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.