I haven’t been in the mood for fantasy lately so I thought I would struggle to get into this. I was sucked in right away! Loved the main character and the way the story was told. Can’t wait for the next one!

Super fun contemporary urban fantasy focusing on a teen's quest to join a monster hunter group. The story felt like a great throwback to 2010s ya fantasy books!

The Luminaries is a wonderful fantasy novel filled with Banshees Werewolves, Vampires, and all sorts of nightmares that haunt the woods.
Winnie aspires to be a hunter, and only one thing stands in her way; four years ago her father was deemed a “traitor” to the Luminaries and thus exiled from Hemlock Falls. Winnie and her mother and brother, however, are allowed to remain considered outsiders in not only their luminary community but also in their family clan.
If Winne can survive the hunter trials and become a Hunter family will once again be accepted into Luminaries and reclaim the respect they once had.
The Luminaries is a supernatural fantasy novel that is filled with just the right amount of gore and adventure. I always love a kick-ass young protagonist and in this regard, Winnie fits the bill.

This book felt very Middle Grade when it is meant to be YA. If it was a middle grade book, cool great! But because it is YA, I am judging it a little harsher.

The MC really read super young. Yes, she’s 16 but she acted more like a 12 year old.

I also didn’t really connect with the writing style of this book. It felt very repetitive. Some times I would read something and be like “did they just mention that two pages ago??” And also: HOW MANY TIMES CAN ONE PERSON CLICK THEIR TEETH. According to this author, 65 times in a single book. By the end of the book every time that came up, I full body shuddered.

A solid if formulaic YA novel, The Luminaries hits nearly every expected note in the post-Twilight YA expectations symphony, with a few unfinished moments. Many elements of the story were sourced directly from Twitter polls, which explains much of the lack of originality, and it shows. Winnie Wednesday is about to turn 16 and is facing her only chance to join the Luminaries, a monster-hunting group that exiled her family after her father was exposed as a traitor. Joining as a teen will allow Winnie's family back into their prior lives and into the society of Hemlock Falls. The trials are dangerous, however, forcing Winnie to seek help from former friend and current badass loner Jay Friday (yes, every person in Hemlock Falls has a day of the week as a last name, in various languages based on national origin. Why? No cllue. Maybe it polled well on Twitter). Do the obvious romantic leads get together? Yup. Does Winnie redeem her family only to find a threat to the town only she is equipped to face? Yup. Did I spend most of the book wishing for something, anything, to break the established mold beyond questions of how the mechanics of life in Hemlock Falls works (the monsters are supposed to be secret, but the local TV channel warns of a loose werewolf, the Friday clan is famously strong but is also down to two members)? Also yup. For preteen or teen readers looking for an intro to genre, though, they could certainly do worse.

I really enjoyed THE LUMINARIES ! It was a really fantastic spooky season read with an endearing main character, a forest filled with terrifying monsters, and a society of monster hunters tasked with keeping the world safe. I really thought Winnie was an adorable MC and really enjoyed watching her fight to become a hunter. I felt so angry for the way The Luminaries treated Winnie after her father betrayed them and honestly I wanted her to burn it all down, which I hope we get in the sequel. I thought that Ugh Jay was also a fun character and I lived for the banter between him and Winnie. There’s a small-town secrets vibe to this setting similar to Riverdale in this one and I was really interested to see how the different Luminary families were structured. I definitely was left wanting more at the end and I am really excited for more of Winnie and this world in the future!

It is expertly plotted and paced, and beautifully written. I felt that the story did lack some world building, I wish there was just a bit more. But I did love the characters and the story!

Atmospheric settings, monster hunters, a mystery killer creature, and broken family dynamics, what's there not to love?
This is the first in a duology and it is going to be a long wait for the second book.

What a perfectly spooky read, full of mystery and clues.

Winnie Wednesday is an outcast among the Luminaries. Her father betrayed them four years ago, leaving her family to be shunned by their community.
But Winnie still dreams of taking the trials and becoming a hunter of Nightmares, creatures who wander the forest at night, killing anyone who crosses their path.

I loved Winnie. She was a loner but wasn't afraid to stick to her guns, even when no one else would listen. I felt so mad on her and her family's behalf when everyone changed suddenly. I loved the descriptions of the nightmares, especially the Whisperer, they were so spooky and vivid.
I have some unconfirmed theories, so I'm keen to read the sequel to see if I am right!

