Winnie Wednesday's family has suffered a fall from grace. At one time her mother was the Lead Hunter for the entirety of the Wednesday clan; that was until it was discovered that Winnie's father was a spy. Now Winnie's mom works two jobs to make ends meet and her brother is nothing more than a gofer for the President of the Luminaries.

Winnie has a plan to restore her families reputation. In the month of her sixteenth birthday she has the right to enter the trials to become a Hunter. It won't be an easy feat, the woods around Hemlock Falls are filled with deadly creatures known as 'Nightmares'. Even the most experienced Hunters are risking their lives when entering the forest after dark. Winnie has not had the benefit of training but she is confident she will be successful. Her first night in the woods she encounters a creature never seen or heard of before but no one in Hemlock Falls will believe her. If that wasn't enough for Winnie to deal with she is attempting to rebuild old friendships with friends who seem to be keeping secrets of their own.

I absolutely loved Winnie Wednesday, her caring brother, and her quirky mom! School in Hemlock Falls is so unique; half regular classes and half hunter training. Winnie is so relatable I couldn't help but feel deeply for her plight as well as anger for those that mistreated her and her family the past four years.

In the afterword of the book, Dennard shares a most interesting story about the origins of the Luminaries. Apparently the base idea developed from a series of posts, reader driven via polls. Dennard weaves into her story a perfect mix of everyday fantasy creatures, such as werewolf and banshees, with her own unique and original beings. Her characters are wonderfully developed, the backstory has great depth, and there is an element of mystery that keeps you guessing what will happen next. I am excited to visit Hemlock Falls and spend more time with Winnie in the second installment.

Winnie Wednesday's family is in disgrace. They should have known her dad was part of the faction sabotaging the mission of Hemlock Falls - keeping their forest spirit sleeping and killing its nightmare creatures - but they didn't figure it out until it was too late. Now, with her 16th birthday looming, Winnie is determined to take the hunter trials to redeem her families' placement in their society.

This book is definitely the first in a series -the ending shocked me with how much incomplete feeling it left me - with a richly built world. Winnie seems to embody the current mental space many teens do - wanting to save the world and having no help in doing so. Our local bestselling author has another win for teens!

Being a teenager is hard, especially when you have to deal with the fallout from your parents' mistakes. The world-building and character depth is fantastic--without the addition of small details, the story would have fallen flat! Winnie is a loveable character thrust into an undesirable situation she doesn't quite understand. I found myself rooting for her even when she was making ridiculous choices.

The alternating perspectives isn't my first choice of structure, especially when the narrative remains 3rd person POV. However, the storyline is still easy to follow.

n this wonderfully written contemporary fantasy, we follow our main character Winnie Wednesday. Winnie lives in Hemlock falls, a town with a forest full of nightmares (creatures that go bump in the night). The Luminaries are hunters that keep the town and world safe from these nightmares, and Winnie wants nothing more than to be one of them. 4 years ago however her father was accused of being part of the "Diana's" (witch folk) and as a result Winnie, her mother, and her brother are to be outcasts for 10 years. Her mother works more than one job to provide, her brother is stuck in a crap job, no one talks to them, she has lost her best friends and the family can never be hunters.

Each year however on a child's 16th birthday they can take part in 3 trials in order to become a hunter, Winnie reads the "Luminaries rule book" and realizes it says nothing about outcasts unable to partake. She enrolls the help of an unlikely/forgotten ally and sets off to survive the forest and become a hunter.

I absolutely loved this book. I devoured it. The world-building was so believable and incredibly magical. Each nightmare was so expertly described I felt like I was watching a movie while reading.

The story was part magic and part mystery. There is definitely something sinister going on in the forest / a creature that no one knows of and people won't believe Winnie about what she saw. Relationships are being mended and she and her family are being allowed back into society slowly but surely. Winnie also discovers a hidden message left by her dad - but who can she trust? Does she even want to find out if it's true?

I did NOT want to put this book down. I needed to know what was around the corner all the time.

The ending though, you got me there. I would've loved to see the story conclude even a little bit, but I am absolutely waiting for the second book with anticipation.

I have been unable to review due to illness, but greatly looking forward to this novel! As I have greatly enjoyed Susan Dennard's other books, and recommended them over and over as a bookseller, I cannot wait to dive into this book and enjoy the new world she has created. It sounds amazing - witch trails, haunted forests, and a bad boy that could become something more than an ex-friend, this book is sure to be one of her best! Review to come soon!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor/Forge for this ARC ❤️

So, this book was amazing. I love Winnie. I love Jay. I have approximately one billion theories about absolutely everything. The twists!!!

This is a great fantasy / mystery - I haven’t read anything else quite like it, which made everything really new and exciting. It has Hunger Games vibes (sort of?) but the world and character dynamics are so different.

