I enjoyed this book so much. I liked the idea of shadows existing on their own and the power to manipulate them. It made me think a bit of Peter Pan losing his shadow.. Highly recommend.

Holly Black is typically a hit or miss author for me, but I’m a huge urban fantasy fan so I couldn’t resist picking up her adult fantasy debut. This book hits a lot of the main tropes of the genre - main character who is more than she seems at first, a complex love interest who may or may not actually be on her side, and a murder mystery that only leads to more secrets. Add in some secret societies and con men, and you have everything you need for a great book. The first part of Book of Night is a bit slow, but it quickly picks up pace in the middle and keeps the momentum through the finale.

So while Book of Night isn’t quite as good as some of my favorite urban fantasy novels, it is still a solid urban fantasy novel. I’ll definitely be picking up the next books in the series, particularly after that ending.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Holly Black has written a unique magic system, imperfect characters, and a numerous amount of villains— both big, small, and lasting. Charlie grows and bends as a wonderful protagonist that’s thrown back into her world of thieving and gloamists. There was no way to predict what was going to happen on the next page, and will leave you wanting to see how each trap is set and pulled.

My only gripe was how slow it seemed to pace up until the mysteries were actually revealed.

I fell for all the positive press and thought this was going to be the Next Big One, read the book and am wondering what I missed. The pace is slow, the characters are flat and we don't understand their motivations, and the world-building is spotty. There's a fine balance between telling the reader everything and withholding explanations to let them figure things out, and this book withheld too much and left too much for the read to parse out. I could see the series getting better with installations as there are some interesting, yet underdeveloped characters to play with.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The characters, worldbuilding, and story all fell flat. Everything lacked personality and came across as a generic urban fantasy read..

I'm new to reading Holly Black, and full disclosure, it took me a while to get into this one - I kept putting it down to read something else then hesitantly picking it back up again - but it won me over in the end. A major slow burn with a payoff!

Holly blacks transition from YA to adult was seamless. Taking what she already knows of different magics and adding a darker more sinister twist to it. The mystery aspect of the novel was great as it was a guessing game the entire time. I only wish it was longer. But I’m excited to see what else she can do in the adult genre

Holly Black is a longtime favorite author of mine, and even knowing that she has a wide range when it comes to subjects and fantasy settings, I was surprised by Book of Night. In a good way.

In a world where a person's shadow can be altered as a newfangled elitist plastic surgery or altered for better access to magic, the state of your shadow is a big deal. Charlie Hall, a perpetually down-on-her-luck, semi-reformed con girl turned bartender, has little interest in the shadow trade, despite her sister's obsession with them. At least until a run-in with a dangerous spectre from her past leads her back down that dark path she'd been avoiding--and her shadow starts having a mind of its own.

Charlie is gritty and fearless, and while not exactly a go-getter, she's got enough ambition to not let an opportunity pass her by. Her life kinda stinks, and her boyfriend is all but a faceless entity--or is he? Charlie's lack of engagement with her relationships and her home draws the reader straight into the heart of her avoidance of life in general, and it evinces both irritation and compassion. That that tactic is precisely what makes her path diverge is enlightening and jolting.

The mystery that Charlie gets sucked into is secondary to her life and processes, honestly. And that is not detrimental to the plotline in the slightest. I'm biased by years of fangirling, but Book of Night was an inspiring read, even with the godawful cliffhanger.

This is a book that as soon as I finished I was excited to start reading again! I loved everything about this one. The world, the characters, the writings, all of it was done so well. This is an author that I am excited to keep reading more books from!

Thank you so much for the gifted copy.

I have really enjoyed Holly Black's books in the past but this one was next level. Dark and moody, with such an interesting shadow magic system this one really drew me in. I loved all the characters who felt so raw and imperfect and realistic. I didn't love the ending but I think that was just because I wanted more. I will definitely be recommending this one and reading the sequel.

I was unexpectedly bored with this one. It just fell flat for me. but I think some people will enjoy it.

Not my 1st book by Black, I have read a couple of her YA books(more mature ones with out the BS love triangles)
I enjoyed the books that I read and this was an experiment to see if her talent translated to more mature themes(her books were pretty mature already. I guess there's more swears?)
In this clever new world peoples shadows can be manipulated or even temporally removed, by extremely severe magic.
But mostly our hero used her shadow magic to steal stuff.
She is trying to go straight and raise her younger sister. Getting away from the life that her scurrilous uncle brought her into as a child.
Her uncle reappears and drags her back in for one last, big score.
What she is dragged into could change her life, if she survives.

