This book vacillates between creative and lazy. The description of Mister Kindly and the shadow magic were excellent. I was intrigued the hints of depth dropped when discussing the library or darkins or the city's origins. However, this "dark fantasy" turned out to be a fairly standard-issue YA fantasy with some sex and violence thrown in.

The first novel in the Nevernight Chronicles.
I do love a good fantasy-assassins novel/series. (One of my favourites is Brent Weeks's Night Angel trilogy; and also Brian Staveley's Skullsworn.)

I wasn't overly familiar with Kristoff's writing before reading NEVERNIGHT, so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found, was an interesting beginning to a new series. It's a little bit uneven, as Kristoff spends some time establishing the world in a way that is not entirely info-dumpy, but it's almost there. I think it probably sets things up very nicely for the rest of the series (which I'm keen to continue reading).

An intriguing start to a new fantasy series. A cautious recommendation.

My heart is a black hole of emptiness! Fuck you a thousand times over, Mister Kristoff! You're brutal and insane, but I absolutely love it and hate it at the same time! NEVERNIGHT was one hell of a read I can tell you that! And I have never read a book that has destroyed me like this one has. I am just sitting here staring at this book because I still can't wrap my mind around what this fucking bastard did. I'll say it again, Fuck you, Mister Kristoff!

But let's get into why this book is so damn amazing! NEVERNIGHT is basically Hogwarts for assassins where they teach you the art of killing. There are four classes including fighting, thieving, poisoning & seducing. Where the instructors hack off your limbs and poison you on occasion. And it's your job to make it to initiation alive. But only 4 can make it to initiation so everyone is basically your competition. It's brutal and bloody and sexy!

And the story follows our heroine, Mia Corvere who has been training for years in order to join the Red Church, become one of their Blades (aka the Red Church's Assassins) and take her revenge on all those who killed her family. Also, Mia has an affinity for shadows and is accompanied by the shadow cat, Mr. Kindly who devours her fears and she yearns to find out what she is and what these powers of hers mean.

In one way or another I found myself loving the cast of characters we are introduced to in NEVERNIGHT. The instructors each had a unique personality for them, but most of them were just insane. I adored the friendships that were formed, if you can call them that. There is a small dose of romance. TRIC! He was such a sweetheart. And in a way, I thought he was way too sweet to thrown into this world! And HOT DAMN! Can Mister Kristoff write a sex scene! I think I need more sex scenes from him ASAP!

What destroyed me? I'm not out right spoiling it because it is so much better to experience it! But all I will say is there were different plot twist that I didn't see coming from a mile away! This bastard....Ugh! I can't say it! I just can't believe what he did and I am still healing. My heart and mind need to heal from the aftermath, okay! I was going to jump right into the sequel, Godsgrave, after this, but no! I can't do it! We'll see how I'm doing in a couple of days.

Jay Kristoff does a fantastic job creating a world that feels real, and full, and imaginative. The narrator is a bright spark of joy in this world full of shadows, and the main character is incredibly easy to root for.

This book became a favorite of 2019 for me. I loved the world, Mia as a character, and her vengeance quest. I posted an in depth spoiler free review and spoiler-filled discussion on my channel.

NEVERNIGHT was easily one of my favorite books of the year! I had put off reading it because I started an egalley when it was first being released and it didn’t have any of the footnotes (although someone else said they were all at the end) and I didn’t want to miss out! Then I sampled the audiobook and really did not like the narrator so I had to wait for a good time for me to read the physical copy!

This book was so cinematic and it had everything that I love. I could just picture the entire book happening as things were unfolding. The beginning of the book started out just a tad slow but it didn’t feel like it was slow in a bad way. Things took time to set up and provide a little world-building and setting, so it was a little while to get into the main action, but it was still interesting and I liked getting to know some of the characters during that time.

I absolutely loved the rest of the book. Mia is a fantastic character with a complicated history, a determined mission, and even though she’s a precious murder baby, she still has so many different layers to explore. I love a good antihero and Mia is an amazing protagonist. Each side character really has a full range of emotions, stories, and motives that make for a truly well-rounded book. Basically every element of the book from the characters to the fantasy concept to the darkness to the setting was exactly my taste!

I do have to yell at Jay, though, for one particular thing that happened at the end… I really did NOT see it coming which is surprising because it could have been a really big spoiler and I hadn’t read the book even close to when it came out so I’m surprised that I was able to avoid it for so long! It was quite surprising and unique.

