Alex Aster reveals the future of her “Lightlark” series

Any Lightlark The reader knows the foreshadowing to which Aster alludes: at some point the wildling heroine Isla Crown must make a decision. Love or death? Grim or Oro? Aster’s adventure is based on a dizzying, sometimes confusing mix of what fans (and critics) would call fantasy tropes: powers and portals, curses and animal companions, feasts and balls, stolen memories and (often) stabbings, locked safes etc secret libraries, “Starsticks” and “Dreks” and “Flairs” and one hell of a love triangle. It’s exactly this promise that Aster used to sell her first book after she turned to TikTok in frustration: No one, it seemed, wanted to publish the book Aster couldn’t give up.

But when her casual pitch for the series went viral on TikTok in 2021, Lightlark became a vehicle that the 29-year-old Colombian-American author herself could barely control. “Would you read a book about a cursed island that only appears every hundred years to host a game in which the six rulers of…” [each] Any chance to break their curses?” she asked anyone who might be scrolling online. The answer was and is a resounding yes. A six-figure two-book deal and an accompanying film deal followed as Aster’s video (and its already dedicated audience) caught the attention of publishers. When Lightlark When the book hit shelves in 2022, it sold more than 24,000 copies in its first week of sales, skyrocketing New York Times bestseller list; In the years since, that number has exceeded one million copies. A sequel, Night Curselanded in 2023 and now sky shadow intends to keep Isla Crown at the center of the BookTok chatter and beyond.

Not everyone is happy with this result. Since Lightlark For the first time, Aster faced a variety of criticisms, some more valid than others: She was writing a “clickbait novel.” She failed to keep her promises regarding her books and thus misled her readers. It is an “industrial facility”. She brags too much about her success. She hasn’t done enough to acknowledge her financial privilege, including the fact that her sister Daniella Pierson is a co-founder of Selena Gomez’s Wondermind. Your books are amateurish. But when I ask Aster how she thinks about such criticism or backlash, she tells me that it “doesn’t play as big a role as I would have thought.” Instead, she reserves her real concerns for readers who are already invested in her work and comment on Aster’s social platforms, discussing “what they like and don’t like and what they want to happen and what they don’t.” Those are the people Aster doesn’t want to disappoint.

She’s having a hard time navigating this new reality, where she can reach readers with a flick of her thumb but increasingly feels the need to stay glued to her desk. She says she works seven days a week and either writes or creates content for social media. “I used to respond to every single message, every single comment,” she says, “and I said I would do it forever.” But then my vision started to deteriorate and my wrist started to hurt… My whole wrist Ethos was: If these people take the time to message me, at least I can respond. And that’s how I still feel. But it gets to a point where it’s like this: Okay, either I reply to the messages or I write the books.”

But Aster says she won’t complain about such an enviable position. She loves this work. During our conversation she emphasizes several times her gratitude and her awareness that what she has done is rare. As she also reiterates in other interviews, she began publishing her work at the age of 12, but experienced a (predictable) barrage of rejections. “I thought I’d write my book, send an email and surprise everyone by saying my book would be available in bookstores for a week from that date,” she says with a laugh. As a twelve-year-old, she even believed she could write and publish completely anonymously, which later inspired her to adopt the pseudonym Alex Aster while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. (She landed on “Aster” thanks to her lifelong love of stars.) As a younger writer, “it was never important to me that people knew it was me,” she says, “which is interesting now because I post a lot about my books.” Today her name, her picture, her Brand-They are all inextricably linked Lightlark themselves. Their 438,000 Instagram followers and 1.3 million TikTok followers see them as one and the same.

She has also grown with her books – and with her protagonist. sky shadowrepresents, in Aster’s estimation, a notable departure from Isla Crown’s tendency towards reaction rather than agency. “She’s obviously stuck in this love triangle, caught between her past and her present, her future and the prophecies,” says Aster. “[Skyshade] is the first time that she truly takes control of her destiny and says: ‘Fate should fear me. I will pass the world.'” And Aster knows exactly which direction Isla is going: “I knew beforehand how the series would end Lightlark had been published.” Just rest assured that the end will not happen sky shadow.

As for them Lightlark Film confirms Aster: “There’s really big news.” She continues: “I hope to share it soon, but I’ve heard parts of a script. There are people who are connected and committed that no one knows about and I’m really excited about them.” That little tease is all she can say at the moment, but – at a time when other high-profile fantasy adaptations remain in the dreaded limbo of development – ​​that of Universal Lightlark affirmative any Momentum should be interpreted as victory.

In the meantime, Aster shows no desire to deviate from her word processing program. Her first romance novel for adults was published in March. Summer in the citycomes from William Morrow and Company, and she hopes readers will embrace the genre shift as eagerly as they devoured it Lightlark Saga. “I’m really excited for readers to see my own first-person voice and see more of what my own thoughts feel like, because of course I don’t live in a fantasy world where an island shows up and you find love “You have to kill the life you have,” she says. Contemporary romance is a genre I enjoy reading and I hope readers enjoy it Lightlark The series will show that it is still the same person who loves all these elements of fantasy and translates them into a romantic comedy.”

She also has no plans to abandon BookTok or any of the other platforms that have given Aster a modern way to navigate the publishing industry. “I think this is the closest we can get to the reader and control what gets published,” she says. “That hasn’t been the case for a really long time.” Yes, the Internet is moving faster and faster. Some trends barely register as radar signals, and she doubts that a video will be exactly like her Lightlark The pitch would go viral on the BookTok of 2024. But something with the same intention, even the same result? Aster still thinks that’s possible. “Not everything goes viral,” she says, “but even the chance of that happening.” could I think that’s hopeful.”

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