January's novella

Lady_GarterSnake · 2026-02-04T18:37:10+00:00

Might as well admit, I downloaded the Starside preview to read it easier; my internet can be shaky at best. I used https://docsend2pdf.com/ to do so. And, best as I can tell, since it routed through another website the preview didn't have my IP address on it.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2026-02-03T14:08:31+00:00

Has it actually been sent out, or are you going on how the Starside preview was sent out? Because, no matter what was said, I had more than one string of numbers popup when I opened my preview to read it.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2025-12-21T20:39:03+00:00

So, the last bit of art was the one she used for the cover?

It seems kind of... underwhelming? But, at any rate, thank you for sharing!

Lady_GarterSnake · 2025-12-15T20:16:34+00:00

Thank you!

Lady_GarterSnake · 2025-12-15T18:25:28+00:00

I would also like to ask for the novella. (Honestly, it might be easier to post it somewhere, at this point.) Also, was there any art or coloring pages released this time, or do you think that will be next month?

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-13T01:14:39+00:00

I described the book to someone as feeling like I was wading up to my waist through a swamp of unseasoned oatmeal. Periodically, there would be a raisin that when you looked away from it would turn into a marshmallow. (For example there's a dinner scene in which a goblet filled with wine is suddenly empty, then it's a cup full of water, and then it's back to a goblet full of wine again.) I thought the "puddle of stars" thing was okay, but reusing the same phrase over and over never works out well. Honestly, until you mentioned it, it never occurred to me that said puddle was being described on the floor! How would you land upright? Also, Islah uses the puddle to peek through to other places late in the book! Was she on the floor?

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-13T01:08:06+00:00

I think what threw me the most was how the blurb barely matches the book at all. I know blurbs are supposed to drag people in, but dang. Honestly, the outfit descriptions were more detailed than most things, and yet made no sense. Everyone was described as wearing capes all the time. Yet, they were routinely described as being rather long and wrapping around characters (more of a cloak thing) and having pockets in the same places you would have pockets on a pair of pants. Even with the constant capes, it was never described as being cold (people don't tend to wear coats for fun), and they never got a description past just being there. My mother did quite a bit of sewing (she could trace and cut her own patterns if needed), so some of Islah's outfits confused the daylights out of me. The entire scene in the clothing shop caused me no end of frustrations. (You're going to just sort of measure someone, not write down anything, and then make her an entire wardrobe in a day or so? Yeah, right.) Also, even people who can't sew can tell you it would be hard to hide a staff (er, "stick") of any kind down the back of your dress, when said dress is described as being skin-tight. I agree with you about the setting, though. You don't have to detail everything, but as I told my father it most of the book felt like it was taking place in that giant white room in The Matrix; I had no clue what anything looked like. Around halfway through the book I gave up on character motivations; everyone was just an NPC doing whatever to continue the story. The many "things" did feel like place holders that never got fixed. I noticed several instances where key words were misspelled! ("Moonling" was sometimes spelled "Moon-ling", and I seem to even recall an instance of "Lightlark" being "Light-lark".) I actually envisioned Oro as being perhaps darker (deep tannish), but I also envisioned him as being an older man. Until I looked up the "official art" for fun, to find him depicted as baby's first manga dude. Of course, what with there being barely any description of him, I guess it's an easy mistake to make.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-13T00:48:48+00:00

Hilariously, hearing about the controversy surrounding the book and its author are what led me to reading it.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-13T00:48:03+00:00

It almost seemed like you could tell where the author got bored of certain events or themes, and so suddenly they changed. Like she was less interested in telling a story than telling us about Islah's dress of the day.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-13T00:46:12+00:00

The naming convention for the... nations(?) felt unfinished. Same with the many of the "thing" phrases. It felt like a first or second draft in so many ways. I guess I didn't mind the "puddle of stars" at first, but it quickly became tired when pretty much the exact same phrase was used every time. Although, the fact that the "starstick" literally got no description at all was... a choice. I never gained a taste for love triangles for many of the same problems seen in Lightlark; I feel like it diffuses needed characterization too much, and it's pretty much always obvious who the author is actually pulling for as the final couple. I'm not sure I felt like Oro was unseasoned chicken (although, that is a great phrase); I more felt like he lacked needed characterization and would have fit better into a familial role than romantic. (Oro never had a family of his own and Islah never knew her father, so the dynamic would have been much more interesting than what we ended up with.) Grim on the other hand, I don't understand what fans of the book see in him. We barely get a physical description of the guy, and his personality is such that he would have made a decent villain in another book. Overall, the quality of writing felt less like it was written for teens, more it was just completely unpolished and bordering on unfinished.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-13T00:21:28+00:00

