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tontonju 's review for:
Nevernight
by Jay Kristoff
Such a waste.
After the first act, I though this was gonna be a solid 4 stars.
During act 2, this dropped to a 3.
But because of Act 3, this ends up a 2 out 5 (barely).
First off, this book is not what was sold to us. "This is not a YA book" we are told. This is a story of murders, of violence, of vengeance.
Yeah, no. This is at 80% a YA book. The author uses and re-uses all the classic tropes of a YA fantasy book of this type. Even though I knew the setting was a classic one - A school of assassins, I was expecting the author to add a layer of complexity, or originality to it. But no.
A good example of what I call a YA trope : Even though we have plenty of antagonists in this story, Jay Kristoff felt the need to create a fellow student who is gonna be the "rival" of Mia at school. That rival doesn't bring much, and whatever they bring could have been done in another, more original way. So, the only real reason we have this "rival", it's because it's something that is expected in a YA story with a school setting. It's "classic".
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with YA books, but it's simply not how this book is being sold to us.
And the overall problem with this, it's that once you understand the Kristoff uses all the classic tropes of YA books, the story becomes highly predictable. What a shame.
It goes so far as playing the card of (SPOILER) :. Which is something you'd expect from a YA book which this book, we are told, is not.
Adding to that all the graphic violence and explicit sex scenes, and you have a book that doesn't know what it's supposed to be.
The second issue I have, it's the lack of consequences from all the violence, both physical and psychological. When those consequences are addressed, it's always done in a very superficial way. A paragraph or so, and our characters move on from whatever trauma they should have. With the lack of consequence for all this brutality, you start to ask yourself, "what's the point of all this explicit violence?". Story-wise, there is none. Once I understood that, I just stop caring. Ho, this guy just died painfully ? Though shit, bro. I'll just add your name to the list.
JK, I don't care enough to keep a list.
Third issue, it's the non-stop action. In each chapter, something happens. I liked it at first, very entertaining. But by the second half of the book, it became tiresome. You never get the chance to breathe and digest what happened in the previous chapter. Worst is that some important events will lose their significance as they are drowned in the sea that all this action creates.
And finally, my biggest hurdle. That third act.
My suspension of disbelief completely shattered, I push through as everything I read prior is turned on its head, without any logical reason. Between the end of Act 2, and the act 3, Mia does a complete 180 degrees, with no explanation. Other than the author wanting to force this ending on her.
More details about what's bothering me here (SPOILER!):
All through act 2, I always perceived the Church as the main antagonist. These are not good people. I was expecting Mia to rebel at some point, as clearly her values are different from the Church's. Finally, at the end of act 2, Mia refuses to kill an innocent and choose not to be initiated as Blade. This event tell us two things :
1. Mia realizes that her place is not at the church. That her values and the church's are different.
2. That the Church's indoctrination didn't work on her.
But then during act 3, she goes on a killing spree to protect the church ? Are we supposed to root for the church in this book ? This is not the message we got through Act 2.
That Mia goes back to save Tric and Neav, and to avenge Carlotta, and even her father, that makes senses. That is on par with what we know of Mia at this point.
That she actively takes the Church side in this conflict, and kills 100+ men without remorse ? That contradicts what Jay Kristoff just told us at the end of act 2...
Also, it would take almost 3h for 200 soldiers to cross through the blood walk, the head of Mia in the pool would have been covered in blood, and so someone should have notice her at some point, the poison's Master should have detected the poison in the food, and Cassius would have use his powers to free himself and the others, as we saw Mia doing the same earlier in the book. Suspension of disbelieve completely shattered during this final act.
A word about the author's style. The metaphorical language and the footnotes didn't really bothered me. What bothered me is all the clichés sprinkled in the book. It really reads like a bad TV screenplay at times.
Couple of good things :
- The world building is fantastic;
- The story is actually structured correctly, which is not always the case with modern fantasy authors.
Strong start, horrible ending.
EDIT : After a week of digestion, I decided to bump this to 3 stars (instead of 2). Even tough I was disappointed with act 3, I still like the character of Mia, and I'm intrigued enough by the story to continue with book 2.
