#anti lightlark

[angel-maybe-alive]

Retelings cliches that piss me the fuck off

♡Alice in Wonderland is about drugs - it could be about society, it could be about neurodivergency but no, white girl doing LSD is cooler, I guess.

♡ what if Superman was evil - then it wouldn't be Superman dumbass, like the main point of Superman is that he is a good person like it's the whole deal hyperpowerful but really good

♡actually any what if the heroes had no morals- then you are just doing Greek myths with extra steps

♡Romeo and Juliet, but one is an oppressor and the other the oppressed - Litterally, both families were in equal standing in society. Why you need to make it abusive for no reason.

♡Beauty and the beast, any reteling of beauty and the beast - no, it's not Stockholm syndrome, no a shapeshifter elf with abs doesn't count as a Beast, and Belle was a nice person In the original why everyone remakes her as a cunt.

♡my book it's just like the hunger games but...-Shut it I need you to please tell me if you understand that no, hunger games isnt just about reality television and a battle royale, I swear to God...

♡Pinocchio but it's about a robot- flower print for spring groundbreaking

♡it's inspired by the works of tolkien- no, it's a transcript of you and your group of only male friends playing dungeons and dragons while high on cheap weed at 03:00 am on the suburbs while listening to pop punk on MTV in 2003, we get it you want to bang a hot elven maiden and slain a dragon

♡is inspired by Harry potter- For the last fucking time Rowling doesn't own the concept of magic schools let go of those fucking chains and let this woman go it's a magic school book just call it that goddamn it

♡it's inspired by fairy tales - Disney version or the cultural ones because one way or the other, your childhood crush on an animated villain shouldn't be the only thing fueling your writing career.

♡it's about Greek gods...-*sigh* I don't even know where to start with those just read something other than Percy Jackson(I love percy Jackson by the way) Lore Olympus and the first page of Wikipedia on Greek mythology and then maybe spend a long time thinking if whatever you are planning to write isn't somehow more misogynistic than whatever the fuck an old Greek scholar wrote thousands of years ago okay.

♡what if (real life bigotry) was reverse - just don't for a first time writing, for someone in a privileged place in society, it's just a bad idea altogether, Dont

#anti booktok #anti sjm #anti acotar #books #anti disney #anti sarah j maas #booktok #writing #and here i go again #making lists if things i hate #to feel something #anti lightlark

[allamericanb-tch]

posting this at the risk of sounding like a pretentious loser

you can learn a lot about a society from its reading choices, and lately, i'm concerned with bookstagram / booktok. there appears to be two dominant genres capturing readers' attention: fantasy and crime / murder mysteries.

fantasy readers are huge consumers. the amazon / barnes and noble wet dream, spending every last dollar on the newest release of six part series. but fantasy novels have always been a regular story in disguise. when you strip away the magic of todays fantasy what are we left with?

today's fantasy stories tend to revolve around taboo themes, especially explicit content. essentially, a form of literary pornography. it reminds me of the joke you used to hear guys say when they bought playboy magazines: "i read it for the articles.”

unlike this new stuff, the essence of series like lord of the rings, the chronicles of narnia, and harry potter lies beyond their fantastical settings. they all delve into the timeless battle between light and dark, and retells the age old narrative of good versus evil, while exploring the nuances of power and the conquest of internal darkness. in each case, magic serves as a narrative tool rather than the central focus.

without passing judgment on the morality, the question is: what does this trend say about our collective priorities in relationships and the themes we find most compelling what is wrong with us? the parallels for crime / murder mysteries are apparent. the fascination with crime, murder, and serial killers raises questions about societal interests and individual takeaways.

as opposed to the timeless and profound themes explored in classic literature, these contemporary genres seem to focus on more immediate and shallow aspects of human experience. i wish our literary interests extended beyond mere escapism and momentary entertainment.

a truly good book is timeless, addressing deeper aspects of society, morality, economics, sociology, mortality, and spirituality.

