This book was defenetly not my cup of tea, it reads like a childrens book but the story itslef doesnt feel that way. Lantern has an intresting story but the execution itslef isnt the best. It might have turned out better if there were more pages of content as the story felt rushed.
The characters felt unrealistic with to many traits that made the characters fell in-human.

I liked the plot but it was kind of all over the place. I would love to read more of your books tough, I really like your way of writing.

This book was AMAZING. The diversity in characters with different pronouns and such, the diversity in species (werewolves, mages, dragons/worms, etc), the book itself, the setting, the mystery. I really liked this a lot! It was a really good and really fun read!

Devyn (zie/zir) is an exorcist traveling with a talking lantern containing an extremely powerful spirit. Zie gets asked by zir best friend, Akacia, that zie helps her son, Lio, to get rid of a curse he picked up when he stole a golden necklace from the lair of a powerful beast. Every half-moon, Lio painfully transforms into a were-beast and doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to handle this curse.

This book has great representation, I liked the idea of a talking lantern and a non-binary powerful mage/exorcist, and yet I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at the end of the reading. I felt like I was being rushed towards the end of the story, like the author couldn’t wait to tell me the end and ended up skipping over some stuff to get there quicker. It felt like an overview, almost a quick recap, which was disappointing because I could absolutely feel how much the author LOVES zir characters and is attached to them. How much it clearly meant to tell this story of not fitting in and suffering without knowing if or how it will end.

The author’s note at the end of the book explains zir decision to go for a minimalist approach, to let every reader have their own mental representation of the story. I love that ! I do like being able to let my mind wander and completely imagine what the characters look like. This note gave me a new perspective on the whole text, I felt like I understood what the author tried to do a little better.

I liked the way poetry was worked into the story in a way that absolutely made sense. I liked the sassiness of the lantern. I will gladly give this author’s writing another chance, I liked the ideas and was intrigued, I guess it just wasn’t what I was expecting at this moment.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Lantern is a short fantasy story that is about curses, regret and the people who carry them. There was some interesting ideas here but it felt like there wasn't enough time to explore most of them unfortunately. I think it would really benefit from a increased page count to give us a chance to explore these interesting themes more, along with giving the character more of a chance to develop connection / show the history they have.

While this was not for me, if you are looking for a short fantasy story then you might enjoy this.

I originally DNFd this book, but I figured I’d take another crack at it. Personally, Lantern just wasn’t for me. It felt like the book started in the middle of a story and I felt like I was missing something. I checked to see if I was only sent an excerpt and not the full story, but it looks like this is everything. I prefer more of a slower paced plot, so maybe I just wasn’t ready to jump straight into this one. However, if you’re interested in a fantasy with some pretty good diversity, then this is worth checking out.