Lightlark 2: The Worst YA Book Returns With Vengeance 

You might say that the author is the bane to your existence, both a cure and curse. It’s almost like the books existence both hurts you and brings you value, like some kind of bane/cure/curse thing. Almost as if you’re in some kind of eternal infinite cyclical something in which this book is your bane, your counterpart both a cure and a curs-

grim telling isla about his traumatic upbringing really was just him saying "when i was 6 i was forced to eat cement"

I feel like the forced to wear revealing clothing trope comes from the fact that women can’t admit to wanting to wear sexy clothes unless they’re deemed a slut.

2 Light 2 Lark: Grimcel and the Wench Throne

Ok I know this is still technically supposed to be a YA novel, but I feel like Grim's whole dumb "pain makes you stronger" deal would have been so much more interesting if Aster had just had the guts to make him a full-on masochist, like sexually. Hear me out: - Avoids glamorizing SH with the whole "enduring pain is Morally Good and also literally makes you a powerful wizard" thing; instead it just turns him on which is all anybody's reading for anyway. - Canonically, this all comes from a formative childhood experience where he endured ritualized public punishment to win daddy's approval. That is like, a perfect lab-engineered scenario to give somebody a fetish. - Adds a fun little twist to his existing power dynamic with Isla, where he's the gruff bad boy protector in regular life, but during sex he allows himself to be extremely vulnerable and she's in charge. Maybe Isla discovers that after having every single aspect of her life thus far dictated for her by others, being in control is exactly what she wants, and perhaps even starts exercising more agency in the actual plot as a result! Also Aster can write some long-winded descriptions of Isla's sexy dominatrix outfits or whatever. - Makes all those wound-tending scenes a little less pointless if at least they get to be horny about it.

I wish fantasy authors would stop copying ACOTAR which is not even a great series to begin with 😭

The next book is going to be an extended 500-page Grim/Isla love scene. Then the epilogue will helpfully explain why Oro was actually secretly evil and abusive the whole time, and how Grim never did a single thing wrong in his entire life, so it's actually okay that Oro's entire purpose in the story was to die unceremoniously off screen and get cucked by Bargain Bin Rhysand

I like how the Nightshade land is supposed to be this edgy wretched hive of debauchery and sin, but it just sounds like the Hot Topic and Spencer's Gifts shops you can find at any suburban mall in America

The thing about Enemies to Lovers is it's meant to be a relationship ARC. there is meant to be stages and progression. It is about starting off opposed to another character, perhaps even thinking them a monster, and then the narrative stripping down their preconceived motions of each other through their interactions. They learn to humanize each other, and this eventually grows into caring and pater love. But so many times Enemies to Lovers just means that there is Some Guy who is a sexy asshole that abused and hurts the MC in a way that she hates but secretly finds so sexy until she finally just Gives In and admits that him being a jackass turns her on, actually. Oh and he kills a random rapist for her at some point. It's just so boring.

For some reason "You will dream of me touching you. With my hands." absolutely fucking killed me. Actual laugh out loud.

"The falling from a hot air balloon to riding d**k pipeline" had me dying.

I enjoy the implication in that first minute or so of the video that Crow just hangs out in a dark unfinished basement between posting these.

I am so confused with how helpless Isla seemingly is all the time in this book. Like, the first book went on and on and ON about who trained she was and how badass she was with sword and daggers and FUCKING NINJA STARS… and yet she’s constantly getting bodied by random NPCs

How does it feel to have better drip than anything in the lightlark universe

"People usually have multiple friends" ok NOW we're in the realm of fantasy

The more I think about it, the more I come to a conclusion, that Grim wants to date Isla specifically so he can feel superior compared to her. He constantly infatalizes her as a ruler and as a person. And that's the reason why he never tells her about his plan to return to the OG world or about them being married and what said marriage means (her dying if he dies and vice-versa). He has to be the one in control, the one who knows more. That's why he erased the memories of all the Wildlings and saved Isla's abusive caretakers and never told Isla about it. It's probably not how Alex Aster wanted people to interpret Grim's action. One might argue that Grim not telling Isla anything was specifically made so that the plot could happen and there is nothing more to it. But it's actually kind of interesting that in making this decision Alex Aster actually gave a quite accurate portrayal of a man who dates only younger women specifically because he can feel like the smarter and more mature one and women in the same age-range would actually see how pathetic he is.

