Welcome friend! Of Light and Nightmares is an entertaining book that I finished in a day. To read almost 500 pages says a lot about the immersion of this book. It just took me away on a journey. I had a bumpy ride but I was hooked and could not stop reading. Here is what the book is about.
Of Light and Nightmares
Alex B. Harper | Goodreads | The Ashes of Magic Trilogy, Volume I
When the monsters find you, the nightmare begins.
Heir to her late parents’ fortune, Emmeline is happy to continue their philanthropic work for the rest of her days. But a rare public appearance sends her crashing into a world of monsters and magic.
Emmeline learns that she’s one of two humans who can see those marked to become a nainthe — guardians between the human world and the violent realm of demon-like monsters, the raizour. The guardians have spent decades searching for her — for without her, they are doomed to extinction, and the monsters will devastate Earth.
As Emmeline hones her newfound abilities, other dark and powerful enemies emerge, stacking the odds against her and the guardians.
And her time is running out—because the monsters have astonishing intelligence and a thirst for blood, and they are ready to execute their chaos.
This pulse-pounding urban fantasy will leave you breathless as two worlds collide in a horrific showdown, where even the winners will lose.
Trigger Warnings (in alphabetical order): mentions of ableism, antisocial personality disorder, child abandonment, death of loved ones, domestic abuse, drug use, execution, genocide, hostage situations, infertility, mental illness, misogyny, murder, physical assault, scars, sexual assault, stalking, suicide and self-harm, violence.
Content Warnings (in no particular order): mature subject matters, sexual content, gore and graphic violence, profanity.
Of Light and Nightmares – Review
The Setting
Of Light and Nightmares is the story of Emmeline. She has been prone to seizures since her late teens and lives a reclusive life in a mansion in Toronto, managing her family’s philanthropic work. Her brother, Matthew, is a doctor who accompanies her to many of the events. On one such event, she has what feels like a seizure but doesn’t manifest as one. The two women who trigger this in her are intrigued by her. Emmeline and Matthew find themselves plunged into the world of these fantastic creatures that look like humans sometimes.
They call themselves the nainthe. Their job is to protect the world from the raizour, creatures who enter the world through a gateway and cause violence. Historically, they have worked closely with humans who have the unique ability to find other humans who have the potential to become nainthe. They call such humans ‘elystier’. No elystier has existed in the last two decades and the discovery of Emmeline is a saving grace to the nainthe as without her, they cannot continue to exist. I enjoyed this unique set of creatures and mythology.
The Plot and Characters
Most of the story is about Emmeline’s induction into this new world and getting to know her abilities. In her thirties, her powers are not as strong as other elystiers at her age but she has some other skills that they did not possess. Of Light and Nightmares is a page turner. It has an interesting cast of characters with Emmeline at the centre. She is good about asserting boundaries and is actively trying to get out of her comfort zone. She gives a lot of ultimatums.
Matthew is autistic and does not possess her abilities. As a result, he is a threat to the nainthe who have kept their existence hidden from most humans, but his skills as a doctor are important when one of theirs is injured.
There are a number of nainthe in the story including Anja, Erik, Ellis, Sophia, Javiar, Maira and Lesedi. There are varying degrees of acceptance and hostility towards Matthew from the nainthe. I liked how he handled the situations and how his quirks came through in the story. The relationship between Emmeline and Matthew was a highlight for me. They work as a team and always look out for each other.
In contrast to Matthew, his curiosity about the anatomy and history of both the nainthe and raizour, I found the nainthe lacking in knowledge. They are focused on their goal to defeat the raizour but don’t know a lot about the enemy or the world they come from. They make the mistake of assuming that the raizour would not study them. They take what the historians tell them without question. I did not like how Emmeline and Matthew were introduced to the nainthe and how long it took to understand what they wanted from Emmeline. It is no wonder that the raizour they capture to show Emmeline catches them off guard with his knowledge of their community. I found the nainthe reckless and frustrating to read about. They put Emmeline and Matthew in grave danger which could have been avoided as it was predictable. As a small group of fighters whose survival is dependent on an elystier to identify others of their kind, they are in a tough spot. I hope they do better in the future.
Meeting the raizour was a turning point for Emmeline and once she accepted the power she had, she got curious about honing it and defending herself. Now that the raizour know of Emmeline, her life is in danger. The nainthe want her to stay with them where they can keep a close eye on her rather than spreading sources trying to protect her at her home.
The Real Life of Emmeline and Matthew
The nainthe world aside, both Emmeline and Matthew have obligations in their everyday life. Emmeline is being courted by the Mayor and I just could not understand why he appealed to her at all. Matthew is a sought after radiologist. I loved the cultural references in their education, how they refer to elders, the fear of the aunties who are always playing matchmaker and are big gossips. Since Emmeline and Matthew are rich, there is a person for everything and new phones, cars, lawyers and private investigators appear with the zap of fingers. This helped the pace of the plot as things would get taken care of without any issues and also added a lightness to the whole story because the stress was taken away from having to deal with these things personally. Though Emmeline is in her thirties, with her living at home, telling white lies to her caretakers and someone else cleaning her messes makes this story of the coming-of-age trope. The slow burn romance in the story gave it a Twilight feel as Erik is quite the tortured nainthe soul. I liked how this linked to Emmeline’s powers.
The Storytelling
Of Light and Nightmares is told in third person from Emmeline’s point of view with sporadic insight into her thoughts. A lot of the book is dialogue which is what helped me fly through it though it also felt like things were being explained to me through conversations rather than described. So much of the dialogue in the first half of the book is aggressive that no one got anywhere. The dialogue changes into humorous banter as the story progresses and the various characters get to know each other.
Thoughts on Growth
I found it difficult to build an emotional connection with any of the characters. This may be because of the abundance of dialogue or the third person narrative style. Occasionally I had access to Emmeline’s private thoughts. In the later half of the book, the thoughts increased and there seemed to be a unique telepathic connection between Emmeline and Matthew.
Though there were fights between the nainthe and raizour and people got hurt, the tone of the book felt light to me. Actions didn’t have consequences rooted in reality, particularly because Emmeline and Matthew’s rich status afforded them the luxury to not deal with the messes personally.
I wanted the stakes to be higher and for things to get complicated so much that I reached a point in the book where I wished for someone to get hurt or something very bad to happen to make the story better. I wanted a wake up call!
I am glad I stuck to the end of the book because the last 100 pages were stellar. I was shocked by the increase in violence. The last couple chapters gave a proper glimpse of the dark fantasy that this story truly is.
I hadn’t expected Of Light and Nightmares to be such a quick read for me! I flew through it in a day and I liked the story. I am interested to see how the follow up volume fleshes out the world and hope that I start connecting with individual characters, not just the relationships and the non-stop plot. I just got book two for an upcoming tour and am looking forward to making time for it.
Find Of Light and Nightmares on Goodreads or read an excerpt here.
Other books to check out: Rising Ember, The City of Stardust.
Many thanks to the author for a copy of the book for an honest review.
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