Review: Nevernight

Author Jay Kristoff

Format e-book

Print Length 448 pages

Publisher Thomas Dunne Books

Published August 9, 2016

The first in a new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author.

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

My Opinion

Thank you to Thomas Dunne Books and Netgalley for allowing me to review this novel. This in no way influenced my review.

Nevernight was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I was counting down the months, then weeks then days to release. I excitedly open the book and began to read. Within ten minutes my eyes began to hurt, that is when I realized I was getting old. The font was tiny, tiny compared to other books. Wordy too oh so wordy, as in the author went above and beyond describing things to the reader. The world building was incredible, although I had to stop reading the footnotes. Yepper, footnotes on the world we have entered. They were a bit much, and I felt a distractor from the story. The story is told through a narrator who has a bit of a personality. His sarcasm and humor shining through at all the right moments.

Mia witnessed her father be hung for crimes against the state, her mother and brother taken away as she is captured. She manages to escape is falls in with Mercurio, a former assassin for the Red Church. He becomes her mentor, and sets her on the path of the church. As she makes her journey to the Church she connects with another named Tric who seeks entry in to the elite guards, Blades. Together we watch as they go down the path to becoming assassins. At the Red Church, they along with others are taught the skills of weaponry, poison, thieving and seduction (some call it subtle arts). Mia is different from the other students in that she can call the shadows to help her. Only a few can become blades, the rest have two options become a Hand or die.

Mia is almost a fish out of water, only there due to the events that occurred in her life. She has a concern for others that is lacking in those around her. She is becoming an assassin due to revenge yet will that be reason enough? She has a sense of herself that others her age are missing. She knows she has faults but at the end of the day if she can rest easy she did good. Her being never alone thanks to the not-cat Mister Knightly is kinda well creepy. Several people question if this is the place for her, yet she remains steadfast on the quest to become an assassin.

Mia’s love life is interestingly lacking. She has a relationship of a sorts with Tric but does it include real emotions on both of their parts? I don’t really know. How emotional can you really get with someone who is training to be an assassin?

The pacing of this one was just off- it took a long time for things to pick up and once they did they slowed down again. It was as if you were on a jerky roller coaster ride. The descriptive nature of the narrator was a bit much to handle. I wanted to puffy heart love this book and instead got hype-burn.

My Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Favorite Quote “You've got words in your soul.” 

Other People

Mercurio- mentor

Naev- Hand, friend of Mia

Ashlinn- Mia’s bestie in assassin school