If there’s one book you simply couldn’t avoid because it’s literally everywhere, it’s One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. I tend to stay away from hyped books and I managed very while for a long time regarding this one. However, it got chosen as book of the month in a Discord server and fear of missing out kicked in. I missed the readalong though, but I still wanted to see what all the fuzz is about. Was this hype one I agree with?

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
Series: The Shepherd King #1
Published by Orbit on September 27, 2022
Pages: 421
ISBN: 9780316312486
Genres: Fantasy, New adult

Elspeth needs a monster. The monster might be her.
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—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 Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. Except the highwayman just so happens to be the King’s own nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…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 wasn’t sure whether this book would actually be for me, hence why I stayed away from it this long. The blurb sounded not really up my ally, but the reviews are mostly glowing. It’s nice to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while, so that was exactly what I did by picking up One Dark Window. It’s not something I would normally read and especially not this year, which consists almost solely of romance novels. I therefore went into this reading experience neutrally, I was just curious whether this book would be worth the hype.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for me. I found this just an okay read and the language barreer probably played a huge part in this. Even though my English is quite sufficient, I had a hard time understanding the story, hence why it took me so long to finish this book. It took me a week and the novel is not that long at all. I put it aside for several days because I just didn’t feel any urgency to pick it back up. For me, it was hard to vision the world and understand what Gillig wanted with this story. However, it fits the autumn season perfectly because of the dark, gloomy and grimm atmosphere. The city of Blunder is covered in a thick mist for most of the time and the magic in this book is quite dark and powerful.

The writing itsself was fine, not that indulging either. The riddles and rhymes are original, but here the language again necks me here. Therefore I wasn’t intrigued by it. There are POV switches, but not much. When they are done, they are done fine and in a logicalplace in the story.

When thinking about the characters, not much comes to mind. I only finished this book last weekend, but I actually have forgotten nearly everything about Elspeth and Raven. I remember Elspeth being infected and the Nightmare in her head is rapidly taking over, as well as Raven being one of the destriers whose job is to capture and kill the infected citizens. I just can’t remember anyting about their character arc, nor of the side characters. That’s how forgettable they are. I didn’t feel anything for them at all, they are just okay.

Unfortunately, One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig was just average for me. I didn’t feel anything towards characters, world and plot. It’s just fine, nothing more orr less. However, I think the language is part of the problem and I should maybe reread this book once it’s available in Dutch in December. Maybe I might understand it better and enjoy it much more eventually. For now, I’m not sure whether I want to continue this duology. Did you enjoy Caraval by Stephanie Garber? Then this book should definitely be on your reading list!