This book is so incredibly good I have been recommending it to students, friends, and anyone who will even remotely listen to me. As the Goodreads blurb states: "Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries." Like...WUT. Y'all. I love a piece of fiction that introduces me to new things, and you better believe I went down a rabbit hole of what Shinigami are. We meet Ren, and her Dad is cold and a jerk and also a little racist? Which is WILD since he HAD A CHILD WITH A JAPANESE WOMAN, but whatever. She is a Reaper (cool), oppressed and unhappy (racism), who gets in trouble (undeservedly) and decides to bail and go on a quest to locate her mother in Japan. Her brother, a myopic, loveable boy who hates reaping, joins her.
The adventure is amazing and Baker weaves it in such an effortless and informational way. There's also a hint of a romance which is lovely until it's not (but in the BEST WAY). This was truly a fantastic reading adventure which did, in fact, keep me guessing until the end. I cannot wait for the next book in this series!

#TheKeeperOfNight #KylieLeeBaker #Netgalley #bookstagram #bookreflection #bookreview #Japan #Reaper #Shinigami #Mythology

Pluses: first-person POV, Japanese Mythology, World building
Minuses: I didn't like the main character (Ren) very much and reading her arc felt like watching a trainwreck.
Overall, I got lost in the beautiful prose.

Full of twists and turns and things lurking in the darkness, The Keeper of Night is one of the funnest books you'll read this year. Beautiful writing, unexpected story and great characters.

Rating: 3.5/5 ☀️

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. This review is also posted on sunglowreads.wordpress.com as of December 26, 2021.

To get into it – The Keeper of Night was an enthralling fantasy adventure full of lush descriptions and amazing worldbuilding. The mythology was gorgeously rendered, and the way it intertwined with the historical setting was so well done. It was a unique take on a villain origin story and corruption arc, and admittedly I came away feeling somewhat dissatisfied with the execution, but I can not deny that it was a pretty great reading experience.

I loved the journey aspect of the book, and how the way the reaper/shinigami realms were described. The quest and the mythology of the kitsune were also really strong. And then there was Neven, who absolutely won my heart. I loved him as a character so much in terms of what he represented for Ren and how his character developed.

Hiro is a point of conflict for me. At the beginning, he came across as rather boring. Ren was just so ready to take him at his word and the perspective of him is so rose-tinted that even though I knew he probably had some ulterior motive, he just was not inciting much of a reaction from me. Even the romantic chemistry was lacking. However, when the reveal happened, I was so, so excited. I went from hoping he would die to wanting to read more of him. Unfortunately, it happened quite far into the book, and then it was cut off before I could even enjoy it. The pacing at the end was a real weak point, as the last few chapters shoved so much in there and it was so rushed. It honestly felt like it should have been in the sequel.

The bigger issue, though, was just Ren herself. I can accept terrible choices made over the course of a corruption arc, but she was unlikable from the start in a way that makes it really difficult to feel bad for her. She seemed edgy for the sake of establishing her darkness, but I didn’t necessarily see her as any worse than the other reapers or shinigami since everyone was just doing their job. It made me pretty annoyed and it was difficult to be sympathetic for her beyond getting her feelings as an outsider, especially with how she treated Neven.

Still, the book even missed the mark in its approach to Ren’s mixed heritage and the conflict it created. Ren was just strangely haughty regarding her heritage, and while I understood her desire to belong somewhere, there were a number of moments where it felt like she saw herself as superior to the other shinigami. I found myself thinking about it in terms of my own identity: I’m ethnically South Asian, and while I am not mixed, I grew up in the United States and I would never presume to know better than people who live in India, nor do I expect them to see me as the same as them because I know I am not. It’s not better, it just is. However, the narrative not only upholds Ren’s superiority, but affirms it as she becomes the new goddess for a world she is barely a part of, and I hope I misread, but it seemed to have an imperialistic savior implication.

So yeah, it was a conflicting read for me. I’m somewhat at a loss, because where it worked, it really worked, and where it didn’t work, it really didn’t work. Personally, I’m undecided whether I want to read the eventual sequel, but I think this is another book where readers might have to decide for themselves.

