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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
It won’t shock me if this is my favorite book of the year. Not sure how Kristoff is going to catch my attention in the next one though.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
I found Nevernight to be engaging and interesting. I want to read the next books in the series. However, I'd hesitate to recommend it to other people, it is a 'hear me out book'. The caveats being, it is quite graphic in both violence and sex. The prose and the humour is interesting but layered and a ironic in a way a lot of people would find unappealing. These traits I really enjoyed are polarising and not for everyone. The core story is compelling if a bit cliche.
I think Nevernight falls in this unfortunate middle ground of not being a chewy epic fantasy purely for the enjoyment of epic fantasy readers, while also not being a softer entry level fantasy for people who read more contemporary fiction. The way it is recommended and talked about does it a disservice. Nevernight is really for a specific audience and it does not necessarily reach that audience.
It is good at is good at what it is. enjoyable and worth while if that is what you are after. It is a medium chewy fantasy with on screen sex and violence, a compling story that is what it says on the tin and a potent characteristic humour.
I really enjoyed the footnotes, I found the break in tone and the world building coments to expand my experience of the book beyond the limits of the voice and perspective of the main text. I also found them witty and funny, but I think the humour is very Australian, built up on a layer of understated irony that would be unfunny and off putting to people from outside the Austrialian social context. It can be especially blind siding because the world building does seem to be based on Australia. Without the context of Jay Kristoff being Australian, it falls into the cultural cringe uncanny Valley effect for many Americans.
The character work is interesting, not badly done but also nothing the write home about.
TLDR: interesting and fun for the context it is in, but falls apart outside of it.
I think Nevernight falls in this unfortunate middle ground of not being a chewy epic fantasy purely for the enjoyment of epic fantasy readers, while also not being a softer entry level fantasy for people who read more contemporary fiction. The way it is recommended and talked about does it a disservice. Nevernight is really for a specific audience and it does not necessarily reach that audience.
It is good at is good at what it is. enjoyable and worth while if that is what you are after. It is a medium chewy fantasy with on screen sex and violence, a compling story that is what it says on the tin and a potent characteristic humour.
I really enjoyed the footnotes, I found the break in tone and the world building coments to expand my experience of the book beyond the limits of the voice and perspective of the main text. I also found them witty and funny, but I think the humour is very Australian, built up on a layer of understated irony that would be unfunny and off putting to people from outside the Austrialian social context. It can be especially blind siding because the world building does seem to be based on Australia. Without the context of Jay Kristoff being Australian, it falls into the cultural cringe uncanny Valley effect for many Americans.
The character work is interesting, not badly done but also nothing the write home about.
TLDR: interesting and fun for the context it is in, but falls apart outside of it.
(Second Review. First review is below.)
All I can say is...Tric. On this second read—which my friend convinced me to do before any of my Darkdawn copies arrive—I found out that I just love Tric even more. He was just...so broken, so damaged, and so THERE for Mia. I’m not sure why else I like him so much but I just do. He will always have a place in my heart. And even when I knew he would die, it still hurt to read about it occurring anyway. I also forgot Tric’s sharp nose, and I really liked seeing him use it during their time as acolytes. Specifically when they were at mornmeal and Tric just sniffs his food once, twice, knowing there’s something off. And when he just pushes the food away and walks off, and it turns out everyone has been poisoned? I don’t know what it is but I found that very cool to read about.
My Mia. Oh my. To be honest despite her bloody nature due to being hungry for revenge, I forgot how kind she could be. When she constantly checked on Tric every time he would explode into rage at someone calling him Koffi or talking about the situation with his mom. When her heart broke at the death of Lotti, when she told Hush if he wanted to talk that she would be there. Setting this book down the first time after having finished, I hadn’t taken with me the moments when Mia was kind, but when Mia was lethal. And so I enjoyed seeing that other side of her from time to time.
