Shine light by Marianne de Pierres

Random House 2012. pp 229. ISBN 9781742753232.
(Age: Upper secondary) Recommended. In this eagerly awaited finale of the Night Creatures trilogy, Naif returns to party island, Ixion, knowing she has to save all the teens on it from certain death. In Angel Arias, book two, she learnt that they were there for the Ripers (rulers) to siphon off their life force. Naif had previously escaped from her oppressive homeland, Grave, where, she later discovered, the Elders were in league with the Ripers. With the help of the pirate, Ruzalia, her bonded Riper lover, Lenoir, and her friends from her first stay on Ixion, all of whom we met in Burn Bright, book one, she has many problems to solve.
How can she stop the workers, the uthers, maintaining the Ripers? How can she convince the young they are in danger? How to reverse the badges which drain their life force? How can she prevent Ixion remaining in eternal darkness? What will be her eventual relationship with Lenoir and her friends, Rollo and Markes. And how can they defeat the Night Creatures, those slimy, tentacled creatures which lurk alongside the paths, ready to strangle any strays.
This adventure quest series is sustained by the character of Naif, who transforms from the shy, repressed teen, Retra, to a fearless, compassionate and quick-thinking leader who puts others before herself and risks all to save Ixion. This well paced story is about sacrifice, friendship, honesty and love. True, fate often intervenes to save them in the nick of time, the solutions are fantastical and the final conflict is over too quickly, but Marianne de Pierres has created an unforgettable world with characters fans love. The ending is simultaneously satisfying and elusively open.
Kevyna Gardner