The Luminaries is a gripping contemporary YA fantasy novel that will suck you from the first page!

Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to pass the hunter trials in order to redeem her family from their status as outcasts from the Luminaries. With little training, Winnie enlists the help of local bad boy, Jay Friday, to prepare her to face the nightmares that lurk in the forest of Hemlock falls. But when Winnie discovers a terrible new nightmare creature during her trials, none of the other Luminaries seem to believe her, and it’s up to Winnie to face the monsters lurking in the darkness as well as in the past.

The premise of this story was so much fun and I loved learning about the Luminary society (though I did want more clarity surrounding their relationship to regular people). Winnie’s story was a very compelling one and I was really rooting for her despite her flaws and mistakes. It was refreshing to read a “normal girl” main character who was actually normal and not somehow incredibly naturally gifted without training. I appreciated her so much more for her relatability and fallibility.

I did want more from the side characters as I didn’t feel I got to know anyone well enough to care about them aside from Winnie’s mom and maybe Jay. The twins especially I would have loved to get to know more through showing than telling, Winnie often repeated how nice they were but flashbacks may have been a better way yo convey that information. Similarly to how we keep being told how mean everyone else is to Winnie, I would have rather been shown that more.

Ultimately, what really kept this book from being 5 stars for me was that it felt like half a book. I get that this is a series and there is more coming, but the ending was so dissatisfying. We weren’t given a single answer to any of the questions I was dying to know about. Even the prologue was no addressed again. You need to have open plot lines to carry into a second book in a series, but each individual book should also have some sort of full circle moments and the only thing that really came to and end was the hunter trials. We got no information about the boy from the prologue, no information about the Whisperer, very little information about Winnie’s dad, none about the Werewolf… I was disappointed. I kept couldn’t put the book down because I was desperate for these answers and I wasn’t given any of them which really bummed me out as a reader.

I had a really fun time reading this book, I just wanted more of it to feel satisfied. Overall I do recommend it to fans of the YA fantasy genre, with the warning that it does feel very incomplete.

I loved it!! It was the perfect mixture of haunting, whimsical, mysterious, and comedic even in places with dynamic and relatable characters. It gave Supernatural vibes in places, and had me hooked from Chapter 1! A great spooky autumnal read.

Finally a Heroine who doesn’t act like a damsel, or spend the whole story losing it over a guy. I was hooked on watching her struggle and grow. She was relatable and a role model. The lack of sexual content also makes the book something a wide range of readers can access and fills the void that over sexualisation has created within the YA genre

I’ve been looking forward to reading this ARC (thanks NetGalley and the publisher) for quite some time and finally got around to it.

There are a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book. I feel like we jumped right into the action which I always appreciate, but everything was still explained well and I understood the different families roles and the magic system well enough. I appreciate the emotion of Winnie dealing with everyone switching their loyalty so quickly and having to come to terms with that.

That being said, I feel like this book was purely setup for the rest of the series. Aside from Winnie completing the trials to become a hunter, I don’t feel like anything happened. We got a lot of breadcrumbs that I think will lead to big plot points in the next book, but I found myself wishing we got just a little more.

Additionally some phrases were repeated incessantly and that frustrated me a little bit while reading.

Overall though, I enjoyed this book and will definitely continue the series.

Winnie is an outcast because of the actions of her father, in a tightknit community surrounded by monsters. Every day she helps patrol and pick up bodies of those that have been taken by the creatures that lurk the forests at night yet she wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries and be a welcome and included member of their society again.

In a number of ways this book definitely felt like set up. Nothing was really wrapped up or resolved to a satisfying extent. There were a lot of things I liked though so I have positive feelings overall (with the right to lower the rating if the second book remains unsatisfying).

I love stories with dark supernatural elements, and the characters and their hints of growing attachment were interesting. There is also a sense that some things may not be as they seem.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit - it's a YA story that didn't feel too juvenile for this almost 40 year old reader. It's in the fantasy genre, so right off the bat you know you have to suspend your belief a bit, but this one also felt rooted in reality as well.