This was an epic read, as it was the first time around. I’m so glad I read it again as I forgot more than I thought I had originally.
————
Jesus! Why did I put this down?! It’s always the books I ignore that I end up being crazy about, and of course this is one of them.
I don’t know what made me decide to pick this back up, but I will say that I am BEYOND glad that I did. Wow.
Nevernight is an intense, dark, but amazingly unique story about an would-be assassin who is on a journey to get revenge for her fathers death. Along the way she joins a certain church that trains assassins and there she learns how dark the world can truly be.
Wow. The characters were well developed. I loved Ashlinn...yeah anyway...I loved,loved, LOVED Mia and her use of the F word. I love a good badass with a badass vocabulary. I loved that she never let go of herself, she held true to her beliefs despite the pressure to change for the sake of her goals.
I loved Tric. Oh...Tric. His story was heartbreakingly good.
I am curious about Adonai and his sister, as well as Cassius. So hopefully in the next book there is some development for those characters.
Otherwise what a great read! I’m blown away.
All I can say is...Tric. On this second read—which my friend convinced me to do before any of my Darkdawn copies arrive—I found out that I just love Tric even more. He was just...so broken, so damaged, and so THERE for Mia. I’m not sure why else I like him so much but I just do. He will always have a place in my heart. And even when I knew he would die, it still hurt to read about it occurring anyway. I also forgot Tric’s sharp nose, and I really liked seeing him use it during their time as acolytes. Specifically when they were at mornmeal and Tric just sniffs his food once, twice, knowing there’s something off. And when he just pushes the food away and walks off, and it turns out everyone has been poisoned? I don’t know what it is but I found that very cool to read about.
My Mia. Oh my. To be honest despite her bloody nature due to being hungry for revenge, I forgot how kind she could be. When she constantly checked on Tric every time he would explode into rage at someone calling him Koffi or talking about the situation with his mom. When her heart broke at the death of Lotti, when she told Hush if he wanted to talk that she would be there. Setting this book down the first time after having finished, I hadn’t taken with me the moments when Mia was kind, but when Mia was lethal. And so I enjoyed seeing that other side of her from time to time.
This was an epic read, as it was the first time around. I’m so glad I read it again as I forgot more than I thought I had originally.
————
Jesus! Why did I put this down?! It’s always the books I ignore that I end up being crazy about, and of course this is one of them.
I don’t know what made me decide to pick this back up, but I will say that I am BEYOND glad that I did. Wow.
Nevernight is an intense, dark, but amazingly unique story about an would-be assassin who is on a journey to get revenge for her fathers death. Along the way she joins a certain church that trains assassins and there she learns how dark the world can truly be.
Wow. The characters were well developed. I loved Ashlinn...yeah anyway...I loved,loved, LOVED Mia and her use of the F word. I love a good badass with a badass vocabulary. I loved that she never let go of herself, she held true to her beliefs despite the pressure to change for the sake of her goals.
I loved Tric. Oh...Tric. His story was heartbreakingly good.
I am curious about Adonai and his sister, as well as Cassius. So hopefully in the next book there is some development for those characters.
Otherwise what a great read! I’m blown away.
DNF@ 31% I just couldn’t finish. When I got to the part that a teacher was teaching the 16 year old FMC seduction, I was like nope! I’m out. I like what I saw of the magic system but that’s about all I liked. I was just dreading to pick this book up after I put it down for the day. Some of these things that happened was brutal just for the sake of being brutal since some of it was just instantly reversed. I feel like the concept of this book would have been better done by a woman.
adventurous
tense
medium-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:
No
full review up here!
I finally finished this one and DAMN IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! Full review up soon, but lemme just say the ass-kickery in this book is unparalleled.
See my review of [b:Darkdawn|23264672|Darkdawn (The Nevernight Chronicle, #3)|Jay Kristoff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552521425l/23264672._SY75_.jpg|42805838] for my thoughts on this book and the entire series.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A