I have 22 books on my Goodreads shelf that I still intend to review. Oops. Here’s my first try with a book that I devoured last year.
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Published August 9, 2016 by Thomas Dunne Books
Source: e-ARC from NetGalley
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?
Let me just say Nevernight was bad ass. I loved it so much I’m rereading it right now to get ready for the sequel. I am not going to minimize things, Nevernight was violent and it was vulgar but it was fabulous. Kristoff himself sums the book up on twitter as #stabstabstab. That’s accurate. As I am remembering what’s coming in the book I’m cringing a bit waiting for the blood to start flowing.
Mia is on a mission for revenge over her the deaths of her parents which takes her to assassin school out in the desert. This is no Hogwarts – the teachers will kill the students as soon as help them in some cases. Mia is also a darken – which brings powers she doesn’t fully understand herself – but one thing Mia can do is to manipulate shadows. She can seemingly manufacture the dark and pull off some scary things. She has her own shadow companion with the misleading name of Mr. Kindly. I didn’t know I could like a cat so much! Mr. Kindly lives off Mia’s fear which enables her to be both extra brave and extra stupid at times. She needs to be brave while living among assassins but I did question her judgement quite a few times as well…
So in a brief summary Nevernight has a young woman learning mad murder skills, friendships and kissing, backstabbing and gore, all in a world with three suns and fabulous new magic. I was obsessed while reading and I loved it! I cannot wait to see what Mia goes on to do and who she goes on to kill in the future.
I thought about trying to be clever and footnoting this – but that just seemed silly. I’ll simply say that the footnotes made me snort laughing on a few occasions. It seems snarky footnotes are a way to my heart – see also Jen Lancaster, Kevin Kwan.
#stabstabstab
Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Dunne Books for this review copy in exchange for an honest opinion!
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