From NYT bestselling author comes a haunting, high-octane contemporary fantasy for fans of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Winnie Wednesday fights to take the deadly Luminary hunter trials in Hemlock Falls’ nightmare-filled forest.
Hemlock Falls isn’t like other towns. You won’t find it on a map, your phone won’t work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you…
Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie’s town—and the rest of humanity—from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night. Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal—and restore her family’s good name. Or die trying.
But in order to survive, Winnie must enlist the help of the one person who can help her train: Jay Friday, resident bad boy and Winnie’s ex-best friend. While Jay might be the most promising new hunter in Hemlock Falls, he also seems to know more about the nightmares of the forest than he should. Together, he and Winnie will discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in Hemlock Falls is prepared for.
Not all monsters can be slain, and not all nightmares are confined to the dark.
For the tour I have been designated a member of the Monday clan – they are the keepers of the Luminaries knowledge. As a former librarian, this works for me!
My thoughts: as a massive Dennerd (as Susan’s fans are known) from the Witchlands series and a follower on Twitter, where she originally had a choose your own adventure via polls version of The Luminaries (it’s still there fyi), I was very excited about this book before it even existed.
As the first title from Daphne Press, created by the lovely founder of Illumicrate, this was a very beautiful creepy/pretty book in terms of the cover. I’m never entirely sure about skulls.
Anyway, I did really enjoy Winnie’s trials and tribulations as she fought to prove herself, redeem her family and win herself a place alongside the other Luminaries and fight monsters for a living. But something weird is going on in the woods and too many people are quick to dismiss it, it’s up to our girl Winnie and the very annoying (and handsome) Jay to prove it.
This is the first in a trilogy and so a chunk of the story is given over to explaining how everything works, the lore, magic etc, which is necessary but I wanted to move onto Winnie training montages and monster fighting, thankfully there’s a bit of that too! I loved the whole days of the week clan thing, it was a bit silly but also funny that they’re literally called the Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays etc, and that poor Winnie’s full name is Wednesday Winifred Wednesday (that’s just mean). But I’m rooting for Winnie to come out on top, especially as she is absolutely right that there’s something out there scarier than the monsters going bump (-ed off) in the night. Roll on book two!
*I got my fancy copy from my monthly Illumicrate subscription but you can now buy a copy with the same creepy/pretty cover from all good bookshops. All opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 