You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-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
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of Thief of Night!
Holly Black’s follow up to her adult novel, Book of Night was quite the adventure. I love the continued world building around shadow magic and the character growth that Charlie has in this book. I found myself wanting more of Posey and Mahlar’s story, so maybe in future books? We get a lot more of Vince/Red’s backstory in this book.
If you loved the Book of Night, you will love this. If you are looking for YA/Romantasy vibes, look elsewhere. This is a true adult fantasy novel.
Holly Black’s follow up to her adult novel, Book of Night was quite the adventure. I love the continued world building around shadow magic and the character growth that Charlie has in this book. I found myself wanting more of Posey and Mahlar’s story, so maybe in future books? We get a lot more of Vince/Red’s backstory in this book.
If you loved the Book of Night, you will love this. If you are looking for YA/Romantasy vibes, look elsewhere. This is a true adult fantasy novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Incest
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-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:
Complicated
This one was OK. I do feel like the end dragged on far too long especially considering at the 90% mark Holly Black did the equivalent of that sound on TikTok where it’s like “now we need to rob the bank without them, knowing we robbed the bank. And then you accidentally grab another page and the bank exploded dollar bills right down from the sky like blah blah blah”. Because after that point there’s an additional couple of chapters that just seemed to drag it out and I was reading solely to complete the book. I didn’t actually particularly care about how it ended.
I still liked Charlie and found her humor very dry and fun at times which I appreciated. her relationship with her sister got pretty contentious for seemingly no reason, but then we kind of figure it out at the end, but it’s still it felt like Holly Black was trying to make the story more intricate and detailed by just not telling you details instead of setting it up so that she could feed you small pieces and maybe you could put it together. Red/Vincent/Remi/Carver story was sad and I particularly did not enjoy, but felt for him, when we discovered what Adeline had done growing up and was still trying to do. And his conditioning to be submissive and obedient at all times, regardless of what he felt or wanted was incredibly hard to take. The main mystery/conflict of this book trying, to solve who did the massacre at that church felt disjointed, which echoes back to the main “mystery“ of book of night.
This is a small stupid thing to complain about, but if you’re going to be writing an adult fantasy novel and have there be sex scenes I think it’s expected to be a bit more descriptive instead of sort of chickening out and shying away from actually describing what’s going on. It’s not like this was a YA book. This is marketed and tagged as an adult novel. I am glad this is a duology because I do not have the interest or desire to read another book in the series if it were a trilogy.
We never got the answers to who exactly was Rose, especially the answer to did Remi care for Rose and why. There was never a replacement for knight Singh on the Cabal and I still wonder what was the tipping point for shadow Magic becoming a known entity in the world. Also, is Charlie still the hierophant? And if so, are they just not attaching another shadow to her? isn’t that the trademark of being the hierophant? Is what mahar suggested the way to quicken your shadow? And the entire scenario of if Mr. punch was supposed to be at that event or not, and when he was showing up and then how he found out he was being impersonated did not make sense. Also, what happened to Posey‘s shadow after she took on Charlie’s?
Also, that big plot twist that’s unexpected at the 90% mark felt again disjointed because at that point Charlie had solved a couple of mysteries and was at this event to save shadows, but then this character shows up and his motivations had nothing to do with the rest of the book or what Charlie had been looking into. Then once we get past all of that and we’re in the dragged out ending Charlie is separated from red inexplicably and their reunion is very quick and also chopped up along an entire evening, seemingly to set up for another book, but I do believe this is the last of the series.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!
I’ve loved Holly Black since I was in middle school. Her writing is so good and so are her stories.
I enjoyed the first book in this series but felt it was lacking something - some world building or maybe more insight into what the rest of the world knows or feels about shadow magic. We got some of that here but I still felt like these characters existed in a vacuum. I really wanted more info on the cabals and what is going on in the world around the story. With that being said, I love that this book isn’t 600 pages long. Snappy writing is hard to come by in this genre.
I like Red and Charlie and really enjoyed getting to know some side characters. I hope Adeline’s helicopter crashes and Fiona is the only survivor.
I’ve loved Holly Black since I was in middle school. Her writing is so good and so are her stories.
I enjoyed the first book in this series but felt it was lacking something - some world building or maybe more insight into what the rest of the world knows or feels about shadow magic. We got some of that here but I still felt like these characters existed in a vacuum. I really wanted more info on the cabals and what is going on in the world around the story. With that being said, I love that this book isn’t 600 pages long. Snappy writing is hard to come by in this genre.
I like Red and Charlie and really enjoyed getting to know some side characters. I hope Adeline’s helicopter crashes and Fiona is the only survivor.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
SPOILERS AHEAD
Was first ARC read and I feel so honored to have been chosen!
With that said, I did enjoy this one! I felt far less confused, there was better explanation on shadow magic, but the cabals and their deal felt too complicated! Would have loved a chapter explaining exactly how they got that role and why. They are also way too damn power hungry with hardly any power, but then again it does go hand in hand with what’s happening in today’s world.