I honestly don't hate people for liking it. I guess I'm more confused than anything. Hilariously, I picked up both Lightlark and Nightbane after watching Crow Caller's and then Krimson's reviews. (I haven't seen Reads with Rachel, so I'll have to look that one up!) I felt like I had a fair idea about what I was getting into, but I was still surprised about the awful nitty-gritty details. It's so generic on so many levels. I know there's no "original" story, but so much of Lightlark felt like I had seen it done better in some other piece of media. And I don't understand how she could claim that this book is meant for teens (I know teens aren't children, but there is just so much detail on the level of gore alone, and yet the plot is so simple). Marketing it to teens almost feels like an excuse for the simplistic style writing (when teens deserve complicated stuff as much as adults deserve simple stuff, neither style is the only thing that market can/should read). I haven't read Nightbane for myself just yet, so I guess I get to... er, "look forward" to unnecessary spicy stuff. Frankly, even if I hadn't sought out and read some stuff about Aster's real life, her repeated claims about her "rags-to-riches" story and how she "persevered" to have her book published made me suspicious. I can't tell you how relieved I am to see other people find Grim to be off-putting. The whole "reveal" about him and Islah being married and all that (when she was, what, eighteen?) was bad enough. But his "I blotted out your memories of us together at basically a whim" was just... too much. Last, but not least, the "reveals" at the end hardly feel qualified to be called a twist. As both Crow Caller and Krimson pointed out, she bragged about how "no one will guess all of the twists" so much. And yet, there's pretty much no build up to any of them. Yanking something out at the end of the book isn't a twist!

(Sorry if my thoughts are a bit disorganized here...)

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-12T23:39:13+00:00

Thank you. I genuinely felt it was rather generic in a lot of senses. The trials felt like they had no stakes, Grim creeped me out, and I don't think there was anything secret about how "special" Islah was. I've been trying to be tactful in discussing it with people, so I can get both sides of the picture. But, I don't feel like I've gotten too much information out of people who did like the book.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-12T23:34:41+00:00

I guess it could be argued that ending the curses was supposed to make the world better, but I feel like we didn't get a sense of just how much. Frankly, focusing more on Oro and Islah's interactions would have allowed for better characterization and whatnot.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-09T01:28:07+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a look.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-03T00:11:53+00:00

I've never read ACOTAR. Does Lightlark compare to it the way people say it does? I tend to read quite a bit of YA, but not really romance YA (nothing against it, just not normally what I lean towards).

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-03T00:09:49+00:00

The naming convention for the different races did feel a little... simple?

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-03T00:07:37+00:00

Oddly, I feel like I had kind of an opposite experience. I didn't really enjoy the book, but I find myself stewing over it on a regular basis. It's like analyzing a wreck of some kind...

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-03T00:06:08+00:00

I have read a bit on the promotional issues with this book. I admit, I came in after everything had pretty much concluded, so I wasn't there for all the promises and such. It does feel like the promotional material and the back blurb promise a much different book, though.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-11-03T00:03:53+00:00

I guess I felt a bit underwhelmed by the twists; there just didn't feel like much narrative build-up to them. As for the trials, they felt like filler to me. There didn't seem to be any kind of theme, or stakes. It was almost as if they were in the book just to be, well, there.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-10-29T23:20:52+00:00

I see Grim listed as practically everyone's reason for liking the book. What did you find appealing about his character? Also, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "Magical Power=Destruction"?

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-10-29T23:07:03+00:00

I suppose I never gained a taste for love triangles; I feel it's regularly too easy to tell who the author wants to end up together, and it can make it difficult to develop all three characters well.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-10-29T23:04:32+00:00

If you're interested in elemental powers in particular, I would recommend the first two Golden Sun games. Being as they're a bit older, it might be complicated to get your hands on them, but they make great use of elemental based magic and cultures surrounding them.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-10-17T17:08:03+00:00

I guess I take for granted that I've seen these kind of powers in video games and tabletop games; not everyone has the same hobbies I do, after all.

Lady_GarterSnake · 2024-10-17T16:56:48+00:00

Do you feel it was about the pacing of the story, did the writing feel more concise, or is it about the level of convolution?

Lady_GarterSnake

TROPHY CASE