Wow that ending was a nail biter. I was not sure how i was going to like this book as it has a wide variety of reviews all ready written. Not sure i can add more. I totally get any posts i see now where the author repeatedly says this is not a young adult book. It repeatedly has content that i would not want any teenager to read. I throughly was lost in the story, the variety of characters mister kindly, Mia and her whole relationship with tric. Their deaths in their that made me cry, betrayals that came out of the blue. The author is a master at his craft and i eager to dive into the rest of the story. I did feel that i had to give up on reading all the footnotes as they distracted from the story but where helpful when needed.

Honestly, I had such a difficult time reading the e-ARC of this book that I couldn't get into the story. It's very dense and slow-moving as it is. I was intrigued by Mia and especially the shadow cat Mr Kindly. I loved the lush writing and the eerie, Lovecraftian settings. But the footnotes made it impossible. Now, I don't mind footnotes as a rule. I loved Infinite Jest, the granddaddy of all footnotes. But with the e-ARC, you couldn't just flip to the back of the book. You had to bookmark your page, scroll through until you found the right footnote, then remember to bookmark THAT page and scroll through back to your original page. It became so cumbersome that I had to give up and wait for a finished copy. Sadly, I just haven't gotten back to it, but I hope to return someday.

I've been waiting to read Nevernight for so long, now that I have, I don't know why I waited so long.

Gripping, raw and gritty, yes. Multi-layered, heartbreaking and violent, yes. And wonderfully thrilling, full of so much heart it is easy to root for Mia immediately.

This is NOT YA. I've seen other reviewers talk about how they don't read YA etc. And while I do read YA, and this protagonist is 18 years old, this is not a YA book.

Prepare yourself for lots of violence, danger, bad words and sex.
I love it.
The world building is very complete, and embellished with humorous footnotes appearing on almost every page, courtesy of the narrator. Mia is a complicated character, out for revenge while trying to keep her humanity. Her dark passenger, Mr. Kindly, is hilarious bringing levity to the scenes. He is Mia's conscious, the little voice in her head. If that voice was dry and dark and cat shaped (not a cat.)

And while Mia trains and almost dies, the cast of supporting characters really pull the story forward. Tric and Aishlinn give Mia more humanity while some others bring Mia's anger and rage to the surface. Kristoff is not afraid to kill anyone and everyone so don't get too attached.

I went right into Godsgrave. And gladly stayed in Kristoff's world some more.

And I've preordered the third book out in September.

I mean, I need to emotionally prepare.

This was a wonderful book. I could not put it down. I have enjoyed his write and unique world he creates. It is very different from his debut series. This one is sure to please.

Let’s be honest, most readers had too many expectations to this book; due to the fact that a lot of bookworms loved Mr. Kristoff’s Illuminae. I, as someone who have never read any of his books, made high expectations from Nevernight.
The story follows a young girl’s quest to avenge the horrible death of her family. She was on a training to harness her abilities, later on, to learn more she entered Red Church wherein she’s again; trained to become a completely developed killer.
For a young protagonist, Mia Covare’s quiet a thing. She’s always forbidding. She’s so full of herself and too proud to an irritating degree, but who can blame her? The girl’s ridiculously good at everything. I just hated her guts. What I loved about her, is her shadow cat- Mister Kindly, her “fear drinker”. I liked how the shadow cat stood by her side. It’s like a friend we’ll forever hope for.
Nevernight’s world-building blew my mind. I tried to get my head into it, read several parts about it; but boy, I found it really complex to understand it. There were just too many details, no; it’s too detailed. I came to a point wherein I don’t want to read anything about the book’s locale anymore.
The greatest problem that I faced reading the novel, is the writing of Mister Kristoff. I can compare it to Laini Taylor’s writing style (which I personally loved and envied), but it’s too much. Nevernight was flowered with too many figurative language. Another issue is that it started off with a really slow pace then it the story came crashing down ’til the end.
Though I had problems with those beyond and some elements are obviously cliché. I liked Nevernight’s plot. It was simple, but there were too many layers, too many puzzle pieces and when they ended up to their rightful places; I just lost it. I loved the story. But mind you people, there are brutality (tho not much), for a young character- it’s too sexual, offensive languages were not missed.
Having said those, it’s clear that I had high hopes; and I was undeniably disappointed.
To sum it up, I enjoyed reading Nevernight. It’s a compelling start for the series. I’m hoping it gets better in the second installment.

