One Dark Window (Book Review)

 

~Book Review~

Elspeth Spindle harbors a great secret. A secret that, if revealed, could get her and her family killed by the king. The reason: she was infected with a disease that gives her wild, dangerous magic. Accompanied by a monster in her head, aptly named the Nightmare, Elspeth tries to keep a low profile. However, when her path crosses with Ravyn Yew, the king’s nephew and captain of the country’s designated infected hunters, Elspeth’s life becomes uprooted. But, Ravyn is not what he seems. He also has a secret-- one of high treason. Together, alongside other influential figures, they hunt down the Providence Cards to heal the magical disease. She is racing against time, and her own mind, to collect all twelve cards

I don't really have much to say on Elspeth. Normally, I like to focus on the main characters. I like to pinpoint what worked in the character’s favor and what didn’t. So much so that I could spend pages upon pages analyzing character development. However, there are so many other aspects of One Dark Window that draw my attention beyond the protagonist. Now, that is not to say Elspeth is a boring, Mary-Sue, static character. She is anything but. Elspeth’s character developed in a way that is realistic for a twenty year old in the span of a month or two. Her central personality traits are still present throughout the entire novel. There is no fantastical and dramatic switch of character. Instead, Elspeth’s character undergoes a realistic growth in confidence, physical ability, and attraction. She keeps your interest with her shortcomings, her quick wit, and dynamic relationships with the cast of characters. I thoroughly enjoyed reading from Elspeth’s point of view and undergoing this intense, desperate, frustrating, and emotional experience with her. 

Now, to what I’ve really been wanting to discuss: the magic system. The magic system that Gillig has developed for this world is phenomenal. I have not, personally, read a magic system this unique in a long time. I will do my best to describe the system in a way that is correct, does it justice, and does not spoil too much of the book. Firstly, the magics can be sorted into two overall groups: an imposed, uncontrollable magic that is given by means of disease which eats away at the user, and a controllable magic given through the use of special cards (Providence Cards) that do not have side effects unless used too ambitiously and carelessly. The magic that is given to people via the disease is different from one person to the other. No two people can have the same disease-given magic. At least, as described in the book. However, since it is a powerful magic, it slowly eats away at the host causing them to degenerate. This expands on a major theme of the book: what you take is what you have to give. Each person, thus, degenerates in different ways because of their different magics. This magic is not earned, it is given when someone contracts the disease. The person has no choice in the matter.

The Providence Card magic is a lot different. There are twelve different types of Providence Cards, each with a different number of copies. The cards, once the holder has tapped on the surface of the cards three times, gives the holder different abilities. For example, the Maiden card will make the holder extraordinarily beautiful and the Scythe card can bend other people’s will to match your own. That being said, there is a downside to the cards. If the holder uses the cards for an extended period of time or overexerts the magic, there are consequences. The Maiden card will make the holder cruel and the Scythe card can inflict pain. In order to deactivate the cards, one must tap the card three times again. Once again, the magic system revolves around balance. A person cannot take more magic than what they can give. They cannot be too greedy. This magic toes the line between being an earned magic versus a given magic. I would say more along the lines of an earned magic. Someone can earn a Providence Card, as seen through Ione. However, someone can be given a Providence Card willingly by another person. The holder has the choice of using the magic of whatever card they have, or they can choose not to. 

Having both an earned and unwillingly given magic system work together is so fascinating to me. However, Gillig does a fantastic job balancing the two of them together. I also loved the fact that the consequences to magic usage are abundantly clear. So clear in fact that it is pretty much the entire plot. One thing a lot of fantasy books fall short in is the consequences to using magic or really establishing any set rules for a magic system. Magic, to our mere mortal eyes, is something that is fantastical and awesome. However, if we were to treat magic realistically, there would be a toll. It is energy, in theory. Where one absorbs energy, one must expend it and vice versa. That is the natural rules of the universe. I know in fantasy books it is a fictional world, more often than not, but that does not mean that the world is lawless. A strong writer is able to acknowledge that even fantastical fictional works have to have rules to abide by. Otherwise, there is no substance, and there certainly are no stakes. I commend Gillig on setting such realistic tones within her fantasy book; it enabled me to view the book as a real world or a real alternate verse. I was able to settle into the book quickly and absorb information that was laid out exceptionally well.

