Title: Nevernight

Author: Jay Kristoff

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Release Date: August 9th, 2016

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

~ Goodreads Synopsis ~

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? 

~

Ok so I had a lot of thoughts about what I thought this book might be life before going into it and I was completely wrong. This book is fast, vicious, and steamy — everything I look for in a good book these days.

I had this book at a solid 4.25 before the very end, but looking back now, this book deserves all five stars. The characters have an overwhelming amount of depth, the plot is thick and ready to burst, and the quotes of this novel are nothing short of inspiring.

Some of my favorite quotes from Nevernight include:

*explicit*

“Cock is just another word for ‘ fool.’ But you call someone a c*nt, well… You’re implying a sense of malice there. An intent. Malevolent and self-aware. Don’t think I name Consul Scaeva a c*nt to gift him insult. C*nts have brain, Don Tric. C*nts have teeth. Someone calls you a c*nt, you take it as a compliment. As a sign that folk believe you’re not to be lightly f*cked with.”

~

“You’ve got the look of a girl who’s no stranger to the page. I can tell. You’ve got words in your soul.”

~

“The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us.”

To begin with, this is one of the most brutal books I have read. If you are sensitive to any of the following, I would not suggest this book to you: beautifully written yet disgusting descriptions of maimed people, intense sexual scenes, and harsh language that only sharpens the brutality of the world. In all, it’s not a book for the light of heart or weak of stomach.

Whilst reading this book, I discovered a band called the White Stripes that suites this book so perfectly in my humble opinion. Their music is edgy, loud, and rough and matches the rhythm of the writing — which is incredibly smooth even while describing how people expel bowel movements after they die.

The relationships built throughout are also unsightly because in a school of young assassins, who can you trust to not stab you in the back, literally? Betrayal is everywhere, even when no one knows where it stems from until the end when it may be already too late.

Each twisted back story to each character is also just as moving. Their varied histories drive them all to the same goal of vengeance for those who wronged them in their earlier lives, and some stories, such as Don Tric’s, make your heart hurt.

Surprisingly, though, Don Tric did not become my latest book crush, despite how much I felt for him. I think I just wanted to cradle him, despite him being a hardened assassin. I did really enjoy the main character Mid as well. She is incredibly thick-skinned without losing sight of her emotions.

There is also something to be said of the boarding school trope as it is one I always enjoy. However, in this book it is a horde of blood-thirsty, sex-crazed minors willing to kill to win the school’s competitions and become the next Blade, or to carry out their personal plots.

I cannot wait to devour the next book of the series — it had been a while since I felt so engrossed in a novel and it kind of got addicting, but it brought me from the depths of my reading slump!

Let me know what you thought of Nevernight or if you’re planning to get to it! What was your favorite part of the book for those who have read it?

Thanks for reading,

Taylor

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