaller]

Aha, Id love that. It took me three days to just film it, and more to get it processed and published! I'm not a youtuber and while I'm pleased by this don't have grand dreams of becming one, but with the original text review it's been a solid 70 hours or so of work. I'm chronically disabled and not making a penny from this, I just love doing bad book reviews XD I hawk my own books at the end BC I might as well try to spread the word (so hard to find readers for indie LGBT books) but even with all this it's not like I've made a sale. Love of the game!!! If you liked it, check out my blog, the other reviews are not as long but I put a lot of work into covering weird obscure and often funny bad books

[@mentallyunstable1926]

this video was so well made that when the shadow and bone/ darkling parallels were brought up and then the difference of wildling/dayling vs nightshade came back i shouted in real life. this is incredible peak cinema

[@Crowcaller]

I still can't fathom why they're nighthade instead of nightling. Still. People must ask her, right? Right??

[@airplane8545]

This is the most aggressively 3rd graders at recess world building I have ever heard of. Like, I can just hear the “why does your group get like 20 powers and mine only gets 1, that’s not fair!!!”

[@chitheidiot8299]

I swear, "a place where light and dark mean" meaning that Oro and Grim had to do the deed would've been a better twist than EVERYTHING of what actually happened. But fr tho, I think the biggest reason this book fails so bad is because of the extremely convoluted, unclear, messy magic system. The nightshades are overpowered, Isla doesn't even have a curse (which already gives her an advantage over everyone else), and everyone else's capabilities are completely unclear except for Oro's which are straight up "fire". Which is really sad, 'cause I can see the supposed plot, if developed well, being extremely good.

[@kristencote7100]

i think sarah j maas' first series was Throne of Glass. The protagonist is an assassin girl in a deadly competition, in a love triangle. She was trained by assassins (in an abusive way) but it made it her a super cool fighter. this was def Throne of Glass inspired. throne of glass came out in 2012

[@hurricaneofcats]

The more I stare at it the more I can see this starting as a blatantly Throne of Glass/Hunger Games inspired thing which slowly mutated to incorporate every YA fantasy trope from the last 10 years. Isla is basically discount Celaena with the numbers filed off.

[@aubreeyost6904]

I feel like this entire book can be summed up in the phrase "It's unclear"

[@paiganism]

as a fellow disabled person (with chronic pain....who also basically has to be a shut-in) i feel your pain so much in the Why? Why? Why? section. i really appreciate you sharing that with us and hope you make more video reviews (though i know how tiring filming something like this must be!!! don't feel like you have to always give us four hours LOL)

[@GreySarasa]

great video! You obviously understand lightlark more than me, so I have a question: when Oro and Isla are in the cave doing 20 questions, Oro asks "did you know Grim before this?" and Isla says "No" which is what she believes to be the truth at the time. Oro gives her a weird look and says nothing. imo, the weird look was him sensing her 'lying' (bc she publicly acted like she never met Grim before, so why would Oro be confused if he sensed she never met him before? That would be in line with what he saw and not be surprising). If Oro did sense that "no I never met Grim before this" was a lie, then what is Oro detecting? Isla told her 'relative truth' (what she, based on her memories thought was true) but it wasn't objectively true (she did meet grim before but is unaware at this point). If Oro can detect the objective truth regardless of what the subject of the question knows, that has bonkers implications. Like, he could just interrogate any random about the Heart to figure out where it is (e.g. "Is the Heart on Star Isle?" "Uh. . . yes?" "I have sensed that is a lie, so now I know objectively it's not there"). And if he's thousands of years old, a situation HAS to have come up in that time that led him to figure out he's reading objective truth and not relative truth, right? Oro sensing the truth just pokes so many holes in the story. Like, he met Aurora disguised as the last 4 Starling rulers as well. When they went up to him and said "Hi, I'm [NAME]" he just knew that was false. And that happened at every centennial and he just, like, never brought it up to any other ruler or found it to be weird? The Oro truth thing has just been driving me crazy since I read the book and I have almost no one else to give me input on this lol.