Literally my only complaint is that I’m going to have to wait a hella long time for a second book. Susan plz, plz!!!!

“The Luminaries” by Susan Dennard offers a fresh new take on monsters that roam the night and feast on flesh and blood. This spooky YA thriller delves into a world with terrifying creatures, a crew of feisty slayers reminiscent of Buffy, and one determined teen hellbent on proving herself worthy of becoming one of the luminaries who can wield weapons and slay the monsters that haunt the night.

In Hemlock Falls, a tiny town that most people haven’t heard of and wouldn’t be able to find on a map, there’s a forest that comes to life at night. Bloodthirsty creatures roam the woods, always on the hunt for prey. The Luminaries are a group of trained killers who slay these creatures to keep their town safe. To become a Luminary, one must endure several brutal tests to prove themselves worthy of the title and that they have the lethal skill required to kill.

Winnie Wednesday is determined to prove she has what it takes to become a Luminary. Even though she and her family have been exiled due to her father's traitorous actions against the Luminaries, Winnie can still take the tests to become a monster hunter. All she has to do is pass them despite missing years of training, then she can prove loyalty to the cause while restoring her family’s name. To ensure her survival, she enlists the help of her ex-best friend Jay Friday who also happens to be skilled at hunting and knowledgeable about the monsters that roam the forests. As they work together, they unknowingly stumble upon a new and deadly force even the Luminaries are unaware of. One that refuses to be bound to the dark.

The world-building in this story is incredible along with the depictions of the terrifying monsters that come to life only when the sun slips below the horizon. Dennard draws on recognizable beasts of old and new that are pulled from the dark depths of her imagination, illuminating the highly adept skills these creatures have at rendering their prey defenceless until they are nothing more than a tasty treat. The dangers of Winnie’s world are amplified, upping the stakes of becoming a Luminary and the skills it takes to survive a night in the woods.

“The Luminaries” is fast-paced and highly addictive. From the very first page, readers are drawn into Winnie’s life of exile, beasts, and loneliness. It’s hard to exist on the outside of a life she has always known and wanted to be a part of. When her time comes to prove herself, it’s easy to root for her, even when she tends to make dumb decisions that have not-so-great consequences.

Fans of Dennard, creatures that go bump in the night, and strong female leads are going to love this new, thrilling tale! Look for "The Luminaries" by Susan Dennard on its expected publication date of November 8, 2022.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge (Tor Teen) for providing me with a free e-arc of this novel and the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review.

finds herself the talk of her little community of Hemlock Falls while she tries to understand how she's ended up as the town's darling and investigate the new nightmare in their woods.

The author mentions in a note that this book came from a project she did at the beginning of the pandemic where readers got to choose what happened next.  Very cool concept, but I feel like that concept dropped us into the middle of the story.  The "bad guys" are the Dianas.  But who are they and why are they bad?  We know Winnie's father was proven a Diana and the family outcast.  No one stood up for them, but why were they allowed to stay in the town of Luminaries if they'd been kicked out?  And why, just because Winnie passed the first test in the hunter trials did their family suddenly open their arms?  These were nagging questions that haunted me as I read the book that was only exacerbated when we get to the end and certain revelations come out.  

I find myself in an odd spot with this book.  On the one hand, there were too many holes and questions in the storyline.  On the other, I'm curious about what happens next.  Curiosity killed the cat and will most likely have me looking out for the next book in this series just to find out what happens next.

The Luminaries is a fast paced fantasy from author Susan Dennard.

The lore of this book is well crafted, and Hemlock Falls is definitely a place I'd never want to visit. Terrifying monsters roam the woods, and each species is fleshed out in gruesome detail.

Winnie is an enjoyable heroine, and I enjoyed the mystery of her father and how he betrayed the Luminaries. Winnie's struggles to fit in and her feelings about her family drive this novel. It took me awhile to really get invested in the characters, but having Winnie work with her ex-best friend made me understand her more.

What’s treat this was to read! I was completely enamored with our reluctant heroine and her friends. I always loved a good story with hidden worlds and especially if those also include secret societies and magic schools. This has a little bit of dark fantasy mixed with supernatural horror, which I absolutely devoured with glee. I found myself desperately longing to continue the story with a sequel immediately after reaching the last page. I simply must solve the puzzle and get to the bottom of this spooky magic mystery! I was also delighted to learn that this had been written partially with participation of the authors Twitter following and i think that really gave it a unique spin and energy. How fun is that!? I hope that subsequent volumes are created in much the same way because the chaotic and intriguing story mechanics would be fab to continue!