This book does a lot of telling rather than showing. The first person POV doesn't help, with Ren's narrative constantly spelling everything out for the reader. I never had to connect any dots or piece things together because Ren did it for me. I wish Baker's editor had cracked down on the filtering and telling. Even for a YA debut, but the writing felt kind of amateur.

This book makes the mistake of creating characters with extreme lifespans that don't reflect any of the experience or wisdom they would gain in those years. Ren is supposed to be about 200 with Reapers living to around 2000. They age and mature much more slowly than humans, putting Ren around young adult age. I can accept this at face value, but at no point does Ren show any inclination of having gained wisdom in two centuries of life. She reads no differently than a fresh-faced 16-year-old teenager. The inciting incident with Ren losing control and light-attacking her bullies reads like a teenager losing control; it's a lot harder to believe that from a character with two centuries under her belt.

The Japanese mythology and folklore were the only reasons I stuck with this as long as I did. I didn't feel any attachment to the characters, and the story wasn't interesting enough for me to push through. Other reviews have said that Hiro eventually becomes a love interest, which I figured since this is YA fantasy.

If I only could use one word to describe 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 by Kylie Lee Baker, it's gonna be MINDBLOWING! Even giving this book five stars still won't justify how much I love this book because it deserved a gazillion stars.

In this book, we follow Ren Scarborough, Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami who has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. But being half Shinigami makes the Reapers despise her and bully her for being "different". When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers.

☾ 𝕎𝕙𝕪 𝕀 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭
This book is very thick with Japanese culture and folklore. And as someone who used to be a huge addict to all things Japan, I could feel the authenticity.
The scenes were so vivid that you could feel that you saw everything instead of reading it.

Exploring about the world of death already made this book stand out but I honestly didn't expect this book is a debut novel because the writing style is so damn good! It's very atmospheric and the way she described the world of "death" sent chills throughout my body.

This book is so gruesome, eerie, and dark but also deep at the same time. Lots of sentences that resonate with me but this is my tops: "Even the land of the living has hellish creatures, but that doesn't make it hell"

I AM LOVING THE CULTURE MIXTURE IN FANTASY BOOKS RIGHT NOW, ESPECIALLY THIS ONE!
Okay, the question that has always lingered in me is, what if you are from two different cultures but magical, how does that affect you growing up, your magic, your life, your surroundings and the threats around you?
While Ren's childhood is unfortunately not joyous, it shows the good and bad points of the two worlds she is caught between and how it both shuns and wants her. THE BADASS POWERS! I WANT THAT!
AND FOR ONCE, the trauma and hurt during the MC's childhood didn't make them kind but morally grey because being hurt and shunned and only having one good person will do that! Great character turmoil!

Side note: I feel like Neven was both necessary and unnecessary; he was the moral one and the one to push buttons because he didn't understand his sister's hardship and was an outside view of her struggles then he because the outsider in the Japanese death world.
The only qualms are the slow pacing in the first 1/4 then the racing I felt in the last 1/3.

I am highly excited for the sequel!

as soon as I read that it was Japanese folklore I knew I had to read it.
I love a morally grey main character, with a villain origin story. That is probably my favourite YA trope.

The Keeper of Night has easily become one of my favorite reads of this year. The opening scene immediately grasped my attention and beautifully introduced me to the world of reapers. It was also the perfect setup to show us Ren’s personality and how she views herself and the world. The foil between the two types of Reapers we encounter was perfectly balanced and a crucial part of Ren’s identity. The story was engaging and wonderfully written. The settings came alive on the page and the interactions between our characters moved our story forward in ways that wouldn’t have happened without Baker’s way with words.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good “light and dark” story. I cannot wait for the sequel!

I was initially interested because I tend to love books that deal with how death is seen through different cultural lenses, and I couldn't be happier with that aspect of the book. Definitely recommend this rich folklore fantasy to any readers looking for a strong morally grey protagonist and dark creatures inspired by Japanese mythology.