When Grim attacked the person Isla was about to bang consensually out of pure jealousy, I had to stop, eat a bagel, then come back. Because I was so flabbergasted.

lmao, 'cleo is too bitchy to attend meetings so she sends some random dude', so there really can be only 1 (one) woman around?

She could have solved the skeezy memory loss by having Isla suggest it herself: "If I don't remember, he won't know I'm lying." It would have given the character agency, and shown her actually being able to think ahead. Forcing people to do things against their will is abuse, and I worry about what kind of relationships girls are in these days if they find these kind of misogynistic, abusive arseholes sexy. Do they understand this kind of behavior is controlling and not at all okay?

Forget all this mess, now I want a book about an Uber friendship polycule

Ah yes, it is time for a 3 hour essay of my favorite book: Nightbark featuring Woman Named After Boat, GOLD, Edgelord McEdgy, The Color Blue, and Cleo going to seductive haunts.

The fact that the book ends with Isla somehow still having feelings for Grim and even contemplating a relationship with him, is where my suspension of disbelief breaks. I can get into dark romance. I can get into love interests who are bad people. But this ain't it, 'cause the book's narrative is constantly bending over backwards to justify Grim's horrible actions, which just makes them seem even worse, because it makes it seem like Isla doesn't fully grasp the implications, and therefore doesn't understand what she's getting into with Grim. Like, let's go through a list of Grim's horrible actions, that I can remember, in no particular order: Constantly used what I can only describe as a racial slur as a term of endearment to Isla Erased her memories without her consent Never divulges informations that she would need to make an informed decision, and unless when telling said information directly benefits him, makes him appear superior or in the right Negged her into wearing an outfit she was uncomfortable in, as well as seducing a man, but decided to violently torture a guy, she was kissing consensually, right in front of her, telling her he would torture him even more, and only then revealed the guy was a rapist Groomed her after removing her memories, which he claims he did so she could seduce Oro without her feelings for Grim getting in the way, but considering the "seduce Oro" plan was part of Aurora's plan and Grim only agreed to it because Aurora would "give him Isla" and Isla was already willing to marry him? I seriously doubt that was his intentions for doing so. Kidnapped an entire people away from their homeland to his domain and wiped their memories. The story insists he had their consent, but I doubt that an entire population would agree to that, especially from a guy who is considered untrustworthy by the general world population. Had no qualms about using memory erasure after the woman he claims to love expressed such strong feelings of violation from it, that she refused to be with him Tricked her into secretly marrying him by lying about the marriage necklace's true meaning, presenting it instead as a helpline, and never telling her that once she wears it, she can never take it off Started an actual war in her name, when she never asked for it, and when doing so put her directly in danger. Claiming that the war is to save her because their lives are linked, but because of this life link, he put her life in double-danger, as she's not only in danger of his people killing her, but if the other side kills him, he dies too! It seems more like the war is for selfish reasons, and he used the "my life is connected to Isla's" thing as insurance, since he only shared this information when he was about to lose! If getting to the other world was all about saving Isla, why the hell didn't he try the diplomatic route first by talking to Oro about it? The only reason I can think of, aside from Grim having ulterior motives, is that he doesn't love Isla as much as he loves his ego

I thought it was kind of interesting how they turned the plant into a drug and a healing medicine, but the fact that they just keep bringing it up in the most ham fisted way ever, makes it feel like they're slapping me with a wet fish

