Book Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Genre(s): Fantasy

Book Synopsis:

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, a sixteen year old Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic — the Red Church. Treachery and trials await her with the Church’s halls, and to fail is to die. But if she survives to initiation, Mia will be inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the only thing she desires.

Revenge.

Review:

I found this book fascinating for a number of reasons, but the main one wasn’t the worldbuilding or the characters. It was the writing style.

I haven’t read many books written in a third-person omniscient manner, where the narrator is decidedly removed from the characters and events going on and acts as a chronicler. There’s a division between the narration and the characters’ emotions. You don’t get to see their thoughts, only their actions and subsequent consequences. But this was done so well. The book was not only engaging, it was compelling.

And that distance between the narrator and the characters made some of the later chapters easier to get through. (There is a lot of death, but when you’re reading a book about assassins, it’s bound to happen, right?)

While there wasn’t really magic in the classic sense, Mia’s ability was pretty fascinating. She can manipulate shadows, twist them to her will at times, and though she isn’t as strong or smart as many of the other acolytes in the Red Church, her ability is unique. Some fear it, others envy it, while Mia herself isn’t exactly sure what she is. Or what she’s truly capable of.

Now, I’ve had this one on my list to read for well over a year. The main character, Mia, is 16, and I really have to be in the right mindset to read the typical YA book (it doesn’t happen very often.) But this is not a typical YA book, and I hesitate to even call it YA at all after reading it. Mia may be a teenager, but in this case, her age doesn’t define the genre. The book’s contents are dark, brutal, and vicious. It’s a story I enjoyed because it wasn’t afraid to explore themes that a YA book would have glossed over (or avoided entirely.) And I loved that aspect of the book.

Nevernight is the first book in a trilogy, but it had a satisfying enough conclusion by itself. I hope to read the rest of the series eventually.

Author website: jaykristoff.com

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