I deeply enjoyed this book, it catches your attention early and holds it well throughout! It has a unique world structure that creates opportunities for conflict between the main characters and keeps you invested. This is a title that I'll definitely be recommending to other readers.

This was a great start to an interesting series! Fans of the Shadowhunters series will absolutely rave about this one I’m sure. I loved it and the characters. The happenstance that was Winnie becoming a Hunter, the little bits of romance… Loved it

Once again I let a pretty cover fool me into thinking that I needed to read a book…
Don’t get me wrong, this book wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me. It failed to keep me invested, and I feel like the characters were too young. This almost reminded me of a middle grade book (there’s nothing wrong with middle grade, but I wasn’t in the mood for the genre).
I did like the atmospheric setting though.
So overall, I didn’t hate The Luminaries, I just didn’t care about what was going on at all.

A few years ago I started reading The Witchlands series by Susan Dennard. It did not work for me at all. But never one to give up on an author for just one series I was very intrigued by The Luminaries. Luckily for me I really enjoyed this first installment.

Winnie Wednesday is an outcast in Hemlock Falls, the unique town that has Luminaries stand between the town and the nightmares that rise each night. Her father betrayed them to their enemies, and despite not knowing anything about this, their family become instand outcasts. Winnie isn't satisfied with that. She wants to become a luminaries hunter for the Wednesdays. But will the town except her as an outcast to the trials? And what happens when Winnie lets a lie slip about what really happens in the forest?

The Luminaries is a quick moving story that navigates us through the basic workings of Hemlock Falls and the Luminaries. It is very much an introductionary tale to a bigger story. And there is nothing wrong with that. We all need a story to start somewhere. My only complaint is that I would have liked just a bit more world building. A bit more on The Luminaries. A bit more on their rivalry with the Diana's. A bit more on Winnie's relationship with her father (and mother, and other relatives more the outcast).

Regardless of that, I enjoyed following Winnie around. She really believes she can be a hunter with barely any training (unlike the others). And when it hits that no, she really can't but a lie makes everyone believe she is amazing, well she just barrels on through. While mentally smacking herself for it along the way. But she is a teen. Just 16. It was all very fitting for her age and her personality really.

I also loved the emotions that barreled through this book with Winnie and her father. And Winnie and her family with the relatives that treated them like outcasts and then just acted as if none of that happened. It is an emotional whiplash and I felt that.

I've been a long time follower of Susan Dennard for her brilliant, accessible writing advice, but this is somehow the first book I've read from her--and it won't be the last. The pacing and plot were expertly executed, making it hard to put down for the whole wild ride. But it was also gorgeously written with moody, atmospheric prose! It sometimes feels rare to find an author who can balance that urgency within the structure and still pay attention to the art of the line level.

I also absolutely loved how Dennard dealt with the complicated feelings of belonging, within family, friends, and the community at large. It's such a poignant theme for anyone, but particularly for this age demographic.

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. There was lots of potential and it’s a great set up for an interesting series, but on its own its a bit lacklustre.

Winnie was a great main character, she was such a badass and even though she didn’t look like the typical “badass main character” she totally had the attitude. I loved being in her head and watching her grow up.

The plot of the book was definitely interesting as well, the world that Susan created is very interesting and I loved exploring the world with Winnie. The storyline definitely takes on many twists and turns & keeps the reader engaged, however sometimes the descriptions got a little repetitive and I found myself skipping large chunks of descriptions.

I would have given this book 4 stars, if we got some questions answered by the end of the book. I think the whole point of this book was to introduce you to the world and to set up the rest of the series, so you’re left with a million unanswered questions, which didn’t sit well with me.

Overall, it’s an amazing concept and I really wanted to love this book more. I would like to keep reading the series as it comes out & will do my best to, but it won’t be at the top of my TBR.

I fell headfirst into the world of The Luminaries and I’m not sure when I will be recovering.

This is one of the best YA fantasies I have read in such a long time. The story is a slow burn with a slow unraveling of the world of The Luminaries told through Winnie’s trials but throughout there is the added mystery of Winnie’s familial past.

Her father was a traitor, and Winnie spends much of the novel remembering this and dealing with the consequences of someone else’s choices as her family is treated as outcasts.

I loved the worldbuilding, the rich vastness of the Forrest filled with nightmares that come out when the mist falls. I loved this secret world hidden amongst the world all of us live in and it was so original I couldn’t get enough of it.

I found myself second guessing my guesses as to where the story was going and I have read a TON of books and normally am good at feeling out story beats.

I cannot wait for book two, I absolutely loved this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Luminaries had some solid creepy vibes which drew me in. It was also a fast and easy read, I finished it over the course of a day or so. The premise of an outcast finding her way back into a society that had rejected her family, with monsters thrown in was really interesting. I also really love when a fantasy book has trials so that part really worked for me as well. Something about its vibe overall reminded me of the Hunger Games-era of YA fantasy, so fans of those books may like this! I can’t really pinpoint what it is that gave me that vibe.