The _idea_ of a villain whose homeland had a brutal, barbarous institution of formal child abuse which promoted the stoic endurance of pain as a manly virtue... that could work, I think. Literally flaying them moves well into the realm of the ancient Spartiates (which is some extremely grim stuff that really shouldn't be brought into a YA novel, I feel), but the basic concept is entirely functional. _However,_ the Spartiates make a case study on how societies with such horrific practices tend to be deeply dysfunctional and a bad thing for everyone involved. Some of the ways these practices perpetuated from generation to generation was by A) twisting those subjected to it into a position where questioning the necessity of the abuse would be directly opposed to their own mental stability - they _have_ to convince themselves that the abuse is beneficial, because that conviction is what's keeping their own trauma suppressed. B) fusing the abuse into positive aspects of life, so that rejecting one means rejecting the other. C) making former victims actively complicit in brutalizing the next generation and stigmatizing hesitation or doubt about doing so, thus fostering further psychological dependency and adding peer pressure to the mix. In other words, it would mean either having Grim go through a very real, very personal emotional meltdown in order to process what was done to him, putting that in his backstory as a major formative experience in making him who he is today... _or having him still be under the impression that it was all okay._ That last one actually could work well for an out-and-out villain - imagine if Grim had reacted to Isla's disgust by laughing and getting nostalgic about how a friend of his married a wildling, and they 'had' to physically restrain her from intervening when it came time for their child to be put through the same cultural meatgrinder that his father experienced. "Outsiders! Soft, the lot of you."

1:26:31 “eloquently said, dumbass”. This phrase, exactly how crow said it, needs to be normalized

Given that there's nothing in canon to contradict it I choose to believe Grim's previous unspecified self-harm was actually just CBT. he just hits himself in the nads with a hammer real hard and gets a massive power boost as a result

Crow’s arc of going from not knowing how to pronounce Isla’s name to knowing and having a ~70% hit rate of pronouncing it right is a better arc than any of these characters

I like to imagine the "star stick" exactly like Card Captor Sakura's one. The sad thing is that CCS is way more mature than whatever Lightlark pretends to be

both lightlark and nightbane are valid warrior cat names.

i genuinely have no clue why anyone would find grim attractive in the slightest 😭ignoring him grooming isla, it still feels like the dude is a literal walking red flag but the book warps around him to position his actions as romantic when he is so unnervingly possessive, violent, and insufferable up to a point he just pisses me off. this has been itching my mind throughout the whole review because it boggles my tiny mind he is supposed to be a love interest. edit: just got up to the final plot twist between isla and grim. it genuinely made me so angry and i was awestruck i didnt think it could get worse and yet here we are.

It would appear im being called again

“The Launch of Orbs” sounds like the place holder you put in to get the point across that you’re definitely going to change in the next draft

As someone writing a fantasy series centered on magical animal companions and their relationship to humans I am disappointed in how little lynx matters. It feels like such a checked box instead of a character. When the whole point is a constant presence to love and support you

I legitemately am being haunted by the specter of lightlark. i do not choose the hyperfixation and it is THROTTLING me

Grim: And... there are many different kinds of pain Me: *immediately pictures the tumblr heart locket My Bals meme* haha wow okay Grim Crow: Pain in his heart- Me: OH right. yeah. that was also definitely what I thought he meant.

I wholeheartedly believe Crow put more effort and thought into this slay of an outfit than anyone did with this book (series)

grim's backstory is that he was horrifically abused and that's why you have to feel bad for him, but isla's backstory is also that she was horrifically abused so to make him seem sympathetic he has to have been abused *even harder*. oh your guardians left you hanging from a tree? well mine SKINNED ME ALIVE. in front of my DAD. so there

It’s wild to me that Aster didn’t retcon the mind wipe to be Isla idea. Seems like it’d have been an obvious mid-book reveal. A flashback that had her say “Grim theirs no way I can get close to Oro if you’re around, I need you to erase us from my mind” While Grim did as asked he left the sex memories on purpose

The yaoi hands part is absolutely taking me out😂😂😂

the “awww……….. what did he mean by this?” was pure comedy LOL your delivery is top notch .

