Nevernight

There is a gentle sardonic wit that underlies the rather dark coming of age story that Nevernight is centered around. These type of school based training stories are bread and butter fantasy affairs so a story centered around these type of things really needs an x-factor to grab me, and Nevernight does so in style.

This book takes this coming of age schooling motif and twists it in a suitably dark fashion with a school for assassins, adds in a vicious revenge motivation for the main protagonist and keeps a suitable sense of danger and betrayal throughout. The primary character, Mia, is a likable rogue. Her morals are mixed, but she does have her code that she follows.

The humour in the story largely comes from two sources - the narrator and Mia's shadow not-cat (Mr Kindly). The reliability of the narrator can always be questioned (he tries to paint Mia in a much darker light than her actions really are), but through his footnotes he portrays a vivid world with plenty of humour - you can imagine the footnotes being read in sardonic and world weary voice - like Lemony Snickett in the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix. Mr Kindly takes a more direct role in the story, often pointing out Mia's follies and contradictions in a highly entertaining way.

The cast of characters are interesting, even if there are some obvious cliches (the mean girl as the enemy at school), but the twists towards the end give ample pay off.

Coming of age stories are 10 a penny, but this one is honestly the best I have read. The balance of wit and humanity, betrayal and camaraderie, give this story an addictive readability that is impossible to ignore. Highly recommended.

Final review
I know I love badass female assassins. I know I love the idea of training. And I still waited all this time to read Nevernight.... why oh why do I do this to myself 😣😣😣😣 This book transported to a new world, made me fall in love with all these awesome characters, and then stabbed my heart over and over again till I was left wailing. 

Mia is an excellent protagonist to follow. She is smart, intelligent, strong and sassy and her only goal since she was ten has been to become an assassin capable of getting revenge for the deaths of her family. She also has the ability of interacting with shadows and has a constant companion, a shadow cat named Mr. Kindly, who is always there with her absorbing her fears and advising and helping her. Their conversations are some of the most funniest and sarcastic in the whole book. But despite striving to be this ruthless assassin, Mia has her moments of vulnerability and compassion which truly depicts her humanity and I loved this characterization. Her bisexuality is also treated very naturally and there is no questioning or hate because of it, which I thought was wonderful.

The world building is quite unique in this book and I really enjoyed getting to know more about it. The maps of the Republic of Itreya and the city of Godsgrave at the beginning of the book are some of the most gorgeous and intricate ones you will find in fantasy. The setting of Godsgrave is very much based on Venice and the descriptions give us a lot to imagine. Church of Our Lady of Blessed Murder also called the Red Church, where Mia goes to become an assassin is like a highly darker version of Hogwarts. The students attend classes to learn the arts of fighting, poisons, thieving and seduction. The professors are masters in their subjects, but don't think twice before brutally injuring the students or trying to poison or torture them. The fact that only a few students would qualify to become the Blades at the end of their training ensures the persistence of rivalry and sabotage among them which even leads to murder. 

The writing in the book is something that takes getting used to. Almost the first third of the book feels difficult, because we are thrust into this new world and the vocabulary feels unfamiliar. But once Mia enters the Red Church, I did not want to put the book down. It's a whirlwind of murder, blood, brutality, violence and Mia's struggle to retain the parts of her that are still human and not become a mindless assassin ready to kill anybody. I spent the last third of the book at the edge of my seat because the twists kept hitting me, the betrayals blindsided me and I just waited with bated breath to see what was going to happen next. The footnotes in this book are definitely a unique part of the worldbuilding, which might not appeal to everyone but I really enjoyed them. They gave me more context about the culture and beliefs of the people and also had some funny historical stories. 

This was such a thrilling ride of a book. I enjoyed every second of it and I'm already very excited for Godsgrave, but apparently it has a cliffhanger 😭😭😭. I recommend this book to everyone who loves stories about assassins and their training, an awesome cast of morally grey characters, alongwith a huge dose of blood and gore. My only caution is that if you want to preserve your sanity, don't get attached to the characters, because you never know who will break your heart.

First Thoughts
Wow... this is dark and bloody and brutal.. what twists that I never saw coming... My mind is blown right now 🤯🤯🤯
Will write a review once it starts working again !!!!

Oh God, what did I just read?!

This was waaaay better than Lifelike, but oh my God, so brutal. The story and the characters were amazing! But how could you kill my favorite character just like that? Huuuh!

And I did not see that coming near the end. It was glorious (except for the freaking long footnotes).

This was an amazing book. I cannot wait to read the sequel.

Mia is the daughter of a hanged traitor. Her mother and brother are in jail. They try to kill her but something strange happens and she gets away. She has gifts that no one can image. She travels to join the Church of Blades and become the killer she has to avenge her family. Along the way she has to make many hard decisions.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book but even though Mia is a killer you will still root for her.