One complaint that I have is that I wish there was a foreword explaining how the book came to be, instead of it being in the acknowledgments. While reading it, especially in the beginning, I just felt like I was missing something. Like there was knowledge of the book that I should have already known. So much so, that I had to check to make sure it wasn't a second book in a series.

After finishing this book, I'm demanding a second book! I need answers to so many questions!

Overall, I would recommend this book.

Susan Dennard has returned with a new series, 'The Luminaries', and this book is for all of Dennard’s readers who remember her choose-your-own adventure story on Twitter.

The beginning of this book held a lot of promise.

Winnie Wednesday lives in Hemlock Falls which happens to be one of the many places where the Luminaries reside. The Luminaries are a group of people who protect the “outside” world from monsters produced in these mysterious forests. Unfortunately thanks to Winnie’s father, who betrayed the Luminaries, Winnie’s family has been shunned. They are now considered outcasts in the town.

Winnie’s family is suffering socially and financially because no-one even wants to work with people who have no loyalty to the Luminaries and their cause. What Winnie’s father did was not a true representation of her. There’s nothing Winnie wants more in life than to become a hunter for the Luminaries, and help them take down all the creepy monsters of Hemlock Falls.

On her sixteenth birthday, Winnie is finally allowed to participate in the trials to become a hunter. She knows a lot of people are going to doubt her and even try to refuse her participation but she’s determined to prove her worth. She’s not just doing this for herself but to make her family happy as well.

I really enjoyed Winnie’s character. Her heart is her biggest strength. I loved how hard she tries to make the best out of everything despite how ruthlessly everyone in Hemlock Falls treats her. She’s a determined character who shows a lot of growth throughout the story.

Things get more interesting when Winnie begins the trials and we learn more about the different types of monsters. To be honest, I felt as if the world building lacked a lot in this book. We get a lot of explanations of things but it was hard to keep track of the different families in Hemlock Falls. It was confusing on what roles they each played as well which made for an off-balance plot at times.

I’m a fan of Susan Dennard’s writing, especially her Witchlands series. Her world building is what pulls me into her stories. So, I am disappointed that I felt it was lacking in this book. It doesn’t take away from her overall storytelling though. I loved the characters, especially Winnie and her family! I think everyone holds a lot more secrets than we know in just the first book. I’m looking forward to what happens next!

Overall, I enjoyed The Luminaries. For the first book in the series it was interesting and action-packed even when the plot moved at a slower pace sometimes. It might have been my high hopes for this book that left me disappointed at times but I didn’t hate it. I can’t wait for the next book because this ending still left a lot of questions left unanswered!

If you’re in the mood for something spooky or you’re a fan of urban fantasies then give The Luminaries a try!

I was immediately drawn into this book and hooked, it’s so fantastical, I loved all the creepiness, the monster-packed story, secret society, I just loved everything. It's such an engaging story but does feel like an introduction to the cast, the story, the fantasy but I expect this with a first book and I do I think this is going to a great series.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Luminaries are hunters of nightmares. Winnie, sixteen, is about to start the trials that lead to becoming a hunter. She lives with her mother and brother. After her father was exposed as a spy, their family lost everything, including him. Now they struggle to make ends meet. Winnie is bullied by classmates that call her traitor because of her father. She is excited to become a hunter and draws every creature she sees with her wonderful artistic skills. On her first trial, Winnie accidentally stumbles onto a banshee that’s immediately beheaded by someone or something else. She carries the banshee head back to headquarters, completely in shock the whole time. As soon as other hunters see her holding the banshee head, they assume she hunted and killed it. Super impressed, the hunters don’t let Winnie get a word in and she’s finding it hard to speak anyway. After that, she and her family are celebrated and treated much better. Winnie is able to attend hunter school and her brother Darian is promoted. In the meantime, Winnie asks Jay to train her because she feels extremely behind since she hasn’t had access to teaching or coaching for the last four years. Jay agrees but Winnie has difficulty reading him. He’s aloof, strong, and oblivious to the attention and flirting of Winnie’s peers. Jay’s training helps Winnie with the trials but she keeps seeing the Whisperer that no other hunter has seen. As Winnie builds her skills, she discovers a coded message from her father and the book ends with the shocking deciphered note he left for her. A sequel to look forward to! Supernatural mystery, 4 stars!