Thank you Harper Collins for the eARC! I binge read this book in a day and absolutely loved it. I am a huge fan of death mythology and Japanese mythology and culture, so this book was just perfection. I am also bi-racial so I could relate to some of Ren’s feelings about never fully belonging to the Reapers or Shinigami. I thought she was a very morally grey character because her actions near the end were so questionable, but you could totally see where she was coming from. I thought Neven was such a sweetheart but it was kind of hard to picture him taller than Ren, because I kept thinking he was a small child because of his attitude. I loved the worldbuilding in this book and thought it was so fantastical. I also thought the idea of death in different cultures was so fascinating. I also loved all the yokai folklore and I had lots of fun googling who every yokai was. Overall this was a great story and I can’t wait to read more by Kylie 😍

4.5/5 Stars

It was a good book. I will definitely check out more books by the author in future. Thank you netgalley and publishers for providing me with an arc of this amazing book

I was really excited to see a Shinigami fantasy story, and it did not disappoint! The Keeper of the Night does an excellent job of exploring family, class, and race within the Shinigami mythos and keeps readers enthralled as they explore a new world alongside the protagonist.

Sorry I didn't post in here! I really appreciate the print copy you sent instead :-) That's always preferred. I'm already excited for her next book.

Excellent and engaging books. I loved the Japanese mythology and strong, yet flawed heroine. The adventures are thrilling and the characters are well developed. I can't wait for the second installment. I will definitely reccommend this title to my teens and anyone who enjoys YA books. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley & Inkyard Press for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ren Scarborough is half-Japanese & half-English. She also happens to be a reaper of human souls. Despite doing her job well over the centuries, she has suffered abuses and humiliations at the hands of the English Reapers. She decides no more and plans to find her mother in Japan and figure out her own destiny as a result.

Wow, damn...going to be thinking about this one for a while. A morally grey protagonist and dark AF mythological creatures...enthralling! Ren has a ton of internal conflict throughout the story, she wants to follow her own path but also struggles with wanting to please others. She doesn't really understand what she really wants until she loses it. It's really refreshing to see a protagonist struggle with power and self-worth!

I really enjoyed the characters and was happy that there wasn't so many that it was overwhelming, the story and world-building made it easy to follow. The Japanese mythological creatures were terrifying but soooo dang cool! I'm glad that there were ruthless monsters but also very peaceful ones so it wasn't like the world in this book was *that* dark all the time.

A great dark story with awesome mythological creatures & a strong protagonist!

I love how dark this is. I love the grey morality, and the genuine terror I felt at moments in this book. More spider yōkai, please and thank you. The writing was amazing--it's hard for me to completely lose myself in a book but this one definitely did that, it was so vivid and drew me in fast. This work also feels whole, which a lot of books don't do: the characters, the plot, the world building, etc. all fell into place perfectly and left me satisfied instead of hungry for more. Don't get me wrong I would love more of the world but I felt happy with this as a completed idea). I do hate cliffhangers, though, because now I have to stress and think about it until the next installment! I'm excited.
I think you'll all really love this book!

I love Japanese folklore! It is more terrifying than fairytale.

Readers who enjoyed Shadow of the Fox will like this read.

Baker did a fantastic job of creating an immersive world where readers felt like they were on the adventure with Ren. The morally gray situations were interesting and didn't restrain the plot.

I really enjoyed that Ren was more of a villain than hero...someone relatable. However, she was more selfish in my opinion and harder to relate to because she didn't realize how she was treating Neven (who I love!).

The Keeper of Night was fast-paced, haunting, and a great depiction of Japanese folklore.

This took me a while to get into at first but after committing to the story everything falls into place. The premise is so interesting and the characters grow on you as the story unfolds. I love the concept especially the exploration of identity that's interwoven with mythology!

Brilliant. Original. Intriguing. A little bit inconsistent, sure. But man, I was hooked. Gorgeous blend of fantasy, culture, history, and all the questions and clashes that come with them.

***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***