A few years ago, I watched a TV show called The Luminaries. I remember liking it, but don’t remember a ton about it, other than it was set in 19th century New Zealand and had Eva Green being all mysterious and witchy. I also knew it was based on a book, and, before I started reading it, believed that it was based on this book, The Luminaries, by Susan Dennard. However, shortly after starting, and noticing that it was set in modern-day America, realized that this was probably unrelated to the series (there’s another book called The Luminaries, but the one that I was thinking this was is actually by another author, Eleanor Catton).
We follow Winnie Wednesday, a recently turned 16-year-old girl in the fictional town of Hemlock Falls. It’s located in a Hellmouth-like area, where the surrounding forest is home to nightly “nightmares”, a variety of monstrous beings that threaten the people living nearby. The town is home to the titular “Luminaries”, an organization consisting of families dedicated to fighting the nightmares and keeping the outside world unaware of the threat. When a resident turns sixteen, they have the chance to become a “hunter”, joining the nightly fights against the nightmares. Winnie and her family are “outcasts”, semi-shunned from the Luminaries for a crime committed by her father years previously. Despite this, Winnie is dedicated to the cause and so attempts to take the trials that will allow her to join the fight and also allow her family to become full members of the community once more.
Despite not being the book I was expecting to read, this was a good time. Winnie is a likeable but fallible protagonist, and I enjoyed reading about her adventures. For me, the vibes to this were very similar to the Legendborn series, so I think if you enjoyed those books, you would enjoy this.
However, it really does feel like setup for the rest of the series, and I would have liked to at least get a resolution to some of the dangling threads without having to read the next book in the series. I’ll probably continue with the next book at some point, but it’s not at the top of my list.