#spilled thoughts #thoughts #bookblr #books #booklr #books & libraries #books and reading #bookworm #booklover #reading #booktok #book tumblr #bookish #book review #fourth wing #lightlark #anti lightlark #fantasy

[wander-wren]

today i am angry because lightlark keeps (kept? i think it’s dead) getting compared to the hunger games

i don’t know if tumblr saw the lightlark drama and i’m not interested in rehashing it especially bc some of it got uncomfortably personal towards the author at one point and also it was months ago so just! suffice it to say lightlark is a book by alex aster, it is a terrible book, and i did not put myself through the torture of reading it but i did watch a 7.5 hour video essay

(i think the essay could have been 6 or even 5 hours, and i think this person went a little too hard on the critique at some points, so that rubbed me wrong a little but it was also extremely thorough and i was bored.)

but anyway. one of the big things about lightlark is that it was marketed as “hunger games x acotar” which is….fine. but every time someone compares a book to thg i’m automatically suspicious because no one does it right.

and of course, neither did lightlark.

the book is a complete disaster so i will try to stick only to the relevant points but seriously. there’s so much.

the official premise of lightlark is that six realms in a fantasy world have been cursed for hundreds of years. each curse is (supposed to be) a twisted version of the realms magic, and the curses also cut them off from their main island of lightlark. except for once every century, when the island becomes accessible for 100 days and the six rulers travel there to try to break the curses via death tournament.

but then you get to the book and learn that the curses are only broken if a ruler dies without an heir, since their special ruler magic just transfers to the heir and no one gets anywhere. this was only a caveat so we could have a young protagonist ruler, i’m sure. ALSO, IMPORTANTLY, if a ruler dies without an heir, their entire realm also dies.

and obviously that’s bad so the rulers have to consider carefully who they want to kill, and they keep putting the killing off bc it’s not easy to condemn thousands of people to death.

so why, pray tell, the FUCK, are you doing a death tournament every century.

(they’re not, by the way. the first 50 days are dedicated to some demonstrations that are definitely hunger games inspired and meant to allow the rulers to forge alliances bc even though there’s only six of them they’re also required to partner up for some reason?? but there’s almost no fighting and almost all the fight scenes end very quickly with no real damage to the main character. it got really annoying really fast.)

but like, let’s pretend for half a second that lightlark IS about six rulers fighting to the death to break a curse. it’s still not even close to being like the hunger games.

the hunger games was about teenagers under constant surveillance forced to perform and then kill for the masses, many because they weren’t rich enough to buy their way out or into good training.

no one except the rulers and the essential staff is even allowed on lightlark, and no i don’t know why that is. and the characters spend the entire book trying to avoid killing each other as much as possible (well, minus two cases) bc they want to find another way to break the curses. i don’t understand why it’s billed as this big bloody dangerous battle even in-universe when everyone involved really REALLY doesn’t want to fight.

also, this isn’t related to the thg nonsense, but if i’m talking about lightlark i have to talk about That Twist. alex aster really loves her twists and is very proud that no one can see them coming but that’s because reading the twists is like watching the street for cars, then trying to cross and getting hit by an airplane.

as i said, the characters keep trying to find a new way to break the curse, even though it’s been 500 years and many of the rulers have been alive that long (no i don’t know if that’s normal or a ruler perk, it’s not explained) so they SHOULD have tried all of these fairly obvious methods by now but SURE, JAN. this book would make so much more sense if it was only the first century and everyone was still scrambling to figure the curses out. but whatever. alex aster wanted her protagonist to be in a love triangle with two 500yo men

(there’s nothing inherently wrong with that and i actually really loved grim, not for the reasons i was supposed to bc the writing was bad, but i liked him, until—well, put a pin in that.)

ANYWAY. THE POINT. our protagonist, who i guess i should say is named isla, needs to find “the heart of lightlark” which “blooms where darkness meets light.” everyone assumes they’re looking for a super special flower but they can’t find it. then, isla decides this random-ass bird that’s only almost gotten her killed twice is DEFINITELY going to show them the heart, so they follow the bird.

and at dawn, the bird lays a fucking egg. and it falls out of the nest. and cracks. and the yolk. floats. into the air. in time with the rising sun.

