Title: Nevernight
Author: Jay Kristoff
Type: Fiction
Genre: Young Adult, Adult
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers, Thomas Dunne Books
Date published: August 9, 2016
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 444
Source: Macmillan Publishers

A physical ARC copy of the book was kindly provided by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: 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?

One of the best epic fantasies I have read in a very long time!

Jay Kristoff is no acolyte when it comes to his craft. This I know for a certainty. The story of Nevernight was woven together by a true master, and this became apparent to me from the very fist page. When I started reading this book, I felt my brain having to switch gears. This would be no easy read without consistency. No, I had to keep my full attention on every word, so as not to miss any little detail. The language is full of description, history, little hints, and a good dose of humour.

Before I get into character and world building, I want to first point out the structure which Kristoff selected for this book. In order to explain some of the more “detailed” of details, Kristoff uses footnotes. Now, I do not remember any of the other epic fantasy novels using footnotes, but I think it’s a good idea and I’ll tell you why. There are pros and cons of course, but for me personally, the pros outweigh the cons.

The cons are that there are chunks of text at the bottom of many of the pages of this book, and that this may be distracting for some readers. Having to pause ones reading of the narrative in order to read the footnotes can also disturb reading-flow. The pros however, are that the footnotes are optional. Those of us who love to gobble up every little morsel of detail, can stop and take in more information about the world which Kristoff has created, while those uninterested in explicit details regarding history, architecture, politics, and the like, can choose to skip the footnotes and enjoy the story without them.

Regarding Kristoff’s world building, you have probably gleaned from what I’ve written above, that he has put much work and detail into his world. The Republic of Itreya is so fleshed out, that I felt myself immersed in that world every time I opened Nevernight—whether it was to walk among the giant’s bones in Godsgrave (a city which I absolutely love the idea of, by the way), or the red sands of the Whisperwastes, or the dark hallways of the Red Church. Despite this being an imaginary place, I find myself missing it almost painfully, now that I am done reading the book.

The characters just as well-constructed as the world in which they were placed. They were incredibly distinct and credible, to the point where they would walk right out of Nevernight’s pages, living and breathing, if they could find a way. I found myself loving and hating characters as if they were real personages, and I also found myself wanting to know more about each and every one of them.

If my review has not made it obvious, I absolutely loved this book, and I cannot wait to be able to purchase it in hardcover format. And I will wait even less patiently for the next book of the series to come out!

Highly recommended to those who love epic high fantasy, adventure, action, bloodshed, violence, and romance.

About the Author:

Jay Kristoff is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THE LOTUS WAR, THE ILLUMINAE FILES and THE NEVERNIGHT CHRONICLE. He is the winner of two Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, nominee for the David Gemmell Morningstar and Legend awards, named multiple times in the Kirkus and Amazon Best Teen Books list and published in over twenty-five countries, most of which he has never visited. He is as surprised about all of this as you are.

He is 6’7 and has approximately 13030 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell.

He does not believe in happy endings.

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THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ Nevernight by Jay Kristoff? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOWCOME?

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