Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Keeper of Night

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker

20 reviews

thesadhen's review

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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thecriticalreader's review

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adventurous dark slow-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

2.5

I chose this book as my Book of the Month about a year ago, and it sat on my shelf for a long time. I picked it up in a recent quest to tackle my TBR.

Plot:

The plot is extremely action-packed; there are hardly any moments when the main character is not fighting off some demon or the other. At times, the constant action and the heavy exposition make the book drag along. That being said, it never felt like the author lost sight of where they eventually wanted to take the book: in other words, it never felt aimless.

Characters:

The book contains three main characters: Ren (the protagonist), Oliver, and Hiro. Everyone else is a side attraction. Ren is interesting enough, although the YA style and horror genre sometimes clash so that she vacillates between “relatable teenage girl” and “evil death goddess.” Oliver is written adequately enough so that he avoids being a complete plot device, although he definitely skirts the line at times. Out of the three main characters, Hiro feels the most contrived, but even he has his moments.

Setting:

The book takes place in the Death underworlds of London and Japan. Baker does a great job describing the environments and characters the protagonists encounter, whether they be in the “real world” or the underworld. Her imagination is vivid and she does a great job painting a picture with her words. The historical parts of the setting are fairly weak in terms of historical accuracy, but luckily, 80% or so of the book takes place in realms of magic.

Themes:

The Keeper of Night addresses themes of belonging, trauma, and morality. As someone who enjoys moral gray areas, these parts of the book are my favorite. I am a bit disappointed in how the book avoids providing solid answers or reflections on these topics, but perhaps they get explored more deeply in the sequel, which is set up as a direct continuation of the story.

Writing Style:

The writings style is adequate. My biggest frustration is with the endless cycle of exposition dump/action/exposition dump/action that bogs down most of the book. I think the book would have been better if the first part of Ren’s life was explored in one book and this book was a sequel.

Conclusion:

The Keeper of the Night is an above-average YA novel, but a below-average read for someone who reads outside of the YA genre. I would not recommend this book to anyone who dislikes horror or violence.

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mandkips's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Rich with Japanese folklore and featuring a prickly morally gray protagonist, The Keeper of Night doesn’t shy away from the gritty obstacles facing a biracial heroine feeling like an outcast in “both” worlds.

CW: gore/body horror, blood, death

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venus6277's review

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adventurous 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? Yes

4.75

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kayladaila's review

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adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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asipofcozy's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to Inkyard Press for sending me a review copy of The Keeper of Night. This review is based on my honest opinion and feelings.

CW: bullying, racial slurs, racism, gore, blood, violence, mention of beheading, mention of mutilation and cutting up a pregnant woman, harming of a child, beheading, and animal death.

The Keeper Of Night follows Ren, a Half British Reaper and Half Japanese Shinigami, who was driven out of London after failing to control her Shinigami abilities. Accompanied by her brother, Neven, she travels to Japan to enter the Japanese underworld to earn her place among the Shinigami and gain the respect of the Goddess of Death. Respect that she never received from her fellow Reapers. To earn her place, Ren must kill 3 Yokai demons.

This story was dark, gruesome, and harsh. The reading experience that I can accumulate in this book is if you decided to go for a walk during a dark foggy day and felt like you saw movements in the shadows. That's what this book felt like; every page, you felt like there was evil, death stalking in dark corners. I loved every minute of it. While this is considered young adult literature, I would almost classify this with more new adults due to the themes and how dark this book is.

"I would drown all the islands of Japan if you asked me to."
"That's horrible," I said. But still, I didn't push him away. Was this not how humans showed affection? With grandiose declarations of devotion?

Ren is a morally grey character. Simple as that. As the story progresses, we see Ren struggle with what little humanity she has and this absolute obsession of finding her place in this world and doing whatever it takes to achieve that goal. There were many moments where Ren would toe that line between humanity and being a creature of death herself. It was almost like with each page that passed by; Ren would strip herself of another layer of humanity and slowly become that darkness that makes up the Yomi.

I was a butterfly twisted inside a tornado, the brightest colors between day and night, a little brown bird in the maw of the fox, waiting for the teeth to bite down.

Her only saving grace, and what keeps her humanity in check, is her brother Neven. Oh, Neven. Neven, while a reaper, is the complete opposite of what a Reaper is meant to be. He is caring, loving, afraid of the dark, struggles with doing his reaper duties, and is quite naive. While Ren does love Neven, and I genuinely believe he is the reason for her not ridding herself of humanity, he was a privileged character. Ren uses the word "privileged ignorance," and I couldn't agree more. Neven is ignorant of Ren's pain and struggles. Because Neven is white and isn't discriminated against, he never understands why Ren is so desperate to be a part of her Japanese culture. He looks at her and sees's "sister," not a sister that is part Japanese; he almost ignores it...which goes to show how white privileged he is.

While Neven is considered an outcast and Ren and Neven's love is wonderful for a brother and sister - I couldn't ignore the ignorance. It almost made me feel anger towards Neven. Also, I struggled with the fact that he cried, whined, and moaned about everything he came across. Especially when it came to the actions of his sister.

I am not giving Ren ANY excuses for her actions in the book, but when you are torn between two ethnicities and not accepted into either culture, you have someone who is blind to your pain...I would be on a rampage as well.

I was impressed by this unique world and how well the author brought together the culture of Japan to the forefront of her story-telling. I loved that she touched on so many issues, especially regarding family dynamics, racial differences, being biracial, heritage, and finding acceptance.

The writing was well done and I found myself loving every moment of Baker's storytelling. There was never a dull moment and that makes this book all the more worthwhile to read.

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kkmillsaps1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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silene's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This one is very much a tragedy, but there’s supposed to be a sequel that might ease that or make it worse. The world building is fantastic, and I love the merging of English and Japanese myths. The characters are deeply flawed, but their motivations and thought processes are believable.

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jackierabbit's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.75

Um. I wanted to like this. I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, even from the ninth page, all my annotations were about plot-holes or things that bothered me.

After reaching page 130, I flipped through the pages to land on a random one, page 336, and picked up from there. Everything still made sense and I skimmed the rest.

Ren was deeply unlikeable—morally grey doesn’t describe her, she is just…bad. Good for her, but I didn’t enjoy reading about it, nor did I connect with her. Whether that caused, or was a result of, my skipping half the book, who knows. She continuously made stupid decisions and trusted the wrong people.

The writing style was fantastic though. Easy to read while still being gorgeously descriptive.

Can’t believe the only worthwhile character DIED. WTF. Rest in pieces Neven.

Also I should have known I wasn’t going to enjoy this book when the cat died in chapter four.

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