Lumière
(The Illumination Paradox #1)
by
Jacqueline Garlick Genre: Young-adult, Fantasy, Romance, Steampunk
After an unexplained flash shatters her world, seventeen-year-old Eyelet Elsworth sets out to find the Illuminator, her father’s prized invention. With it, she hopes to cure herself of her debilitating seizures before Professor Smrt—her father’s arch nemesis—discovers her secret and locks her away in an asylum.
Pursued by Smrt, Eyelet locates the Illuminator only to see it whisked away. She follows the thief into the world of the unknown, compelled not only by her quest but by the allure of the stranger—Urlick Babbit—who harbors secrets of his own.
Together, they endure deadly Vapours and criminal-infested woods in pursuit of the same prize, only to discover the miracle machine they hoped would solve their problems may in fact be their biggest problem of all.
"Living in eternal twilight might sound romantic, but it's not. It's simply depressing"Sounds intriguing right?
Tbh, Lumière got my attention with its gorgeous cover. But to be fair, this book totally sounds amazing as well.. it just didn't work out for me.
The plot was all over the place, confusing as hell world building in an alternate world of England, everything was spoon-fed to readers to the point that reading it get's totally boring, the characters were a total fail too. Sometimes, when a book tries so hard to portray the MC as strong and perfect, they most likely to end up as annoying and a stupid character on my eyes.
The plot:
The world was accidentally turned into an endless twilight-zone after the Night of the Great Illumination.
"A flash so big, so bold, so bright, it fills my head, my heart . . . the whole universe.Brilliant isn't it? Well that's just the start of it. In this world, you have to avoid being guilty of 2 crimes if you don't want to find your head in the gallows.
Eclipsing all that came before it.
And all that is to come."
"The first is Wickedry—the practice of magic, black or otherwise. And the second is Madness."Apparently, that's a little bit inconvenient in Eyelet's part since her situation kind of perfectly match the 2nd crime-madness. Eyelet, has this illness, where she her body starts to convulse all of a sudden, her eyes droops and drools like a beast, which is also known by many as madness, but they're wrong, because that's just the way her body is. It's funny how those sickness appears only when it's convenient and it's more funnier how the sickness was originated. The sickness was one of the few things I found absurd in this book.
The plot was going on circle, I feel like, 1/2 part of the book can be removed without making any real impact on the plot. I really dislike it when a book used the character's stupidity as a plot device. I mean, it's good when it was made to make it look like the character was growing, but no, it just looks.. well stupid and non-sense. Like the time where Eyelet started to get suspicious with Urlick, that she confronted him, only she didn't listen to any of his explanations, So you know what she did? She run away outside the house, knowing how intense the vapours were. Getting both of them almost killed, I can't see the brilliant logic behind that! Really.
At 91%, it took every thing in my strength to stop myself from DNF'ing this shit. I mean, I reach this far don't I? I just have to hold on, a little bit longer.. Why you ask?
Well it was when Eyelet and Urlick were followed with the use of trails in the compound/haven, by Smrt. You know what's funny? Both of them almost get killed by Vapours, Criminals and The Turned on the way there and then all of the sudden, Smrt was there like...
SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS!
Not even a hint of struggles. Ok maybe we can crossed out the criminals, let us say they were indeed killed by Eyelet, which I highly doubt, because if I can count properly, she only killed 2, but how about the vapours? They obviously can't outrun it unless they have their own clean air and oxygen, and what about The Turned which were supposed to be a spirit that feast on the people's mind?! Not to mention that Smrt lives in the Commonwealth, he's supposed to find it hard to navigate the outside of Commonwealth.
I think the story was made like that to set-up the stage for the sequel, to keep the suspense coming.
Well guess what?
It didn't make me want to read the sequel.
**I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, Thank you!**
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These days, she is affectionately referred to as the Quentin Tarantino of YA, known for her edgy, rule-breaking, Tim Burton-esque style of writing. Jacqueline likes gritty stories with beating hearts, dislikes wimpy heroines and whiny sidekicks, and loves a good tale about an irresistible underdog.
Lumière—a steampunk-fantasy, romance adventure—is Book One in her young adult Illumination Paradox Series.
Jacqueline is a graduate of Ellen Hopkin’s Nevada Mentoring Program, and has also studied under James Scott Bell, Christopher Vogler and Don Maass, where she was the 2012 recipient of the Don Maass Break Out Novel Intensive Scholarship. She is represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.
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