Nevernight ♦ Jay Kristoff | Review

Nevernight ♦ Jay Kristoff | Review

Nevernight is a dark high fantasy book for adults. Despite the fact that many readers would classify the book as a New Adult I have to disagree. The fact that a lot of blood is spilled and violence prevails in this book makes it an Adult book for me.

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?

Nevernight ♦ Jay Kristoff

Opinion

Mia Corvere saw her father hanged by the neck when she was very little, and her mother made her watch to remember, and seek revenge. After her mother and younger brother are put in jail, Mia would have followed suit if it weren’t for her shadowy buddy Mister Kindly. After being raised by Mercurio and receiving training in the use of poison, swords, and combat, she enters the Red Church. A place resembling a school where the initiates are taught all the abilities necessary to become Blades, also known as assassins and proficient killers.

When I started reading the book I had to flinch. I am a so-called night owl. As much as I like the summer sun and all the great activities coming with it, I love the dark and mysterious hours of the night. Now imagine you live in a world where it hardly turns night because there are three suns. During Mia‘s adventure to reach the Red Church she meets Tric, who becomes one of her closest friends during their training to become Blades.

As Mia battles it out with the other Acolytes for a spot to be initiated, it was very entertaining how she makes allies and foes in the process and I was never sure what kind of surprise she had up her sleeves. And Jay Kristoff did have one up his sleeves at the end, I did NOT see this one coming, and I was there going like „What the F***?“

Conclusion

At the beginning it took me a while to get into the whole plot of Nevernight. Kristoff’s writing style was a bit unaccustomed to me. But after a couple chapters the plot was able to draw me in, and it didn’t let me go until I read the last page. The whole world building Kristoff created came alive during the read. His characters grew chapter by chapter. What really intrigued me that this book is rough and graphic. It’s one of the favorite qualities of it that I enjoyed the most. It effectively sliced through the nonsense, restrictions, and censors that are frequent in YA.

The Nevernight Chronicles – The Series

About Jay Kristoff

Jay Kristoff ist ein australischer Fantasy/Science-Fiction - Autor. Er schreibt sowohl für erwachsene LeserInnen als auch für junge Erwachsene. Zusammen mit seiner Frau lebt er in Melbourne.

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