Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, #1)

by Jay Kristoff

From New York Times bestselling author, Jay Kristoff, comes a dangerous new fantasy world and a heroine edged in darkness.

WINNER OF THE THE AUREALIS AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY NOVEL

Mia Corvere is only ten years old when she is given her first lesson in death.

Destined to destroy empires, the child raised in shadows made a promise on the day she lost everything: to avenge herself on those that shattered her world.

But the chance to strike against such powerful enemies will be fleeting, and Mia must become a weapon without equal. Before she seeks vengeance, she must seek training among the infamous assassins of the Red Church of Itreya.

Inside the Church's halls, Mia must prove herself against the deadliest of opponents and survive the tutelage of murderers, liars and daemons at the heart of a murder cult.

The Church is no ordinary school. But Mia is no ordinary student.

• ISBN13: 9780008179991
• Publish Date: 11 August 2016 (first published 9 August 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 20 April 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Ben Pick]

In a cast filled with assassins, the killer amongst them was predictable, as was the ending.

[lady_of_the_night]

I loved the ending to this book and i cant wait to start reading the second book in the series.

The only reason I couldn't get into this book as because of how many footnotes there were and how hard it was to read them as an ebook. They pulled me out of the story rather than being fun. Eep.

[liz089]

I've had this one since the release date.. which was 2016, wanting to read it every once in a while (it is not a book for every occasion) but I finally took the dive !

It took me a bit to get into, the writing style is different and there was a lot of information to progress. But after 1/3 of the book I was completely lost into it. I really enjoyed it ! Liked the characters, the plot, very interesting and it makes me want to pick up the next one !

[stressedrach]

I took a chance on this because all my reading friends have said this is a fantastic book.
Sadly for me, I found it terribly boring and the sex scenes were very explicit, not that I am a prude but this is marked as a YA book (on GR at least) so there really is no need for it. The footnotes in the Kindle version were just annoying as I had to keep flipping between pages.
I gave it a 3 star as some of the book was okay, but I won't be continuing with the series.

[kalventure]

"But after all, this tale is only one of three.
Birth and life and death.
So take my hand now.
Close your eyes.
And walk with me."

Friends, I am kicking myself for letting this book sit on my owned TBR for as long as it has. I've been a fan of everything Jay's touched so far, so I came into this trilogy with some high expectations. While I struggled at times with the action-heavy scenes, I was absolutely hooked in the last third of the book and I am now eagerly writing thiws review so that I can dive into Godsgrave.

A bit of a warning. While the main characters are teenagers, The Nevernight Chronicle is not YA. This is a dark, gruesome, bloody book and will not be for everyone. There is a lot of sex and violence within these pages, so please check my content warnings at the bottom of the review to make sure this is a book for you.

There are some authors whose writing just speaks to me, and Kristoff is one of them. The first parallels of the first chapter's narrative gripped me with its poetic beauty: life, death, and sex paired together as two stories converge and the reader is left guessing what happened. I appreciate the directness of his writing, every word on the page laced with sarcasm. (Come on, there is a horse named Bastard... whose actions live up to its name.)

We all know that I love stories that start at the end, so the fact that we learn on the first page our main character will die piqued my interest something fierce. My mind was turning, excited to piece together what will happen and see how her end will come about.

"Names speak to the namer as much as the named. Maybe I don't want folks knowing who I am. Maybe I like being underestimated."

Sixteen-year-old Mia is an assassin-in-training, looking to gain the tools and resources necessary to avenge her family's death. With no one but her not-cat shadow companion at her side, she navigates the Red Church's school to learn the arts of thievery, poison, fighting, and seduction.

"Those who call the Dark... well, eventually it calls them back."

I absolutely loved Mia and I couldn't help but root for her throughout the story. She's strong and fiercely loyal, but she is not without fear; there is a vulnerability to her character. Despite being sharp edges, Mia also maintains a purity of heart which the school tries to rip from her. Can you be a cold-blooded killer while also having empathy for others? Her character is so much more interesting because of this: the school is not a place for friends, but she opens herself up anyway. The friendships she forms are to be treasured, and undoubtedly the interactions between the characters were my favorite part of reading this book.

"This place gives much. But it takes much more. They may make her beautiful on the outside, but inside, they aim to shape a horror."

While the main romance in the book being heterosexual, Mia is unabashedly bisexual without any need for justification or her coming out in text - which I appreciate.

“The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us. I can see it in you, sure as I see it in me. You’re a daughter of words. A girl with a story to tell.”

