Anna-Emilia's Reviews > Nevernight

As someone not a stranger to Kristoff's writing style I was taken aback by this book at first. I found the writing confusing, dense and everything O, so slow. And even after finishing the book I can safely say that yes, the writing is a bit dense. A bit too purple for most people. But at the end of this novel I was left gasping for breath and screaming into the void. When the hell did I get so attached to these characters? And then I ran, my dear reader, to pre-order the next one.



Don't get fooled by our young protagonist, sixteen-year-old Mia Corvere - because this is not a ride for the young ones. This story is gory, gruesome, bloody and sexy, full of mischief and betrayal. Oh, and revenge. If there's something that will motivate teenagers to join the Red Church where they'll hopefully become assassin's for the goddess of darkness - it's revenge. It still has heartwarming and funny moments too, I promise!

So pretty simple, eh? The problem is the story starts in a decently confusing way (which you'll get later and after returning to it now I find the first chapter brilliant) and Kristoff uses a crap ton of footnotes to world build. The majority of the footnotes are in the first half of the book and whilst they do tell you about the world and paint a nice picture of the setting, they are more often than not pretty boring. And too long. They also disrupt the flow of the story. So the footnotes are an interesting add to his writing style but I could've definitely done without them. The other problem with Nevernight especially is the writing. I'm a slow reader and I read this at maybe 50% of my usual reading speed. I spent a lot of hours reading this book and barely made a dent. And this book is about a school for assassin's for crying out loud! The plot and everything that was happening was actually really exciting! But because of the speed I was reading I couldn't get into a decent flow or finish this in the time I wanted to. Kristoff's writing can be a deal breaker. But as I've found out for me, everything just clicks somewhere and then I'm all in.

I feel like I really got to know the characters, Mia and her friends, the teachers, and Mia's shadow cat, Mister Kindly. Oh! Did I forget to tell you Mia has these mysterious shadow powers? She's still written in a way that doesn't make her seem allmighty and she faces her struggles before and during her training. Even though she's an assassin and naturally kills people and isn't afraid to get messy or curse, you still want to root for her in the end. I feel like there's so much more in this world we will get to explore and we've only just scratched the surface. And there's probably a few more plot-twists to break my heart.

So to sum up: not afraid of some nasty moments and blood? getting your hands dirty? like to swoon for a touch of romance? Nevernight might be the read for you! I'll be here, dying and waiting for Godsgrave to find it's way into my hands.