For fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf comes a dark, lushly gothic fantasy about a maiden who must unleash the monster within to save her kingdom--but the monster in her head isn't the only threat lurking.
Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home--she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic.
When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King's own nephew, Captain of the Destriers...and guilty of high treason.
He and Elspeth have until Solstice to gather twelve Providence Cards--the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly, darkly, taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.
I finally picked up Rachel Gillig's One Dark Window as I learned she's touring to my city next month and thought it was the right time to binge the duology that I've had in my TBR pile for over two years! What unravel from this book was a somewhat complicated fantasy that had me a bit puzzled and confused at times, but there were also times I was very much enjoying myself. I perhaps should've paid closer attention to the comparison novels mentioned above as one of them was another that left me feeling overwhelmed and somewhat confused.
I know we're always being told when writing that we should show, don't tell. Well, sometimes, you just need to tell! The showing of an aspect of this magic system took quite a bit to get through and it just had me struggling to understand what it was and how it worked and just about everything pertaining to it. In this world, there are Providence Cards that let the wielder of said cards to have magical abilities that come from the card. Basically they can use them like a wand but it's usually for only one purpose. A complete deck has never been found or had as there's one rare elusive card that no one has ever been able to find.
In this world, we also learn of a plague that when a person gets caught having said illness, they are pretty much put to death in order to protect everyone else.
Then we meet Elspeth who is our heroine and the teller of this story. When she was a child she caught this plague and her father kept her hidden from anyone who would have had her killed and she was sent to live with her uncle. It was around that time, Elspeth learned she had a "presence" of sorts living inside her head. A presence who gave off dark vibes, but had always been something that protected her from danger.
Elspeth's path eventually crosses Ravyn, who is a guardsman for the king and is usually one to take care of the plague victims, but Ravyn is also apart of a group trying to help save the plague victims from the sickness that slowly kills them. Ravyn and his group are trying to complete their deck of Providence Cards in order to heal one of their own who is sick. While keeping her specter presence a secret, Elspeth thinks that there could be a chance that a full deck would heal herself and possibly rid her of this being that shares her headspace, so she agrees to work with Ravyn...while pretending to be his new lover.
This book was very intriguing and I enjoy the characters, but honestly, it was sometimes hard to follow because everything was surrounding this magic system. And as I said, I was struggling a bit to grasp it and how it worked and everything because of the sporadic moments of showing that made it hard to put the pieces together for a clear picture and understanding of what it was.
I did enjoy the tension thought! There was always this sense of danger with Elspeth because she was basically one of the people that is meant to be killed on sight for having had the illness that caused so much chaos. That she survived it as a child was miraculous in itself. Then you add in the romantic tension between her and Ravyn! I do love a fake "engagement" that eventually turns into true feelings. While Ravyn and Elspeth never came out as engaged, they were merely courting.
The ending was quite exciting and chilling! Things are definitely in dire situation and I am eager to see what will happen next in this duology! Despite a few hiccups and rounds of confusion, it was overall a pretty good read! It just took a bit of meandering to get through this magic system but hopefully in the next book it won't be as convoluted since it's already established!
Overall Rating 3/5 stars