Review:

Protagonist: Mia Corvere lost her family in one night due to her father's failed rebellion, now she needs to get revenge on those that killed her father, but she cannot take on this task without training first. Mia seeks out the Red Church, a school for assassins where she needs to be honed to a razor's edge. I love Mia and all the shades and shadows that make her a great morally gray character. Mia's not a good person, sure she has a bit of a heart, but she won't let anything stop her from getting the revenge she feels she rightly deserves. Mia's a complex character that I just love to read from, she's a bit unpredictable, which always makes for a good time, and she has a lot of something I feel more and more protagonists are lacking and that's common sense. Mia's smart and practically already an assassin when this story begins, yet I never felt like her character development was held back because of that, this is more about honing Mia's skill and her journey to avenge her familia and discover the secrets of what she is.

Romance: One of the things I loved about the romance in this story is that it doesn't infringe on the rest of the story, sure it matters, it has its place in the story, and it's not shoved toward the back or the front, it's just there and how it plays into the rest of the story I felt was brilliantly handled. Mia's not exactly a warm character so it was really interesting to see how she approached the romance she has in this story. There is a bond between the couple and I really enjoyed seeing that explored. Everything felt so natural, I mean, it was almost unreal how natural the two characters feel together and how natural their romance and relationship progresses in the story.

World Building: The world building in this tale is incredible. All over this story are footnotes that give additional information on the world and the mythos of this dark fantasy world. Well, I say dark but really this world hardly sees a truedark, most of the time it's day, and that's only the base surface of this world. I'm a huge sucker for a school or test setting where a group of characters is brought together and only a few will succeed in the task set before them, and this is probably the best version I've ever seen of that trope. Plus there's a murder mystery aspect to the story that blew me away, what else did you expect to happen at a school for assassins? This story is a bit dense towards the beginning, it took me a while to really find my groove with the story but once I got the hang of things, everything went a lot smoother. I will also say that I listened to all of this story as an Audible audiobook and I'd warn if you're thinking about listening to this story as an audiobook, I'd follow along for the first couple of chapters because it goes back and forth in time quite a bit and it's harder to follow on the audiobook at first.

Predictability: I don't think I predicted a single thing in this story, not even joking, there was this one moment where I thought the story was going in one direction, I thought that something pretty tropey was happening, and in the space of a couple seconds everything changed and the story barreled on in a different direction and it was glorious. With some of the twists I'd play around with the truth, but things never truly made sense until minutes before the reveal, if not seconds. Also, I listened to this story in six chapters at a time, so I don't know if it's that or how the story is told but it's so complex that I'll forget about plot points at certain times so I never really had a lot of time to truly consider what would happen when certain things were revealed.

Ending: The end of this tale is glorious. I mean, action scene after action scene, amazing twists, possible foreshadowing to bigger things and a LOT of death, what more could you ask for? I can't even really just talk about the final climax because there were a few different climactic moments toward the end and all of them need to be praised because that is some of, if not the best, action scene writing I've ever read. I was completely sucked into the story, into the carnage and death all around, soaking it in. Then, when the dust settled and losses counted, there was one of my favorite things to see in books, an epilogue, and this epilogue was truly something. It gives a lot of closure on the events of this story and teases what's to come for the next book, or at least I hope it does, and while this story doesn't leave off on a cliffhanger, I'm desperate to know what happens next.

Rating:

This is by far one of my favorite books of all time, I loved the complex characters, the intricate and detailed world building, a romance that felt just right, and a mystery and path of revenge I cannot wait to continue following!

I had a hard time getting into this. I actually started reading it multiple times and was put off each time by what I took for “Ye Olde Meta Style, Dear Gentlereaders” and by a cheap and gratuitous conflation of sex with violence. However, once I made it past the first few chapters, both of those things eased up and the book morphed into something rather fantastic. It’s a super dark yet still funny high fantasy coming-of-age story set in a school for assassins, and I loved it.

Mia Corvere is a complicated antihero and her story is not an easy one. Jay Kristoff’s writing will not be to everyone’s taste. But apart from the clunky opening chapters, I highly recommend this.

Holy crap such a kick butt novel 11/10 will recommend until I die. It was told so wonderfully and I love Jay Kristoff so much and I'm so surprised and glad that I got this arc

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

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, a sixteen year old Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic — the Red Church. Treachery and trials await her with the Church’s halls, and to fail is to die. But if she survives to initiation, Mia will be inducted among the chosen of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the only thing she desires.
Revenge.

*4.5 stars*

Wow! Just wow! I don't know where to begin with this one. There is so much goodness and awesomeness in this novel that it seems all too hard to get the right words on paper for a simple review.

Let's skip a blurb - I don't need to tell you what happens because
A) it will spoil it for you and,
B) there is one right up there at the top of this review. That's all you need - that's all it took for me...