[@Crowcaller]

I thought it was that Oro knew Grim/Isla knew each other and was confused when she seemingly lied to him about it. but as I type that wait, that doesn't make sense.... You're very correct. There's a chance Oro though did know Isla/grim had met before but not dated, maybe he asked grim about it who lied, but I think it's just a plot hole. Or a book two twist where he's the great evil mastermind who knew all along or whatever. The starling thing is something I DID think about tho! Like, aurora introducing herself would be a lie every time. Yet never once suspicious of why every Starling ruler used a fake name evidently. It is dumb. I mean, maybe him sensing lies meant he never was into aurora all the other years BC he could tell she was lying about being into him.... But also there's SOOO many other lies she probably told. Like any story about her life. Most comments about the past or history. It makes no sense.

[@GreySarasa]

@@Crowcaller you would think that Isla would want Grim to not let it slip that they're dating or even know each other bc she's sneaking out to see him and would get in trouble with her tutors if they knew, so I just assumed that no one knew they were together, including Oro (since also does Oro even talk to Grim? Doesn't everyone hate him and just ignore his existence?). Maybe Oro heard it via gossip? The more I try to make any of this work in my head, the more my brain hurts lol.

[@Crowcaller]

@@GreySarasa it definitely makes no sense, but it could vaguely be like. Oro at some point noted how super into Isla was, was like 'did you meet Isla before this' and grim was tagged as lying. But of course canonically paranoid Oro then trusting Isla entirely if he knew she and grim had some secret alliance doesn't make sense........ Again maybe the sequel will be just full of scrambles to explain this stuff. I fully expect a proper ACOTAR style laziness where the perfectly nice love interest book one is then turned into the mean horrible villain book 2 so girl can get with darkness man

[@Saibellus]

im probably putting too much mental effort into a dumb story, but perhaps oro knew they met but sensed isla WASNT lying? cuz that would be an obvious "either my powers randomly broke or somethings fucky" moment. though i think the only thing that would fix the starling issue is if his powers work on like...genie wish rules. like you can get around em with technicalities, such as "well i legally did change my name so im not really lying about having a new identity" or "an heir isnt necessarily my child - i did inherit the throne from myself under a different name sooo", though that would leave a bunch of other stuff unexplained/broken.

[@deen7530]

Aurora, 400 years ago: Hi, my name is Stella, and I'm the latest Starling ruler- Oro: No you're fucking not. And voila, the curses were lifted and everything was resolved way before the start of the book.

[@cryptikkcries]

wow, a 3 hour video essay with organised sections and an engaging narrator? im blessed today

[@FCHenchy]

"A beautiful, gleaming thing. She wielded it like a third leg." That could have been so much simpler if she just had a flair that suppressed her magic. Then the big bad would doom themself by getting what they wanted.

[@mana_wmv]

Oh my god when you started explaining the “plot twist corner”, I was so confused I had to stop the video and stare at nothing while trying to understand wth was going on ;-; Bless you for actually trying to make sense of this book lmao. Excited to see new videos from you ☺️

[@Crowcaller]

It's a deeply bizarre area even when I've spent two hours explaining every part of the plot leading up to it

[@mana_wmv]

@@Crowcaller EXACTLY. Also my first language isn’t English, so I was even more deeply confused lmao. Amazing job at making it make a little bit of sense (bc the book is a mess) ❤️

[@destrious8133]

Literally same, I put down my knitting and just looked as I tried to figure it out

[@OpheliaDrownedd]

Just wanted to say that I have watched this entire video probably more than 10 times and I absolutely adore the way you speak and explain things, its very captivating. Ironically, this video has become my comfort video despite Lightlark being such a trainwreck, when I feel anxious or depressed, I just put this on and feel like a super cool flatmate is explayning to me a book that they are reading. I cant wait for more from you. Thanks so much and dont hold back on the lenght of these videos haha!

