** received a NetGalley e-arc courtesy of Macmillan-Tor/Forge - thank you! **

Rating: 3.5/5

The Luminaries explores a world that is above all, intriguing as hell. This story simultaneously goes into nitty-gritty details and doesn't, but to explain some of the main points at face-value: monsters ("nightmares") spawn at night in the forest just outside Hemlock Falls, people fight them each night (and are highly respected for doing so), and teens can become the people who fight them through trials that show their skill and loyalty to the cause.

The unique history of Hemlock Falls and this world in general are by far the most appealing part of this story to me- mostly, the ~treachery~ and the nightmare/forest lore. The forest and trials were home to some BRILLIANT atmospheric writing. The relatable and engaging MC (and her interactions with some sorta-cliché yet alluring side characters) gives sustenance to the plot, as it otherwise fell a little short for me. Some gripping hooks, other than the trials, were introduced so early and left unexplained or unresolved for so long that I ended up simply frustrated. In the forest, I found that the emotional impact highly suffered at the expense of plot armor, which is likely why my interest leaned into other plotlines. What you expect to happen, happens, most of the time. Honestly, there was also the fair amount of filler/repeated inconsequential information that sometimes took away from the writing.... (ex. teeth clicking- I lost count at 16 mentions). Just needed to get that out there.

As someone who had not previously read or known of Dennard, I was unaware of the fan-involvement in the creation/inspiration of this story while reading. I can see how this would be fulfilling to a someone involved in the creative process, but not so much for an outsider, if you will.

I'll probably pick up the next installment to The Luminaries universe, as I am hopeful it digs into the meat of what I found exciting in this one.

I loved this book. The worldbuilding was absolutely amazing and completely sucked me in. I am so happy to know that this is a part of series. Can't wait for book two!

The Luminaries by Susan Dennard is a young adult urban fantasy novel about an outcast in a town of monster hunters who strives to reclaim her family's legacy by undertaking three trials to become one of the hunters. The story reminded me of the early seasons of Supernatural, but with its own rich mythology and well-developed characters that made it hard to put down.

Winnie Wednesday is part of the Luminaries, or at least she was until four years ago when her father was exposed as a member of a rogue group of magic users and disappeared. On her 16th birthday, Winnie is finally eligible to undertake 3 trials to become initiated as a hunter and, if she succeeds, reclaim her family's standing in the community. As the trials progress and Winnie is forced to work with Jay, a friend who abandoned her 4 years before, she realizes not everything in the woods may be as they appear.

Dennard balances the fantastical premise of The Luminaries with grounded characters that I found myself wanting to learn more about as the story went on. Winnie struggles with getting everything she thought she wanted but realizing it doesn't erase the four years the community abandoned her and her family and the reality of what she must face when she confronts the nightmares in the forest. The side characters feel equally developed, especially Jay who cares about Winnie but still had disappeared from her life, either because it was required or because of his own monsters. I particularly enjoyed the way that Dennard builds atmosphere and develops the characters through subtle moments that deepen the larger scale plot developments.

This is the first book in a new series, so there are a couple plot points left intentionally open at the end, but the conclusion to the novel is still fulfilling. I'm just excited to have the chance to delve back into this world again with a sequel. I definitely recommend this one and can't wait to pick up some of Dennard's other work!

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for the arc!

The Luminaries is the start of a new series from Susan Dennard. The Luminaries are a society of clan families, each named for a day of the week, who hunt monsters or as they call them Nightmares. Welcome to Hemlock Falls. A town of Luminaries. A town that our heroine Winnie Wednesday has been outcast from along with her family. We follow Winnie as she attempts to earn her place back in the Luminaries of Hemlock Falls. Winnie has wanted nothing more than to be a Hunter like her mother and she believes that its in her blood. But as she gains an opportunity to earn that place she discovers that things are not what they seem and there is a true nightmare dwelling in the forest.

I am keeping the synopsis short because I went into this book somewhat blind and it was the best experience for it. I absolutely loved this book. It was the monster hunter book that I didn't know I needed. Winnie was such a great character. Even in the moments that could've been overly repetitive or annoying I never found myself feeling that way. Rather, I was right there with her feeling the anxieties and emotions alongside her.

The atmosphere of this book was excellent. Especially when we got to enter the forest with Winnie. The terror of the mists rising was palpable. Any time we went into the forest I was on the edge of my seat. I love that Dennard used Winnie's tendency to review the monster knowledge she knew to calm herself as a tactic to teach us as the readers.