Perfectly average. It felt very YA and I honestly could not tell you a single thing that happened in this. And I read it barely 3 months ago. I wouldn't have been able to finish this if it weren't for the audio book.

Holly Black is a master of creating universes and the world inside "Book of Night" is no different. A world where shadows can move and are controlled by their wearers. Where people can wear a new shadow when their's becomes a bit too boring. And then there's Charlie Hall. It took a while for me to like Charlie and to be honest, I'm not sure we're supposed to. In many ways, she reminds me of Jude from Black's Folk of the Air series. The world has not been kind to her, so she is not going to be kind to the world. She is going to ruin everything she can and if that means she almost gets killed, then so be it. With a twist at the end that left me close to heartbroken, I will eagerly be waiting for the second book in the series.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy.

I really like Holly Black and have read of her books and love them, but this one just didn't grab me. I started and put down this book 3 times.

I feel it was probably because I am used to reading her YA and this was a venture into the adult world.

Too many pop culture references in an adult fantasy novel!

The characters were some of the dullest and most unmemorable I've ever come across. To say Charlie is unlikable would be to imply she has some personality for me to dislike. But she doesn't. Her only attributes seem to be that she has righteous anger and she makes bad decisions, but I don't really understand why. There's no insight into her underlying motivations. We are only told constantly of what she is, but never shown.

There were so many side characters, I had trouble keeping them apart. They're all haphazardly introduced without any distinguishing characteristics that would make them unique or memorable. After a while, they all blur together. It feels like anytime something needed to be explained, a new character would be introduced along with a random digression, just to get the point across.

The worldbuilding was so awkward and confusing, I'm still not sure I understood it, even after having read the whole book. I don't think the magical system is that complicated, yet somehow, the explanations provided just didn't work for me. Most of the time, I felt like I was guessing at what everything means. (Shadows give you magical powers... and feelings? Gloamists trade shadows and have power, but why? What is carapace, Cabal, Hierophant?)

The story unfolds via a dual timeline, but the pacing was extremely slow for both. You have the present one, slow and plodding, intercut with the past timeline, which was somehow even more glacial, if you can believe it. So the overall effect is the mother of all slow burns.

This is supposed to be Holly Black's adult debut, yet it doesn't feel any more adult than her previous YA books, other than a few F-words here and there. If anything, it feels less. I remember the sexual tension in The Cruel Prince, and it didn't even have any sex scenes (being YA and all). This book, with a few fade to black ones, was somehow completely devoid of any sizzle or spark.

I’m not much of a Holly Black fan, but BOY did I absolutely love this.

I’ve heard a few people say this is for fans of Ninth House, and it’s absolutely true. I loved Charlie, I loved Vince, I loved the world and the plot and the ENDING. This is definitely an urban fantasy with a magic system that slips through your fingers, hard to grasp like a shadow, but still amazing and unique and overall fun to try and learn about. I’m so excited for the next book.

Definitely a new path for Holly Black, but a successful one. I loved the world-building for this book with the concept of shadow magic and the darkness it brings. I cannot wait for the second book and to find out what happens with Charlie next.

I was compelled but not enthralled, I was intrigued but not indulged. The plot twist(s) shot me right off my rocker (is that the saying?) but the characters fell mostly flat. The shadow magic was super cool but I didn’t really understand half of what was going on, and The Quest seemed a bit too arbitrary? That ending tho????? MS. HOLLY BLACK I NEED ANSWERS. My not-so-sweet Vince deserves better.

3.5⭐️ rounding down

I’d like to preface this review by stating that I love Holly Black and have enjoyed everything I’ve read of hers in the past. With that said, I had to DNF this book. I got maybe 30% in and could not continue. I was not enjoying the the characters or the story. They were boring and just fell flat of my expectations. Sometimes I am a mood reader and maybe I just wasn’t in the right mindset for this right now. I have shelved it and plan on trying again maybe next year. I have purchased several copies for my bookstore as we all have different tastes in reading and who doesn’t love Holly Black.