I'm someone who reads a lot of dark romance, aka romance stories that include darker themes and tropes where the romantic plot and love interest have qualities that would certainly be considered abusive if a real person or relationship had them. Things like extreme violent posessiveness, stalking, drugging, even violations of consent. The thing is, there are a few things that any good dark romance author worth their salt does in their writing: 1) including content warnings either in the book itself, in the synopsis on any purchasing website, or on their personal website, 2) not writing that sort of thing for underage readers! There's no sure-fire guaranteed way to prevent teenagers from accessing 18+ content, but at the very least there should be some sort of disclaimer that this sort of thing is intended for adults only. I'm not fond of this ongoing trend of dark romance tropes infiltrating YA, especially because sometimes I'm not even sure if the author even recognizes that the tropes are unhealthy. It isn't YA by any stretch, but that's my big problem with 50 Shades- at least publicly, E.L. James acts like Christian and Ana's relationship is a healthy and aspirational and not (at best) unhealthy and rife with red flags and (at worst) intensely abusive. I have no problems with the depiction of abusive relationships in fiction, even when it's depicted in a way that is "romanticized", as long as the author is aware that what they are writing is abusive and not something to aspire to.

The sheer pain in your voice at "Panthers don't have pointed ears" was a delight. I'm sorry you had to go through this, thank you for writing this review.

you can tell crow’s learning to let go because she made the video about the sequel a mere 3 hours long

Gods I hate how they throw out what little interesting traits they give isla for the sake of fitting tropes better. She’s horrified at grin’s abuse even though because of her background it should seem like training. And the author could have shown off her character here and how her past shaped her. But no, it’s thrown out to have her comfort him. Same with her being shocked by nudity. We can’t have a consistent character shaped by their world and environment. It’ll get in the way!

oddly enough, Lightlark 2 reads very similarly to the Phantom of the Opera/Bible fanfic I wrote when I was 12 😭 Crow, it included QUITE a few angels

21:24 something I'm super thankful for with Sanderson's Stormlight archive is that the MC Kaladin was chronic depression and its not a thing he can just conquer. Like it's acknowledged in the text that it's a thing that is and will be with him he can and does however get better at managing it and learning how to avoid being sent over the edge and spiraling. Learning to work with and live with his mental illness actually is pretty important for learning and growing with his powers but it's not just like ok I leveled up and depression is gone

I love your outfit styling! You look like a celestial ruler, it fits the theme so well. I didn't know Lightlark had had a sequel/rewrite, oof.

The most horrifying thing in this entire review is the information that you read this book IN PUBLIC in its entirety. Praying for the recovery of your retinas Crow 🙏🙏🙏

I knew that the sudden urge to rewatch the first review should’ve been a sign

I appreciate how this author managed to find the only wrong way of pronouncing Isla

so something ive seen in online dnd communities is that you occasionally find a dm that is super railroad-y and totally unwilling to give players agency in their dnd games. and the advice given to these dms is "you dont want to play dnd, you want to write a book". hearing you compare the book to pathfinder, my current theory is that the author of these books was given that advice and actually followed through o.O

I mean... eye-lah is how you pronounce the actual name Isla, and I had assumed that it was a deliberate connection with the ISLAnd.... but apparently I was putting way too much credit in Alex Aster's writing ability.

I got jumpscared irl by a copy of Lightlark in a local independent bookshop recently, taking this as my way of healing from that lol. Thank you so much for exploring these books, I frikkin love your work

I feel like if she wanted her main character's name to be pronounced that way, she could have slapped an "e" onto the front of it.

I actually like Sara j Maas’s stuff. Not bc it’s peak literature or whatever, but because it’s easy to read and fun. I know it’s not like… good literature lmao That being said, copying that general vibe and template is a shit idea, because unlike hunger games rip offs, SJM rip offs don’t have a solid base to copy off of. It’s like trying to build a good table by looking at a broken one and using that as your basis for what a good table looks like, with no other instructions. This is all a long winded way of saying lightlark sucks Edit: I should add, I haven’t read ACOTAR. I’ve just read throne of glass and that series. So hearing about what goes down in ACOTAR got me AGHAST

Oh my goodness. Isla is such a Mary sue, and it feels like the author is making all of the characters circle jerk her by saying “no you’re wonderful, you’re the best thing ever!” I’m only like 30 minutes into the video but oh my god the dialogue is AWFUL

Only with hearing this, my suffering mind immediately create an imaginary scene. Where instead of refusing to kill Grim when he found out that Isla and Grim tied up in life, Oro just straight up "Fine, I'll marry you too!!" to Grim

books like this make me want to write a series with an evil shadow boy. i don't know if it would be good but it would at least be better than [gestures at grim, rhysand, all other YA evil shadow boys]

I want to point out that the rebels who wear brown and beige, their leader is named Marron which is french for a brown color.

