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A review by sgbrux
Book of Night by Holly Black
5.0
Black's debut adult urban fantasy deserves more love than what it's getting. Let me tell you why.
Non-spoilery review
Book of Night is a gritty whodunit-heist with a love story at its soul. In just 300 pages, Black fleshes out a full cast of morally gray characters, telling two stories on their respective timelines: past and present, with the occasional flashback sprinkled in. Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns is an example of a book that juggles flashbacks and multiple timelines really well, and while Book of Night isn't to that complexity, the structure helps slow down the story's pacing and makes the mystery and discovery aspects feel juicier than its 300 pages.
With that said, if you're not a fan a frequent flashbacks (that at times switch character viewpoint), then this may not be the book for you. You might find the story too slow while you try to figure out what's going on with the split storytelling. All a matter of preference. But I think if you go into the book with the right expectations, you'll find a helluva lot of enjoyment in it.
Holly Black is a master at writing deeply troubled heroes. Everyday people who are the product of their childhood traumas, how they would learn to think and behave as damaged adults, and how they'd ultimately perceive and interact with the world around them. AMAZING at writing these characters.
Being acquainted with many of her other works: Modern Faerie Tales, Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Folk of the Air, there are certain themes and character types you can always expect on-page. Flawed, negligent parents. Complicated sibling relationships. Fleeting and opportunistic friendships and romantic relationships. Socioeconomic nuance. Book of Night has it all, complete with the atmospheric storytelling Black does so wonderfully.
There is drug use, violence, murder, sex, magic—and our protagonist is put through the meat grinder after getting sucked into a world she'd sworn off.
Slightly spoilery
Set in modern day Massachusetts, Book of Night tells the story of 28-year-old Charlie Hall. She lives with her boyfriend Vincent Damiano and her younger sister Posey in their shitty rental house. Charlie is a former con artist and pickpocket on the straight and narrow working as a cocktail waitress at a seedy bar called Rapture where its basement shadow parlor is run by a man named Balthazar.
This is a world that has recently discovered that one's shadow can "quicken" (or wake), which can then feed off blood to gain strength and become more material, though there are lots of theories on how you can trigger a quickening. At present, it seems arbitrary whose shadow comes alive, but as a result of the phenomenon, societal structures have emerged to control and exploit those with living shadows, even making it a status symbol for the upper crust. Humans be humans.
In certain circles, Charlie has the reputation as the "Charlatan." Her upbringing around her mom's deadbeat boyfriends and husbands normalizes the abuse and negligence she tolerates in her life, and one of her mom's manfriends, Rand, goes so far as to groom Charlie for a life of conning and thievery. And she becomes really good at it. But after nearly losing her life after suffering a gunshot wound, Charlie gets out, instead working a string of deadend bar gigs to support her and Posey.
Until one of her fake friends comes crying in Rapture one night to help track down her MIA boyfriend. From there, Charlie discovers more and more seemingly connected loose threads, threads that somehow relate to her past, and reignite her dream for revenge. And she can't help but tug them all and follow them to the truth. The book ends on quite a cliffhanger, and I'm dying to know what happens. I need a happy ending.
This was such a grim, moody read for me, but it was perfect for what I was looking for. Considering all the bad shit happening, there really isn't a lot of humor, so if you need a lot of that, there probably isn't enough for you, but it has its moments and they're worth it. I will say Charlie's lack of impulse control and sharp tongue created many sticky situations that resulted in a lot beatings for our heroine. Some readers didn't particularly like Charlie as a protagonist, but I really liked her. She's exactly what I would expect from from someone who grew up in the environment she did.
I really liked her boyfriend, too, and how that story coincided with Charlie's. So many of his emotional responses and behaviors were spot-on and made perfect sense.
I find this concept of sentient shadows and how they're used in this world so intriguing. Rather than face any difficult emotions, people can slough all that onto their shadows so they don't have to deal with it anymore. Anger. Grief. Loss. Fear. Just shove it all into your shadow so you can avoid, deny, buffer, numb. It reminds me of the series Severance on Apple TV+ (go watch it as it's one of the top series airing at the moment IMO).
