I'm sorry to say but this book just wasn't for me. I am not sure what it is, could be just the wrong time for me to read this. I have read a few of her books in the past and have really enjoyed her writing style. I just thought that the plot and writing left a little to be desired.

Holly Black's first adult series is a success in my opinion.
Not many people deal with shadow magic and I loved that this fantasy took on an approach not often seen.
The big reveals where predictable but the relatable characters made up for it.
These characters are flawed, and they know it. They are human like you and me. They are a mess because of trauma. And it is awesome because they do not magically fix themselves! They just live with it and clean the mess up like all of us.

But man that ending! Talk about cliff hanger that leaves you desperate for more.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Well, well, well! As devoted fan of “The folk of the air “series, this was one of the most anticipated first book of brand new and author’s first adult fantasy installment I have been longing for!

I have complex feelings: there are so many pros and cons for making me decide how I truly felt about it!

I think positive attributes of the book attracted me more than I expected!

Firstly: when I read a book, I ask myself what’s more important for me? Pacing? Way of storytelling? Plot line? Structure? Execution ? Ending?

Of course each of those elements are crucial. But in my opinion; character building is most important thing about a story. And it gets more important when you start new series because it’s long time commitment just like watching series more than two seasons. You patiently wait for what’s gonna happen to them at the next book, cheering for them, getting angry with them, being happy for them, screaming at them. They should be easy to connect so you can root for them.

At this book hands down: Charlie and Vince were extremely likable characters! Charlie; a talented thief, still suffering from choices she’s made in the past, having low self esteem, thinking she doesn’t deserve anything good for her even though her new relationship with Vince is doomed to fail! She works as a bartender and helping out people at her spare times.

And Vince, that devoted, coming from wealthy family, introverted, caring man who lost his shadow for a long time ago attracted me with his mysterious, inscrutable identity. I loved him from the beginning.

The second thing I enjoyed about the book is; shadow magic: how shadow gets separated from the people to gain more power which comes with a very painful cost.

The third thing I enjoyed is execution of the mystery: when Charlie is forced to get a compelling task related with her past which results with revealing secrets about shadows. She realizes she’s risked more than she can handle.

But… there are things bothered me a little;
Third person, flat narration was not great choice for storytelling. Dual or multi POVs worked so much better. The less dialogues and flat tone reminding you of long essays make you yawn just a little bit!

The first half of the book was too slow and I guessed so many readers are not patient enough to go on and most of them dnf and drop it down.

On contrary, the second half is so much faster with so many plot twists: so many things happened at the same time so it left me breathless. So balance of pacing was one of the weakest point of my reading.

And we absolutely need more details about world building.

But I’m still rounding up 3.5 stars to 4 it’s still promising start to a brand new series with surprising cliffhanger which kept me on my toes.

I have to be honest: I could give additional star just for the last line Charlie said: I sighed so many times and hugged my e-reader as if I was hugging Charlie. ( you’ll understand me when you read it)

I hope dear Holly Black won’t keep us too long! I’m so sure second book will be even better than the first installment.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/ Forge for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Book of Night was a surprisingly great read! The setting was gritty, a little dirty, and all too realistic. With a badass female main character who has a few rough edges, but she's trying to improve that. This book also has a great mystery and plenty of twists along the way. The romance was the perfect amount for this book, not the same as Jude and Cardan from the Folk of Air series, but different in a good way. I am highly anticipating the next installment in this series.

This is the first Holly Black book I have read so I can't compare it to her YA novels. This is a story full of strong characters who know their weaknesses and can accept themselves for who they are. Charlie is a thief, plain and simple. She was taught the art of thievery as a child and has plied the trade until recently. Vince is her live in boyfriend but something is not quite right. In a world where a person's shadow can have it's own power, they go down the rabbit hole to try and right a wrong. Although I found some of the terms used a bit confusing they were necessary to understand the world of shadows. All in all a good read. Could be a stand alone but left open to possibly be continued in a series.

As a huge fan of Holly Black's YA, I could not wait to get ahold of her first adult novel. Book of Night is a definite departure from her fae series but the power of her imagination is on full display here. She dives into some deep and dark topics in a world where magic exists but comes with a steep price. The ending was a bit maddening and I hope it signals the start of a series. I would love to return to this shadowy world!

Book of Night is one of many dark fantasy/ magical realism books written by Holly Black. Black does a very good job at immersing one into the book's universe without overly subscribing to world building. On the one hand, that's a nice way to get to the meat of the story without being bogged down by details, on the other hand, Book of Night could have used some more of those world building details.

