Book of Night

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Book of Night

Author: Holly Black 

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: 5.3.22

Publisher’s Summary 

#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies in the vein of Ninth House and The Night Circus

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.

Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn’t playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

My Review

When I received my ARC of Book of Night I thought the cover looked cool but I had no idea what it was about. My only reference point was the blurbs (Leigh Bardugo on the front and a whole back cover from booksellers.) I set it to the side and looked up the summary a few days later. I saw that it was being compared to The Ninth House (which I very quickly DNF'd) and The Night Circus (which I loved) so I was immediately on the fence about it. I also saw that the author, Holly Black was making her adult fiction debut which made me look up what else she had written. After seeing she had been previously writing YA, I doubted I would like the book. In my experience even when authors transition from YA to adult storylines, they rarely graduate to a more elevated and complex writing style. But I REALLY wanted to meet Charlie. Based on the summary she sounded like a mess and right up my alley for what I'm looking for in a protagonist. After all that ambivalence, I was immediately hooked when I started reading and ended up really liking the book. As for the comparison with The Night Circus, I didn't really get that. The writing was great (definitely NOT YA) and the storyline was unique. I will admit that I was lost a few times about what types of people had which powers but that's to be expected with fantasy and worldbuilding. Maybe Black will turn this into a series and more of those fuzzy details will be ironed out in future installments. Overall, a gritty, dark, and fun read.