Actual Rating: 3.7/5 stars
ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Of the Lilin is a YA Paranormal fantasy that tells the story of a teenager, Sage Frankle. After the loss of her mother, her stepfather’s mental breakdown, and the sudden death of his best friend, David, who took care of Sage after her mother’s demise, she slips into depression. She is taken to live with her aunt, Madeline, and her cousin, Lily at the Engelwood inn in Vermont. Her aunt takes Sage to a therapist to help her through her trauma.
While living at the inn, she has creepy encounters with strange people and it terrifies her. At first, she believes it’s all in her head but as time goes by she gets tangled in the world of demons, archangels and learns the dark secrets of her family.
The funny thing is that, I had forgotten it was a fantasy when I picked it up for a read, this week. In the beginning, I thought it’s a story of a teenager dealing with her grief (which is correct but there’s more), then I thought it’s a mystery/thriller (which is also kind of correct lol) but when she started seeing things I was like, wait a damn minute✋🏻. So, I read the blurb again, and turns out it’s a paranormal fantasy. And after that, the story got more interesting. (30% in) (fantasy always slaps)
Overall, it was a nice read. The writing was engaging for most of the part. This book deals with some dark themes, in terms of magic and otherwise. I enjoyed the middle portion of the book more than the first and the last. As the middle part had a good build-up for the revelations and we were finally getting to know a little bit about the characters.
I liked Lily, she seemed more like the main character to me than Sage, and Thomas was also intriguing. Sage was an interesting character but I wish she had more faith in herself.
I liked the representation of depression and anxiety disorder in the first few chapters. Not wanting to get up in the morning, starting a new day being a struggle, panic attacks were all mentioned. Also, the therapy sessions were included. (as it is a dark fantasy they were weird and creepy at times.. umm ok all the times)
Will was a happy addition (he was Sage’s best friend). And Lucien added a lot of meaning and complexity to the story. I would say he carried the whole book but Lily was a lot significant too.
This reminds me that, the way the side characters were introduced was so annoying to me. We will meet some inn guest or random woman, she will have a dialogue with the main character, which was significant or not was hard to tell. There were so many moments where I was wondering, is it a random observation or is there a hidden meaning behind this conversation. (Some were obvious but, not the others. I like these kinds of build-ups in mysteries but you have got to give some answers at one point.)
One more thing that could have been improved was, how for the first half, the other characters were talking about these mystical concepts all in front of her and she didn’t even question any of them. I understand her hallucinations and ignoring it all, as unhealed trauma can be very exhausting to deal with.
But she can at least trust what she is hearing and question if it doesn’t sit right with her.
It just seemed so obvious that something was going on between all those people. It would have been interesting if she were overhearing conversations in secret or, by mistake rather than all of them saying it in front of her.
Overall, the pacing was good, it was a quick read once you get the hang of the story. I liked the idea (message of this story) of confronting the darkness that we all have in us. The revelations at the end were engrossing and I wanted to know more. I liked the backstories too. There is a lot of room for development here. I hope we get more character development, the progression of relationships between them, more about the myths and legends, demons, and their magic in the sequel!
Final thoughts: Of the Lilin, first in the Sage Chronicles, is a dark, engaging, and enjoyable read.