This book was an absorbing start to what will surely be an amazing series I am so excited for!

This was about a group of people who keep their lifestyle a secret from the rest of the world. The Luminaries are a society of ancient guardians and Hemlock Falls is their home. Our story focuses around Winnie Wednesday, a girl who, along with her family, has been outcasted from their whole world because of the betrayals of her father.

Now, it’s the week of her 17th birthday and per the rules, Winnie can still participate in the trials to become a hunter. She has help of a very unlikely source. Jay Friday, the best friend who abandoned her four years ago, is the one to help her train.

Getting back into the good graces of The Luminaries is all she has wanted… until she starts to get it. There is something in the forest, something worse than the nightmares they hunt. Something that kills the nightmares… and Winnie is the only one who has seen it, the only one who knows what it is capable of. And she is terrified of it.

This was great from start to finish. The world building and the character development was inventive and Winnie as our main character was awesome. She is strong and brave and just wants to be part of a community again, yet is still furious with the people who cast her aside four years ago and doesn’t want to let them off the hook for it.

I am THE demographic the marketing was aiming for bc I saw a cool cover and Leigh Bardugo blurb and immediately added it to my TBR. I absolutely loved what I read, but this book felt kind of unfinished. There is absolutely no resolution and some of the things hinted at in the blurb aren't explored at all. The beginning has such a lovely melancholy feeling. I loved the characters, though. They all are named after days of the week, so the names sound kind of cheesy when everyone was first introduced.

Winnie - she's kind of the prototypical YA girl. Her name is literally Wednesday Wednesday. Wants to fight stuff, smart and loves learning about the creatures in the woods, starts off an outcast.
Jay - stoner boy but an amazing hunter. Used to be Winnie's best friend. He wasn't quite a love interest, but I would be shocked if future books didn't go in that direction. Has some secrets.
Darian - I wish he had a bigger part. Winnie's older brother, an administrative assistant. Cares about his family so much. Non-action guy.
Emma+Bretta - you know those nice popular girls you want to hate but can't because they're so nice? That's them. Also aspiring hunters.

For as much as I adore Susan Dennard this story just did not work for me. I hit the 34% mark and ended up giving up. Word choice doesn't normally bother me, but a repeated character trait that is said over and over and over really got on my nerves here (clicking teeth) and I can't believe an editor didn't say something to the effect of cut that out... it's not needed. I get character traits for sure but it was just so irritating to read every handful of pages.

Generally, I liked the plot of the story - I'm going to be honest I haven't been on twitter much in the last 2 years so I didn't see the bones of this play out there so I went in somewhat blind. I liked the characters but the story just didn't grab me.

I may go back to this someday, We'll see.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this early - i'm incredibly disappointed that it wasn't a fit for me.

I really liked The Luminaries! I was totally engrossed in the story, the pacing was fast and enjoyable, and I am 100% on board with Jay's character.

The world building unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired, there wasn't any real explanation regarding The Luminaries, the Dianas, and how the separation of Nons and Luminaries actually works.

With that aside, I enjoyed the story. I liked the characters, Jay was obviously a favourite, and I have plenty of theories about him. Winnie was a strong character, although her self doubt was slightly repetitive.

The plot with her Dad and his betrayal was intriguing, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book where this one left off. Lots of unanswered questions by the end of this one, so I'll definitely be picking up the next in the hopes of some resolutions!

DiAngelea Millar wrote this review for Lit Shit Podcast. Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

A pretty good spooky read!

I really like the concept of this book it is really creative and interesting. There’s a forest where a sleeping spirit creates and supports nightmares at night. The town near it is responsible for killing these nightmares every night and are broken into family clans, each named after a day of the week. The descriptions of the nightmares are really detailed you can definitely picture every monster and every character. I will say there’s some overuse of characterization with our main character who pushes up her glasses every few seconds and clicks her teeth in nearly every chapter. Less of that would have been good and maybe providing other things that align with some of the anxiety she clearly is experiencing.

The ending also could be better. It’s VERY abrupt and doesn’t end in a good place should have ended after her meeting with her friends. Other reviewers have complained about this and also that we don’t get enough answers and they’re right. We do need more solid answers by the end of book one to make things make sense. I know a second book is expected but overall the ending is a disappointment.