I spoke about one of the themes that shows up within One Dark Window very briefly when I discussed the magic system: giving and taking. However, the magic system is not the only time where we see the consequences of taking more than you are giving. We see this in Elspeth’s dynamics with other people, especially Elm and Ravyn. When Elspeth is put into the secret conspiracy to collect twelve of the Providence Cards against the king’s knowledge, she is immediately questioned based on her loyalty and knowledge. However, she is able to skirt her way around the truth. She does this as often as she possibly can. Elm calls her out on this several times. He doesn’t know what secrets she keeps, however, he knows they are there. Ravyn, on the other hand, may have these feelings but he never voices them against Elspeth. He respects her wishes of privacy. Elspeth is quite a hypocrite about this. She is constantly pushing Ravyn and Elm on the secrets they keep. Eventually, they end up sharing, willingly, what they were hiding. Elspeth keeps her own. But, and this is a big but, there are consequences of her keeping the Nightmare in her head a secret. They may not be the biggest consequences, however, it starts to snowball into the very intense cliffhanger that Gillig left for us at the end of the book. If Elspeth spilled the bean earlier, would she be in the situation she is currently in? I give it a strong maybe, borderline weak yes. Thus, we lean into this theme of the consequences of taking more than you give in other aspects than magic usage.

The second prominent theme that I was able to pick out was hubris. The story would not be happening, Elspeth would not be going through all this trouble, if one man chose to not be on the same level as the god in this story, the Spirit of the Wood. Simply put, that’s all I have for that. Albeit, I have not read the second book yet, and I do suspect there is something more beyond the concept of hubris, but I’m not quite sure what that is yet. For now, I am going to stick with this idea until the second book does or does not prove me wrong.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone 18+ years of age. If someone under the age of 18 were interested in the book, I would err on the side of caution because there is a sex scene and some other mildly mature descriptions. It is nothing raunchy and wild, however, it is descriptive enough that it isn’t readily a pg to pg-13 book. Going onto Goodreads, it classified this book at Young Adult and I have to disagree. Young Adult books are supposed to be targeted towards children from the ages 13-18 years old. I would not recommend this book to a 13 year old simply put. I am not going to expand too much on this topic because I can and will go into lengthy detail on my opinions on the over sex-ification of teenage media. I would put this book in the New Adult section. It has Young Adult vibes, however, there are adult themes and content. I do not think this is on Gillig or her publishing company. When you go to Gillig’s site for the book, she does bring up the sexual content as well as other more mature themes. I think this false labeling has to do with other reviewers. 

I have two criticisms and they are so incredibly superficial I’m almost embarrassed of myself for being the way that I am. I would call these more along the lines of peeves of mine and not really criticisms. (I am not going to take stars away for this reason.) However, I do want to share them. I am a huge etymology nerd, especially when it comes to names. I love names, especially names that I find pleasing to hear and say. I did love what Gillig did with the family names and all of that, however, I do not like the name Elspeth. To me, it looks like the sound someone makes when they spit out something gross. I know it's a variant of Elizabeth and the meaning of the name is very fitting to the book, but I just got irritated every time I saw her name. My other complaint was the Nightmare’s rhyming. I know it was foreshadowing a major plot point, however, he either needed to rhyme the whole time or not at all. I couldn’t find a pattern to why he suddenly started rhyming when he was talking normally only moments before and it bothered me.

Overall, this book was fantastic. I enjoyed the themes, characters (even the villains), plot, magic system, and dynamic of the book. Gillig does a great job relaying a beautifully tragic fantasy-romance in a way that is clear and heartfelt. I cannot wait to read the second book in this duology and any books from Gillig in the future.