Our story begins with an unknown child feeding blood to his shadow. It's a very innocent scene that then cuts to a sticky bar, and Charlie Hall. Charlie is the protagonist of Book of Night, and as the story progresses, we get chapters dedicated to the past as a way of explaining why she is the way that she is-- which is to say, a stubborn person who is begrudgingly loyal to her friends and family, but makes terrible life decisions and has low self-worth. We learn she works at a bar, and does a sort of private investigation thing on the side, and though she doesn't like it, she's good at it.

We also learn this Earth-like world has what's called "shadow magic," which is when one's shadow has the ability to move independently of it's owner. The catch is that not all people have this ability, and there are ways in which one can try to get their shadow to "quicken," to be able to do shadow magic, but they don't always work. The society of shadow magic users is in the minority, however, in terms of money they are generally better off than most, and we see many levels of them as the story moves.

The biggest issue I had with this book was the language used to describe and explain shadow magic to the reader. It felt like I had accidentally skipped a paragraph somewhere while reading that had the key to unlocking full understanding of what the characters were saying. Which in turn made it hard for me to relax while reading because I was constantly having to go back and re-read sections that I thought I had understood, but then realized I didn't. It wasn't until the last 20% of the book that I finally hit the stride and wanted to know what happened next. (That being said, I did notice a couple grammatical errors as the pace picked up, which I assume were probably missed because the pace picked up and things get missed when reading at a faster speed.)

We do eventually learn more about the mysterious child and his shadow from the prologue in the book, and there is a huge cover-up that Charlie is tasked with discovering. I'd say the mystery elements in the book definitely kept me going. Charlie is quite adept at observing and remembering bits of information to help her answer questions she has. There may have been one or two plot twists I could've done without, but overall the mystery was interesting enough to try solving along with Charlie.

I like Holly Black and the genre this book was written in, and even though I don't feel the need to read Book of Night again, if I had a friend who was looking for a dark fantasy to read this book would probably make the list.

I don’t think I have ever been disappointed with a book written by Holly Black. This was absolutely phenomenal. The world, the magic, the modern-take to a fantasy world; everything was so well written and the plot was so interesting, I couldn’t put the book down. I truly hope she plans to continue the series because I am obsessed already.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another excellent story by Holly Black! I really loved this book. The worldbuilding was wonderfully done, and and the shadow-based magic is a refreshing twist on the fantasy genre, as I feel not many authors are not using this type as the basis of their magic.

For all of Charlie flaws (of which there are MANY), I couldn't help but like her. She made a lot of poor, impulsive decisions, but they were absolutely all in line with her character. The decision at the end being certainly one of them, and it was definitely one I did not see coming. It was unexpected and surprising, yet oddly satisfying because it's so different from the endings that we typically get from fantasy stories like this. It firmly concludes the story, but it leaves a small window of opportunity open for Black to potentially revisit this world, should she decide to write any sequels.

I'll definitely be recommending this to my older teen patrons and fantasy-loving adult patrons.

I liked the book - Charlie was fun, though she felt a little tropey, and I liked the concept of the magic in universe, but I wanted a lot more worldbuilding - it really seemed to be glossed over. I loved Vince, especially at the end and I do want to read the next book.

Book of Night follows Charlie, who is a master thief set with the task of finding the Book of Night.

I really wanted to love this, unfortunately it fell a flat for me. This book is told from third person in a way that’s feels more like hovering over vs. actively being part of it. There was a lot going on (especially in the second half) but it was lacking in dialogue and the pacing was on the slower side. I found myself putting it down multiple times for days in a row before finally getting to the finish line. While there were a lot of plot twists (again, especially in the second half) I’m not sure if I will continue if there is a second book.

The biggest redeeming factor, and really the reason I pushed through to finish, was Vince. I loved him and learning more about his character both past and present.

While this book wasn’t for me, I think it has a lot of qualities others would love and even has the potential to be a good series.

Read if you like:
- older Holly Black books (think Cursebreakers, Modern Faerie Tales)
- darker urban fantasy
- past and present timelines
- multiple POV (in 3rd person)
- unique and intricate magic systems
- murder, mystery, and lots of thievery
- closed door/fade to black romance
- books about books!

Thank you Tor Books for providing me with an eARC of this book!

This far and away exceeds any other Holly Black book I’ve read (I’ve read most of her YA novels). I loved the premise of magic shadows, the tough and wily former (or hoping to be former) con artist/thief Charlie, and the twisty satisfying plot. Be warned that this book is clearly set up to have at least a sequel, and is not a standalone like I thought.