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW MUCH IT IS A LITERAL FUCKING EGG

no foreshadowing. isla has an internal monologue where she thinks she always did see the moon as an eggshell and the sun as yolky, but the yolky sun description happens twice in 400+ pages and the egg moon description happens Never, so like. shoutout to aster’s copy editor??

i can’t take this book seriously bc it is a literal egg an EGG isla has to carry an EGG YOLK to break the curses. there are scenarios where i could accept that but this Serious YA Fantasy Book is not one of them.

and since i mentioned the one thing i did actually like, i will explain isla’s one love interest, grim. technically her only love interest bc nothing about the other guy struck me as romantic but idk maybe her inner monologue was yearning or smthn. anyway, grim.

grim is from the least trusted/most stigmatized realm. he’s described as a huge hulking nightmare of a man, a demon, every badscary description under the sun. but like. the times he is alone with isla? he takes her to a chocolate shop during their first meeting and hand feeds her truffles, which is a little weird and overly sexual but…still. chocolate. then he hides her from another ruler no questions asked even though he has every right to be suspicious. he opens up to her and shit. he calls her “hearteater” (it’s a reference to her curse, her people eat human hearts to survive, no that doesn’t make sense either) (also isla is magically not cursed so our protagonist doesn’t have to be scary and gross and worry about that during the novel haha!) (guess what else is never properly explained….)

anyway grim calls her “hearteater” but like, almost in a teasing/endearing way, which is fun, and when they start to fall in love he just calls her “heart” which is ALSO cute imo i’m weak for nicknames. he’s like. the narration and aster really really want me to think he’s the scary bad boy but he’s just such a soft dude.

and then. ohhhh, and then. one of the other hit-by-airplane twists is that the weird sexy dreams isla has been having all book about grim? they’re not dreams. they’re memories. the two of them used to be together for about a year before the book started, and grim erased her memories as part of a plot to betray her yada yada i was braindead by this point so i don’t fully remember all 17 elements of the betrayal. but like…..first of all that retroactively makes all of their interactions but especially the chocolate thing kind of weird and creepy? also WHAT was the FUCKING POINT pf making her forget she loves you if you’re literally just going to seduce her immediately anyway. like. the book makes a halfhearted effort at having grim avoid her but it really didn’t feel like he was purposely being mean to push her away. because every time they did interact he was so sweet! sir!!

anyway he betrayed isla probably mostly to keep up the ambiguity of the love triangle and so aster could brag about more twists and i hate that bc WHY. he was doing so well.

anyway. i got so far off track. lightlark is a wild fucking ride and i did not even scratch the surface of the plot-hole filled mess that this book is. my sister does own it and i did check a few things bc i straight up could not believe they were real (like the egg. i cannot get over the egg.) so.

also this book only got published bc it went viral on booktok so that kind of tells you everything you need to know. the good news is it does give me some measure of hope/an ego boost bc if lightlark exists in the world…..surely whatever i’m doing can’t be too bad.

#wren wrambles #lightlark #anti lightlark #thats a tag?? #DOES tumblr have a lightlark community?? #im so late to all of the discourse #booktok #booktok cringe #every time i watch a video essay i need everyone to listen to me restate the video essay in my own worse words #thank you

[lesbocrocker]

Someone needs to tell Alex Aster that a character actually needs to figure in the story to be considered good representation.

#this post is about azul and cleo #lightlark #anti lightlark #alex aster

[toast-com]

YA Authors stop making the age gap between the main character and the potential love interests/other characters so dang big challenge: Impossible.

#this is referring to 2 different book series #anti lightlark #anti acotar

[readinthedarkpod]

We talked about Lightlark in Episode 7 of My Podcast Knows What You Read In The Dark. Memes ensued. Part 2

#Lightlark #alex aster #anti lightlark #booktok #books #bookblr #book podcast #book club #podcast

[king-oro-of-lightlark]

Hey y'all, anyone else can't get Lightlark off your brain? Wanna try and fix it despite everything? Actually genuinely enjoy it? Join the unofficial Lightlark Obsession Support Group on Discord!