This was a great take on the Monster Hunter. It gave me Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Supernatural meets Vampire Diaries vibes and I was here for it. The whole concept of the clan families and how they divided the responsibilities of hunting were so interesting and I am very excited to see more of that in the next book.

One thing that I think could've been done better was some of the side characters and their development. There were a lot of characters and I felt like we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them, which granted is hard in a first book. I hope that we get them a little more fleshed out in the next book. I am also really interested to see the relationship between Winnie and Jay develop. I have a pretty good theory about Jay and I am really interested to see if it pans out.

Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely and I cannot wait for the next book!

In this world there is a secret society called The Luminaries that protect the world from monsters or “nightmares.” The groups are made up of monster hunters that patrol the forest at night to prevent the nightmares from coming out. Winnie and her family were outcasted and to try to get accepted back in she takes part in the hunter trials to become a monster hunter.

I found this world intriguing and loved learning about the different monsters. The best parts of the book were anytime Winnie stepped foot in the forest. I was always on the tip of my toes to find out what would go down. However there was just something that felt missing in this book. I thought the characters were just okay and wasn’t very satisfied with the ending. I was expecting a different kind of twist.

The Luminaries
By:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This book was such a fun read. It had its hooks sunk so deep into me by the tenth page, I finished it in under 16 hours, including work and sleep. That’s not a flex, it was simply that good.
✨
The story follows Winnie, a disgraced nightmare hunter in the making who finds herself as an outcast of society, along with her mother and older brother, for crimes her father committed.
Shunned from all she knows, Winnie is bound and determined to win back her rightful place in the society of the Luminaries, monster hunters, By taking on the three deadly trials of becoming a nightmare hunter like her ancestors. But little does Winnie know that there are new forces at work that stem far beyond the reaches of the nightmares she hunts. Forces that can prove far more deadly than anything she will face in her trials.
✨
I am so thrilled that this book is a part of series. I’m already salivating for book 2. A fun, fast paced monster filled read that will leaving wanting to know what happens with each turn of the page.

Winnie is a wonderful character. For students who experience slights and think about the situation, Winnie’s evaluation of the way her family has been treated is relevant I want to read it the students. And I want to know how the story ends/continues!!!

Susan Dennard is one of the authors I will buy something from without knowing anything more than that she wrote it.

BUT THEN SHE HAS GIVEN US THE GIFT OF A CONTEMPORARY FANTASY AND SPOOKY FORESTS AND THE TOWN IS CALLED HEMLOCK FALLS AND WINNIE WEDNESDAY.

I really enjoyed Winnie Wednesday as a protagonist. I really enjoyed Hemlock Falls. I also found myself wanting to join the Luminaries.

The Luminaries is a haunting contemporary fantasy that will have you wondering exactly what lives in the forest after dark. I absolutely loved the premise of this story. A forest filled with nightmares and a secret society of Hunters to kill said nightmares? Sign me up. Overall, I loved the idea of this story, but I felt some of the execution fell flat.
First off, the plot; I felt like there ended up being more questions than answers in the end. I realize this is part of a series, but this book ended up being 90% setup and about 10% plot progression which made it feel a bit slow and I was surprised when it ended that there wasn’t more. I really loved the nightmares, the fight scenes and Winnie earning her spot as a hunter, I just wish all the other open plot points had been fleshed out a little more, so it didn’t feel like such an enormous cliffhanger ending.
The characters: I liked Winnie and felt my teenage self resonated with her and her feelings of being an outcast. I liked her overall progression as a person through the story. I also found the side characters to all be fun and serve a purpose and the love interest was very intriguing. I hope we get more answers on him in the next book as I do feel like there is a lot more to that part of the plot and his character progression. One thing I found jarring was this story was told in 3rd person which felt off to me for a bit and took some getting used to.
Overall, I enjoyed this story and hope that the next book will answer a lot of the questions that were asked in this first book. I will be picking up the 2nd as I do really want to see what happens to Winnie next but I do hope the plot picks up a bit and doesn’t fall into the same trap as the first one with too much setup.

The Luminaries was excellent. It has been a while since I’ve read a YA of this genre and truly enjoyed if so this was a breath of fresh air. The books is raw with emotion and yet written with beautiful prose. This is a lot of emphasis on friendship and family in this book. Add those onto that a forest of monsters and nightmares and we have the perfect mix for an excellent story.