Charlie Hall is a low-level con artist who has been out of the game for a spell. She's been tending a bar and going home to her boyfriend, Vincent who isn't bad news in an attempt to avoid the dangerous world of shadow trading. In this world, shadows can be altered to gain more power and influence, but with a devasting cost. When someone comes back from Charlie's past, she's forced to take on a dangerous job to protect her family, but she unravels secrets about shadows that have repercussions for Charlie.

This is a solid adult debut for Holly Black. It has a dangerous but likable heroine at the center of the story and a world filled with shadowy thieves and secret circles of the upper echelon that seek power, which rightfully does not belong to them. I was enthralled with the story from the beginning and satisfied with Charlie's character development, the twists and turns of the plot, and the implications for the future. It's an urban fantasy story packed with action and led by a formidable heroine, who does not settle for anything less than she deserves, which makes it an enjoyable read.

To me, this was fine. I feel as though I've read this book before, the main character who is unlikable, has a job she doesn't love (bartending, it's always bartending), working hard to help her kind of resentful little sister, the mom who is flaky and let her down as a kid, like, all of this just feels very familiar to me. The idea of shadow magic was cool, but I don't think it was ever developed enough for me to really get what was going on.

While the idea of this book sounded brilliant and fun for adult readers, I think Black's overall execution was lacking in a handful of ways. This is more or less an adult thriller novel with a minor fantastical element. The book is mostly at a standstill for 30-40% of the book. The world-building never felt like it was thoroughly explained despite it being mentioned on every page and in no way did the magic system feel grounded in "reality". We're told about three different categories of people who can use their shadow magic but we don't get to experience people with those skills and when we do we don't get to know them. For me, it was the slow start to what the actual plot is, and the magic system itself. I recognize that any other issue I have with the novel would be minute had these two things been focused on more.

I tried y'all. I read 60% of this book and just realized life is short and I don't care enough about these characters to keep going ;-; sad because I like Holly Black's elf stuff. But this one's worldbuilding and characters felt much less interesting and tangible.

DNF at 65%.

2.75 for 65 percent read

Thanks to Tor Books for my advanced E-ARC

<b>"There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall.Crooked, from the day she was born.Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down" </b>

I was excited to jump right into Holly Black's newest NA debut- Book Of Night, with a captivating premise as shadow magic, secret societies and more elements of dark fantasy I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately I was on the struggle bus right from the beginning, neither the plot nor the characters grabbed my attention and the writing wasn't working for me but I kept going forward in the hope that it will redeem and that I will find myself curious to know how it ends but sadly that is not the case. While there is a dark atmospheric vibe and element of mystery in the plot it wasn't enough for me to care for the climax.Don't get me wrong! it is not a bad book but it is definitely not for everyone, here is what I thought reading until 65%

<u>What I liked-</u>
-The Premise
-Vince's inscrutable character
-Shadow Magic
-Secret Society
-Secret Books on magic
-Element of mystery in the air throughout

<u>What didn't work for me-</u>
- The narrative style which read like a lengthy essay/lack of dialogue exchange
-The world building with massive info dump that is setup in a way that reader is expected to know about it beforehand
-The flashbacks were underwhelming
-Slow pace

That being said this is my personal opinion and I am sure there will be lots of other readers who will have a completely polarizing experience to mine while reading BoN!

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: nada
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

I kind of have to be in the right mood for Holly Black. I really like her stuff (and I remember Tithe et al sort of blowing my mind in my late teens because, like, it was a book for people of my age group but it felt so dark and … and *grown up* somehow—and, really, I don’t think there’s anything a teenager desires more than being treated as a grown up) but, as I tried to explained to a friend, she can be quite a cruel writer. Not in a malicious or gratuitous way but, as the friend suggested, since cruel can sound pejorative, she’s a writer who Goes There. And, sometimes, I am weak and fluffy and I don’t want to Go There, you know? I want to Stay Here where it’s safe.

In any case, Book of Night Goes There. In aesthetic, it’s not so very different from Black’s YA work: there’s still intriguing world-building, complicated relationships and morally grey protagonists, all alongside delicate explorations of power, vulnerability, abuse, and damage. There’s perhaps a shade more sex and violence, but I think—and this comes back to what I really admire about Black as a writer—where Book Of Night most strongly comes across as a book for adults is because it’s ABOUT adults. And nowhere is this clearer than its cynical, self-loathing, hot mess of a protagonist, Charlie Hall.

