Book Review : One Dark Window

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
Series: The Shepherd King,
Published by Orbit on September 27th 2022
Pages: 419
Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org
Find on Goodreads

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’ve been curious about One Dark Window since it first released, but at the time, I decided not to pick it up. Since then, I’ve seen the novel all over BookTok and decided it was finally time to give it a chance. I was worried it might be overhyped, but I really enjoyed the gothic atmosphere and interesting magic system of One Dark Window. However, if one looks closer beneath the mysterious mist and haunted wood, there is a little something left to be desired.

 

One Dark Window follows Elspeth Spindle, a young woman who, at a young age, was infected by a magical corruption leaving her mind saddled with a monstrous and sentient figure she calls the Nightmare. Though Elspeth has tried to avoid detection from the authorities, as anyone with magic is put to death, she finds herself wrapped up in a conspiracy against the king with the goal to free the world from the taint of magic once and for all. But despite being closer to a cure from magic than ever before, Elspeth finds that the more she uses the abilities granted to her by the Nightmare, the less she is herself.

 

“Still, it was the first time I stopped fearing the Nightmare—the voice in my head, the creature with strange yellow eyes and an eerie, smooth voice. Eleven years later, and I don’t fear him at all. Even if I should.”

 

I have to say that the entire idea of a magical infection, so to speak, was incredibly intriguing to me from the very beginning. Following up this novel idea was another interesting facet of the world building—Providence Cards. These cards allow people to use magical abilities based on the nature of the cards themselves. However magic is never without its price and the user of the card always experiences some sort of negative consequences, some worse than others. Though I really liked the concept of the cards and the lore behind their creation, I found myself struggling to understand their role and importance for a lot of One Dark Window. 

 

Similarly murky is the role the mist and the wood play. Characters are forced to carry charms to protect themselves from being taken by the mist and carried into the wood, never to be seen again. The taste of the mist or magic itself is often compared to that of salt. Though the mist and the wood are sufficiently eerie and make a perfect backdrop for this gothic novel, it’s never really fully explored how the people of Blunder (the world they live in) grew to deal with and to adapt to the challenge of this magical entity. After reading Mistborn earlier this year, it’s hard not to make comparisons about the details of the world building and not to find One Dark Window’s lacking. 

 

Though I liked Elspeth enough as a character, I will say that she came across as rather oddly disconnected and dispassionate to me. Even when falling for the captain of the destriers, Ravyn, or when fighting for her life, she comes across as emotionally detached and rather bland to me. I just couldn’t feel as invested in her as I would have liked. The side characters aren’t much more three dimensional. It’s one thing to understand a character’s motivations and another to feel them, the latter of which I never could quite manage to do with any of the characters. However, the rest of One Dark Window is interesting enough to easily allow me to overlook this. 

 

“’I see you, Elspeth Spindle.’ His voice was near and far at once, as if underwater. ‘I see a pretty maiden with long black hair and charcoal eyes. I see a yellow gaze narrowed by hate. I see darkness and shadow.’ His lips twisted in an eerie smile. ‘And I see your fingers, long and pale, covered in blood.'”

 

For me, the Nightmare in Elspeth’s mind was definitely the standout character of the book. I enjoyed guessing at his true motivations and what he would do next.  His ominous nursery rhymes, sardonic commentary, and vague implications at a far bigger picture kept my interest peaked. For better or for worse, his true identity was very obvious, and I wish there could have been a bit more mystery to heighten the suspense of it all. I also think that Elspeth’s loss of her sense of self would have been a bit more dramatic if demonstrated more slowly over time, in much smaller doses, for a larger impact. 

 

As far as the romance between Elspeth and Ravyn went, I could have taken or left it. I think there were supposed to be elements of enemies-to-lovers here, but One Dark Window didn’t really pull it off for me. I’ve said this in other reviews, but I think enemies-to-lovers is one of the most difficult tropes to portray, as it requires such a delicate balance between each and every phase of the relationship—the enemy part, the transition past mutual distrust into reluctant allies, the recognition that there is something more there, and the development into a romantic relationship. Both Ravyn and Elspeth are immediately attracted to one another, so the enemy part was never really realized. Plus, the distrust isn’t really there either, as Ravyn ignores the suspicions of people he loves when it comes to Elspeth’s true nature from the very beginning. The two have such a special relationship that it’s clear that nothing will dissuade the other from exploring it. Though this certainty is wholesome, it rather spoils the “will-they-won’t they” feeling of which that I am so very fond.

 

“You cannot undo what already begins. He paused, his voice serpentine as it flickered past my ears. You cannot erase the salt from the din. But if you won’t let me out… you must let him in.”

 

Maybe this is the villain lover in me, but I think I would have enjoyed seeing Elspeth in a romantic relationship with Ravyn’s cousin, Prince Elm or even the Nightmare himself. I realize the former option of the male lead being a prince is rather trite, but I think it could have been executed well here. The latter option would have reminded me of the relationship in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue that to my dismay, I felt was never fully realized. Regardless of the choice between the former and the latter, I feel that either of those choices for a male romantic lead would have created much more conflict than Elpseth’s instant attraction to Ravyn. 

 

Despite these issues with both the lackluster enemies-to-lovers romance and the world-building,  the story and the immaculate vibes of One Dark Window still has me ready to start the next book in the series immediately.  I am very excited to see where it all goes. I think fans of Heartless Hunter will also enjoy One Dark Window.

 

 
This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Related Posts