“Love was a family religion, passed down to her when she'd been too young to protect herself from belief.”
Book of Night by Holly Black is an urban fantasy book and the first in the Book of Night series. It was published in May 2022 by Tor Books.
This is Holly Black's adult debut and it is a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies.
We follow Charlie Hall. In her world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.
Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgängers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.
My feelings are mixed for this book. I liked the writing style and I found the magic system interesting but a little complicated. The book introduces us to a world where shadows can be removed, enhanced and manipulated.
I liked the shifts between past and present. We got to see Charlie's childhood and how she became who she is . I also really liked the plot twist towards the end. I wasn't expecting that.
However, I didn't like the pacing of the book and I couldn't connect with the characters.
I loved the ending and I am however intrigued to see what happens next.
Rating: 3 Stars
See you in the next post and don't forget to keep reading!!!
Athina
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