Stabby, stabby! | Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

NEVERNIGHT
by Jay Kristoff

St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: August 9, 2016

From Goodreads:

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?

This one started off a little rocky for me. If I hadn’t been told by armies of people that it was amazing, I might even have put the book down. I’m glad I didn’t, because Nevernight is a thrill ride full of twists that I thought I saw coming a mile away, only the realize the rug had been pulled out from under me, and underneath the rug was a pit filled with razor sharp spikes and sand kraken.

So what went wrong in the beginning?

Part of it was adjusting to writing style/formatting. Jay Kristoff used lots and lots and lots of footnotes. Some of them were nice a short and added a little giggle into the story. Others were long, VERY long, delving into the history of a particular building or saying. Though interesting, these long ones had a bad habit of pulling me out of the story. 

The other aspect that I wasn’t a fan of was plot based, and only in the beginning. After a strong opening, it just seemed to go off the rails and drift. No real direction to speak of.

But if you keep reading until page 50 or so, you’re rewarded with a story that grabs hold and won’t let go.

How I imagined Mercurio

As you’re told the “present day” story, you’re also fed the back story, which is exceptional. For a lot of the book the back story left me more intrigued then the main plot! Though I do wish there was more Mercurio in it.

While this is a plot-driven book, the characters are exceptional. I’m not sure that Mercurio is my favourite, but he’s definitely the one I wanted to see more of. The rest of the cast are all great as well. And being that the book deals mostly with assassins and wannabe assassins, you never quite know who to trust. You’ll start to trust someone, and then they’ll do something to make you doubt them. 

AND THE BRUTALITY! There’s a warning right in the beginning that no punches will be pulled. After that, and from reading Illuminae and Gemina, I was prepared. And honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, though there were still a few moments that surprised me with brashness or brutality. Nothing upsetting, but surprising.

While this isn’t a book I would recommend to anyone, it’s one that I would recommend to people who enjoy great action and a fresh new fantasy world. And it is a fantasy world, but unlike any you’ve seen before. No sign of elf or orc, magicians do not have staffs and long beards, and the heroes aren’t always men in shiny armor with a broad sword.

Fun fact about this post: HUGE thanks goes out to Taylor, who kicked my butt into gear on this one by offering to buddy read it, even though I was complete buddy read noob and this was a reread for her. THANKS TAYLOR!!