Winnie Wednesday is an outcast in an insulated community of nightmare fighters. After her father betrayed the family, they were judged to be guilty and shunned amongst the people they know and loved. 4 years of their 10-year sentence have passed, and Winnie has a plan to re-instate the family - she's going to pass the trials to become a nightmare hunter.

Spoilers below.

The community surrounds a forest where a sleeping spirit has nightmares every night. The clans are named after the day of the week in which they have active nightmare hunting duty, which is kind of kitsch and a little lame, but at the same time, Dennard introduces a LOT of characters and knowing their clan names helps keep them organized.

It's never really made clear why they have to hunt the nightmares. It seems as though they have a marked boundary and the forest and very few types of nightmares can escape the boundary and cause any damage. But hunting them can have serious repercussions of death - I feel like building a boundary wall around the part of the forest they materialize in makes more sense than going into the forest to fight a never-ending surge of monsters every night, but whatevs.

During this first book, we mostly follow Winnie as she tries to reclaim her family's ties with the other Luminaries and she slowly falls back in love with her first crush, Jay Friday. Winnie is a pretty basic heroine. No chosen one status (at least not yet.) I found her to be very relatable. She has situational anxiety and experiences a couple of panic attacks that corresponded to realistic scenarios. She has resentment over the way her family was treated the last four years (justifiably so) and rejects the friendship of those who reach out to her because of the trauma for what happened when her family was shunned. She's written incredibly well and fleshed out as a realistic character. On the downside, her real name is Wednesday Winona Wednesday (cringe.) It's only mentioned in its entirety once though so we'll bypass that.

My biggest issue is that in the first book in a series, you should spend way more time world-building than Dennard does. There is a lot that could be described in more detail or explained and it just sort of ... never happens. That's frustrating to me mostly because this community has some very specific truths and it's never really made that clear what they are. I'm not sure if this is because it adds to the mystery of what really happened with Winnie's dad, which will presumably be explored in later books or if it was something that should have been added and just never was. As a result, the book comes up short for me.

Shoot…it’s not a 4, but not a 3. I hate that. 3.75? It took me a while to buy in, mostly because of the day of the week nonsense. I wasn’t real keen on the whole werewolf thing either. Seems a bit too Twilight-ish. I was intrigued by the brewing love story, and a few side stories. NONE of it gets resolved! I think I needed more in book 1. I wouldn’t say that I liked this well enough to read book 2, but it ended abruptly & I want to know some answers! Always leave them wanting more…

"The forest is dangerous for a Luminary untrained"

Hemlock Falls is home to monster hunters trained to take down monsters that come out of the evil, sentient forest each night. The main character, Winnie Wednesday, and her family have been marked as outcasts after a betrayal of her father's four years ago. Now Winnie must participate in three trials to become a Luminary hunter to restore her family's status--but things don't go as planned.

This book is a fun, easy to comprehend paranormal YA. It reminds me of things like the Mortal Instruments and the Vampire Diaries, but skewed a little younger. The world is simple and mostly familiar with plenty of monsters and descriptions to keep things interesting.

Overall, this book is a quick and enjoyable read with a determined MC, a brooding romantic interest, and lots of action and mystery. It's a solid start to a promising series with an interesting setting and strong characters.

The reason I didn't give this book five stars is because, at first, it seems to struggle with the atmosphere it's going for. It is at once a young teen novel with slang thrown in (like "low-key and high-key") but also skews towards the dark and macabre with a first chapter opening with Winnie on "corpse duty" picking up monster and human corpses alike. However, as the action picks up and the mystery develops, the book finds its stride and becomes easily devour-able.

If you're a fan of YA, urban fantasy and the paranormal, and monster-hunting, you'll like this book. It reminds me of earlier YA books in the best way. It also promises lots more mystery, action, and romance in further books, and I can't wait to read more.

I love the author's series The Witchlands but The Luminaries was an okay read.

The clans and the witches were so intriguing! The nightmarish and gothic tones were really added to the story with the inclusion of some horrific monsters lurking in the town. The world, Hemlock Groves, reminded me of OUAT but much, much darker, in the sense it's undiscoverable on any map and his hidden except to the inhabitants. The atmospheric forest is perfectly created for this witchy environment

Understandably this says it's a contemporary witch novel, and that was one of its downfalls for me, I am not overly in love with contemporary elements in fantasy novels, that's just my personal preference. There seemed to be more telling rather showing in regards to the characters actions which was distracting to the story. The plot was acceptable but has so much more potential

I would definitely recommend this read to my fellow bookwitches and those who enjoy urban fantasy I feel like I might try this read again later down the track.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

It's got promise for those that will stick with the series and want to dive into the magical world that includes corpses, haunted woods, and defending the town but there wasn't anything in particular that was able to pull me in, including the droll layout of the book.

