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fmcfranny's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the lore and the characters were interesting. Lukie is the kind of character you root for. When she falls you want to help her get back up. This is definitely an author I would love to read more from.
ceridwenanne's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I think this is my first full-on StoryGraph rec I've read, one that didn't come recommended by someone else too. They did a decent job of it! The setup isn't that dissimilar to the White Trash Zombie books: a woman wakes up undead and has to solve her own murder. The world is decidedly different though.
It's an alternate present (or 2003) where the world is like it is, except that there was a Dark Lord 2k years ago who got vanquished, and then all the magic went out of the world. There's still orks and ogres and such, and the usual magical racism thrown at biracial people -- in the fantasy races sense of the term. (I'm not super pumped by magical racism, because it feels like talking about fake racism so you can avoid talking about the real thing.)
Anyway, girl was killed 20 years previous, in the 1980s, so coming back to her hometown, the place where her life was cut short before it really began, is mostly a series of emotional body blows. Her house is gone, replaced by a hotel; her dad started drinking and moved away; a couple of her band mates are huge sweaty assholes. It's not all bad: one band mate has come out as trans and is therefore much more fulfilled and together.
Much of the third act takes place in an underworld where the rules seem somehow both over-determined and capricious. And the Big Bad felt a little easy to me, the kind of villain whose motives are boring and obvious.
But that's ok! I've been crashing on the rocks of urban fantasy recently, completely tired of heroines who are Not Like Other Girls and growly assholes as love interests. The girl here has a serious reckoning with how she treated her friends and girlfriend back in the day, and I love when people we're supposed to like actually work on being worthy people. Good job all around.
It's an alternate present (or 2003) where the world is like it is, except that there was a Dark Lord 2k years ago who got vanquished, and then all the magic went out of the world. There's still orks and ogres and such, and the usual magical racism thrown at biracial people -- in the fantasy races sense of the term. (I'm not super pumped by magical racism, because it feels like talking about fake racism so you can avoid talking about the real thing.)
Anyway, girl was killed 20 years previous, in the 1980s, so coming back to her hometown, the place where her life was cut short before it really began, is mostly a series of emotional body blows. Her house is gone, replaced by a hotel; her dad started drinking and moved away; a couple of her band mates are huge sweaty assholes. It's not all bad: one band mate has come out as trans and is therefore much more fulfilled and together.
Much of the third act takes place in an underworld where the rules seem somehow both over-determined and capricious. And the Big Bad felt a little easy to me, the kind of villain whose motives are boring and obvious.
But that's ok! I've been crashing on the rocks of urban fantasy recently, completely tired of heroines who are Not Like Other Girls and growly assholes as love interests. The girl here has a serious reckoning with how she treated her friends and girlfriend back in the day, and I love when people we're supposed to like actually work on being worthy people. Good job all around.
arce's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
camilleslibrary's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book from the author.
Following a turbulent night of trying to keep her highschool band together for a party, teenager Lukie's memories suddenly go dark. She finds herself waking up twenty years later as a zombie.
Before long she realizes that she was murdered. But who was the murderer? And can she stop them striking again?
With a quick 134 pages, Final Night is extremely fast-paced. The opening chapters hooked me immediately, diving straight into the inciting incident without delay. Tension is also maintained throughout the narrative as Lukie must solve the mystery before the sun rises. I also thought the cover was a good depiction of the novel's genre.
The character arc of Lukie was satisfying, being a realistically flawed teenager who grows as a person. The climactic scenes where Lukie faces her fears and confronts her mistakes were riveting and exciting.
Not only that, but it was a refreshing anti-cliché that Lukieremained a zombie at the end of the story rather than returning to the status quo. This was also a great setup for the sequel.
The worldbuilding where the world used to be magical, but no longer is, worked well as a premise for the urban fantasy setting. This also helped explain why the protagonists were on their own and couldn't seek help from an institution.
I appreciated that the trans man character (Tamlyn) is depicted as a clever detective and a hero during the novel.
Some other reviewers have mentioned that Lukie deadnames/misgenders Tamlyn in a brief memory flashback, but to me this didn't come off as malicious. Remember, Lukie's from 1983 - she wouldn't know about the convention of referring to trans people with their present-day names and pronouns when describing past events. Overall, this misgendering seemed more like well-intentioned ignorance, or simply Lukie's immediate reaction when she hadn't yet mentally registered him being the same person.
On the downside, the fast pacing that I enjoyed so much in the opening chapters became a problem after the 50% mark. There was too much happening too quickly, e.g. rapid changes of location and scene. I was very confused about what was happening and I don't think I really understood the ending. For example, consider this section:
> Rather than defending itself, the shade slashed the air open behind it. The vision of the sky and sea tore away like a play’s backdrop, revealing the Tenebran void.
> Lukie leaped into the hole. “Follow me!” she screamed at the shade.
> But all she could see was the Baron staring at her with his luminous blue eyes, wiping the shade’s essence from his lips. [End of chapter]
This is an extremely fast-paced sequence. The final sentence delivers a whole lot of information all at once - the shade is not visible, the Baron is looking at her, and the shade's essence is on his lips. Ergo, the Baron ate the shade.
But we're not given a moment to draw this conclusion, understand what has just happened, and allow Lukie a moment to react. Instead, the narrative moves swiftly onwards, resulting in confusion.
Many other sections in the second half of the novel have this problem.
I also found a few phrases confusing to read, e.g.“Red Jack’s Help’s House” being such a long phrase with multiple 's made it hard to parse .