Spoilers follow:
Winnie and her family were ostracized after her father was found out to be a Diana, a witch who uses the nightmare forests for magic and power. Ever since everyone treats them terribly and she decided to do the Hunter trials to prove to the town that her family can be trusted. Her mom now works two jobs to support them. The kids at school bully her and her brother works a menial job too. When she makes it through the first trial everyone is shocked they think she killed a banshee but she didn’t. She can’t correct them either because all of a sudden her mother and brother and even herself are treated a lot better.

But she saw a nightmare no one else has seen. Like a mist but killer of all things including other nightmares. The werewolf and others run from it. Most people don’t believe her and she knows it’s a matter of time before it takes out one of their own. She needs up figuring out her dad was framed (she hasn’t opened the rest of his letters, which is dumb). Also she’s setting up a meeting with former best friends Erica and Jay. And that’s where the book ends. DUMB.

I suspect that Erica or Jay are the werewolf or the whisper thing Winnie has named.

I loved this book! It was intriguing and well written. The plot had me guessing - still guessing a bit, because there's clearly a second book coming- and it was just terrifying enough to be readable. Winnie Wednesday is a believable character, whom her town exiled for 4 years. I appreciate that the author wrote her fury at the town's blind re-acceptance of her family when she survives the forest. The emotions, family drama, friend drama, and the horrors in this book were interesting and well done. I'm already chomping at the bit for the second book!

──────𝔖𝔭𝔬𝔦𝔩𝔢𝔯 𝔉𝔯𝔢𝔢 ℜ𝔢𝔳𝔦𝔢𝔴──────

So, first of all I want to thank the author, the publisher and @netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Let’s start by the best thing here: 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫. This is one of the most beautiful covers I’ve seen in the last times!

I admit that I saved this book for September/October because I wanted to feel those chilly/autumnish vibes… and it didn’t fail me there at least. I was totally not the biggest fan of this book and that obviously makes me sad, but it was totally not awful – also, NO, I don’t think you should stop wanting to read this book because I didn’t love it.

In my opinion there are a lot of interesting subjects here and I find the 𝐋𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 really amazing, on the other hand, for me, a lot is missing. I never read a book by Susan Dennard before this one so I have no clue what kind of book she normally writes, but this one was CERTAINLY a 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 directed for young adult people.

I don’t think I will be reading the rest of the series. Once again, this was totally nor horrible, but it wasn’t enough to keep me interested.

This is one of the best YA fantasy I've read recently. I love a creepy mysterious forest! The dark atmosphere of the story is balanced by the sweet and complicated friend and family dynamics. Winnie is an excellent heroine who isn't perfect, but works on achieving her goals even when they seem impossible. The world is so vivd and excellent. The little clues to the mysteries and the humor sprinkled through the story are true gems.

I know that my students will love this story because they enjoy a darker fantasy story and mysteries. I can't wait to share it with them!

I’m not a huge fan of stories written in third person, but this was an interning enough story.

Winnie’s internal conflict does get a bit long winded and repetitive. I would have liked to see more story in those pages.

There is a good amount of detail throughout the story. You definitely get the feeling of how Winnie’s family was outcast and her redemption through the story.

Multiple POVs would have been excellent for this story. Clearly Jay is going to be a character we see a lot and I’d love to see his POV in the next book. Clearly we didn’t have that in this one for a reason *wink *wink but maybe in the next book.

A solid and engaging beginning to a highly promising new series. I adored Winnie and the friendships she made and it was a wonderful experience to follow her along the beginning of her journey.

I have never heard of The Luminaries before or the viral Twitter story poll it was created from but nonetheless, this book and story intrigued me, especially coming up to spooky season. This story is filled with a forest full of unique monsters and interesting rules with a splash of classic young adult tropes that we can’t help but enjoy.

The pacing was good with no part of the book seeming boring or slowing down and the writing made it easy to breeze through the story. I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading The Luminaries and am kind of disappointed that the second book isn’t readily available as I can see myself binging this entire series in one go.