[@Crowcaller]

I know the feeling well and it's really nice to know I am able to do that for people... I very much also rewatch and relisten to specific things on repeat and find it so nice. Didn't anticipate I'd ever provide it myself!

[@srgriffithauthor]

There was a stargate episode where everyone over 25 had to be “given to the gods” or something. The immediate consequences of that curse with the first generation would be so impactful. Like I had my first kid at 26. So that would be a baby without a parent. So all the older kiddos/younger adults would have to figure out where and how to care for all the kids. Lil do they have formula? Wet nursing for any mother under 25? It's....a lot.

[@Crowcaller]

The first few generations of starlings were pretty screwed, but after 500 years I'm pretty sure they'd get a system going. It's still definitely the most difficult curse to manage (we're ignoring the mathematical impossible wildlings)

[@srgriffithauthor]

It took me 2 days but I finally got through this one. Great review. I love the commentary of all the things you brought up!

[@GreiH]

Idk if this is the one, but there's a Stargate Atlantis episode where they crash their transportation on a planet where the people have to unalive themselves when they turn 25 to keep away the Wraith. Later it's revealed that there's a shield over the villages and the rule is for population control.

[@SomeThingOrMaybeAnother]

@@Crowcaller I feel like they would be the most interesting society out of the bunch. Very communal parenting, for one thing, because it would be tough to parent when you die at 25. Very fast-evolving socially. Potentially very fascinating art and culture. "Live fast die young" type of thing. Could even add some dystopian horror as a treat.

[@TheAquamarine4]

As a Latine reader, there is so much i can add to this that breaks down how dirty she did the very people she claimed to represent and it’s disgusting that she uses the phrase “I’m a poc author” when she is white skinned(her tan is fake i have screenshots of her admitting to getting a tan before taking new author headshots) and doesn’t even consider her Colombian Inspired debut duology(yes her actual debut were two mg books) as a book she wrote that she “wanted to read.” Aka she’s only Colombian when she needs it as a badge of advantage and when she wants to consider herself better than sjm because acotar is problematic, but when you compare yourself to a problematic person you’re not gonna come up with something great and she likes to ignore that she doesn’t EVER publicly speak Spanish or interact with international readers who are from Latam and it’s just really sad. Also by looking at the rep check how she writes the wildling men as people who ate hearts for fun and well before the curses(this views poc men as inherently violent and cruel) and Isla is not like the other wildlings she’s pure and perfect(just like a lighter skinned latina who covers her skin would be framed, especially if they only ever speak english) and then the whole hearteating makes a mockery of mayan/indigenous Mexicans (who would sacrifice hearts for their gods) and i feel like those tiny observations are all anyone needs to know.

[@applesandgrapesfordinner4626]

I thought it couldn't get any worse!

[@TheGolux]

When I think of an island "sealed off by a storm" I usually picture the island being in the eye of the storm and mostly unaffected. This isn't an excuse for anything else.

[@RM-um9xx]

As an aside, I'm SO tired of writers thinking that "wilderness" or "nature" starts and ends with forests 😑 hello oceans, tundras, grasslands, praries, swamps, mountains, deserts..? Are deep sea fish less "wild" than a parrot, just because the latter lives in the jungle? Why the fixation on flowers and trees rather than, say, fungi and lava? Why the obsession of making plants grow but always an absence of decay? Each are as natural as the other. It's a trope so worn out, it's got holes in it.

[@swagathachristie5242]

there being some sort of mycological hivebrain underneath the wildlings would have been INSANE

[@writerchick4eva]

The "It was said" bit where it was never actually said and they just came to that conclusion mutually is reminding me of those old-ass book margin citations where they justify shit with "(1) This was revealed to me in a dream" or "(1) It is known"

[@jayettienne5286]

girl, this video is long

[@Crowcaller]

Girl, it's a bad book innit

[@imjune8373]

@@Crowcaller Girl, indeed it is. Amazing review by the way.