I would first like to thank Susan Dennard, TOR publishing group, and Net galley for kindly sending me this book to review.

4.5 Stars
Let's start with the premise of the book, which is hunting nightmares, aka mythological creatures, like vampires, werewolves, and manticores. I loved Dennard's unique take on these creatures, like vampires not having feet but instead walking around on stick-like legs. I thought the idea of hunting these nightmare creatures was a unique take in this genre. I found the pacing of the book to be good, and I kept looking forward to the challenges and to see how Winnie would fare.

I am typically skeptical of reading young adult fantasy novels because the characters are usually juvenile and not mature. However that was not the case with Winnie Wednesday. I loved her character, and the other MC’s of the book. I especially loved the relationship between Winnie and Jay, and I can not wait to see where that relationship goes.

The only cons of this book was that in the beginning of the book there was a lot of information given all at once for this new world we were in, and was hard to digest at first. The author however does a good job of further explaining more in detail as the book goes on.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book, especially to a new reader of this genre. I can not wait for the second book in this series to be released.

I really enjoyed this one! The premise of hunting nightmares is so interesting and I really loved the lore of it all. The writing style was both haunting and quirky at the same time. Winnie is a very interesting MC and it was so much fun to see her journey from start to finish of this book. The story itself flowed so flawlessly and I found myself wanting to come back for more. I highly recommend picking this up upon release day!

Genre: Fantasy / Supernatural / Paranormal
Overview: Winnie Wednesday lives in Hemlock Falls, a town where at night, the forest on the edge of the town might just kill you. An outcast from The Luminaries, an ancient order protecting people from the nightmares in the forest, Winnie would do anything to find her way back into the fold.
Opinion: Solid fantasy/supernatural story. I enjoyed the different factions in the order and the setting of the forest. I was disappointed that it ended (which is always a good sign). I will definitely be looking out for #2 as I am absolutely invested in finding out what has happened (no spoilers, so I'll leave it at that).

Loved this book and fingers crossed to see more from these characters!!! As the story began I was drawn to the different clans and what they each stood for. When new characters were introduced, you could see what they believed in from their clan back grounds. Also loved the sports card like Info when describing the monsters and how to defeat them. This gave such a power insight into the monsters and training to defeat them!!

Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

It took me a while to get into this and actually invested, around 20% of it, but I did eventually become gripped by the plot and invested in our main character Winnie.
I will say that this book was incredibly slow, and felt like it was mainly a prelude to the next book in the series, to set up the world and rules. I am very excited for the second book, as I feel that the plot might move quicker and Winnie hopefully become even more of a bad B.

In the town of Hemlock Falls, an ancient order called the Luminaries protects the town and world from the nightmarish monsters roaming the nearby forest every night. Winnie Wednesday yearns to join the league of hunters that protect the town, but after her father is exposed as a traitor, her family is shunned by the town.

But Winnie has a chance to prove her loyalty and restore her family’s name in the Luminary hunter trials on her 16th birthday. But after years of being shunned, Winnie must enlist the help of the resident bad boy and her former friend, Jay Friday, to survive the deadly trials. But dangerous creatures lurk in the forest, and it'll take everything in Winnie to survive the trials.

Dennard explains in her Acknowledgements section that “The Luminaries” was more or less conceived by her Twitter followers through polls to put her writing skills to the test. Although much of the Twitter-sourced ideas were scrapped from the final manuscript, Dennard took some big ideas and used those to conceptualize “The Luminaries.”

The world of “The Luminaries” was an exciting base concept, with clans named after days of the week running the town of Hemlock Falls and protecting the secret of nightmares from the world. Once more details were introduced, Hemlock Falls’ hierarchy and history became muddied every time the protagonist, Winnie, tried to explain them. Mainly, the clan histories and their functions within Hemlock Falls left me scratching my head and eventually moving on rather than attempting to figure out their place within the story.

Winnie, the protagonist, is a reserved, awkward teenager who exemplifies the ‘not-like-other-girls’ trope without the hidden jealousy and thinly veiled misogyny. Although I loathe this trope, Dennard makes it work with Winnie’s predicament and personality, but there are moments where Winnie’s insecurities seem unnecessary to her storyline–especially concerning Jay. I can understand the insecurities of being around a crush and hoping to impress them, but many of these moments were directed toward the other female characters in the novel and felt mildly misogynistic.