What didn’t work for me was the lack of world building. It is an urban fantasy but it just somehow felt like some level of detail was missing. I think with a bit more world building this could have been a really great read. I also found the ending a bit abrupt, but yet somehow didn’t draw me into needing the next book.

Overall, I did enjoy the Luminaries, but it was not without its flaws. I think with some additional world building it could have hit 4 stars. I’m not really sure if I’ll read the next one or not, I guess we will see when the time comes!

⭐3.5/5 stars⭐

I love Susan Dennard's writing. While this story didn't appeal to me the same way that her Witchlands books do, I still loved the spooky vibes and the writing. Following a girl on a mission to redeem her family name, The Luminaries is a good monster hunter story. It had a few too many convenient plot devices for me, but the monsters were very spooky and the woods definitely felt like a character all on its own. Will be recommending this to my young adult readers for sure.

I wanted to love this book! The premise of it sounded like so many books I love but I just felt it took too long to get to the point. I’m a huge proponent of reading until at least page 100, and I did but it was a struggle. It did begin to pick up and was interesting. Girl must undo the wrongs of her father, town that protects the world from monsters, sounds great! Just didn’t execute it the way I was hoping. I may still give book 2 a try and hope the author doesn’t have to set the stage as much with it being a book 2!

This was a clunky first book in what seems to be is going to be an amazing series. It reminds me of the scholomance series but not stuck in a school rather a town with a creepy forest where they send children to hunt nightmares. Winnie is an outcast in her town after her father betrayed the town. She is determined to be bring glory to her family and in her pursuit of doing so realizes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I loved the honesty and emotions of Winnie while she struggled to get to the top. I am invested in the series despite this books being so heavy in world building. It took a lot to set it up and I still can’t keep anyone as name straight. I think this is a great fantasy series about a town that defends the world against nightmares like basilisk and werewolves that are confronted with spirits they’ve never seen before. I can’t wait for the next one

I did love how the world Susan Dennard has created feels. I love this idea of the different nightmares haunting the forest and having families of Hunters that protect the world and the people who know nothing about it, but I think it's also interesting the mention more than once that the nightmares seem to be sad... I wonder what that means... I loved the world building, as I was saying, and having this family who has been cast out because they offer you a different perspective of the Hunter's society and how easy it is for them to shun someone out.

I also did love our MC, suffering from anxiety and insecurities and wearing glasses and not being your typical Mary Sue. The relationships she has with her ex friends (due to her family being cast out) and how they approach her again after she seemingly single handely kills a banshee... and the new friends who seem to have been by her side since the begining.

We also have mystery, about what happened to our MC's dad, who are the Dianas exactly and we will be seeing them?, the Werewolf and the Whisperer... and it seems like the Society of Hunters have also lots of things they are hiding...

At 87% (I know because I was reading on Kindle) of the way into this book, I began to feel even mildly interested in it, or really anything other than bored and annoyed. The final 13% were middling at best, but at least fast paced and vaguely engaging.

I've heard great things about this author's other series, so I was really surprised that this book is just... not good. It's poorly written, poorly paced, poorly edited, and the characters have all the personality of a damp dishrag.

The 16 year old main character seems to have some kind of tooth problem because she is CONSTANTLY described as "clicking her teeth". What does that even mean?? This description occurs 38 times (I counted) and it felt like 380. I can imagine the author's notebook now - under the heading character mannerisms, we have Winnie clicking her teeth and pushing her glasses up her nose every second paragraph, and Jay smelling like bergamot and lime (is he a CANDLE??). Repeating these things a million times does not constitute giving them a personality!!

The main character's full name is Wednesday Winona Wednesday. Twilight called and it wants its cringe back.

Then we have this:

"He is a vague shape in the corner of her vision, hazy like forest trees at dawn. Yet real and sturdy like them too."

Really. I usually hate it when people complain about YA "reading young" but this reads like it was actually written by a 16 year old.

The forest and the monsters in it had SO much potential, but there just wasn't enough of it, and the main character was like the mushy part of a biscuit dunked in lukewarm tea.

I'm enough of a masochist to probably pick up the second book because the very end hinted at the potential for this story to take an interesting direction. If I can handle reading about Winnie's teeth another 40 times and honestly I might lose grip on my sanity.

Also, I really hope the author has a twist up her sleeve with regards to the identity of the werewolf because it seemed glaringly, inelegantly obvious. The other "bombshell" at the end had also been set up with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Look, a lot of people seem to be somehow enjoying this. Maybe the target age group will find it more relatable and be less picky. But I really feel that it is just objectively badly written and I'm pretty surprised. It's like a cake that could have been delicious if it had stayed in the oven for 10 more minutes, but instead it's a soggy mess.

Fast pace story about Winnie, girl who needs to win this contest to change her family status. Her father lost a status and her family was left without father and without everything,. Some unexplained circumstances make Winnie a hero of town and her status changes quickly from no one to the most important person in town. First she is confused how this is happening and how she became a hero and she is angry how easy people forget how much they hated her before. Her best friend is helping her train when no one wanted to help her but she is still bitter that even he turn his back when her father was exiled. Can she find her spot in her town? Can her family regain their status? Fist in a series !!! Fun / action Hunger Games meet Harry Potter for middle school to high school kids.