Lightlark reminds me a lot of RWBYY, worldbuildingwise. New powers and new enemies in ways that increasingly don't make sense.

I’ve been following Crow since the first Lightlark video came out so this feels like a fun little bit of nostalgia 😂

I was trying to figure out the whole “comparing Isla to Nightbane” thing because it really makes no sense. She never really does anything that could be considered morally dubious out of her own will. Yeah she bothers Grim but that’s a him problem. She’s not a curse or a cure or ANYTHING as a character, but then I realized it’s not *her*. It’s Oro and Grim. Her only notable character trait, the thing everyone uses to describe her, is just “Ooo! Which boy will she chose!!” And for a book that seems to be trying to have any semblance of a strong female protagonist type character that just kinda sucks.

I guess Aster took the, "black cats are mini panthers," literally with that pointed ear line. LOL Edit: I'm also baffled that Grimm is just slaughtering people for the smallest thing and Isla just doesn't seem to be bothered at all. If I had a boyfriend that so much as yelled at a dog I wouldn't stay with him. This sounds like a 12 year olds first fanfiction with excessive death as making it sound more serious. Like who's so unbothered by this? Lol it's not like she was raised in carnage.

"im not going to download tiktok" suddenly my respect for your opinion has multiplied by a thousand

there’s just so much bad stuff in the flashbacks but they really could’ve just had two different names for the same flower. Like regional language differences happen all the time

I ended up reading Lightlark after watching your first review because I was curious to see what elements of the book stick out to me and I'm fond of death game/fantasy stories. Considering my least favourite parts of the book were the parts not centred on the Centennial, especially masquerading Grim's disrespect and borderline sexual harrassment as romantic, and one of my favourite parts was how wiping her memories without consent was actually treated like a dealbreaker.... I don't think that curiosity carries over It's a shame to know the author hasn't improved that much. They feel like first drafts considering the issues that any proper editor should have pointed out and changed

I think Grim's voice is just permanently Crimson Rouge's dramatic male lead voice to me. Because every time you read one of his lines I can hear it lol

Love it when Isla said “it’s nightbaning time” and and both night and baned/lifed and deathed all over the place. Truly one of the curses and cures of all time. This video came at a perfect time, as I’m working on my own fanfic about the main love interest having memory loss and getting it recovered and this was an absolute great checklist in what to Strictly Avoid if I had any doubts about how it should progress! fantastic video as always, never stop putting out videos on books I’ve maybe vaguely heard of because I will always listen to several hours of YA lunacy. If you’re in need of another series to cover, i’ll suggest “Hidden Wings” by Cameo Renae- I only read the first book when I was a kid but it’s about angels and Lucifer and forbidden paranormal romance and I would love to hear your thoughts on it

Ah yes, I absolutely LOVE the "asexual but YOU'RE the exception" /s To be serious, I don't mind a story being about someone who's on the ace/aro spectrum discovering having feelings for someone or whatever, but I feel like way too often it's not used as a way to explore acespec/arospec experiences (with microlabels like -flux and gray- etc.) and instead used as an excuse to just "ignore" their orientation. As an aroace person myself I'm real upset that while ace people can be all of these things (including people who have sex) I find it frustrating that you so often see portrayals where it's "I'm ace but you're special uwu" like pls It feels like an insult as someone who tries to take a lot of care to how I portray ace people in my writing, including the ace characters I have who ARE in active sexual relationships like fuck dude what am I going through all this effort for D:

The visual of the literal ocean unlocking a door and beating some rando to death with a bat like a Looney tunes cartoon literally sent me into cardiac arrest

The pocket world lore you mentioned sounds like it’s ripped straight from the 2018 she-ra reboot.

1:28:16 Aster really was like 'and Grim said "I will procure you exactly one heart. Specifically the heart of Crow Caller." Since you love asking so much...'

You look so delighted about your books! They look very nice for selfpub, you should be proud! I'm definitely going to give them a look.

