This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

While I enjoy Black's YA writing, the build up in this story is just too long and too slow in its build up. I'll be excited to see Black expand in adult writing, but Book of Night just was not for me.

I enjoyed the writing in this book, but the story, characters and setting just didn't grab me. That being said I definitely think there are plenty of people who would probably enjoy this more than I did, So I will definitely be recommending it to those people!

Unfortunately this book was a DNF for me. I was really excited for Book Of Night by Holly Black because I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Folk of the Air trilogy. Book of Night was Holly Blacks adult debut and the premise was super interesting, but unfortunately I just was not into the book at all. I believe I got to around the 20% mark when I decided to not finish this. I usually don’t mind and appreciate slower starts to a book but i was so unbelievably bored and just did not care about anything that was happening. I wish DNFing wasn’t the case but I was not gonna force myself to read a book I wasn’t really interested in. This book wasn’t for me but I know a lot of people have been enjoying it.

This book just wasn’t for me. I was really looking forward to reading it because I enjoyed The Cruel Prince series, but I’ve been struggling through it for months and have finally decided that I’m not going to make myself finish it.

As a protagonist, I did not find Charlie compelling at all. She’s heartless, immoral, and makes a lot of bad decisions. She knows they’re bad decisions but she just keeps making them anyway. By the time we get around to her tragic backstory I didn’t even care. The reader is told that she’s a certain way instead of discovering her personality and motivations throughout the story. This is a big pet peeve of mine. Don’t tell me that she’s moody, have her act and speak in a way that shows me the moodiness. I expect that from an adult novel. Which leads me to the second thing I found frustrating…….

This does not read like an adult novel. Adding curse words and dark themes does not make a story “adult”. In fact, I found the writing style not even on par with her previous young adult novels. I know this isn’t the final version, but I’m not talking about errors that will be edited. The story is written using a lot of sentence fragments instead of complete sentences. It’s so prevalent that it must be a stylistic choice, and it drove me crazy. I can’t use a direct quote so I’ll give a similar example: Made a drink. Blood red. Cold as ice. Aaaahhhh!

There were a lot of side characters and they were difficult to keep track of. Sometimes I felt bombarded by them. They seemed to appear from nowhere, not do much, then not be mentioned again for a long time or perhaps ever. Sometimes they just had a first name, sometimes they had a first and last name and EVERY SINGLE TIME they were mentioned it was with their first and last name. Is Joey Asprins even important? No he is not.

The magical element really intrigued me at first. Someone’s shadow can be a magical entity. It can work with you or against you. It can be stolen and trafficked. That could’ve made for a really interesting plot. Unfortunately, it was all a bit of an under explained mess. Please don’t talk about invented things like being a gloamist before explaining to me what a gloamist is.

Overall disappointing and underwhelming. I hope this author gets back on track.

Holly Black is known for her YA novels -- interesting world-building and gripping plots. Her foray into adult fiction, Book of Night, is a slower pace than fans will expect. Charlie is a solid protagonist, flawed but compelling. The world-building takes a bit of a backseat to the plot. The narration might have worked better as a first-person POV -- I found myself wanting more reasoning or motivation from Charlie. Recommended for collections serving new adults who want more fantasy.

This lives up to Holly Black's other novels, and expands upon her world building in fascinating and weird ways! Charlie is a complex protagonist who helps draw us into the world of shadow magic and the many ways "glomists" can manipulate shadows. I'll admit that I did feel annoyed by Charlie at certain points because she seems to at times forget her own history/act in ways that don't accord with what we learn about her past, but overall this book was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to the forthcoming sequel!

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

This book will easily be in my top 5 reads of the year. Charlie Hall, a bit shady but loyal and full of heart, is the best kind of imperfect hero. Shadow magic and gloamists were fascinating, but almost took a backseat to the excitement of following Charlie from one misadventure to the next and rooting for her every step of the way. Thrilled to find out there will be a sequel, though this could also be read as a stand-alone.

Holly Black has written a great deal about faeries and fae kings, and other fantasy creatures, In her first adult novel, Book of Night, she switches to a more supernatural phenomenon. Black is not generally one of my favorites, and this was great fun to read. One of my favorite aspects is the main character - I loved her attitude, style, and just overall character arc.