[@nicodinisi]

I listened to the whole thing and enjoyed all of it

[@haleywagner2827]

I just started it and I was like “oh ho ho I’m a veteran to long video es-OH MY GOD.”

[@nika-bx2gl]

i 💖 long videos

[@Void-zf3bk]

The whiplash of putting this video on to listen to while painting 40k models (specifically because I didn't want to listen to any 40k lore), getting 15 minutes in and hearing "Konard Curze" and realizing that nowhere is safe.

[@Crowcaller]

After I read night lords 1 one of my friends got very into Warhammer lore and mini painting so now I'm also not safe

[@WinningSidekick]

You and me, friend. We have a lot in common.

[@orikomikuni2784]

The colors thing is so infuriating because it (like most of the problems in this book, tbh) has an extremely simple solution! Just have everyone other than Isla wearing whatever color is "traditionally associated" with their tribe. Like, not the only color they can wear, just the color thats like on their flag or whatever. Isla doesn't because A) she's young and maybe isnt familair with that faux paus, B) she's rebellious, and C) its a hint to her not having power (or you could even have her always wearing some black as ~foreshadowing~ ) . And just make the wildlings color be green bc if you're going that surface level just embrace it omg . Make it like sports team or uniform kimda thing instead of a weird ass rule if you're never gonna explain why and let your special main character break it anyways. It's a ~deadly game~ , just make them wear uniforms at that point.

[@cindiadkins9510]

the whole sexy hunger games pitch is so wild because i feel like they just really missed the point of the hunger games

[@phibs2276]

The joy of hearing someone passionately ramble about a horrible book for 3 hrs is unparalleled. Thank you for your video!

[@Crowcaller]

Double look: it's four hours even lol

[@phibs2276]

@@Crowcaller Masterful!

[@insertcheesypunhere]

lowkey if you wanted to turn this into a not regular but repeated Thing then i am Here For It. i love when people tear something apart academically. subbed purely for the potential of you doing this again.

[@nullbirdbones]

honestly videos like these really help the growing trend of Long Ass video Essays and I LOVE IT! I watched the entire thing over the course of 2 days, while doing art and just relaxing and chill, and it was really nice! You have a great narrating voice and also the structure of the video essay was easy to follow! And, also, to add to the debate about this book -- it gives the energy of a first draft that was never critically thought about. surface level aesthetics that probably made a lot of sense in the author's mind but never cease to antagonize the people who ACTUALLY HAVE TO READ THE DAMN THING!!

[@Crowcaller]

I love long video essays too..... Can you tell

[@Crowcaller]

I WILL BE DOING MORE VIDEOS I wasn't planning to, but the positive reaction has been lovely. If you like my content check out my written blog, but I'll be doing some videos! Next will be a VERY weird YA dystopia about.... Human Pets........ Which uhhhh - you'll see. The whole trilogy at once, reading rn!

[@shiffimeekling]

i'm so very happy that there will be more videos; it was a fun 4 hours. i cleaned my room

[@detectivewolfreviews4164]

Yayyyyyyy, more videos are coming!

[@SaintJoi]

Thank goodness!!! I love long form videos like this.

[@boozieru517]

I'm so excited to see more of you! I haven't been this engaged in a video in a while. I'll be sure to check out your blog in the meantime 😁

[@UryuIshida86]

Yes please. This video was a real delight.

[@rebeccabarnes3381]

Sorry if someone else has pointed this out already, but SJM’s debut also came out in 2012, and it is ALSO a dystopian-inspired deadly competition set in a royal fantasy world. So I’m betting you’re right on the money about the SJM and S&B influence

[@PragmaticProsecutor]

Maybe the Wildlings get hearts by fishing the dozens of dead Moonlings out of the ocean every month

[@arkkon2740]

That sounds surprisingly morbid Too bad alex *didn't fuckin use it*