What in tarnation (bahaha) just happened?! I finished Nevernight by Jay Kristoff, and I feel like someone is controlling my feelings from afar. By all accounts (that I won’t go into) I should have disliked this book. I didn’t even WANT to like this book. The only reason I was even freaking reading it in the first place was because I bought a copy a while back (I don’t even know why?? IT WAS PROBABLY WIZARDRY DRAWING ME TO IT – GASP!). But now here I am trying to figure out how to write a 5-star review. I repeat, WHAT JUST HAPPENED.

Nevernight: I HAVE BEEN DUPED! MAGICKED! SORCERIZED! SPELLED!Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Series: The Nevernight Chronicle #1
Published by Thomas Dunne Books on August 9th 2016
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 429
Narrator: Holter Graham
Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
Format: Audiobook
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The first in a new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author.
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?

So I started listening to the audiobook and was like, yeah, yeah, this is about a wannabe assassin and yadda yadda. BUT THEN BAM. Things just started happening and I kept thinking more and more good things about it and SUDDENLY BY THE END I’M LIKE OMG THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME SOMEONE GET ME THE NEXT ONE RIGHT NOW.

What I loved about freaking Nevernight:

  • It is crude and intense and raw and totally an adult book and I freaking loved it. Told mainly from the perspective of Mia Corvere (our main character), you get her in her true form. There is no holding back, no censoring of her thoughts, of the language, of nada.  She’s an effing bad ass. Which leads me to my next point…
  • MIA CORVERE. YES. PLEASE GIVE ME MORE MAIN CHARACTERS LIKE THIS B.
  • Mister Kindly is a snarky AF not-cat made of shadows and he was perfect because he was a cat… except not. CATS  (and the not variety) ARE ALWAYS A YES.
  • Guys, the assassins school is like Hogwarts… if there was a lot more violence and gore and bizarreness, AND IT WAS SO COOL.
  • The world building was FLAWLESS AND OH SO DETAILED. I can’t even describe the world that Kristoff has created (it’s a blend of so many fantasy worlds that it completely became its own thing), but it was utterly convincing and immersive. It’s dark and creepy and freaking cool. 

A warning if you’re going to pick this up (which I highly suggest you do):

When this book came out last year, a lot of people struggled through the beginning. There are footnotes at the bottom of the page, and I know some people hated that. Luckily I listened to the audiobook (WHICH HAD AMAZING NARRATION BTW) so I never even knew when a footnote was being read. People also complained about the pacing. I will say this: DO NOT GIVE UP IF YOU START THIS BOOK (even if you hate the footnotes, because you should not give up this BA story because a few footnotes). I promise promise promise that the pacing increases significantly once you get through the first 100 pages or so. Once you get to the assassins school, shit goes DOWN and then you’ll be hooked. Scout’s honor!

nevernight jay kristoff 


I GIVE THIS A SKEPTICAL 5/5 STARS, because I still can’t believe that I just fell in love with a book I didn’t even want to like. MIND COMPLETELY BLOWN.

Good news! The sequel, Godsgrave, comes out this year!!!!

Have you read a book that has completely taken you by surprise?