After the first act, I though this was gonna be a solid 4 stars.
During act 2, this dropped to a 3.
But because of Act 3, this ends up a 2 out 5 (barely).
First off, this book is not what was sold to us. "This is not a YA book" we are told. This is a story of murders, of violence, of vengeance.
Yeah, no. This is at 80% a YA book. The author uses and re-uses all the classic tropes of a YA fantasy book of this type. Even though I knew the setting was a classic one - A school of assassins, I was expecting the author to add a layer of complexity, or originality to it. But no.
A good example of what I call a YA trope : Even though we have plenty of antagonists in this story, Jay Kristoff felt the need to create a fellow student who is gonna be the "rival" of Mia at school. That rival doesn't bring much, and whatever they bring could have been done in another, more original way. So, the only real reason we have this "rival", it's because it's something that is expected in a YA story with a school setting. It's "classic".
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with YA books, but it's simply not how this book is being sold to us.
And the overall problem with this, it's that once you understand the Kristoff uses all the classic tropes of YA books, the story becomes highly predictable. What a shame.
It goes so far as playing the card of (SPOILER) :
Spoiler
The Chosen One.Adding to that all the graphic violence and explicit sex scenes, and you have a book that doesn't know what it's supposed to be.
The second issue I have, it's the lack of consequences from all the violence, both physical and psychological. When those consequences are addressed, it's always done in a very superficial way. A paragraph or so, and our characters move on from whatever trauma they should have. With the lack of consequence for all this brutality, you start to ask yourself, "what's the point of all this explicit violence?". Story-wise, there is none. Once I understood that, I just stop caring. Ho, this guy just died painfully ? Though shit, bro. I'll just add your name to the list.
JK, I don't care enough to keep a list.
Third issue, it's the non-stop action. In each chapter, something happens. I liked it at first, very entertaining. But by the second half of the book, it became tiresome. You never get the chance to breathe and digest what happened in the previous chapter. Worst is that some important events will lose their significance as they are drowned in the sea that all this action creates.
And finally, my biggest hurdle. That third act.
My suspension of disbelief completely shattered, I push through as everything I read prior is turned on its head, without any logical reason. Between the end of Act 2, and the act 3, Mia does a complete 180 degrees, with no explanation. Other than the author wanting to force this ending on her.
More details about what's bothering me here (SPOILER!):
Spoiler
All through act 2, I always perceived the Church as the main antagonist. These are not good people. I was expecting Mia to rebel at some point, as clearly her values are different from the Church's. Finally, at the end of act 2, Mia refuses to kill an innocent and choose not to be initiated as Blade. This event tell us two things :
1. Mia realizes that her place is not at the church. That her values and the church's are different.
2. That the Church's indoctrination didn't work on her.
But then during act 3, she goes on a killing spree to protect the church ? Are we supposed to root for the church in this book ? This is not the message we got through Act 2.
That Mia goes back to save Tric and Neav, and to avenge Carlotta, and even her father, that makes senses. That is on par with what we know of Mia at this point.
That she actively takes the Church side in this conflict, and kills 100+ men without remorse ? That contradicts what Jay Kristoff just told us at the end of act 2...
Also, it would take almost 3h for 200 soldiers to cross through the blood walk, the head of Mia in the pool would have been covered in blood, and so someone should have notice her at some point, the poison's Master should have detected the poison in the food, and Cassius would have use his powers to free himself and the others, as we saw Mia doing the same earlier in the book. Suspension of disbelieve completely shattered during this final act.
A word about the author's style. The metaphorical language and the footnotes didn't really bothered me. What bothered me is all the clichés sprinkled in the book. It really reads like a bad TV screenplay at times.
Couple of good things :
- The world building is fantastic;
- The story is actually structured correctly, which is not always the case with modern fantasy authors.
Strong start, horrible ending.
EDIT : After a week of digestion, I decided to bump this to 3 stars (instead of 2). Even tough I was disappointed with act 3, I still like the character of Mia, and I'm intrigued enough by the story to continue with book 2.