The Whispering Night by Susan Dennard – Review

Published: November 19, 2024

Publisher: Tor Teen

Series: The Luminaries #3

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 369 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4.25 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
The forest is more dangerous than ever in this highly-anticipated, pulse-pounding, and swoon-worthy conclusion to the bestselling Luminaries trilogy.

Winnie Wednesday’s future is looking bright. Hemlock Falls is no longer hunting the werewolf, she and Erica Thursday are tentative friends, and Winnie finally knows exactly where she stands with Jay Friday.

With everything finally on track, Winnie is looking forward to the Nightmare Masquerade, a week-long celebration of all things Luminary. But as Luminaries from across the world flock to the small town, uninvited guests also arrive. Winnie is confronted by a masked Diana and charged with an impossible task—one that threatens everything and everyone Winnie loves.

As Winnie fights to stop new enemies before time runs out, old mysteries won’t stop intruding. Her missing father is somehow entangled with her search for hidden witches, and as Winnie digs deeper into the long-standing war between the Luminaries and the Dianas, she discovers rifts within her own family she never could have imagined.

What does loyalty mean when family and enemies look the same?

---

I feel so productive lately thanks to a few series I’ve either made progress on or finished up and The Luminaries trilogy has now come to an end. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with how thoroughly engaging the plot remained throughout the trilogy and how consistent the tone and character voices felt. I feel like that’s so rare in any series, so I especially love that it’s a YA fantasy series that has me in such a chokehold. 

The Whispering Night picks up right after the events of The Hunting Moon and Winnie Wednesday is kind of freaking out. She encounters a group of enemy witches (called Dianas) in the woods, someone might know her boyfriend is a werewolf, and she finally becomes a Luminary Hunter! It’s such a weird mixture of everything she’s ever wanted and everything she’s ever feared – such a conundrum! Either way, Winnie still needs to follow the rest of her father’s clues to prove that he wasn’t a Diana himself and was in fact framed and then she needs to find him. To top things off, it’s time for a huge gathering of Luminaries and this year the gathering is being hosted right in her hometown. There are so many new people and any of them could secretly be a Diana and the weird humming monster that might actually be a spell is still on the lam, so things are definitely NOT going to go wrong.

Winnie is a delightful character and I love her general optimism, her artistry, and her passion about the work the Luminaries do. I also love that this book does such a great job of balancing Winnie’s family, friend, and love interest connections with one another and Susan Dennard makes each feel equally important. I think the emphasis of strong friendships and family bonds in a story is wonderful, especially with the prevalence of romantasy where the love interest is the be all, end all. The little bits we get to see of Winnie’s training and classroom time are also quite fun, though so much of this installment focuses on her trying to get through a bunch of unwanted duties thanks to her new celebrity status for being bitten by a werewolf. 

Overall, I thought this wrapped up all the plot lines in a really satisfying manner and answered all those burning questions I’ve had building up over the previous two books. With this being a series conclusion, I really don’t want to give a lot away (takes all the fun out of things!), but let me reassure you that the ending is quite action packed and has some really cool visuals! I would definitely recommend this series, especially for those of us millennials who really loved YA fantasy during the renaissance era, post-Twilight.