Book of Night is Holly Black’s debut adult fantasy novel. Her style is so beautiful, and her worldbuilding is phenomenal. I loved her wild imagination and how the magic of shadows works in such complex, yet logical ways. The unique shadow magic that she’s developed is ubiquitous in the world, and the author expertly inserts the worldbuilding and casual mentions to this magic throughout the book. That said, the beginning does feel a little information dumpy, particularly with regards to the different types of magic and the different types of people who can manipulate shadows.

Holly Black has a way with words, where everything she writes feels lyrical and poignant. I highlighted dozens of lines in the book itself, but since I had an arc and didn’t feel like checking out the “finished copy” I can’t share them here. But seriously, wow. You’ll just have to check out the book yourself to know what I mean 😉


Next up, I’ll talk about the plot and pacing. Unfortunately, this book has a lot of characters. A. Lot. The book is very slow paced as a result. I feel like the author needed to choose between having a lot of characters, having a past and present timeline, and intense worldbuilding, because all three really bogged down the pacing. Because of my own love of fantasy, I loved the worldbuilding and the complexities of gloamists, the Book of Night, and all that. I also loved the themes and plotlines related to heists and being a con artist. But there were so many characters, some with multiple names, that I had a hard time keeping track of them, since I wanted to find out what would happen with the suspense plotline. The author throws a lot of names about, and it’s impossible to be able to tell which characters will be important to remember later on. I found I occasionally had to search names in the ebook, because they were familiar, but I couldn’t remember who was who.

While the plot is slow, there are some fabulous twists and turns that are quite phenomenally built up and executed. Even the flashbacks to Charlie’s childhood have intriguing twists and turns, and the entire concept of being a charlatan in a magical world, then a con artist is so compelling to me.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy a dark fantasy novel with a unique hook that has a complex and intriguing protagonist, but is a touch too slow paced.

This was probably one of my most anticipated books of the year but sadly this was so disappointing. I COULD NOT get through this at all and ended up DNFing it after putting it down one too many times. I love Holly Black's writing style but this lacked her usual fast-paced pace and riveting world building. Everything just fell flat for me. There was no tension, no suspense, no compulsive need to turn the pages that is usual for Holly Black books. The magic system was barely explained and there were so many characters introduced that it was hard to keep the story straight. I also felt like this was a lot of telling as opposed to showing---which I'm not a fan of. The characters were flat, the plot was so slow. I just didn't care about anything going on and was bored. Not what you want out a fantasy book. While I'm not a huge urban fantasy fan I have enjoyed some in the past but this was just....lacking. What a let down. I think I will stick to her fae books in the future.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first and sadly last, at the moment, of Holly Black's work.

The premise and prologue of Book Of Night started off promising. However; with the input of shadows and the creatures, the story soon became confusing and lacking a clear premise. I was not able to read this book after the first seventy five pages.

Random assortment of thoughts:

Peter Pan elements and I’m here for them.

The magic in this book bothered me like the magic in Ant Man (THE TERRIBLE PHYSICS!) as in shadows work because of light so if we aren’t fucking with light how is this happening but I also understand that I need to stop trying to make magic science.

All that said I REALLY liked this book and I loved HBs writing and this was just vibes that I was really into. I loved the creativity of the Vince story and yeah I saw the twist coming but that didn’t make me enjoy Charlie kicking ass at the end any less.

I don’t need a sequel but I’m happy there will be one. This is my first HB book and I am absolutely going to eventually read TCP, etc.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the review copy!

Charlie is a bartender/thief/con artist who used to steal from “gloamists,” or magicians who modify and use their shadows to perform tricks. She quit thieving when it got dangerous, but she gets sucked back into a mystery when an acquaintance asks her to find her missing boyfriend. The mystery entangles Charlie in her past and brings new light to her relationship with enigmatic Vince.

The first half was excruciatingly slow; the plot didn’t pick up until the midway point - there's a lot of stage-setting and an introduction to the problem that didn't grab my attention. The second half went much faster and mostly rewards the reader for making it to that point. There are also two timelines: present and past, and I really wasn't interested in exploring Charlie’s criminal youth. I did enjoy the past timeline with Vince as the narrator, because it fleshed out the plot, resolved pieces of the mystery, and showed how their relationship works. I found I was most interested in Vince, his story, and how it all relates to Charlie’s latest job.

