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fionamatilda's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Gore
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Incest and Sexual content
mirrorstorm_'s review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Child abuse
Minor: Torture and Vomit
wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Misogyny, Murder, Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Vomit, Alcoholism, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, and Toxic friendship
bellebookcorner's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I have quite a high expectation to this book because the author’s other series is one of my favorite and I’m curious to see this author’s first adult novel works. Unfortunately, it doesn’t live up to my expectation.
I felt confused most of the times when I read this book, it’s hard to envision some of the things happening here. The slow pacing in the first half part of the book almost made me gave up continuing this book….
There’s a lot of characters to keep track of to and it’s kinda hard differentiating one to the other unless they have significant roles like the main characters and the villain.
As for the romance, it has the potential and I’m rooting for both main characters. I’m intrigued to find out what happens next. However, it’s a veryyyy slow burn romance so if you’re not a fan of those this book might not be for you.
I have to admit the magic system is actually interesting, with the shadow magic and the blight. I keep on reading because the second half part of the book gets slightly more interesting.
My favorite part is the last few chapters of the book where the secrets is out in the open and it actually surprise me in a good way.
Overall, this isn’t entirely a bad read but it’s not that great either.
The ending still makes me want to continue reading this series. I’d like to know what happens next so I’ll keep an eye out on the sequel later.
The ending still makes me want to continue reading this series. I’d like to know what happens next so I’ll keep an eye out on the sequel later.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse and Death
Minor: Sexual content
sapphicbookdragon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
Minor: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Self harm
rinku's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Book of Night is actually the first book by Black that I’ve read – besides reading the Spiderwick Chronicles as a child but I don’t remember anything about them. I wasn’t blown away by this novel, but it was a nice read, mainly because of the dark atmosphere and the interesting world.
In this book, we follow Charlie as she navigates a world in which shadows can be manipulated and are used for many shady things. Charlie soon finds herself in the centre of those because she goes on a mission to find a mysterious book. Her past helps her greatly with this task since she was once a thief and a criminal herself. The thief stuff and the few action scenes were honestly my favorite thing about this novel since they’re just so cool. Much of Charlie’s backstory is interesting as well, but it was a bit boring that much of it was told, just like the backstories of other characters. Furthermore, I always find a bit funny when YA authors write adult books because what makes books “adult” in their opinion is mentioning abuse, drugs, and sex often. This was here a bit over-the-top, and I’m sure there are other ways to make a book more adult. Some things were also quite predictable since the plot is a bit average, but I generally liked it.
I don’t know what I think about the ending though. What I did like about it was how Charlie’s tricking Salt but many other things about it were not so understandable. With all the plot twists and revelations, like Vince being Remy’s shadow and not Remy or the hierophant being the murderer, apparently , I was more irritated than shocked by them. Especially the second thing came a bit out of the blue for me. I also don’t like the last chapter and have the feeling it was only added to have the possibility for writing a second book.
Like I’ve mentioned at the beginning, the dark atmosphere created throughout the novel was so great. I imagined many scenes taking place in the dark or at least when it’s dusk/dawn, even when this wasn’t the case. The general world was interesting as well since I always love to read about urban fantasy novels where magic just exists, and we see how it’s dealt with in the modern world. Nevertheless, the world building was sometimes a bit irritating, and I struggled with imagining some things, like how a shadow is able to attack a person.
I don’t have strong opinions on the characters, I think they were all okay. Charlie seemed a bit try-hard edgy to me at the beginning but after the half, I started to warm up with her. I honestly found her past life and how she was back then more interesting, and I would love to read a whole book about it. Vince was a fascinating character from the beginning, but I didn’t care for Remy’s POV at all and don’t think that it was necessary. What I find a bit sad though is that mostly only men are part of the conspiracy and hence play a bigger role.
I’m not sure why we need a sequel to Book of Night since the story is nicely wrapped up at the end, even though it’s a bit open. Still, I wouldn’t mind reading more about Charlie since I started to like her quite a lot but I’m not the biggest fan of the situation she was put in at the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Sexual content
Minor: Addiction, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders
annorabrady's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, and Child abuse
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Self harm, and Incest
hylian_narwhal's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Moderate: Body horror and Child abuse
taryn_g's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse
Minor: Death of parent
leahfoko's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book was so good. It took me a little bit to get into the story and understand the world because there was a lot to it, but once I was hooked I was hooked. I felt like I was able to predict some of the twists but at that the same time I had no idea what was coming. The plot beats and surprises were the kind that looking back maybe should’ve been obvious but they felt like HUGE surprises at the time and were so unique from the kind of plot points you’d expect in a fantasy. Which is the best kind, the kind where all the pieces were set up for you along the way and you put the puzzle together as Charlie did.
Speaking of Charlie, at times I got kind of annoyed at her character for being bullheaded but that was also who she was and I couldn’t fault her for that at the end of the day because she needed to be that way to develop as a character and get to where she was at the end of the book.
I really felt while reading this book that I had never read anything like it before and that is saying something. Holly Black once again coming in with the unique and wonderful world building. I also really liked that the story wrapped up pretty succinctly at the end while also leaving me intrigued for the second book. For a bit there I wasn’t sure what was going to be left to keep me hooked into wanting to read book two, but then she did it! Last minute hook to keep me coming back for more, while also feeling like the book could stand pretty well on its own if it needed to. I really appreciated that.
Overall I really liked this book, I’m going with 4.5 stars because it took a bit to get going and at times I felt a bit confused and lost trying to keep track of all the pieces of information about the world that were coming my way that it felt a bit like an overload of information at times. But that comes with the elaborate world building at times. I would definitely recommend this book though to fans of Holly Black!
Speaking of Charlie, at times I got kind of annoyed at her character for being bullheaded but that was also who she was and I couldn’t fault her for that at the end of the day because she needed to be that way to develop as a character and get to where she was at the end of the book.
I really felt while reading this book that I had never read anything like it before and that is saying something. Holly Black once again coming in with the unique and wonderful world building. I also really liked that the story wrapped up pretty succinctly at the end while also leaving me intrigued for the second book. For a bit there I wasn’t sure what was going to be left to keep me hooked into wanting to read book two, but then she did it! Last minute hook to keep me coming back for more, while also feeling like the book could stand pretty well on its own if it needed to. I really appreciated that.
Overall I really liked this book, I’m going with 4.5 stars because it took a bit to get going and at times I felt a bit confused and lost trying to keep track of all the pieces of information about the world that were coming my way that it felt a bit like an overload of information at times. But that comes with the elaborate world building at times. I would definitely recommend this book though to fans of Holly Black!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Classism, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexism and Misogyny
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, and Sexual content