Absolutely great book! The characters, the plot twists, the action, everything was so good. I can't believe I waited for so long to finally read this book, but better late than never, right ?

I've heard so many things about Mia, but I didn't expect to like her as much as I do. She is an awesome character and I can't wait to see how she grows. From the little girl, frightened by her powers she became a fierce warrior, ready to destroy anything and anyone that comes between her and her biggest desire: to murder the ones who murdered her father.

Oh and Jay Kristoff, I hate you. You know what you did and I. HATE YOU.
After reading Illuminae and Aurora Rising/Burning, I fell in love with Jay's (along with Amie's) writing and Nevernight is another great work of this author's.

This book series has been a very firm favourite with fantasy readers and reviewers for some time and having spotted the first book, Nevernight, sitting on my library shelves I decided that I'd be prepared to give it a try. I've read Jay Kristoff before but in a very different setting through his joint writing in the Illuminae Files with Amie Kaufman. I loved the Illuminae files but they are a very different proposition being sci-fi as opposed to Nevernight which is pure fantasy writing so I was not quite sure what to expect.

The very first chapter of this book was enchanting. I immediately fell in love with the setting of the city of Godsgrave. It felt a little Venetian, absolutely rich with fantastical elements and historic feeling and the writing was so clever. By the end of the first chapter I knew that the potential for me to love this book was strong as even in those first few pages Kristoff twists his story and delivers the unexpected. Having said that, I struggled with the following few chapters a little.

In his world-building efforts Kristoff uses footnotes to his narrative to expand upon elements he is discussing. So if his main character Mia comes across something in her journey around Godsgrave he feels we need to know more about there will be an asterisk and we have to jump to the bottom of the page where he expands for us with information about the historical significance or myths about this part of the world. The footnotes, however, were not just one-liners, some were massive paragraphs, some even several paragraphs that meant in the written book the page of narrative text would only take up around half the printed page, the footnotes took up the other half and this would go on for page after page. This jumping up and down and up and down the page meant the first few chapters read quite slowly as you had to really focus to take in the 2 side by side storytelling styles. Was it worth persevering through, hell yes!! Absolutely! It was intense for a few chapters but this is because Kristoff is building Mia's world for us and has lots to say but as the chapters progressed slowly the footnotes slipped away and would become fewer and as a reader I lost myself in the narrative and when footnotes came I knew it was because Kristoff had something witty or important to impart and I enjoyed them more and really liked them.

The story itself was really immersive, the story of Mia Corvere, a 17-year-old girl whose father was hung as a traitor when she was only 10 years old, her mother and baby brother imprisoned and she taken to be drowned by the soldiers responsible for her father's execution. Mia was taken in by a man by the name of Mercutio who has taught her all the skills she needs to join a church for assassins where she will learn even more about how to get revenge upon the 3 men she holds responsible for her father's death and the destruction of her family.

Nevernight is about Mia's journey to the church where she will have to prove and hone her skills as a fearful killer. It's about the people she meets on her journey, the skills she must learn and the magical elements that will help her prepare for the revenge she must seek. The world Kristoff builds is so rich and well fleshed out that you absolutely fall in love with it. It's no quick read, there is so much going on you really don't want to miss a thing so I found myself lingering longer over chapters, taking my time to really enjoy the time spent with each character.

And the characters are absolutely the most incredible thing about this book. There are so many I fell in love with, Tric and Mia are just beautiful together. The journey they go on in this book together is so emotional and we root for them both. Kristoff's characters are so good to read because they are so complex, no one is written as straightforward bad or good. Each has different intentions for their actions and this means that we can be cheering them on one minute and then he turns around and twists it around and suddenly you are unsure if you really should be cheering them on. This led to me caring really deeply about them all so that even when disaster looks set to befall those we haven't perhaps felt empathy for throughout the narrative we want them to be okay. We cheer when they pull together and use their collective skills. It's a character based narrative and whilst there are fantastical elements and magic at work it's the people who ultimately pull us through.

One element I was not expecting was the sexual element to be quite so strong. In a few chapters, Kristoff lets things get pretty hot and heavy for a while. It's explicit and it's full on and absolutely in fitting with the parts of the narrative he is telling but just be aware in case you aren't expecting it.

I am itching to read Godsgrave, the second in this series, because the ending of this book has left plenty of questions we have not answered, Mia has lots still to achieve and there are so many stories still to be told. I am also thrilled to see that the third book in the Chronicles will be out later this year so I'm not going to be waiting too long for even more wonderful writing from Kristoff.