Likes/dislikes:
I like the following:
-The quote from Grandpa Frank, “That’s why we’re called the Luminaries, Winnie, we are lanterns the forest can never snuff out”.
-The mystery of the Whisperer and the discovery of another mystery that leads into a sequel.
-I enjoyed the writing and that Winnie is an artist.
-I like Jay and the mystery surrounding his life.
Language Content: PG-13 for 16 swears, no f-bombs
Mature Content: PG-13 for underage drinking, mentions marijuana; LGBT side character
Violence: PG-13 for dead, ripped apart bodies, beheading

This is a tricky one to review; there are many, many things I really enjoyed and appreciated about this book but it also felt like it was missing so much. I was never bored once, but I finished the book wondering what happened. I enjoyed my time reading, but I still felt the book was half-baked and unsatisfying. I'd still recommend my fellow fantasy readers to consider picking this up (especially considering it is in a major book box this month!) but with some tempered expectations.

With all that, here is what I *did* like.

Dennard wrote some great characters and interpersonal relationships. Winnie Wednesday was a fun character to root for and a breath of fresh air in a YA fantasy competition story because she was not an all-encompassing badass. She was a 16-year-old girl who attempted to train in her living room and quickly realized she was way too over her head. Her mother, brother, and former-bff-now-trainer Jay Friday were all well built out characters and the dynamics between them all were strong and complex. I especially really liked the exploration between Winnie (and her family's) feelings towards the town once they welcomed them back from exile and the complicated feeling of, once again, being welcomed back but acknowledging just how fickle these community ties were. It was an uncomfortable, raw emotion that we could see them all grappling with in their own ways.

The monster lore the Luminaries are based around is freaking cool. Almost feels a bit like Supernatural where anything and everything is on the table for monsters. Winnie is meticulous about the facts and learning about them so we got brought up to speed quickly through her mental recollections. I really enjoyed this part and that it also highlighted that there is more that is unknown we will get to learn about in future books.

Finally, the competition. I love a good competition plot. I won't even be particularly picky about them. This book had defined competitions we were introduced to as they were coming up and Winnie's attempts to pass each one (despite, like I mentioned, being woefully unprepared) by the skin of her teeth.

And what I did not like...

There were times the writing was just strange. I read that this started off with Dennard doing Twitter polls to decide what character decisions were and I can't help but wonder if these moments were fan service nods to that community. But they did not fit the tone, or context of the page and pulled me out of the story thinking "why the hell are they describing Ginger Ale like this?!" At best, these sections gave it more of a juvenile writing style that felt much younger YA than the dark themes of the book aligned with.

Besides the competition resolution (e.g. we get to the end of the new Luminary trials), the rest of the plot, characters, and storyline felt like it ended mid-book. And I know you might say "but Rachel, that is the point of a series" and I hear you but that isn't what this felt like. It felt abrupt and out of place for an ending. Maybe it needed just a couple more chapters to make this feel like its own, full book that is leading to a sequel. I saw another review that said this book never goes past the synopsis and that struck chord with me, too. I struggle to put my finger on what exactly it was but I felt entirely unsatisfied at the end of a book that I, generally, enjoyed.

My hope is that the second book fills in all the cracks from the first and this can be a strong series. I see the potential but am also nervous that it could all collapse if the second book doesn't bring it.

The Luminaries by Susan Dennard is an intriguing read full of tension, and suspense with intricate worldbuilding! The romance is classic YA at its best with all its teen awkwardness, sensitivity, impulsivity, love, and wholeheartedness. I could not read this book fast enough. I just had to know what happened.

I thought this was a solid first book in a series. I have read a handful of other books by this author and definitely see a maturation of ability, which is awesome, so I'd definitely say that this is my favorite of hers thus far! I loved the space that this book occupied, too--it wasn't too young YA but wasn't too old (so as to be adult), such a good sweet spot that I love to read in. The writing is great, the pacing of the story is excellent, but I do think it was a little short. (I know, not a common complaint of mine). I wish there was more time to establish and marinate in the world and the magic system, but since this is just the beginning of the series I'm not too bothered by the depth of this first novel. Hopefully the world and magic will continue to flesh out as we progress in the series. I definitely recommend this--can't wait to read the next in the series!