The Luminaries is a haunting, coming of age fantasy story about facing your fears and uncovering those parts of yourself kept in the dark. I loved the world building within the Luminary world. I loved Winnie as a character and I rooted for her from the beginning. I look forward to reading the next book.

I had such a great time reading this book! I love her writing, and I participated when it was a twitter story, and I was so excited when I found out that it was going to be published as a full book! It was a such an entertaining read!

The main things that I remember from when it was going up on twitter was Ugh, Jay, and hunting monsters. Having it built out in words that we can read was excellent, learning about this world and what the Luminaries do, was just so interesting! Having read the acknowledgments at the end, this is a different story then the twitter tread, which is great for my memory! Though I'm wondering if the Erika plotline that I remember will happen...

Becoming a Luminary is different then Winnie thought. She's been outcast for 4 years, and now that she's taking the Hunter Trials-and passed the first one in a startling manner-it's like everybody is trying to pretend that those years didn't happen. So between the further stress of the trials and the secrets she's keeping, she has to deal with those conflicting emotions that their treatment of her is bringing up.

I'm so excited for the sequel! There was so much set up for it, between the monster that nobody believes exists, the werewolf (I have a theory that's pretty much guaranteed, given the huge hints that were dropped. I can't wait to explore more!

Another thing I'm hoping to explore in the sequel, are Diana's. Between her dads note, and that one liner that they used to be part of the Luminaries, I want to know more! Because there's a chance that they're not what the Luminaries say they are. I want to know what her dad meant in that message!

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait for the sequel!

This was my first Susan Dennard novel and I must admit I enjoyed her writing style.
Told from a single POV by our female MC Winnie Wednesday , she was likeable enough. There was some strange emphasis on her glasses and her teeth clattering which i did not understand the significance of. She's headstrong and basically tries to change her life...would i call that loyalty... maybe not.
I wish there was a bit more world building, the premise of the families and each "house" taking on different roles was very intriguing and the whole history with the Dianes wasnt really explained in much detail. As such somethings did not make sense to me, i.e being shunned for not knowing her father was a traitor.... that seems a weird punishment.
One thing i loved about this book was the creepy atmosphere. Susan Dennard had it spot on with the spooky vibes of the mist and forest and things that basically out to kill you in the dark. I felt chills at some points.
The story ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and there is so much more to explore with the characters and the world and the monsters!
Overall, this book was easy to read and had a relatively fast pace. I enjoyed this one and look forward to carrying on with this series.

What did I read? No, honestly, what exactly was the point of the story?
I’m so sad I didn’t like this one, I had high hopes. The cover looked cool, the premise too, but as soon as I started reading I knew I made a mistake in hyping this book.
The Luminaries feels very juvenile, from the writing style, to the characters and the world building. It looks like the author had an idea but was too lazy to fully develop it.
We get no answers, the book is about Winnie who does the trials and she does. The end.
We have endless, pointless conversations about the same thing over and over, then there is a trial and then we have pages of internal monologue with info-dump or about stuff that I don’t know why I’m supposed to care about and then another trial, rinse and repeat.
No one explains how this society works, we don’t even get to know their enemy, the witches, we just see Winnie say there is a monster.
The love story was bland and every character was too.
I feel like I wasted my time reading this and I wish this book could give me my time back. But at least I know I’m going to avoid reading this series.

To be honest, I thought this book was not for me because I'm not a fan of contemporary fantasy but the story was so engaging I had to finish it and voila, what a crazy rolecoaster it was. Now I do not know if I should trust the luminaries or not. The world building was amazing and I cannot wait to find out what is the deal with the Dianas. Also the whole secret es safe was just genius. I was expecting something but definitely not that

One of the things I really didn't like is the description of the sounds but I know that’s just a preference I have so others might enjoy it. I love where the whole situation with Jay is going, I mean. Who doesn’t love a slow burn romance?

Anyways I’ll definitely be reading the next one! I need to know how this amazing crazy story will develop'

This is my first Susan Dennard book and I must say after reading it that it's motivating me a lot to start reading Truthwitch which has been casually hanging out on my shelves for a few months by now.

This was a very pleasant, short and easily digestible YA fantasy with supernatural creatures, spooky forest vibes and just a sprinkle of romance (at least in the first one). The book does read a bit like a first in a series and doesn't tie up all loose ends at the end of it, not to mention there's also a bomb dropped at the end which... excuse me, I need answers, please. I have so many questions.

A quick run-down of the good and the bad:
➕Spooky forest vibes
➕Underdog lead character who is literally willing to die to improve her family's life
➕Mystery vibes too
➕Cute possible friends-to-not-friends-to-friends-to-lovers scenario
➕The nicest pair of twins I've ever come across and they better not turn backstabby
➖Self-doubting was a bit too much at times
➖We get it, he has nice thighs

Overall I give it a 4/5⭐ - it was a nice, fast-paced and enjoyable YA read!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review