Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was so, so good. I started slowly, getting used to the style of writing and the characters and then from about page 60 I was totally hooked.
Mia Corvette was ten years old when her father was killed in front of her, and her mother and young brother were taken away and left to rot in the cells. Mia, also on her way to certain death escaped, with the help of Mr Kindly, a not-cat made of shadows, who not only eats Mia’s fear and is with her all of the time, but also provides an equal amount of wit and sarcastic comments.
I love Mia, she reminds me of a Quentin Tarantino character who will not hesitate to end someone’s life if that is what is needed. As the story moves along you get to understand her and I was in full support of her revenge on her father’s killers.
At age 16 Mia is heading off to try to get accepted into The Red Church, a school that trains assassins, and early on she meets Tric, another wannabe assassin who I found to be a bit of the strong silent type, although someone who is Mia’s match in word play. They worked really well together and while there were not a lot of sweet, tender moments……. there was plenty of hot, sexy times!
Other things that I loved about this book:
– all of the characters. There wasn’t a character I didn’t like and it was so much fun finding out what each of them were up to – Jessamine, Ash, Hush, Naev.
– the footnotes. There were plenty of footnotes throughout the story which I loved…sometimes I would skip them and go back when I got to the end of the chapter, and other times I read them straight away. They added detail, as well as fun to the story
– Did I mention I loved Mr Kindly. I have started looking in the shadows when I am alone to see if there is any chance there could be a Mr Kindly waiting patiently for me.
– The language. I really enjoyed the language, not only the swear words (there were lots!) but just the way that the characters talked, there was more than once that I was laughing and imagining myself walking through the corridors of The Red Church along with the other acolytes and practising my assassin skills.
I love this book so much that I have bought an Australian edition, but also a US version and a UK version, just because I realised that I really, really needed to have the different covers and the sprayed edges version.
Never Flinch.
Never Fear.
Never Forget.
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