The gore and horror elements woven into “The Luminaries” was stellar––vivid descriptions and visceral emotions sent chills up my spine more than once while reading. The plotline centered around her father’s betrayal, and the mysterious envelopes felt rushed and placed haphazardly in the novel. Although this plotline will likely be built upon in future installments, there were few reasons to care about it, and it often read like an afterthought.

An atmospheric, imaginative concept with room for further exploration, “The Luminaries” has the potential of being the next great YA series.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and Tor Teen Publishers for letting me read this E-ARC.

Susan Dennard has been one of my favourite authors since Something Strange and Deadly. I was curious to see where this boom would lead as for me this is entirely something different from the premises of her other books I have read, and I was also excited to read it. The excitement did not fail, and since it has been a long time since I read her other books, this one might be my favourite now. I love the premises of the Luminaries, the different clans each named after a different day in the week, and as well the forests with nightmares. I loved the world so much of how around the world there are these pockets of areas that are protected by a society to keep the 'normal' people safe.

The main character Winnie I loved so much, her personality, her stubbornness that sometimes causes big trouble, and the awkwardness she feels from being outcast from her society she has known her whole life. Just like with Winnie, I couldn't help but feel the excitement and pull towards wanting to be in the forest, to see the different nightmares. The world and the characters just welded so well together, I didn't want to put the book down. I am excited for the second book to come out.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an eARC of this read.

Firstly, the idea is extremely original and interesting. The MC’s are likable and relatable. I think given more honing and crafting, this world could be more vibrant and less confusing. It took me awhile to see how this community worked and lived. Even at 80% into the book I was getting confused with the roles of some of the characters (i.e. lead hunter vs. clan leader, and their families) There’s clearly a lot of history in this town, ancestors who were the creators and first hunters and their descendants, but it is just A LOT to digest. And while it’s written in smoothly, and isn’t jarring, it still feels like either an unnecessary information dump, or something that needs more careful consideration by the reader to acknowledge the facts being written, which mean writing them in a more flashing light/neon sign kind of way.

The timeline of this book was all over a period of a week, and everything is just shoved into this week. It doesn’t feel possible that all of this could happen in a week and as a reader it seemed like it should have been so much longer. Winnie would train for one day and then go into the forest and do her tasks. At one point she had a cold for 24 hours and then was back to running obstacle courses and handling weaponry. The pacing of events just didn’t feel natural.

I also felt that mostly this was a mid YA book for ages around 14-16, but the length of this book felt too long for readers of that age, as well as some of the subject matter (violence/killing nightmares/death and injury as hunters/family betrayal) just felt like it was too grown up to fit the genre. This book either needed to be shorter with a little more froth and light-heartedness to it, OR have it be LESS YA and more NA and beef up the more adult content and keep the length or potentially make it longer (and preferably over a longer period of time).

Overall, I would like to see what happens on Winnie’s journey, as it’s very clear that Erica is more than likely a Diana, and Jay is the Werewolf, and Rachel is very likely to have been involved in the incident with Winnie’s father.

This book was everything I hoped for and more. While it is a very different story than what I remember from the #TheLuminaries Twitter thread, it carries the same energy forward into a compelling YA fantasy. We still have our favourite stubborn but charming Winnie, Ugh Jay and Erica, though in this version, Winnie and Erica aren’t currently as close anymore because reasons. But we also meet so many new characters who round out the story. Where the create-your-own-adventure was fairly basic, this is a true novel, complex and full of nuanced backstory.

There is plenty of fan service – such as the iconic boop moment straight from the Twitter thread. And believe me when I say I squeed out loud when I got to it. We also get answers to a lot of things that remained open questions, especially around the locket, so central to the story. I did wish there was more Diana action, as I found the organisation fascinating and I was disappointed that the shed didn’t find its way into this version. But then I think about the fact that this is billed as book one and gleefully think about how Susan will go on to torture us next and get VERY excited.

The Luminaries is both an exciting, action-packed YA fantasy for those new to the universe and a lovely comfort read for those who have been following the story’s journey since Summer 2019. Susan has done it again, and I for one am a fan – I’ve already ordered my copy from the US because I can’t wait for the UK edition.

This is going to end up being one of my favorite reads of the year.

As usual, Susan writes a world so detailed and fantastic that from the first page I was hooked. I loved Winnie as the main character, I was angry for her and scared for her. Jay and Winnie's interactions gave me life, and while they will definitely be a slow burn, they are now one of my new favorite ships.

Susan adds in lots of little hints of what's to come in the next book, and I can't wait! There are so many unanswered questions that leave me wanting more.