The twist at the end, the denouement, those were exciting. Reader beware: there’s a cliffhanger.

I really really wanted to like this book. I absolutely adored the cruel prince trilogy so i had high hopes. Unfortunately, the book of night couldn’t reach those expectations. This book has some of the dullest characters, plot lines and settings i’ve read. The world building was very confusing and i still don’t get it. There was an overwhelming amount of characters which made me forget who was who. it also took me 5 months to read 30%…it wasn’t addicting and it wasn’t a page turner. If you have the patience to stick through past 40% then I think you’d enjoy this book. However, Book of Night is very slow paced.

Charlie Hall, a bartender with a dark past, is pulled into a life or death struggle full of shadows, both real and figurative, in Holly Black's adult fiction debut, "Book of Night." No one is who they appear in this twisty, dark fantasy, and I loved how Holly kept me guessing until the very end.

Book of Night by Holly Black is a urban fantasy. Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make. She's spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall. Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but getting out isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that Charlie's shadowless, and possibly soulless, boyfriend has been hiding things from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends into a maelstrom of murder and lies. Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world—all trying to steal a secret that will give them vast and terrible power.

Book of Night was a little of a mixed bag for me. I have enjoy Holly Black's books in the past, and I enjoy urban fantasy, so I thought this was going to be a hit for me. I thought the story and writing were very well done, and I liked some of the slow reveals. However, I found the much needed timeline hopping a little jaring. I completely understand the why behind it, and think it might have been the only way to get the reveals in there, but I prefer a more linear stoeytelling style. I thought the characters were well built, as were the connections between them. I really liked Charlie as a character, and often wanted a little bit more of her personal interactions with Vince or Psey to give me just a bit more of her personality. I thought the world building was also well done, and the only downsides for me were ones of personal preference rather than mistakes or lacking skill on the author's part. Maybe it has just been too long since I read other books from Black, or perhaps it is the real world intruding that wqas making it hard for me to get lost in the story. Once I finished the book I was still intrigued by the set up, and wanted to know what happened next and more stories from the world Black created. So, while I might have had trouble getting engaged with the story, honestly three books later and it still has not let me go.

Book of Night is a book that fans of the author will want to pick up, and those that enjoy darker urban fantasy will enjoy.

This was a really interesting read and I loved the world building where your shadow can be cut from you and sold to the highest bidder leaving the person without a shadow who is said to be soulless now. Where nobody knows how shadows are quickened and that you need that happen before you can become a gloamist who is a magician who works with shadows and uses them for all kinds of nefarious purposes. Charlie Hall is a thief who has spent half her life working for gloamists until she blew up her life and is now trying to live the straight and narrow but she just can’t escape her past. With her sister Posey who is desperate for magic and her boyfriend Vince who doesn’t have a shadow and who is hiding things from her when a bad guy from her past comes back to threaten her to steal one more thing for him she is sucked right back in. Oh man this was definitely not what I thought it was and I did enjoy all the action and it went back and forth from present day to her childhood which was rife with trauma and living with a neglectful mother who let her 12 yr old daughter hang out with an adult man who was using her to con people and teaching her how to do the same. It ended with a cliffhanger which supports that there will be a sequel so while I thought this was a standalone I was wrong.

Thanks to Tor and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

While I wasn’t blown away by Book of Night, I did enjoy it overall. In general, urban fantasy is not my favorite type of fantasy, so I wasn’t expecting to like this one quite as much as I liked Holly Black’s Cruel Prince series. And while that proved true, there’s still a lot to like about this story.

The main character, Charlie, was a fun and interesting character to follow. (I also appreciate that she was mid/plus size, but no one made a big deal about it.) The magic system involving shadows felt unique and made for some cool imagery.

I will say that the book started out slow and it felt significantly longer than its barely 300 pages. But by the last third of the book, the pace picked up significantly and there were several surprising and well-done reveals. I was fully invested by this point and needed to know what happened next. I’m not sure how I feel about the final twist ending, but it does make me hope for another book just to see how everything plays out.

This is very different from the author’s Cruel Prince series, but if you like urban fantasy or are intrigued by the idea of shadow magic, I would definitely check this one out!