Thank you to Inkyard Press for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Keeper of the Night is a historical fantasy following a biracial soul collector in the 1890s. I felt quite frustrated reading this book until about 80% of the way through due to multiple reasons I will discuss below, but quite a few of them ended up being addressed in the way I wanted them to in the last fifth of the book so I will mark these with a * for reference.

What I think it did well:
- the Japanese mythology woven into the story was excellent, and I loved Izanami and Izanagi’s creation story and discovering the history and inner workings of the Japanese underworld alongside Ren actually worked extremely well since new information was delivered throughout and in different forms (it wasn’t Ren just being told everything whenever it was necessary for the plot).
- the writing was so atmospheric and the setting was completely immersive. every time they mentioned going into literal darkness i felt like “how could it get any darker than this?”. even with minimal reference to the victorian dress and other era-sensitive details to orient the reader, i felt that the setting was very clear.
- the portrayal of Ren’s biracial identity was extremely well done and emotional, as expected of something drawn from the author’s own experiences. Ren’s frustration and loneliness bled through the page every time she was mistreated by the London reapers for being too Asian while shunned by the Japanese for being white, and it will be very satisfying to see her come into her own and be able to accept both sides of herself.

What I didn’t like:
- Ren is a very unlikeable character*. I knew that she was written to be that way but instead of it being an intriguing narration, it was too petulant for me. I understood that she was going through so much inner turmoil but at times she felt too absorbed in her self-pity to consider how she was treating Neven, and the first-person narration was not helping. I really liked it when Ren’s disenchantment with the world descended into a darker side of herself, because we could see the more ambitious and ruthless parts of her the entire time, but I didn’t like a lot of the journey to get there.
- The pacing was not good. The last 20% was great and even though I expected some things, it was so interesting to see everything play out and I wish it had been that way the entire book. The beginning is quite slow and the plot is quite average in its ‘3 trials’ framework, there was nothing like the tension that came towards the end and anticipation of what would happen next.
- I wish we saw more of the British reapers to be able to compare the two systems, explore the time powers a bit more, and give more depth to Ren’s dynamic with her father.