And as always, Holly Black's writing is cathartic to read. Here are some bits I loved:
There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked, from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. Had fingers made for picking pockets, a tongue for lying, and a shriveled cherry pit for a heart.
Charlie felt as though she had been left with only the least interesting parts of herself and lost the rest.
If someone had put a marshmallow in front of her as a child, she would have eaten it straightaway, because adults couldn't be trusted to keep their promises.
She only truly came awake when there was a puzzle to solve, a potential triumph outside the grinding pattern of days. Something other than getting up, eating, going to work, eating again, and then having a few hours before bed with which you could work out or do your laundry or have sex or clean the kitchen or watch a movie or get drunk.
That grinding pattern was life, though. You weren't supposed to yearn for something else.
Revenge on everybody. That would fill her time. That would keep her busy. Keep her from feeling her feelings. If she couldn't be responsible or careful or good or loved, if she was doomed to be a lit match, then Charlie might as well go back to finding stuff to burn.
"Did you know a few grains of salt are supposed to take out the bitter in coffee. Isn't that strange, to think it works better than sugar?"
"I don't think that's true."
"I like things bitter anyway. Like me."
"Been kicked out of better places." Charlie got up and carefully put on her coat while Richie glared. She counted the cash for her tab and tip and placed it on the wet counter. Then she blew a kiss to the old man she'd danced with and was immensely gratified when he mimed catching it.
She only stumbled twice on her way out the door.
After a breakup, it was normal to listen to sad songs on repeat. It was normal to spend hours staring at old photos and letters, or burning them on the grill, or even drawing devil horns on every picture you could find of your ex. Normal to eat an entire carton of ice cream on the couch and wash it down with a bottle of chardonnay. Normal to talk about the guy incessantly to your friends, to call his number just to hear his voice on the answering machine and then hang up without leaving a message.
But just because people did those things didn't mean they were good ideas. More like pressing a bruise to check if it still hurt.
"I'm a good enough thief to steal a shadow from a tower," she told him. "I can steal back your heart."
I NEED THE NEXT BOOK, PLEASE.
Non-spoilery review
Book of Night is a gritty whodunit-heist with a love story at its soul. In just 300 pages, Black fleshes out a full cast of morally gray characters, telling two stories on their respective timelines: past and present, with the occasional flashback sprinkled in. Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns is an example of a book that juggles flashbacks and multiple timelines really well, and while Book of Night isn't to that complexity, the structure helps slow down the story's pacing and makes the mystery and discovery aspects feel juicier than its 300 pages.
With that said, if you're not a fan a frequent flashbacks (that at times switch character viewpoint), then this may not be the book for you. You might find the story too slow while you try to figure out what's going on with the split storytelling. All a matter of preference. But I think if you go into the book with the right expectations, you'll find a helluva lot of enjoyment in it.
Holly Black is a master at writing deeply troubled heroes. Everyday people who are the product of their childhood traumas, how they would learn to think and behave as damaged adults, and how they'd ultimately perceive and interact with the world around them. AMAZING at writing these characters.
Being acquainted with many of her other works: Modern Faerie Tales, Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Folk of the Air, there are certain themes and character types you can always expect on-page. Flawed, negligent parents. Complicated sibling relationships. Fleeting and opportunistic friendships and romantic relationships. Socioeconomic nuance. Book of Night has it all, complete with the atmospheric storytelling Black does so wonderfully.
There is drug use, violence, murder, sex, magic—and our protagonist is put through the meat grinder after getting sucked into a world she'd sworn off.
Slightly spoilery
Set in modern day Massachusetts, Book of Night tells the story of 28-year-old Charlie Hall. She lives with her boyfriend Vincent Damiano and her younger sister Posey in their shitty rental house. Charlie is a former con artist and pickpocket on the straight and narrow working as a cocktail waitress at a seedy bar called Rapture where its basement shadow parlor is run by a man named Balthazar.