Wish we got to see more Posey and her situationship with Malhar! Would have been nice to have gotten their POV.
Adelaide Salt didn’t get the ending I felt she deserved. Should have ended worse for her in my opinion. She’s a incestuous creep…
I wish we got deeper into Char and Reds relationship, too! Felt more like lust than love, but they never really said that word to each other. So maybe they were on the road there, after FINALLY being able to be their true selves.
The shadow magic is honestly so interesting and fun!! Felt like a neat twist on peter pan!
I love Charlie, her character is complicated and messy but she starts to own it instead of suppressing that part of herself. She’s a beautiful thick grunge girl and rocks it. I wish we got more from her outside of Vince.
Vince aka Red, gives me Jasper Cullen vibes! Even the character description. He kinda fell flat for me. He had his moments like when he beat that one dude up at the bar, but the way he let Adelaide and her friends treat Charlie turned me off.
Holly Blacks writing is fantastic! No notes on that.
Was first ARC read and I feel so honored to have been chosen!
With that said, I did enjoy this one! I felt far less confused, there was better explanation on shadow magic, but the cabals and their deal felt too complicated! Would have loved a chapter explaining exactly how they got that role and why. They are also way too damn power hungry with hardly any power, but then again it does go hand in hand with what’s happening in today’s world.
Wish we got to see more Posey and her situationship with Malhar! Would have been nice to have gotten their POV.
Adelaide Salt didn’t get the ending I felt she deserved. Should have ended worse for her in my opinion. She’s a incestuous creep…
I wish we got deeper into Char and Reds relationship, too! Felt more like lust than love, but they never really said that word to each other. So maybe they were on the road there, after FINALLY being able to be their true selves.
The shadow magic is honestly so interesting and fun!! Felt like a neat twist on peter pan!
I love Charlie, her character is complicated and messy but she starts to own it instead of suppressing that part of herself. She’s a beautiful thick grunge girl and rocks it. I wish we got more from her outside of Vince.
Vince aka Red, gives me Jasper Cullen vibes! Even the character description. He kinda fell flat for me. He had his moments like when he beat that one dude up at the bar, but the way he let Adelaide and her friends treat Charlie turned me off.
Holly Blacks writing is fantastic! No notes on that.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love my little shadow hunter weirdos so much 😭 thank you holly black for writing the most perfect fat girlie in the whole world for meee
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’d nearly forgotten how much I love Holly Black’s writing. Then I got approved for the arc of Thief of Night, the sequel to her adult debut fantasy Book of Night.
And wow – I loved it!
I really liked the first book in this series, despite hearing a lot of negative reviews. I didn’t mind the slow build to the story because I was absolutely wowed by the big finale and the twists at the end. So it’s been painful to wait several years for the sequel.
But the wait was worth it. I love where she took the story of Charlie Hall. The tension with Vince is full of angst, and the high-stakes world of the Cabal and gloamists gets even more complicated. I’ll keep it vague to avoid spoilers, but I was so happy with where the story went. It’s thrilling and the pace is much faster in this one, and I couldn’t put it down. The romance is messy but beautiful.
Charlie is an unlikeable character that you cannot help but root for. Despite being a grifter, she feels real and raw and the perfect heroine for an adult fantasy from the person who came up with the character of Jude Duarte in The Cruel Prince.
Thanks to my bookstore for the arc!
This was more of a loyalty read than anything else. I didn't click with Book of Night - outside of Charlie Hall, I thought the web of cabal and various underworld characters too complicated and hard to distinguish. I also struggled to care about Charlie and Vince's relationship.
Unfortunately for me, Thief of Night is largely about Red/Vince, as well as said tangle of semi-villainous side characters. It's almost ironic; Holly Black has inadvertently written a self-fulfilling prophecy in Red. Because he's literally a shadow of a character, he feels like one in writing. There's just not enough there to grab your attention. It's also tough how similar Charlie Hall feels to a certain Alex Stern... but I did enjoy her character, and wish that the book had focused more on her, interpersonally.
Also Also if you liked Book of Night and are excited to give this a read, I would 10/10 recommend rereading. This book tosses you in the deep end.
Lesson learned that you don't have to read sequels all the time!
This was more of a loyalty read than anything else. I didn't click with Book of Night - outside of Charlie Hall, I thought the web of cabal and various underworld characters too complicated and hard to distinguish. I also struggled to care about Charlie and Vince's relationship.
Unfortunately for me, Thief of Night is largely about Red/Vince, as well as said tangle of semi-villainous side characters. It's almost ironic; Holly Black has inadvertently written a self-fulfilling prophecy in Red. Because he's literally a shadow of a character, he feels like one in writing. There's just not enough there to grab your attention. It's also tough how similar Charlie Hall feels to a certain Alex Stern... but I did enjoy her character, and wish that the book had focused more on her, interpersonally.
Also Also if you liked Book of Night and are excited to give this a read, I would 10/10 recommend rereading. This book tosses you in the deep end.
Lesson learned that you don't have to read sequels all the time!
am offering my family's organs in exchange for a physical arc (holly black pls see this ily)