Book of Night

Holly Black's foray into the adult market with Book of Night did not strictly come off with a bang as die-hard fans of her YA series' had hoped, but more with a tentative hand raise of “Present.” This isn't bad; Book of Night, the story of a thief turned bartender named Charlie Hall and her dealing with the world of murder most foul, robbery, and mystical shadows, was entertaining.

At least most of the time.

The premise is thus, “In Charlie Hall's world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone's feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.”

“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.”

As far as positives for the novel, there are quite a few. Holly Black does well with dialog and characterization. A quality that she has carried on from her Folk of Air and Modern FairyTale series. Charlie is an interesting character, not specifically likable. She is a little too thorny to be likable, but she is certainly interesting. This is the start of issues for me. Charlie is enjoyable but not memorable. I wish she were, and maybe in future books, she will find her footing and start to crystalize into who she is meant to be. But right now, she has a little pluck, a little moxy, low self-esteem, bad luck with people, and a large heart for those she loves.

Vince, her love interest, was pleasant, but while I have a relatively clear picture of Charlie and a feel for her character, I don't have that with Vince. He was a nice guy; that's about all I got. This might be why the story did not connect with me as much as I wish it had. Vince is a critical person in Charlie's life.

The premise is a fantastic concept, But I would have killed for more info about the world of magic. I love the idea of shadows taking on a life of their own for the select few who achieve the skill. But the magic part of the world came in drips and drops throughout the story, leaving me unsatisfied. The cost of shadow use is blood; if it is blood, let the story be dark. Blood as fuel is a dark concept, and I wish it were explored. Maybe it is because I tend to like my stories on the dark side of things, but I was aching to hear more about this dark magic.

“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.”

The pacing of the book is very uneven. The beginning is on the slow side. There is a lot of world-building and background info that Black is explaining, and I don't mind that. I think that some readers may have an issue with that, though. The last half of the book was so jammed-packed with action that I got lost here and there.

Overall, this isn't a bad book. I don't think it is Black's best work by any metric, but I look forward to seeing where this series goes once it finds its footing and Charlie solidifies a bit as a protagonist.

Leuker dan verwacht, maar heeft zoveel gebreken. Mist serieus aan uitwerking.

Leest enorm traag en heeft weinig spanning, waardoor ik het gemakkelijk midden in een zin opzij kon leggen.
Wereldopbouw en context ontbreken. Magie-systeem is interessant, gebaseerd op schaduwen, maar wordt zo goed als niet uitgelegd.

Zelfde met de personages. Het merendeel wordt niet geïntroduceerd en zijn er gewoon op basis van één keer de naam te noemen.
Hoofdpersonage Charlie is wel ok, maar ondanks het feit dat we constant in haar hoofd zitten, kon ik mij niet echt met haar verbinden. We krijgen doorheen het boek wel wat van haar achtergrond te lezen, maar er is gewoon te veel vertellen na de feiten.
Het best opgebouwde personage is dan nog Vince.

Verhaal is best ok, hoewel ik de grootste plottwist al na 40% had geraden.
Het einde is wel een cliffhanger, wat niet was wat ik had verwacht gezien dit boek initieel als een standalone werd geadverteerd. Maar ik ben voldoende geïntrigeerd dat ik waarschijnlijk wel het vervolg ga lezen.

Overall I liked the story but it was sooo slow and the flashback chapters every few chapters didn't help with that. If I really think about it, not much actually happened in this book until the end? The main twist I think was painfully obvious and I found myself reading just to see when that shoe would drop. I also liked the atmosphere of this book, and think this might have worked better if it wasn't Urban Fantasy because all the references to real life things just took me out of the story (NFTs really??).

Regardless of all that complaining though, I don't regret reading the book and will likely read the sequel. Something about the way Holly Black writes just makes me get invested..

This did not live up to the hype. This is the second book I've read this year written by a YA author trying to move into the adult fantasy genre. The first being City of Dusk by Tara Sim. I thought that one was just ok. This was even worse. I didn't like the characters, and the magic system was terrible. I just didn't care. By the end, I was really wishing I would've put it on the dnf pile. I will not be continuing this series.

(Review Imported from Goodreads)

I wanted to give it 3 stars at first because i have found the writing quite blunt at times and the plot didn't ramp up as fast as i wanted it to. It felt like i couldn't quite get invested by the story by half of it. Nevertheless i still give it 4 stars because i really love the concept of the magic system, the setting it is in and the plot twist. I kind of had a feeling for the twist way before the reveal but I feel like it was intended to be thought of earlier on. I am not sure if i like that, but i also didn't mind it. I really liked the last few scenes. I'm not quite fond of the ending, but i do find it clever and fitting/realistic for the story.I also personally don't like when romance is the main plot line. I'd rather have no romance in stories like this or just a minimal role - like it is here. I'd rather give it 3.5/5. I'll see if that changes ones I gobbled up more books this year :D

I enjoyed reading this book a lot more than I'd expected. Initially, I'd assumed it to be like most YA Fantasy novels as the characters and writing seemed very much like that.
 It took me a while to get into the story, the pacing initially wasn't the best. The plot line felt quite interesting though and shadow magic, the world building, the feels, it all felt like a nice blast from the past.

Can't wait for the next book in the series to be released.

A was pleasantly surprised by this book.
It had a relatively rough start - not very likeable main character and super depressing setting. And though, both of those didn't change much throughout the book, the story was good. And easy to read.
I guessed the big twist somewhat midway through the book, but to no detriment to it - I guessed it because I wanted it to happen that way, not because the author had done a bad job.
And that ending - loved it!
I took away a star because the world building was a bit rough and most of the side characters sort of blended together (which I guess is expected for a 300-page fantasy book).

ok I see a lot of folks are mad at this book for its ~unlikeable woman protagonist~ and honestly I liked Charlie a lot. i love a messy magic-user.HOWEVER I confess I was a lil disappointed in this book for other reasons. I LOVE [b:White Cat 6087756 White Cat (Curse Workers, #1) Holly Black https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358274572l/6087756.SY75.jpg 6264661] and the rest of the Curse-Workers trilogy so much, and I've spent years hoping HB would write something else like it again–a contemporary urban fantasy crime story. Which is what Book of Night is, yay! BUT, I've re-read White Cat multiple times and each time I am so impressed by how smooth the world-building is and how clearly it establishes the world's rules of magic (so that you can be impressed when Cassel breaks them). That is...not the case with Book of Night, unfortunately, which was disappointing. I feel like the basic shadow magic idea is cool and there could be a really rad book with this premise, but this one feels like it needed another pass from an editor or something. I still thought it was a fine read but just like...not as good as White Cat sadly!!!