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Suzy Jackson

Narrator

Suzy On Audible

1.27.2025

Just … painful …

I finished this book last night and I really, really had a rough time of it. I was rolling my eyes so much and sometime around midnight or 1am I literally said “oh for the love of god” out loud while laying in bed. I just couldn’t deal with what I was experiencing anymore. I don’t know how to explain but I will try my best.

I know this is Alex’s first book and she has gone on to write an entire series. I am not a writer so I have no business giving any kind of critique of any writer’s work. I am only expressing what my experience FELT like while listening to this book. I feel like by the end things just … devolved in some kind of way or it lost cohesion. It began to feel very lazy and very repetitive and irritating. By the end there was nothing but people explaining and explaining and explaining more. Explaining while fighting. Explaining while injured. Explaining while dying.

I think sometimes it’s hard to express things, especially for new authors, without a ton of exposition … and I can understand that but the first parts of the book were so incredible and I really was enjoying it and then it just turned into a cross between an Agatha Christie novel with a mustache twirling “let me tell you my whole evil plan” Scooby Doo style and I just couldn’t bear it. It felt puerile … and it made the book feel so much longer.

Just when you thought it was over … another twist. Then when you thought that was over … surprise another twist. Then when you thought that was over … every character explains themselves in detail to make sure you didn’t miss anything between all the twists. Just … I dunno … I was really so disappointed by the end and I just wanted it to be over.

Sometimes also I think this happens when it becomes clear that there will be another book and the first book wraps up in such a forced and incomplete way to make way for more. I really don’t know what happened but … I really am unsure if I want to continue with this series.

I loved Suzy Jackson’s performance so so much and I have already started looking for other books that she has narrated. I adore the resonance of her voice and I find it so expressive and I love her line reads so much. I may consider listening to the other books primarily to listen to her read them.

I am also curious if Alex Aster’s writing continues to evolve or whether it stays kind of … adolescent feeling in quality and structure.

I’ll think about it. For now … I really just want to forget the experience.

Story this session: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars2.0
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

12.27.2024

Eyeroll

Chapters 19 thru 30

I have really had enough of Isla. I didn’t think it was possible for me to dislike her more but this entire section of the book almost had me rage quitting. Everything this girl does is ridiculous and dangerous and gives no regard to the consequences. I don’t understand what Celeste sees in her. Celeste is the ONLY person who their head on straight and focusing on what’s important. I swear to god … if something happens to Celeste because of this idiotic child …

This is something that really sucks about experiences like this for me. I love the world. I love the social, political, and spiritual levels that Alex has weaved into her creation. I love the way she uses words so simply but manages to convey so much. I am interested in the events that are taking place because of the world she has expertly build and given so much life to … but I don’t care about the main character AT ALL and I am wishing the story was about someone else. I would love this book if the character was someone I could believe in and root for even in just a basic sense.

Isla is the worst kind of character for me. She sucks the life out of the story because every thing she does makes me frustrated or bored or roll my eyes or just get irritated AF. I think she’s selfish and stupid or both. Isla reminds me of everything I couldn’t stand about Emilia Clarke’s version of Daenerys Targaryen. I did not believe her. I did not care for her. She came off all wrong to me or perhaps all right to me at the same time. Was she supposed to come off as someone way over their head, faking it till they make it, trying to convince herself as much as us that she is stronger and more intimidating than she appears? She’s a little girl desperately acting tough and throwing so much unearned ego around that it comes off even more false. If so … I pity her and I’m afraid for her … but I can admire her. Either Emilia played that role to perfection or she rubbed everyone the wrong way for the wrong reasons … or did she do both perfectly?

The ONLY reason I’m still listening to this book is because Suzy Jackson’s performance is so incredible.

Story this session: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

12.23.2024

Ramping Up!

Chapters 7 thru 18

I have already recommended this book to my tribemate and I think she will love it.

I have been having a hard time keeping up with these reaction updates mainly because there isn’t anything I can really say without giving away and spoilers and in a story like this it’s all about building momentum up and up especially when the stakes are so high.