I absolutely adored Charlie. She’s an ex-thief, ex-conperson, trying (and failing) to stay on the straight and narrow by bartending since her last job got her shot and the boyfriend who betrayed her killed. She has a new live-in boyfriend, a slightly mysterious fellow called Vince who doesn’t ask questions of her on the understanding she doesn’t ask questions of him—although maybe she should—and is trying to get together enough money for her younger sister to give up an obsession with magic and go to college. Except Charlie is irredeemably self-destructive: when it comes to men, when it comes to decisions, when it comes to not getting involved in the high-profile theft of a book called the Liber Noctis that might be connected not only to a bunch of murders but a conspiracy involving a ruthless billionaire called Lionel Salt.

The basic premise of the world is that the shadows of certain humans ‘quicken’ for reasons unknown (possibly trauma?). This gives them a substance that can be enhanced by feeding them blood and allows them to be used to perform magical feats, like, say murdering people? One of the interesting facets of the magic system is that the reality of magic has only recently entered public consciousness (following some kind of massacre by a rogue shadow, known as a blight) so information is both sketchy and contradictory. On the one hand, this is kind of fascinating because it keeps the world full of mysteries about exactly what shadows are and what can be achieved with them. On the other, it can sometimes dent its own revelations because, you’re left being like, “oh my God, so shadows can do [x]? Wait a minute, I didn’t even know they could do [y].”

Book of Night is slightly slow to start, but once it gets underway it’s a veritable page-turner of a mystery and a satisfying heist, with a touch of horror, a touch of romance, and a touch of action all expertly rolled into a ball of plotty nomsomeness. Most of all, though, it provides a marvellous stage for its equally marvellous heroine. I could talk about Charlie literally forever but her place in her world is so well-judged: she’s an excellent thief and an excellent confidence trickster, but she’s not a fighter and she’s not magical. This makes her both competent and vulnerable, which such a difficult balance to pull off: neither she, nor the reader, never quite loses the conviction that she’s in over her head, but you don’t have to worry she’s ever going to be anything less than resourceful, quick-thinking and ruthless when she needs to be. Unless she’s drunk, of course. But that’s the thing: even her moments of self-directed failure feel reasonable, understandable and true to her character. (As an aside, I’ll also add she’s tall and curvy, which is nice to see on page, and goes against the trope that all fantasy thieves have to be androgynous waifs).

Oh, and the other thing I think that marks Charlie as an adult character (she’s nearly 30) in a book for adults is just how … resilient her mess is. I think with YA there’s a sort of social responsibility to indicate to young people that there’s hope in the future and the things that may have damaged them, while they won’t magically go away, don’t have to control their lives forever. When you’re adult, you kind of ARE your damage and that’s that. And while it’s a fairly cynical way of thinking about it people, this is a more-than-fairly cynical book.

I think my feeling about Book of Night in general are somewhat dependent on whether it’s going to be a series. It does stand alone, but as a standalone the world-building is slightly too flimsy to fully support the story and, oh dear me, that ending is going to be … controversial. I don’t want to spoil it but it’s a bitter twist indeed, and one that might, to some readers (romance readers in particular) feel like a fuck you. As the first book in a potential series, the world building is just detailed enough to draw you in while preserving plenty of mysteries for future exploration, and the end of the book (while providing a meaningful resolution to the narrative arc) is QUITE the hook.

In NetGalley terms, this means it’s a four-star standalone, or a five-star series opener. In whether you should read it terms, it very much depends on your tolerance for non-happy-endings. And do check trigger warnings before diving in. This is dark AF. But, ending aside, there was a lot I loved about Book of Night: its (anti)heroine, in particular, will stay with me a long time.

3.5 stars rounded up. I absolutely love the world, and love the protagonist, even if she is basically the same protagonist in every one of Holly Black’s books xD Holly Black is one of only 2 authors I can think of immediately that wrote YA books I read as a teen, and is now writing adult books 15 years later (the other is Christopher Paolini. There might be others.) this is, as far as I have read, Holly Black’s first adult novel. It’s darker and grittier than anything I’ve read before and honestly all the better for it. I loved the Cruel Prince series but it felt like it had been toned down for younger audiences and I hope she continues in this direction.
My main complaint with this book is that it is a bit confusing at times. I’m not sure if it was a me problem or if anyone else had this issue, but the plot and magic systems take a while to make sense, however I will say all of it is resolved in a very satisfactory manner in the end. Right now this looks like it’s a standalone, however, if there’s a sequel I’ll absolutely be picking it up.