#lightlark #anti lightlark #lightlark by alex aster #alex aster #discord server #discord #fanfic discussion #pic for visibility #divergent

[i-guess-im-making-this-happen]

The stars aligned and the nostalgia for memories of roleplay during my MMO days just happened to coincide with discovering what I'd say is the biggest disgrace to the publishing industry since 50 Shades of Grey and After. I've decided to write a fantasy trilogy based on the old storylines that impacted me the most, fueled by passion for my character, love for my old friends, the hope that I can tell other people a story that meant a lot to me, and the knowledge that while I may not be able to do better than what already exists, I can't do worse.

I fully intend to do this, and I intend to do it well. Details under the cut.

Things currently planned include:

Friendships that change, drift, and may need to be cut out of one's life.

The knowledge that even though a lot of people suck, there will be people who stay by you, and they're the ones whose opinions matter.

"Well I guess I suppose nobody else is helping me, so I have to do it myself."

The exhaustion that comes with putting up with casual discrimination.

Not a single abusive relationship portrayed as romantic. The main character is asexual and on the aromantic spectrum.

This might be a low bar, but so help me god I'm going to have editors and beta readers.

I'm currently using Artbreeder to generate concept images, and that's what I plan on posting here. I just don't have the money to hire an artist to be my picrew-on-demand for multiple characters and it also helps me from getting away from seeing all of my characters as their video game avatars instead of people that look like people. That being said, once I'm at the appropriate stage, I will use money to commission real art from a real human person.

Everything I post here should be taken as about 70% actual concept image, 30% vibes.

#introduction post #writing #author #fantasy #fiction #anti lightlark

[gritsandbrits]

So i was on Twitter earlier today and saw a post making fun of LIGHTLARK - you know uber popular "got a movie deal before it even got published" fantasy Lightlark? Well it was making fun of the writing style specifically a paragraph from hapter 45. So i read the whole chapter and MAN.

Is it BAAAAAAD. 🐐

Here's the original chapter (sorry if it's so small im literally working on mobile)

And HERE is my rewritten version with a slightly bigger font since im used the notes app.

NOW which version do you prefer?

#lightlark #tiktok #booktok #rewrite #anti lightlark? #gb asks #does this constitute aa fanfiction? #ya fantasy #books

[girlhelpicf]

in no way am i a lightlark defender (i hate hate hate lightlark) but the massive amount of backlash it got is a little disproportionate considering the absolute bullshit a lot of people are pushing out, and when you consider the genre and the fact that alex aster is a woman, it feels like twilight pt2 (i also hate twilight and think just about every ounce of criticism is deserved). is a 5+ hour review of just shitting on the book necessary? no. will i watch the entire thing multiple times? yes. But it is a little weird

#in a couple reviews ive listened to theyve brought up points that just arent #critique worthy and actually make sense within the plot #and its like is this genuine or are we doing the fem scrutiny thing again #to be clear lightlark deserves so much criticism the dialogue is bad the plot is subpar the worldbuilding is shit #but its like not the most horrific thing in the entire world #okay thank u #lightlark #anti booktok

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

I love it when people anti recommend I love it when people insult books I've never read I devoured that entire Lightlark diss article it was the best thing I read all year

[angel-maybe-alive]

Happy pride month and remember kids

-Making a character gay after the book is finished is not representation

-Having your only gay character to be a celibate who dies alone because the only person he ever loved was literally villain is also bad

-also finally making the character gay In Canon on a movie but also making the villain lover to be trying to apparently stop the literal holocaust is not a good look either

-Making wherewolves a metaphor for HIV and then making one of the only two prominent wherewolves in your story to be a predator who pray on young boys is absolutely horrible and not good representation

-Also allying yourself with people who opposed the right to marriage for gay people and then using gay people to justify being a terf is also a rather bad and disgusting thing

-The vixen mean bisexual woman is a bad stereotype

-Using plausible deniability by making your bi characters weirdly confuse but never setting on whether or not they are actually bi is bad

-Stop burying gays

-Yes even if the gay is buried before the story started this actually makes it worse