Alex has done a beautiful job sucking me in and making me invested in Isla’s progression as a character. She’s not … 100% appealing to me because I’m not a young adult and there is a lot about her I find flippant and immature and annoying but this book isn’t tailored for someone my age and I recognize that. I think, as a character, she’s fascinating and I absolutely understand her appeal to that age group and maybe even a slightly older one. I think she is supposed to come across strong and fiercely independent and brave but she seems to me more like a child who doesn’t quite have things in hand as well as she thought and one who is weaker in mind and spirit especially given she’s in way over her head. There is a lot at stake and she keeps making ridiculous decisions and mistakes. Again … she’s young and I understand that, it’s just hard to care sometimes.

There are times I don’t like her and times that I worry deeply for Celeste more than the main character. I care more about people with less selfishness and Isla is too unguarded, too flippant, too careless, and way too dysregulated. I care more about her friend than I do her.

The slow burn, forbidden romance part is annoying and cliche and doesn’t really work for me but again this book isn’t for me so take that with a grain of salt. My opinion is NOT relevant as I am not the intended audience for this book.

If you only read books because other people are reading them or you’re only interested in books because everyone is talking about them … this is probably going to be a book you consider because it was all the rage on BookTok for a long time. I think I understand why … but I feel like BookTok and places like that are only for people who read books like Lightlark … kind of pockets of fandom for specific types of books. I could be wrong, I’ve never seen any content from there … but I get the impression it’s like Kpop fans – unhinged and biased. They like or hate and there is nothing in between.

The thing about me is I can see exactly what makes this book so good and made it so popular which is why I recommended it for my tribemate who reads like 2 books a week. It’s the kind of thing she’ll devour. As I said in my first reaction … the world Aster has built is fully realized and wonderfully depicted and I love the way she writes.

Story this session: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars4.0
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

12.22.2024

New Author, Semi-New Narrator, What A World!

Chapters 1 thru 6

I rarely choose books for any reason other than who is narrating them. When searching by narrator I will see different genres of books they have read and that is how I find new books to read. I was familiar with Suzy Jackson from Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward which just really didn’t interest me too much. I haven’t completely given up on it and may go back to it, but I really remember loving Suzy’s work and I am only getting around to seeking out more of it.

Fantasy is not my preferred genre but I have been really trying to branch out from crime novels and learn to enjoy other things. As I mentioned before, fantasy is difficult for me with aphantasia because it’s nearly impossible for me to picture a lot of really wild concepts or completely new things without reference. It ends up being a meaningless experience where I can’t connect well to the story because it’s just a lot of blank spots where you have to imagine things that often aren’t described well enough for me to anchor to them.

I have been trying to find ways of connecting with fantasy novels more and the only way I can is to just try and experience different kinds and see what works. So far, fantasy worlds that are based on the real world with just some magical elements thrown in have really worked well for me.

LightLark drew my attention because it was fantasy and all the books are read by the same narrator which is another thing that can make the difference between a series I will dive into and one I will avoid. I didn’t get very far into LightLark but something stood out to me immediately … the worldbuilding.

I mentioned this before in my reaction to Allison Saft’s A Dark and Drowning Tide; the world she created was so vivid and and clear to me and that aided in my enjoyment of the story. It was … RICH. Alex’s world is not only RICH but it is very unfamiliar to me which you would think, based on everything I have said before, that would be a turn off. Actually, I find it to be a wonderful challenge and it makes it even more interesting to me.

With my aphantasia I can only see things that I have access to in my memory which means when someone says “shark”, I see Jaws … when someone says “clown”, I see Pennywise. I have to have a reference already existing to be able to relate to something that requires imagination. As you can probably imagine, (see what I did there) this means that everything I experience seems very common and not original because it’s technically made up of things I have seen before. It’s rare that something feels fresh and unique to me – it’s rare that I have an experience that I can’t picture or frame in any way.

Alex has managed to create that for me with LightLark so far and it’s a refreshing experience to have. It makes it more difficult for me to connect to it yes, but the world she’s created is so intriguing and so fresh feeling that I am caught up in it. I can see why it’s becoming a movie and I look forward to that because it would be nice to “see” the things that I cannot see in my mind when I’m listening to it.

I think this is also one of the benefits to aphantasia is that when movies are made from books I don’t have that automatic irrational rage-bias towards my own interpretations of the characters … I have none. The characters are blank to me. They have descriptions but there is no face, no imagined version that I created that will be different in the movie. I’m kind of excited to see a movie version of the world and characters Alex has birthed. It’s really so fascinating already.

It’s always a good sign when I can’t wait to go to sleep so I can jump back into a story. I really am looking forward to tonight!

Story this session: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Narration: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0