Reviews with content warning for Torture - Night Angel Nemesis

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Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks

2 reviews

adancewithbooks's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.5

Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

I was both excited and hesited to read this continuation of the Night Angel Series. I read the original trilogy about 15 years ago and I remember loving it at the time. I have been meaning to reread it but I never did quite get around to it. And after reading this installment, I think I shouldn't. I should just keep my original fond memories.

This book is the diary of Kylar Stern as they are being read by sister Viridiana. He send her the magical diary of his last story before he supposedly died, magically enchanted so only she can read it. It is an interesting set up, in itself that could have worked if the diary was not actualy a step for step of what Kylar did. Step.for.step.

It made the book an incredible hard read because of that. I like Kylar! But in this installment he was not at all great to follow around. He whined, complained, whined and felt sorry for himself an awful lot. Together with the Ka'kari he wears he is pretty much the most powerful person in this world but you could not tell from the way he blundered his way through everything. His choices were dumb and rash and it felt like he had not at all grown from the teen we met in the very first book.

'In fact, let's quick establish a rule of thumb. If I ever do something rash or even dumb, you should go ahead and assume that there were very good reasons for me the act the way I did - the way I do? The way I'm about to? Tenses are hard.'

Going for an unreliable narrator style and then doing this, that doesn't work.

It dragged the plot down a lot which in itself was rather interesting. Logan, now king, is trying to gain allies. As he is away for that his twins get kidnapped under Kylar's watchful eye. But why would they? It turns out that it wasn't just political but that there still was a backlash from the final fight at the end of the original trilogy.

The ending especially saved a lot of this book for me. Where there were some final twists and turns. Some answers.

'I'm the sacrifice everyone is willing to make.'

Kylar tries a bit of philosophy on the whole nature of being a night angel but because he bumbles and whines through this whole book it doesn't really work. But this one did hit home. I wanted more of that. Less words. Less whining. And this book could have worked.

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mwritesdragons's review

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Night Angel Nemesis is a thrilling (if tragic) return to Midycru for Brent Weeks. It's clear Weeks has used all the skill he gained since writing his original debut trilogy The Night Angel Trilogy (The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge, Beyond the Shadows) to craft a twisting, expertly paced story.

This book does tackle some heavy, grimdark topics, but it does so with nuance and consideration. Nemesis is likely best read as a sequel to Night Angel, as it picks up shortly after the conclusion of Beyond the Shadows; however, readers who enjoy jumping into the fray may start with Nemesis as it is a complete story by itself. It does the job of whetting the reader's appetite with the promise of what this new series will bring us. And best of all, the engaging concept employed mean the moment you are done reading, you want to jump right back to the beginning to see what a second read reveals.

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