So let's just talk about WHY this is such a great book...

If I were to tell you that this book featured the following elements, what would you say?

* Assassins
* Duels
* Poison
* Murder
* Sex
* Beautiful prose
* Stunning world-building, and
* Surprising twists and turns.

Sounds awesome, right? And it is. All of those elements and more come together under the watchful hand of Kristoff to become one of the most eagerly awaited series in a long time. There is a school when the MC goes to learn about being an assassin so she can avenge the death of her father. There is brutality, violence, and sex. There is magic and daemon pets. This is a book that has taken everything I love about the fantasy genre and thrown it together for an awesome story.

The only thing that got a bit annoying was the overuse of metaphors and abundance of minutae in the descriptions at times. Did drag me from the story occassionally but not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for this book and, most likely, the whole series...


Paul
ARH

I was first drawn to this book because I was familiar with the author's prior work, and also being intrigued by the concept of a strong female lead. I was not disappointed by this book, and in fact, enjoyed it much more than I initially thought I would. I am really captivated by the idea of a book not ending happily and also being pulled into a story that mainly surrounds characters who are not always supposed to be likable. The only thing that kept this from being a 5-star book is that I thought more of the characters should have been further down the evil path. Overall, this book was well written and expertly told. I did not guess the ending and was rather surprised by where this book took me as a reader.

I had a hard time getting into this book and I had such high expectations for it so I was really bummed. I finally DNF'd it at almost halfway through the book.

The plot of Nevernight feels like so many other fantasy-dystopian YA books from the past few years. The difference? Nevernight is way grittier. We’re talking shaky-camera, blood spattered, feel-the-dirt-taste-the-sweat action. Kristoff doesn’t play that Veronica Roth game, either. We’re already assured that the story doesn’t end well for the protagonist.

Overall, the pacing of the story was perfect – I’m used to reading shorter YA novels, so I was a bit daunted by the 400+ pages, but the story never fell into the trap of becoming too detailed and dull. The plot was compelling, the universe was mysterious, and the characters felt well-developed and realistic.

The only drawback to this novel is that it is chock full of world-building. One of the reasons I don’t read a lot of epic fantasy is because I don’t enjoy world-building. In this case, excessive use of in-world dialogue, jargon, and mythology (and copious soliloquies in the footnotes) felt self-conscious and self-indulgent. It was death by a thousand circumlocutions. I’m looking at you, http://www.texasgoldengirl.com/xenical/ ‘mornmeal’ instead of ‘breakfast.’

Even with this detractor, Nevernight left me excited to read what happens next to Mia, her shadow-cat Mister Kindly, and her friends. With the survival aspect of Hunger Games combined with the best bending parts of Avatar (and a little bit of Harry Potter, too!), this book was a highly enjoyable, compelling thriller of a read that promises to envelop the reader in a magical, dangerous world.

(With its graphic descriptions and sexual elements, it probably isn’t appropriate for younger children, though.)

Let me just say Nevernight was bad ass.  I loved it so much I'm rereading it right now to get ready for the sequel.  I am not going to minimize things,  Nevernight was violent and it was vulgar but it was fabulous.  Kristoff himself sums the book up on twitter as #stabstabstab.  That's accurate.   As I am remembering what's coming in the book I'm cringing a bit waiting for the blood to start flowing. 

Mia is on a mission for revenge over her the deaths of her parents which takes her to assassin school out in the desert.  This is no Hogwarts - the teachers will kill the students as soon as help them in some cases.  Mia is also a darken - which brings powers she doesn't fully understand herself - but one thing Mia can do is to manipulate shadows.  She can seemingly manufacture the dark and pull off some scary things.  She has her own shadow companion with the misleading name of Mr. Kindly.  I didn't know I could like a cat so much!   Mr. Kindly lives off Mia's fear which enables her to be both extra brave and extra stupid at times.  She needs to be brave while living among assassins but I did question her judgement quite a few times as well... 

So in a brief summary Nevernight has a young woman learning mad murder skills, friendships and kissing, backstabbing and gore, all in a world with three suns and fabulous new magic.  I was obsessed while reading and I loved it!  I cannot wait to see what Mia goes on to do and who she goes on to kill in the future.

I thought about trying to be clever and footnoting this - but that just seemed silly.  I'll simply say that the footnotes made me snort laughing on a few occasions.  It seems snarky footnotes are a way to my heart - see also Jen Lancaster, Kevin Kwan.  

#stabstabstab

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Dunne Books for this review copy in exchange for an honest opinion!