This is a world that has recently discovered that one's shadow can "quicken" (or wake), which can then feed off blood to gain strength and become more material, though there are lots of theories on how you can trigger a quickening. At present, it seems arbitrary whose shadow comes alive, but as a result of the phenomenon, societal structures have emerged to control and exploit those with living shadows, even making it a status symbol for the upper crust. Humans be humans.
In certain circles, Charlie has the reputation as the "Charlatan." Her upbringing around her mom's deadbeat boyfriends and husbands normalizes the abuse and negligence she tolerates in her life, and one of her mom's manfriends, Rand, goes so far as to groom Charlie for a life of conning and thievery. And she becomes really good at it. But after nearly losing her life after suffering a gunshot wound, Charlie gets out, instead working a string of deadend bar gigs to support her and Posey.
Until one of her fake friends comes crying in Rapture one night to help track down her MIA boyfriend. From there, Charlie discovers more and more seemingly connected loose threads, threads that somehow relate to her past, and reignite her dream for revenge. And she can't help but tug them all and follow them to the truth. The book ends on quite a cliffhanger, and I'm dying to know what happens. I need a happy ending.
This was such a grim, moody read for me, but it was perfect for what I was looking for. Considering all the bad shit happening, there really isn't a lot of humor, so if you need a lot of that, there probably isn't enough for you, but it has its moments and they're worth it. I will say Charlie's lack of impulse control and sharp tongue created many sticky situations that resulted in a lot beatings for our heroine. Some readers didn't particularly like Charlie as a protagonist, but I really liked her. She's exactly what I would expect from from someone who grew up in the environment she did.
I really liked her boyfriend, too, and how that story coincided with Charlie's. So many of his emotional responses and behaviors were spot-on and made perfect sense.
I find this concept of sentient shadows and how they're used in this world so intriguing. Rather than face any difficult emotions, people can slough all that onto their shadows so they don't have to deal with it anymore. Anger. Grief. Loss. Fear. Just shove it all into your shadow so you can avoid, deny, buffer, numb. It reminds me of the series Severance on Apple TV+ (go watch it as it's one of the top series airing at the moment IMO).
And as always, Holly Black's writing is cathartic to read. Here are some bits I loved:
There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked, from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. Had fingers made for picking pockets, a tongue for lying, and a shriveled cherry pit for a heart.
Charlie felt as though she had been left with only the least interesting parts of herself and lost the rest.
If someone had put a marshmallow in front of her as a child, she would have eaten it straightaway, because adults couldn't be trusted to keep their promises.
She only truly came awake when there was a puzzle to solve, a potential triumph outside the grinding pattern of days. Something other than getting up, eating, going to work, eating again, and then having a few hours before bed with which you could work out or do your laundry or have sex or clean the kitchen or watch a movie or get drunk.
That grinding pattern was life, though. You weren't supposed to yearn for something else.
Revenge on everybody. That would fill her time. That would keep her busy. Keep her from feeling her feelings. If she couldn't be responsible or careful or good or loved, if she was doomed to be a lit match, then Charlie might as well go back to finding stuff to burn.
"Did you know a few grains of salt are supposed to take out the bitter in coffee. Isn't that strange, to think it works better than sugar?"
"I don't think that's true."
"I like things bitter anyway. Like me."
"Been kicked out of better places." Charlie got up and carefully put on her coat while Richie glared. She counted the cash for her tab and tip and placed it on the wet counter. Then she blew a kiss to the old man she'd danced with and was immensely gratified when he mimed catching it.
She only stumbled twice on her way out the door.
After a breakup, it was normal to listen to sad songs on repeat. It was normal to spend hours staring at old photos and letters, or burning them on the grill, or even drawing devil horns on every picture you could find of your ex. Normal to eat an entire carton of ice cream on the couch and wash it down with a bottle of chardonnay. Normal to talk about the guy incessantly to your friends, to call his number just to hear his voice on the answering machine and then hang up without leaving a message.
But just because people did those things didn't mean they were good ideas. More like pressing a bruise to check if it still hurt.
"I'm a good enough thief to steal a shadow from a tower," she told him. "I can steal back your heart."
I NEED THE NEXT BOOK, PLEASE.