Books like Lightlark and Fourth Wing both excite and terrify me as a writer. Like excite me because the bar is on the floor so I might make it, but terrify me, because what if my books are as bad as them? Is constant dread.

She really put "couples were coupling" in a published book.

just realized that the ruler immortality thing follows the exact same set of rules as the boss monsters from undertale LMAO

how did they make grimm worse... he sounds like characters i intentionally write as abusive in a lot of these scenes?? and like that'd be fine if it was intentional books can have sensitive themes but like it just so clearly isn't. i don't even know how you can get that far from ur intent

Oh, I think I get it now! See, it's really quite clever (if you have a high enough IQ to get it): Isla, our protagonist, is both the poison AND the cure, which is a very subtle connection to the Nightbane flower. And see, that's why that is the title! Pure Brilliance!

1:22:28 "In the middle of the night, in my dreams, you should see the things we do, baby" I see you quoting Taylor Swift, Alex Aster, I FCKING SEE YOU 😭😂

I loved this whole review, but please know that your whole Seductive Haunts section actually killed me 😂

oh man you can tell by the power systems this shonen has been running for at LEAST 9 season

This is such a perfect timing for the premiere for me. Was literally *just* scrolling through my recommendeds for a video that I can listen to while I get some work done. Thank you Crow, for saving me from ADHD boredom once again

Imagine, being a person who was EXCITEDLY waiting for NIGHTBANE?? I needed the Crow-lark cinematic universe to contribute, I needed more of Aster's works 😢 Thank you for another impeccable video! My favourite channel continues to be the best!

Ah yes, Lightlark 2, also known as 2 Light 2 Lark. Can't wait for the rest of the series- The Light and the Lark: Tokyo Drift, Light and Lark, Light Five, Light & Lark 6, Lark 7, The Fate of the Lark, L9 and LarkX.

My headcanon 'star stick' is either a Wii Stick or a really whimsical vibrat*r

I really felt it when he said “you were the bane of my existence”, because it’s like the title. Cause night bane? BANE?! But I think it overshadowed the even more eloquent “you are the bane of my existence”, because I just love how it alludes to nightbane, the poison or the flower or whatever, which is ALSO the title of the book, so it’s just so cool and I don’t know how the author came up with it because it’s just the most clever thing I’ve ever heard ever and oh my god BANE, NIGHTBANE it’s NIGHTBANE like the title of the book NIGHTBANE

1:16:25 I thought the “ball interruption” was going to be about grim’s nuts 🫣

In a way, the potato necklace being a nightshade thing is kinda clever... because potatoes are in the nightshade plant family

"All girls want is a giant panther to ride into battle" Sudden realisation: All girls want to be Drizzt Do'Urden 😮

I love how this book's entire motif comes down to "I can be your angle or yuor devil"

"Eloquently said, Dumbass" plays forever on repeat in my brain, it's going to fundamentally change my speech, again, I can feel it

7 year old in bad media: I must honor my father by showing no sign of pain, I will not betray him! Torture me all you want, I will be stoic! This is the most important thing in my life and I am very composed, incredibly proud and definitely understand grown-up concepts like "honor".

with the whole religion thing (dunno if this was addressed again in video i am only an hour in) but she kept calling grim a demon and it made me so Angry because where did you get the word demon??

The whole "I'm not going to explain myself to you, but I am right, and eventually you're going to see how right I am and admit that you want me" shtick would be gross enough without all the over-the-top "threatening to torture someone to death."

offtopic but - ohhh your look is Sick the earrings the crown and the robe look insanely good

As someone who just played six hours of DnD, and then promptly went to make soup and hang out with friends, I feel your pain. Literally. Either way, thank you very much for helping make a very long, boring shift at work significantly more bearable.

I just learned that alex aster blurbed an ali hazelwood book, so your comment about her taking inspiration from the love hypothesis giant enormous men feels even more likely true

That marriage necklace can't be legally binding

Eye-slaw is such a terrible way of saying isla. I know not your choice, still much piss

I no longer want to ruin Grim's life. I want this man to be forgotten and to disappear forever. Trying to make him into poor little meow meow was a mistake. Now he's just boring. Give me horrible toxic disfunctional garbage man eho cannot be fixed or give me nothing!