Relatedly, because the pacing was so fast, there was no time to get to know the characters. This meant that some characters came off as rather one-dimensional, such as Cage. All I can really say about Cage is that he seems powerful, dedicated to his cause, and has a cool sword. I feel like the author has a more detailed vision of Cage's character in his notes, but that this wasn't shown in the actual text of the story.
Similarly, Lukie's girlfriend Karra is mainly characterized through one event (her disagreement with Lukie at the opening party ). I think it would have been good to be able to spend some more time with these characters in conversation or flashbacks, as empathizing with them more would heighten the stakes of the narrative. Another option would be to reduce the number of locations and characters (e.g. by combining the roles of some characters) so that we could spend more time with what's left.
Altogether, Final Night is an exciting, fast-paced adventure that reminds us that we can't change the past - but we can do better for the future.
Following a turbulent night of trying to keep her highschool band together for a party, teenager Lukie's memories suddenly go dark. She finds herself waking up twenty years later as a zombie.
Before long she realizes that she was murdered. But who was the murderer? And can she stop them striking again?
With a quick 134 pages, Final Night is extremely fast-paced. The opening chapters hooked me immediately, diving straight into the inciting incident without delay. Tension is also maintained throughout the narrative as Lukie must solve the mystery before the sun rises. I also thought the cover was a good depiction of the novel's genre.
The character arc of Lukie was satisfying, being a realistically flawed teenager who grows as a person. The climactic scenes where Lukie faces her fears and confronts her mistakes were riveting and exciting.
Not only that, but it was a refreshing anti-cliché that Lukie
The worldbuilding where the world used to be magical, but no longer is, worked well as a premise for the urban fantasy setting. This also helped explain why the protagonists were on their own and couldn't seek help from an institution.
I appreciated that the trans man character (Tamlyn) is depicted as a clever detective and a hero during the novel.
Some other reviewers have mentioned that Lukie deadnames/misgenders Tamlyn in a brief memory flashback, but to me this didn't come off as malicious. Remember, Lukie's from 1983 - she wouldn't know about the convention of referring to trans people with their present-day names and pronouns when describing past events. Overall, this misgendering seemed more like well-intentioned ignorance, or simply Lukie's immediate reaction when she hadn't yet mentally registered him being the same person.
On the downside, the fast pacing that I enjoyed so much in the opening chapters became a problem after the 50% mark. There was too much happening too quickly, e.g. rapid changes of location and scene. I was very confused about what was happening and I don't think I really understood the ending. For example, consider this section:
> Lukie leaped into the hole. “Follow me!” she screamed at the shade.
> But all she could see was the Baron staring at her with his luminous blue eyes, wiping the shade’s essence from his lips. [End of chapter]
This is an extremely fast-paced sequence. The final sentence delivers a whole lot of information all at once - the shade is not visible, the Baron is looking at her, and the shade's essence is on his lips. Ergo, the Baron ate the shade.
But we're not given a moment to draw this conclusion, understand what has just happened, and allow Lukie a moment to react. Instead, the narrative moves swiftly onwards, resulting in confusion.
I also found a few phrases confusing to read, e.g.
Relatedly, because the pacing was so fast, there was no time to get to know the characters. This meant that some characters came off as rather one-dimensional, such as Cage. All I can really say about Cage is that he seems powerful, dedicated to his cause, and has a cool sword. I feel like the author has a more detailed vision of Cage's character in his notes, but that this wasn't shown in the actual text of the story.
Similarly, Lukie's girlfriend Karra is mainly characterized through one event (
Altogether, Final Night is an exciting, fast-paced adventure that reminds us that we can't change the past - but we can do better for the future.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Deadnaming, Racial slurs, and Racism
Racism, Racial slurs: Fantasy racism appears directed at people who have traces of elven, dwarrow, or ogre heritage. There is no real-world ethnic racism.Violence: There are some fight scenes. They are not especially gory.
booksandbongs's review against another edition
I won a digital copy of this book as part of a Storygraph giveaway.
The plot itself is interesting enough, but the characters felt flat and the magic confusing at times.
The reason I put the book down and chose not to finish it is because the author includes a transgender character, but then has the main character deadname and misgender them when thinking of before they came out. For a book that aims to be inclusive, this feels pretty unforgivable and put a bad taste in my mouth.
The plot itself is interesting enough, but the characters felt flat and the magic confusing at times.
The reason I put the book down and chose not to finish it is because the author includes a transgender character, but then has the main character deadname and misgender them when thinking of before they came out. For a book that aims to be inclusive, this feels pretty unforgivable and put a bad taste in my mouth.
reading_rant's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
hellodebbies's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I received this book as a prize for winning a Storygraph giveaway.
I liked the plot and I think Lukie will be interesting as the main character in the next book. Indeed, the characters, side and mains, were quite bland, and due to shortness of the book, their personalities couldn't be developed. Also, it was a bit confusing sometimes, the pace was so fast at the end that I didn't understand that well the last chapters. The world building was simple but the fast pace didn't make it necessarily easy to understand since a lot of info were thrown out of nowhere.
I feel like this would have been a really good prequel if it was that, however as a book, some the elements were too rushed and not explained enough.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and I am quite curious to know what happens next!
I liked the plot and I think Lukie will be interesting as the main character in the next book. Indeed, the characters, side and mains, were quite bland, and due to shortness of the book, their personalities couldn't be developed. Also, it was a bit confusing sometimes, the pace was so fast at the end that I didn't understand that well the last chapters. The world building was simple but the fast pace didn't make it necessarily easy to understand since a lot of info were thrown out of nowhere.
I feel like this would have been a really good prequel if it was that, however as a book, some the elements were too rushed and not explained enough.
Overall, I did enjoy the book and I am quite curious to know what happens next!
20000leagues's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
4.0
quetzal33's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-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
4.25