-(not about books but) naming a trans character Sirona Ryan was just malicious compliance and rather childish btw

-We need the sweet teen gay rom coms, we need the sad gay stories, we need the painful coming of age books, we need evil gay people, we need those the only thing we don't need is another secondary character baddly written as a second thought on straight media

-Lesbians exist and If your "lgbt book rec list" is just gay man I don't trust you

-speaking of lesbians stop with the bullshit of "there's too many stories about butches" because there really isn't

-Dont try to cut the "TQ+" from LGBTQ+ because trans and queer people have your back and trust me if they lose their damn rights you better believe you are the next on the chopping board honey it's delusional to think that this moral panic will stop at drag queens and trans people

-Stop begging marvel and Disney for crumbs and go consume media from indie gay people for the love of god

- And lastly have a good pride month and remember it's not just about "all love is love" it's also about "conservatives really want to do genocide on queer people so please stand in support"

#yes i made this another unpopular opinion post #happy pride #anti booktok #anti acotar #anti lightlark #anti jk rowling #she has no right to use the gay community to be transphobic after being such a shitty ally #anti jkr #trans rights #trans pride

[emberlyric]

Updated April 12th, 2024

--

Writeblr intro ~

Hi! My name is Emberly Erick and I’m a writer and digital artist. My current WIP is a cyberpunk superhero novel called Anomaly.

I’m hoping to use this blog to promote my original work and hopefully some more projects in the future!

My art tag: #emberlyricart

My writeblr tag: #emberlywrites

My instagram: here - more art of my characters + a few animations

My twitter: here - not as active yet

—

My WIP ~

Anomaly

Basic Summary - A group of superheroes try to overthrow their anti-superhero government while working through their past traumas.

Progress -

First Draft - 101k/ 100k words DONE!

Second Draft - workbook stages

——

---What to expect from my blog ~

WIP snippets of scenes

Character sheets

Character art

Writing ramblings

Moodboards

Writing progress

Tag games

Character art

Please feel free to send me messages/asks about my story or my art! I would love to hear from you!

—

---Misc ~

Fandoms: sorry if this rando writeblr blog follows you, I have a few fandoms I'm into at the moment, such as:

World of Warcraft

Overwatch

Detroit: Become Human

Hazbin Hotel

The Beatles/many other bands

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Owl House

Pokemon

Sims 2

Persona 5

Currently reading: Lightlark by Alex Aster

#writeblr #writeblr intro #about me #pinned post

[rayne-the-neutrois-nerd]

heeyyyy

about those booktubers you mentioned that talk of a wide range of book types 👀 could you rec me some pretty please?

Yeah ofc!! I mean I should warn you is that they do mostly read fantasy, but they do have other favorites and genres they like, but fantasy is their favorite (...because fantasy is my favorite so ofc I follow the ones with similar tastes)

Daniel Greene- Talks about the scifi fantasy world as a whole, has a segment of videos called Fantasy News covering new fantasy stuff for all mediums, not just books. HUGE fan of The Wheel Of Time and tbh where I got a crap ton of my recs for fantasy series. He has tons of like, ranking videos and stuff just talking about the fantasy genre from newest to oldest to trad to indie and it's great. Also his bookshelf roasts are great.

A Clockwork Reader- One of the first I watched, is a big fan of like, soft fantasy? She used to say magical realism but then she and i learned that that is a latin american term and I forgot what the alternative for the name is for it, and google isn't helping. Her favorite book is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern so, books like that, with that vibe. Should note is that for fantasy she does lean more towards ya but there is a good amount of adult in there. She loves classics and poetry as well and reads a good decent amount of nonfiction, especially if it's about intersectionality and feminism. I also like her voice, it's pretty soothing.

Unresolved Textual Tension- Technically a podcast, but they have youtube videos. I love these guys, they're so funny. I found them when they were tearing apart Lightlark and then other infamous books. But they do have plently of books they adore they talk about. AND THEIR OPINIONS ON STUFF DIFFER SOMETIMES!!! I love hearing them debate when one likes an element and the other doesn't. And even if the book is bad, they do still give compliments if they think something deserves it! And the opposite is the same too, if they don't like something in a book they love, they'll bring it up. They're really fair with their reviews. They inspiried me to pick up Temeraire and so far I'm liking it!