However, I did find the book a little lacking in plot. While I enjoyed my time and I was glad that the pacing was quick, it felt like there was chunks of the book missing. It felt like the story needed a bit more development and the book abruptly ended without resolving certain plot points. While I understand the need to create anticipation for future books, it still needs to give us something, otherwise people are just left disappointed and not caring about the story at all. Some of the characters also ended up feeling a bit one dimensional and even the monsters could have used a bit more description and depth.

Overall, despite my problems with the book, I did really enjoy my time reading The Luminaries and would eagerly pick up the second book to see how the story develops.

I have to confess I am one of the thousands of OG #Luminerds who joined Sooz on Twitter for "Choose your own adventure novel writing "with Win and Jay and it was the best time ever. I was so thrilled when Susan shared that the Luminaries would be a real book. It’s brilliant. I loved every moment. I giggled like a maniac through all of the UGH JAY moments. There were so many delightful nods to our Twitter adventure that this book feels like a gift.

It has all the signature Sooz things I’ve come to expect in her books –
• deep, interesting, intricate worldbuilding similar to what we get in the Witchlands
• a brave, vulnerable, lovable heroine who is so easy to cheer for
• compelling plot and mystery
• fantastic side characters
• heartfelt friendships
• sweet, slow burn romance

I could not put this book down. I loved every moment. It gets all of the stars from me. Highly recommend it for YA fantasy fans.

This book was a roller coaster of emotions! It gave me slight Twilight vibes--the dreary, cold, forest-y settings made me feel like I was back in Forks, but with the addition of clans of people, named after days of the week, constantly protecting the rest of the world from the nightmares within forests across the world. The world building was easy to follow, as was the explanation of clan hierarchy: each "day" clan was reminiscent of Hogwarts houses; this clan's main purpose is to research and compile data on new and existing nightmares, that clan is responsible for training hunters, etc. While a "big reveal" about one of the characters that I think is coming hasn't happened yet, I fear that if it does happen, it will be a tad predictable--as if the clues that were dropped throughout the book are too obvious. I'm hopeful, though, that those "obvious" clues are meant to distract, and that a twist is coming. And speaking of twists: there is a twist at the end that I definitely didn't see coming--and it made my jaw drop so far that my niece asked if I was okay. No, child. I am not okay, I need more!

I absolutely recommend that you read The Luminaries by Susan Dennard if you were a YA kid in the early 2000s (or if you weren't a YA kid in the early 2000s but enjoy early 2000s YA) because it definitely took me back to the books of that time: Twilight, the Hunger Games, you know the ones. It's not like today's YA/Fantasy books, and I mean that in the best way possible: this book is, somehow, nostalgic.

All her life, Winnie Wednesday has dreamed of joining the ranks of the hunters in the Luminaries, a secret society of magical hunters and researchers in Hemlock Falls. Since her father was exposed as a witch, Winnie and her family have been outcasts, but she’s determined to change that by passing her first hunter trial on her sixteenth birthday. All she has to do is kill a nightmare in the woods at night before it can kill her. What she discovers that night in the woods is a monster no one in Hemlock Falls has heard of before– and no one believes is real. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Macmillan-Tor/Forge. Trigger warnings: severe injury, body horror, blood/gore, bug horror, violence, bullying.

This was a weird instance of enjoying the world-building but not so much the characters or the plot, when usually it’s the opposite for me. Generally, I get bogged down in fantasy novels with too much world-building, but in this case I was fascinated by the different kinds of monsters and wanted to know more. (Obviously, there’s your answer– put monsters in it, and you have my attention.) Unfortunately, I was way less interested in the structure of the Luminaries’ secret hunter society, and every moment we didn’t spend in the woods while Winnie got her ass kicked by some creature, I was bored.

More unfortunately, there’s almost no plot to be seen. The novel does exactly what it says on the tin and takes Winnie through her three trials, and literally nothing else happens. There are no twists or turns and no surprises other than the fact that she manages to survive increasingly unlikely numbers of monsters despite being hopelessly undertrained. I felt like I should be interested in the sudden switch between her outsiderness and her reacceptance, but it all felt very repetitive. Winnie goes over the same things in her head in every chapter, and the clan mottos are beaten to death.

