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A review by lexi17d
Book of Night by Holly Black
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review:
I went into this book expecting a dark fantasy about evil shadows, and I got an oddly paced mystery about a girl who makes a ton of obvious mistakes and serves at a bar for a solid portion of the book.
Book of Night by Holly Black is a dark fantasy mystery that takes place in our world, where shadows can come to life and be controlled by feeding them your own blood. This book follows our main character, Charlie, who is a con artist tasked with the responsibility of finding stolen secrets about shadow magic. I was so excited for this book whenI heard it was being released, especially a book about dark shadow magic from the author that wrote The Cruel Prince. However, this did not live up to my expectations like I hoped it would.
This book would be a good book for fans of mystery that want to get more into fantasy, but as someone who has read my fair share of mystery novels, this felt a lot like many others that I have read in the past. I felt like I was still waiting for it to really pick up 80% into the book. The pacing was off and the writing was flat. I also used to work in the food industry for about 10 years, so reading about a main character who works at a bar for about 50 pages of the book isn’t what I would consider something I want to read about. Charlie is a con artist, so you’d think she’d make smart decisions, but she is constantly messing up dramatically and overlooking obvious clues intentionally. I didn’t feel much of a connection to any of the characters, and I felt they were all very underdeveloped. Maybe I wasn’t enjoying this book as much as I was hoping I would because I wasn’t expecting a mystery, but I still didn’t feel the suspense and tension most other mysteries give.
Although I was not entirely blown away for the majority of this book, the ending was better than I was expecting and somewhat redeemed this book for me. It left me interested in seeing how the rest of the series will play out, but at the same time, I don’t necessarily feel excited to continue it. I was curious about how it would end throughout—enough so that I was still drawn into continuing the book. I thought the magic and setting of this book was unique and interesting, but even still, it wasn’t done as well as I hoped.
I went into this book expecting a dark fantasy about evil shadows, and I got an oddly paced mystery about a girl who makes a ton of obvious mistakes and serves at a bar for a solid portion of the book.
Book of Night by Holly Black is a dark fantasy mystery that takes place in our world, where shadows can come to life and be controlled by feeding them your own blood. This book follows our main character, Charlie, who is a con artist tasked with the responsibility of finding stolen secrets about shadow magic. I was so excited for this book whenI heard it was being released, especially a book about dark shadow magic from the author that wrote The Cruel Prince. However, this did not live up to my expectations like I hoped it would.
This book would be a good book for fans of mystery that want to get more into fantasy, but as someone who has read my fair share of mystery novels, this felt a lot like many others that I have read in the past. I felt like I was still waiting for it to really pick up 80% into the book. The pacing was off and the writing was flat. I also used to work in the food industry for about 10 years, so reading about a main character who works at a bar for about 50 pages of the book isn’t what I would consider something I want to read about. Charlie is a con artist, so you’d think she’d make smart decisions, but she is constantly messing up dramatically and overlooking obvious clues intentionally. I didn’t feel much of a connection to any of the characters, and I felt they were all very underdeveloped. Maybe I wasn’t enjoying this book as much as I was hoping I would because I wasn’t expecting a mystery, but I still didn’t feel the suspense and tension most other mysteries give.
Although I was not entirely blown away for the majority of this book, the ending was better than I was expecting and somewhat redeemed this book for me. It left me interested in seeing how the rest of the series will play out, but at the same time, I don’t necessarily feel excited to continue it. I was curious about how it would end throughout—enough so that I was still drawn into continuing the book. I thought the magic and setting of this book was unique and interesting, but even still, it wasn’t done as well as I hoped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Gore
Moderate: Self harm