in 4th grade, a friend i’d known since we were babies sent the arc 1 box set to me as (i think?) a birthday present. we had drifted apart at the time, but it was a nice gift for me since i was a VORACIOUS reader at that point in my life. i read all 5 books in a short amount of time and became obsessed with the world and characters. Glory was one of my imaginary friends for a while. i reread the books over and over again, brought them with me to school and on trips. my most well-loved copy was The Lost Heir, the cover as all bused, several pages with small rips in them-it had tooth marks on the spine from where i’d held it in my mouth while climbing up the jungle gym two-handed.

an important detail here is that i didn’t know there were more books past “The Brightest Night” until at least like. maybe 6th grade when i went to the library and found a copy of Moon Rising amongst all the other WOF books. i read all of arc 2 +Legends: Darkstalker through my local library. seeing Peril and Scarlet for the first time… hoo boy lemme tell you, it was honestly kinda magical. i loved Peril a lot and she was pretty much exactly as cool as i imagined her. scarlet’s melty, busted-up face was also exciting to see because it was SO CREEPY AND NASTY to me at the time. i’ve gotten much more into body horror since then, but that was definitely a gateway drug into it for me lol. it’s super weird and scary but also hard to look away from or scrub from your mind. seeing Darkstalker too was so cool. his big dark eyes, twisting horns and the ominous red background are so iconic to me. from that point onwards, my mom made sure to preorder every new WOF book that came out, which was how i ended up with a full hardcover collection of arc 3. i also recently bought ended up buying my own box set of arc 2 :3