I liked Jay’s character more, since brooding loner is one of my preferred character types, and while I have my theories about what’s up with him, nothing much comes to light in this book– which is actually one of the major problems. So many mysteries are started and left open-ended that it has neither plot nor thematic closure, so the ending doesn’t really feel like an ending, and I was kind of wondering why I bothered by the time I got there. I’m probably curious enough to read spoiler reviews when the next book is out, but I’m not likely to continue with the series on my own.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I picked up this book because the concept sounded really interesting and right up my alley. Creepy forests, mythical creatures, fantasy elements, and dark academia vibes, all sounds great. And for the most part, the author delivered on all of these. The setting and set-up was really good and I love the idea of the nightmares and hunters. The central conflict of isolation vs. acceptance was also well done and made Winnie relatable.

My only two issues was the tropey-ness of the book and the pacing. I tore through the beginning and the ending but some of the middle did sag which was unfortunate. It also falls into the standard YA tropes where I was hoping for a twist or play on them differently.

All of that being said, I enjoyed it and I will probably check out the next one because the story and world kept me intrigued enough. 3.25-3.5 stars.

Susan Dennard continues to stun with incredible fantasy writing. It was amazing to see this story go from a twitter thread choose your own adventure to a fully fleshed and well crafted story. I loved the shoutouts to the online fandom's inside jokes but I loved the depth and breadth of the worldbuilding and story as well. Incredible work!

This is very different from her Witchland series but the writing is still the same! I liked seeing what she could do outside her usual fantasy world and I really liked the uniqueness of this story.

The book is told from one perspective and it comes from Winnie Wednesday. She was a part of the luminaries until her father became a traitor and the rest of her close family were basically excommunicated. This has really affected Winnie and can tell it has taken a toll on her mom and brother as well. Because of this, I could understand her choices when it came to wanting to participate in the hunter trials. She is tired of being treated differently and wants to feel like she belongs. This was her chance and she took it. It doesn’t exactly go as planned but that’s the thrilling part of it. She has to keep up a lie and you can tell it takes a toll on her. The grass isn’t always greener.

The other characters were fine but I feel like we didn’t get to know them that well. I did like Jay and feel like a relationship could blossom between him and Winnie. I do want to get to know him better though.

My favorite part of this book was the setting and the houses of luminaries. Forests/woods are always a cool setting and by having nightmares come from a mist makes it even better! I’m looking forward to seeing what else the houses have to offer because some seem very secretive, especially the council.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. Very different, but I will definitely be looking forward to the sequel.

“But that’s the thing about the forest: it can break just about anything.”

Foreshadowed disaster, hooks readers from the start then keeps the adrenaline high in this fast paced, coming of age fantasy adventure. Readers looking for a little Outcast To Hero, Imposter Syndrome, Unlikely Chosen One in a fun read perfect for Spooky Reading Season will find much to love in this opening of a new series.
Readers who appreciate richly developed worlds with plenty of opportunity for character development will enjoy the one built here by Dennard. The Luminaries clearly constructs a solid springboard for a well developed series populated by different ancestral families all hunting and living within the shadow of a forest that breeds nightmares of infinite variety, virtually becoming a character in its own right. Not all the sinister dangers emerge from the forest, some are embedded in those same ancestral families.

Winnie lives on the edge of this forest. She aspires to join the Luminaries, hunters tasked with protecting the town, by successfully completing a series of deadly trials on her 16th birthday. Winnie hopes success at the trials will redeem her family’s name and return them from exile. A great book for those looking for a story littered with spooky monsters, grueling trials and a touch of romantic tension.

The Luminaries aims at a high school audience, but reads without any “on screen” decision making that would prevent middle grade readers from enjoying it as well.

Readers looking to dive into a new series from the start will enjoy the ending. The amount of world building warns the end won’t be tidy. Those looking for a stand alone will be disappointed.

Look for this one beginning 11/8/2022. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this upcoming title.

This is the first book in a new series called The Luminaries. I love a good Young Adult book and this one was so interesting and fun to read. Bucket up and hold on because this is a wild ride! But oh so fun and so worth the read! I love how this book came to be, definitely look it up on Twitter if you haven't already.

Thank you Macmillan/Tor Forge for my gifted copy. This book will be published 11/1 and I recommend it!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I is definitely at the younger range of young adult books, but wonderfully atmospheric