The first two-thirds of the book manage to be action-packed while also setting a lot of the world-building up for the reader. This book uses footnotes to expand on some elements mentioned in the story, as well as add some snark and humor. I was worried the footnotes would be bothersome, but they worked well for me and enhanced the story.

I'll admit that I wasn't completely sold on the book until I was about two-thirds of the way in. I wasn't sure if it was the book or my slump that was causing the disconnect, but I found myself eager for more character interaction than the action of the plot but also wasn't sure how I felt about anyone other than Mia and Tric (aka I love them). But then all hell broke loose and I was mad. And hooked.

I am really interested as to who the narrator is, as well as learning more about Mia's darkin ability, so I am excited to dive right into Godsgrave next. The main reason this was a four-star read for me was the uncomfortable appropriation of Maori culture and what felt like uneven pacing to me (I full-on skimmed action scenes and was worried this would be a 3-star read for me for a little over half of the book.) Nevernight turned out to be a fantastic adult fantasy read that I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend to those who like YA-style stories with darker themes.

Content warnings: animal death (pg. 36), blood, child death (off-page), death of a parent, loss of a loved one, murder, sexually explicit scenes, torture
Representation: bisexual main character

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[lizarodz]

WOW! This book was a masterpiece! It's my first book by Kristoff and it will not be the last. I loved the audiobook narration too, unique and different in all. Funny, sometimes crass and it made me cry too! Awesome :)

[Kerka97]

Amazing!!!! 😍😍😍

I find it quite difficult to review this book. My rating is purely from my enjoyment because I was too busy enjoying myself to pay attention to the structure and the technicalities of this book. I did not even notice the purple prose writing, which this book has.

To be honest, I had expected this book to be darker. Don't get me wrong, it was a dark book, but the way people talked about it and after reading The Poppy War, I expected it to be darker than that, and it wasn't. Also, if you liked The Poppy War, I highly encourage you to give this book a chance, they both have a school setting, a female main character that tries to make the best choices but sometimes fails, and in both books, the main character has a special gift compared to the other students.

This book felt like a Hogwarts story set in medieval times with dark aspects, which makes it a perfect book for adults. The school setting felt perfect, the library felt magical, and the classes were interesting.

First, the first chapter. Personally, I felt like this was done extremely well, I have never read two scenes so different interwoven so intense. It was confusing, but also intriguing, and it made me want to read further.

I enjoyed Mia's character a lot. She felt complex, had an interesting backstory, and she was not only good, which I often see in the main characters. Some side characters were really developed, like Tric, Naev, Marielle, while others were really flat and could use some more personality.

The plot itself was intriguing. I was constantly intrigued and wanted to read more, get to know more about this book and its world, and understand what was happening. I must admit the final plot twist was half to be expected. From halfway through the book I had a theory about Ash killing the other students, but I did not have any proof yet. When it was revealed in the end, I wanted to be like 'I knew it!', but I couldn't because it was so much more complex as I had imagined. For me, this made the book even ten times better. If an author can make you feel a plot twist even when you already figured out the plot twist than it's a damn good author (and book of course). Note that for this to work, the plot twist must make sense, otherwise it is just ridiculous.

Please pick this book up if you are not afraid of dark topics in your book and want to read some dark Hogwarts school settings (without that kind of magic).

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: I am absolutely thrilled that this is finally over. In fact, I was so bored out of my mind, I couldn't bring myself to flip another page after the 106th. However, after several assurances from different people that Nevernight would get better, I relented. What I did, O Daughters, was to switch to the audiobook which had to its credit a good narrator. Still my gentlefriends, even the narrator couldn't save this book for me. The prose was too dreadful for me to enjoy. What pity, I must profess.

The trouble I had with the language was that it gave me the distinct impression of trying too hard. The use of some archaic terms like "yestereve" and "the morrow" to evoke an old world setting fell flat with the use of otherwise fairly modern expressions and expletives. The prose itself was painfully longwinded, at times without actually conveying any form of information. That's even without considering the multitude of footnotes. I did listen to an interview though, where the author mentioned that he included footnotes for readers who wanted to immerse themselves even more into the Nevernight world. It was entirely entirely alright to skip them.

As for the story? As much as I liked the idea of an assassin school, the execution made it nigh impossible for me to be invested in Mia's life and the people that she met. Had I stuck to the hardcover, I would've had to give Nevernight 1 star or no rating at all (due to DNF) but the narrator does deserve some recognition, hence the additional half star.