The Lantern's Ember by Colleen Houck
Hello Again! I'm so excited to review this book for you guys! I love Colleen Houck's other series so I was beyond excited to read her new book. This fantasy has Halloween references galore. Read on to see my thoughts. Enjoy!
The Lantern's Ember by Colleen Houck
Length: 416 Pages
Publication Date: 9/11/2018
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Story Development: (Talk about development)
Romance: There's a love quadrangle! :O
Protagonist Strength: Average
Re-readable? Yes!
Received From: NetGalley
Find on Goodreads Five hundred years ago, Jack made a deal with the devil. It’s difficult for him to remember much about his mortal days. So, he focuses on fulfilling his sentence as a Lantern—one of the watchmen who guard the portals to the Otherworld, a realm crawling with every nightmarish creature imaginable. Jack has spent centuries jumping from town to town, ensuring that nary a mortal—or not-so-mortal—soul slips past him. That is, until he meets beautiful Ember O’Dare. Seventeen, stubborn, and a natural-born witch, Ember feels a strong pull to the Otherworld. Undeterred by Jack’s warnings, she crosses into the forbidden plane with the help of a mysterious and debonair vampire—and the chase through a dazzling, dangerous world is on. Jack must do everything in his power to get Ember back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.
I've been a fan of Colleen Houck since I first read her Tiger's Curse Series years ago. She has a way with dialogue and lore that makes her stories really come to life. I was so excited when this book popped up as available to request on NetGalley because I haven't read her work is so long. I had no idea what to expect when I read the synopsis, but this book is so much better than the synopsis leads you to believe.
One of the things I absolutely loved were all the references to Halloween and other supernatural stories. They were innumerable and include: Sleepy Hollow, Frankenstein, The Loch Ness Monster, Roanoke, The Boogeyman, Dracula, a Will-o-the-wisp, the "origin" of Jack O Lantern and to top it all off, The origin of Halloween. There are more references than this, i'm certain, but these are all the ones I caught. This is a truly great Halloween read and I wish it came out in October!
As far as story development goes, this novel had me enthralled from the start. This story is told so uniquely that it was hard to put it down. I haven't read any story set in this time period about supernatural forces. It was refreshing since I'm used to reading high fantasy and I loved reading this sweeping adventure. Although set in an older time period, this novel clearly has some steampunk influences since there is some futuristic technology when they travel the Otherworld and I found myself enjoying it (although I swore I wouldn't). Another thing I enjoyed was her use of time period appropriate dialogue and vocabulary. It's unclear when exactly this story is set, but it's obviously hundreds of years ago. I really appreciated the way she stuck to the time period and even had to look some of the words up!
One of the most divisive plot points for me was the romance. There are 3 different men vying for Ember's attention in this novel and I have to say as someone who loves romance, it was a bit much. I really enjoyed the characterization of all 3 men but it seemed forced that she should have so many suitors, especially when she has a clear preference for one. This also raised issues for me about their attitude towards Ember but that's for the next paragraph.
In regards to strength of protagonist, I chose average. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Ember. She was dynamic and has an insatiable curiosity. My problem is with how she lets the three men vying for her love push her around and dictate her life. I understand that maidens in this time period were more delicate, but she has such a fiery personality it seemed out of place. There were moments where she was quite a bad ass but the moments where she was coddled were greater in number.
One of the items that confused me was the constant POV switching. The plot wouldn't just switch from one character to another when the chapter changed, the POV changed within a paragraph! I got used to it after a bit but it was still jarring. I appreciated the perspectives of each situation we were able to see, however. I wish it had been done in a more organized fashion.
I really enjoyed this book. I don't think the synopsis does a good job of explaining the plot because it wasn't what I expected at all. Colleen does a great job of creating such a finely detailed world in such a short time in this standalone novel. This would be a great read for Halloween and has some surprises in store I'm sure you guys will love!