Holly Hearts Books- Okay to be fair I haven't checked in on her in a tad but from when I binged her stuff I loved how enthusiastic she is about fantasy. And she's not shy to admit if a book is technically bad even if she enjoyed it (because people can like bad things! Poorly written stuff can sometimes be fun and thats okay!). Or if it's a really well written book but just isn't her thing. She's another that also really loves to make sure she adds indie books into her collection instead of just trad stuff. (Or at least she was when I last watched. It's been a handful of months but eh)

Merphy Napier- Kind of like Daniel, but more focused on books. Occasionally she talks about other media but not super often. But she's also not fantasy-specfic and actually talks about a wide range of age ranges since she has kids and she sometimes talks about some good middle grade! It's just refreshing. Totally got me wanting to read Lies of Lock Lamura (Ugh fuck is that what it is??? Fuck...)

Elliot Brooks- Similar to Merphy but more just Adult Fantasy but does talk about some indie published stuff too. Haven't watched her in a tad but I do remember liking her takes.

Reads With Rachel- Okay we're getting into the handful of people who are more reviewers and are harsher?? with critques?? Rachel does have a ton of books that she's shared that she loves but she does offer good insight into bad books about WHY. And sometimes she reads bad books just to point out why they're harmful in a funny but respectful manner. Also if you wanna keep up to date with some shitty authors and who to stay away from and why, then her videos called Authors Behaving Badly are pretty good. She offers some good insight about a lot of things. Also VERY LOUDLY anti-book banning and censorship, to where she put some video evidence of her going to her like, town meetings about them and speaking out about it.

Crow Caller- Absolute ruthless longform videos about Why X Book Is Bad, but I feel they approach it more from "This is a learning experience, we can see what not to do by examining a work that doesn't get it right". Also funny. Mostly reviews like, christian-ish inspired book series because I think they're ex-catholic? Or thats just a topic she likes to dive into I dunno.

Tale Foundry- Okay this one is odd because it's more of a writing channel but they often use specific stories to showcase a trope, or technique, or magic system, etc etc. So I guess you can kinda use that as a reccommendation? I kinda do.

#sorry this took forever I had to keep stopping bc im at work

[andthentheywilleatthestars]

Can't imagine how Lightlark's "but what if the villain got the girl" hook was ever going to end up in a story that was good since from where I'm standing the only ways that could play out are

The "villain" is actually just a goth with authority issues, two perfectly heroic traits unless you're so goddamn Christian you can't tell the difference between evil and anti authoritarian

The protagonist thinks entirely with her pussy and doesn't care who gets hurt because of it, which sounds like an extremely unpleasant person to spend time in the head of

#original #tropes

[toast-com]

Oro, king of Lightlark, ruler of Sunlings. He had hair like woven gold, eyes as amber and hollow as honeycomb. Mean eyes that pinned her inplace. He frowned and nodded curtly at her in welcome, purely out ofobligation. (Lightlark, Chapter 3, Blood)

Oro, babygirl, you are my favorite character.

"Oro studied her dripping hair, and he had the nerve to smile. “I knowour seas are irresistible . . . but please, in the future, do limit your swims to earlier in the evening so as not to keep the rest of us waiting.” (Lightlark, Chapter 3, Blood)

He raised his chin slightly. The crown atop his head was gold and gleaming, its spikessharp enough to draw blood. “Very rude—though perhaps my expectationsof your realm were too high to begin with.” (Lightlark, Chapter 3, Blood)

"The Sunling ruler blinkedbut did not stop the Skyling boy from taking Isla’s plate away. “Weakstomach, Grimshaw?” (Lightlark, Chapter 3, Blood)

Grim's got NOTHING on Oro. The golden babe himself.

#toasty talks #anti lightlark #lightlark critical #oro lightlark #he's babygirl #one of my few favorite characters