I've had a good reading year so far in 2018, I've read lots of wonderful books but this one is something really special. It is worth every bit of hype it has received and I am an absolute fan. I read many reviews which slated Kristoff's writing style as too convoluted and intense but for me this was why I loved his writing so much. It was deliciously rich and immersive and if you allow yourself to just slow down for a bit, forget your Good Reads challenge for the year and take the time to go on Mia's journey with her however long that takes you it pays you back in dividends. I would give this more than 5 stars if I could.

Mia Corvere was 10 when she lost her entire family. Vowing to avenge their deaths, she trains to become an assassin for The Red Church. The road will not be easy, but if she succeeds, she will become a Blade for Our Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to avenging her familia. I have never read any books by Jay Kristoff, but after this book, I will be reading more!! This book was great! I can't wait for the next one. The world building, the characters, everything was great. I found myself invested in what happened to the characters, and that's the way a great story should be. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

DNF @ 15%

This year began I trend of taking risks on young adult fantasy and having a string of four and five star sucesses. I should have realised that there were bound to be misses. It just didn't occur to me that widely acclaimed Nevernight was going to be my miss.

On page, Nevernight has so many things I love. Assassins, revenge, what sounded like would be a fast paced and twisty plot and everyone on booktube raves about the main character, so I had unknowingly built quite the hype around this book. I ended up DNF'ing this book on page 64 (around chapter 6) simply due to the writing style. I liked that the flowery descriptions, but I found them to be nonsensical at times. No matter though, because I think that about The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and it garnered a four star rating for me.

On the first nine pages of the UK paperback, the phrase “O, [blank]” appears on every page at least once. That got fucking tiring, really quickly. The narrator talked to the reader, and referenced the reader like an audience calling them “gentlefriends”. The footnotes felt unnecessary to the story, and gave the writing a smary feel to it. I have enjoyed books with footnotes before when I read the Bartimaeus Trilogy as a kid/teen, but I ended up skipping these ones. I just generally couldn't truck with the style of writing, and I'm really disappointed because this would have probably been a four star read for me otherwise.

Estamos ante una historia de venganza donde la protagonista está obsesionada con matar a las personas que hicieron trizas a su familia cuando era pequeña. Tras huir de ellos es encontrada por un asesino retirado del culto de la diosa de la noche y es entrenada por él hasta que es lo suficientemente mayor para que ella misma pueda formarse bajo las enseñanzas de la Iglesia Roja, lugar donde el culto forma a sus asesinos.

Los personajes están muy bien escritos, diversos y con personalidades fuertes y bien definidas, sobretodo la protagonista que llegamos a conocer profundamente.

El worldbuilding es muy completo. Existen muchos lugares, criaturas, instituciones, magias, etnias, lore... Se siente vivo. Además, el autor acompaña los capítulos con notas a pie de página que profundizan más sobre el mundo.

Al principio sí que es verdad que me abrumó un poco pero a cada capítulo tenía una imagen más clara de todo el mundo y la forma en la que el autor narra la historia acabó atrapándome.

El ritmo de la trama también al principio me pareció un poco lento pero tras los capítulos iniciales toma buen ritmo y la trama en sí me ha parecido impredecible, me ha sorprendido más de una vez.

Es una historia sangrienta y violenta, tiene muchas escenas de pelea y algunas bastante gore y puede que no sea para todos pero la he disfrutado mucho.

No vi venir el giro que daría comienzo al desenlace de la historia y me ha dejado con varias preguntas y muchas ganas de leer el siguiente.

3.5 Stars

GREAT popcorn book. The first 25% was so cringey it was funny but the rest of the book was super enjoyable and a great page turner. Don't wanna read too much into it cuz it was a popcorn book and analysis for those is not worth the loss of enjoyment (TLDR stuff: flourish-y writing + mega edgelord + men writing women stuff + weird smut). I just love fantasy school settings and good worldbuilding clap

For some random reason I thought this was a YA book but I loved Kristoff's Empire of Vampires so much I was willing to read it anyway. The very first sentence says “People often shit themselves when they die.” Rude awakening there buddy.
I love Fantasy stories involving a school or just training in general, like Harry Potter or The Emperor's Blades. And I definitely love it when it's an assassin story.
This story feels like it could be a spin-off for Arya Stark. A girl of nobility who's family is murdered, she vows to right the wrongs that have been done to her by being trained by assassins who kill for a blood thirsty God. She also has to deal with another student who would love nothing more than to kill her. That's literally Arya Stark...
Her main difference is that she has this power to control shadows and she has this sort of “shadow demon friend” who helps her.
One thing that I hated about this book was there was footnotes throughout the first half of the book that gives background information. Some of it is interesting but most of it was just unnecessary and ruined the pace of the book so I just quit reading them and it made no difference. If you can't flow the information into the book naturally then it's not needed to me.
The second half of the book is a thrill ride of awesomeness and I'm definitely certain that this series is going to be great and he just might be a top 10 author for me.