I would have been pulled in with a little more whimsy and some lush setting with a mood to match it but neither of those things were present for me to engage with Winnie though the relationship with her mom and deciding how to proceed with the lost reputation of her dad sustained me to the end.

I want to thank NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing me with a copy of this e-book to read and give an honest review.
I've long wanted to read something from Susan Dennard. And I love anything witchy So now was the time!
Let's talk about the set up . Using Days of the week as last names for the witch clans? GENIUS! Having a place totally off the map that no one can find/know about? LOVE IT! A place with it's own little invisibility cloak! The forest, an interesting choice. I enjoyed how Dennard incorporated many different monsters and how she made them come alive. You feel the fear they induce and you cheer on Winnie the whole time. It was like watching a bit of a Supernatural episode (and I love me some Supernatural - Team Sam)! Of course the most interesting of all the monsters is the one we truly cannot picture. The one Winnie knows is out there but no one wants to acknowledge. A monsters so terrifying in it's being, it surrounds and just eats up anything in its path. How do you fight something you can't even really see?
Third person, this one is hard for me. It really has to be done right. And I understand the need for it. It makes things so much easier to see when it's not coming from just one character. And it really did work for this book.
Winnie Wednesday? Typical teen with typical teen angst who also happens to be an outcast for something her father did long ago. Her plan? Prove she can be exactly what all the other kids in town are, and prove it well by being VERY brave (though she'll tell you the whole time she's not).
The friendships, interesting to say the least. Some love Winnie despite her outcast status. Others, well, they treat her just as such. Still others have put a wall up because they are not sure where they should stand with it. But Winnie proves them all wrong by showing she has what it takes to be just like all the other 16 year olds who face a trial beyond anything you can imagine.
Overall, saying more would kind of ruin the book. Or at least it would give you too many spoilers. I definitely enjoyed it. I loved the friendships that were built. The retribution that was achieved. And I'm looking forward to how this plays out when book #2 arrives.
Overall it was a fun read. Not the best witch book I've read, but not at all the worst.
If you're a fan of witches, of supernatural creatures, of spine tingling thrill, and heroines who aren't what you think they might be, pick this one up when it releases and enjoy the ride!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and liked it more than I was expecting to. At first I wasn’t loving it because the storyline was a bit similar to Beasts of Prey, which I read not that long ago. Although there’s some similarities throughout, it was also very different. I’d never heard of this book when I first saw it on NetGalley, but now it’s one that I’ll definitely be recommending! I believe it’s book one in a new series, and I’d love to read the rest of the series. The writing was really easy to read and although the storyline was a bit slow at times, the action definitely made up for that. The characters were very likeable. I did struggle with Winnie at times, but I also enjoyed reading about her. I’ve been left with a lot of questions which is sometimes annoying, but this time it just guarantees that I’m going to read book two as I need answers to these questions. A very enjoyable book and a great start to a new series! I’ll definitely be looking out for more books from this author.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for the ARC! This was really unique and enjoyable. Winnie is part of a society that protects the world from nightmares that come to life in the forest. She’s always dreamed of being a Hunter, but her family was outcasted when her father was caught spying for the enemy witches. Winnie decides she’s going to take the trials anyway and enlists the help of her ex-best friend Jay to train her.

This was a really quick read that made me want to keep reading to find out what happens. I liked how the author combined the fantasy elements with realistic ones like high school drama and how hard relationships with friends and family can be. My favorite parts were obviously the ones with Jay and I can’t wait to see more of him in the rest of the series. I liked Winnie and her determination to complete the trials and redeem her family - could have done with less teeth clicking though.

I had so many questions I was dying to have answered but there actually weren’t really any big reveals and the ending was a little abrupt. Ultimately I think this will be a good series though and I will definitely continue.

Shout out to Net Galley and the Publisher for the E-Arc!
Have never read this author before and it was a slow start but after a few chapters I was hooked. I like the magic system in the story and I know I’m aging myself by the name Winnie just takes me back to The Wonder Years *re-runs* 🤣. The mythology and world building are top notch and I cannot wait for the next book! I missed the whole twitter choose your own adventure excitement but it sounded super cool. Good book overall and I’m going to go and lookup all her other books now. 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️

I was provided with an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Like many of us, I was an avid follower of Dennard's Luminaries Choose Your Own Adventure over on Twitter and, as such, have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book. While the plot of the book differs greatly from our internet adventure, there were just enough nods (*boop*) to keep me happy, and the "new" story was just as good. I did find it a little bit predictable - maybe because of the aforementioned dip into the world - but thats not a bad thing! Winnie is a great MC and I am going to need infinitely more Jay in the next book. All in all, loved it and can't wait for the next!