Lightlark (2022) is the first novel in the young adult high fantasy series of the same name by Alex Aster. The novel combines elements of fantasy, adventure, and romance with a Hunger Games-inspired competition to explore themes of Beauty and Attraction as Untrustworthy, Authority’s Duty to the Land, and Abuse, Betrayal, and Abandonment. Aster sold the novel in a TikTok pitch. She is also the author of the middle-grade series Emblem Island. A New York Times bestseller, Lightlark was optioned by 2Universal in a pre-publication deal.

This guide is based on the 2022 Amulet hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of child abuse.

Plot Summary

Isla Crown, the 19-year-old ruler of Wildling, prepares to participate in the Centennial on the magical island of Lightlark. Five hundred years earlier, Lightlark was splintered into six separate islands. Each of its six realms had unique powers, but each was also uniquely cursed. From then on, every hundred years, the rulers of these realms convene to demonstrate their powers and fulfill the terms of a prophecy, hoping to win even greater power and break the curses. If the prophecy is fulfilled, however, one realm is fated to die. Isla attends, hoping to break the vicious curse of her realm, which dooms every Wildling to eat human hearts and live without love. At the Centennial, Isla meets her competitors, the rulers of Nightshade, Skyling, Moonling, Starling, and Sunling. Most are ancient rulers, as old as the curses, but Celeste, the ruler of Starling, is Isla’s age, and the two have made a pact to help each other. One major point of conflict is that, unbeknownst to anyone at the Centennial but Celeste, Isla has no powers.

Isla quickly clashes with Cleo, the ruler of Moonling, and develops a wary attraction to Grim, the ruler of Nightshade. But the people of Lightlark fear Wildlings, which means Isla is often left to her own devices. She and Celeste hunt for an ancient artifact called the bondbreaker, which they have heard can break curses; Isla’s hope is that, once the Wildling curse is broken, she can connect to her power and free her people. In their search, they must impersonate people of each realm, break into hidden libraries, and keep their alliance a secret, all while still participating in the demonstrations of the Centennial, a series of initial trials set by each ruler. Through cunning, Isla is able to keep her powerlessness hidden.

Isla’s relationship with Grim grows through a series of what seem like chance encounters. While Isla feels a mixture of fear and attraction to Grim’s ceaseless flirting, the two share cautious bits of information about themselves. As her feelings for Grim grow stronger, Isla realizes that she wants much more out of life than her upbringing has prepared her for, and her determination to break the curses and gain power grows.

Twenty-five days into the Centennial, the rulers are paired off. While Isla expects to be paired with Celeste—the other young, inexperienced ruler—she is surprised to find herself instead paired with Oro, the Sunling ruler and king of all Lightlark. Oro has not been very friendly to Isla, and he offers her a begrudging deal: He will protect her from other rulers if she will help him find the heart of Lightlark, a magical energy center that appears every hundred years. He hopes that Isla’s Wildling-born affinity to nature will help since the heart always attaches itself to a living thing.

Isla shares this information with Celeste, who thinks that they can use Isla’s pairing with Oro to help gain access to another library that might house the bondbreaker. Isla spends days searching woods, meadows, and caves of the various islands with Oro, growing closer to the prickly ruler. The search for the heart of Lightlark also puts Isla in more danger, and she is attacked multiple times in the course of their quest. When she finally decides to trust Oro, telling him about her powerlessness, he betrays her by telling the other rulers her secret and asking to be paired with Cleo.

Fearing for her life, Isla escapes the castle on Lightlark’s main island. She seeks shelter on the abandoned Wild Isle, ancestral home of the Wildlings, a place Grim showed her. Grim has offered her his help, promising to come at a moment’s notice if she needs him. With Celeste’s help, Isla tries to find more information about the history of the curses and her own lineage, but her closest informant is killed, and Isla herself is captured and locked in ice by Cleo. Oro eventually saves Isla, telling her that he revealed her secret as part of a strategy to find the heart of Lightlark. The two reaffirm their deal and continue their search.

Only days before the Centennial is set to end, Isla suddenly realizes where both the heart and the bondbreaker are. When she and Oro go to get the heart, Isla is shot with an arrow. The heart’s magic heals her, and she shares her hunch about the bondbreaker with Celeste. The two have invited Grim to join them in using the item, but Grim reveals that he and Isla have had a year-long romantic relationship that he’s hidden from her memory. When Isla, heartbroken, goes to find Celeste and use the bondbreaker, Celeste uses the item to steal Isla’s Wildling powers, which have been hidden from her by her guardians. Celeste reveals that she is not Celeste, but Aurora, an ancient Starling ruler who originated the curses. She wants all the powers of Lightlark and has now managed to get them. Stunned by this betrayal, Isla fights Celeste, killing her and reclaiming her powers.

In the denouement, the curses of each land are broken, but so is Isla, who has been emotionally battered by repeated betrayals. The only person she trusts now is Oro; the two are in love and can share their powers with each other.