Holly Black's adult debut was super fun!!

Long time fan of Holly Black, and probably long time continuing fan of Holly Black after this book. I wasn't totally sure what I was getting into with this book, but honestly, I liked going in blind. My favorite part was probably the fact that (spoiler) one of the characters you thought would fade into oblivion at the beginning ended up being the key to the whole book. I haven't been shocked while reading a book in a while and that twist I really did not see coming.

The plotting was nice, the book was really readable for all my adhd people out there, and the worldbuilding was extremely intriguing for being an urban fantasy.

Before I start my review I should say that I love Holly Black! I love her writing style, her world building, her characters and their development. I love her strong females and decadently wicked male characters and her ability to make us care about them anyway.

I had some reservations about starting her adult book, Book of Night but I reminded myself that I really loved Leigh Bardugo’s foray into adult fantasy and dove in.


In Charlie’s world, shadows are a currency that can give you better looks, more power, and even change your memories. But nothing comes for free. These shadows are so powerful because they hold a person’s true essence - all of our secrets, desires, and hopes. They can also destroy a life and on the underground circuit, Charlie has a deep past in the black market of shadow trading. She is pulled back into this dangerous game in order to solve a crime and she’ll have to use every trick she knows to save herself from deadly clutches.


The premise was exciting…I think it lost something at the execution though. It wasn’t as dark as I hoped it would be and although the plot moved forward it went too slow for me. I would recommend this book to fans of Holly Black but I don’t think it would be my first thought to recommend it to adults who read a lot of fantasy. I wasn’t wrapped up in the story like I was in her Cruel Prince series and while I wanted to know how it ended, I wasn’t completely tied to the characters or the story like I have been before. This is a solid 3.5-4 star book for me and I hope she continues to write for adults as well as YA because I know she will only get better!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC.

WOW! I don’t even know if I can do this book justice. I requested the ARC because I have been a fan of Holly Black for almost a decade now, and my interest was piqued when I found out she was writing for an adult audience rather than young adult. Naturally Black did not disappoint. Black is amazing at world-building and making the impossible appear natural, as if shadow magic is the most natural thing in the world.

One talent that Black has is the ability to weave references from folklore/fairy tales into her stories, but this time she borrows from tarot cards and Ancient Greek religious practices.

I wasn’t able to put the book down until I finished it. And while I don’t want to spoil anything for others, I will say that the ending left me reeling, and I’m hoping for a sequel in the near future.

It took me a minute to get into this one, but Holly Black didn't let me down. I love the idea that our shadows, something we disregard for the most part, could be a thing of beauty and/or power. What lengths would people go to in order to possess such a shadow? A dark and dirty urban atmosphere felt just right for this story.

Holly Black is just showing off here. She has proven she can write YA and Middle reader like a boss and now, she says, hold my beer adult writers. I think, this book feels like an adult book set in the curse worker universe she created. Black likes to remind us of actual historical events while turning them just ever so slightly to make these fantastical events seem real. Charlie is a great lead. Only a writer with her skill and courage would end a book this way.

Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.

ok I see a lot of folks are mad at this book for its ~unlikeable woman protagonist~ and honestly I liked Charlie a lot. i love a messy magic-user.

HOWEVER I confess I was a lil disappointed in this book for other reasons. I LOVE White Cat and the rest of the Curse-Workers trilogy so much, and I've spent years hoping HB would write something else like it again--a contemporary urban fantasy crime story. Which is what Book of Night is, yay! BUT, I've re-read White Cat multiple times and each time I am so impressed by how smooth the world-building is and how clearly it establishes the world's rules of magic (so that you can be impressed when Cassel breaks them). That is...not the case with Book of Night, unfortunately, which was disappointing. I feel like the basic shadow magic idea is cool and there could be a really rad book with this premise, but this one feels like it needed another pass from an editor or something.

I still thought it was a fine read but just like...not as good as White Cat sadly!!!

Overall, a good venture into the adult genre.. Good worldbuilding as always, and I like her characters. I love secret societies, magic, and adventure, so overall, this is a great book for older YA and adults. After the first 75 pages or so it did a better job of keeping my attention. It did start slow.

Book of Night had a lot of potential. The first adult (new adult?) book from Holly Black, fascinating concept of wielding shadows in our universe, con artist FMC who steals magical items. Sounds like so many good ingredients to make an exciting read.

And yet, for only 300 pages this book felt like a bit of a slog to get through. I didn’t feel like the plot really even started until the halfway mark! After that it did start picking up and the last quarter was very engaging. But even then, we get 150 pages of set up and setting up the background and I still never felt like the shadows were properly explained or lived up to their potential (I mean, cmon it’s so cool! I want to know it all!!)

So in the end, liked the second half but and honestly surprised that I stuck it out through the first half to get to that point.

Holly Black's adult fantasy debut is a dark, twisty and haunting read filled with morally gray characters, shadowy thieves, and secret societies.

The main character is Charlie Hall. When we meet Charlie, she is working as a bartender and trying to distance herself from the dangerous underground world of shadow trading and the life of crime she had been previously living. Even though she had no magic herself, Charlie had been frequently hired by those with newly awakened shadows to steal rare valuable books about shadow magic so they could learn more about how their new magic works. Charlie quit being a thief after one too many brushes with death but even though she's trying to live a more upstanding life now, you can tell that she is still very much drawn to that dark side. On the way home from work one night, Charlie witnesses something she shouldn't have and finds herself thrusts right back into that dark world and into a confrontation with Lionel Salt, an old nemesis who is after an old mysterious book called the Liber Noctem. Charlie wants to know why Salt is willing to hurt people to get his hands on this book and her life takes another dark turn when she realizes that her boyfriend Vince has a connection to Salt. She sets out to find answers and the bulk of the story focuses on her dangerous adventure.

The worldbuilding in the novel is well done, although I do admit I was left with some questions about the shadow magic. It seems that some alter their shadows for entertainment and cosmetic purposes, while others are out for power and influence. I understood that the shadows feed on the blood of who they are attached to, but didn't understand much beyond that. I would have loved more explanation there.

I liked Charlie and found her a pretty interesting morally gray character. Interspersed with the present day action, we are also given some flashback scenes so that we have some insight into Charlie's troubled past. Even though we got all of that though, it was actually her boyfriend Vince that intrigued me the most, which I wasn't expecting since Charlie was clearly the main character. Vince's backstory is a lot more interesting than Charlies and he becomes a very important player in the second half of the novel, which is when the action and pacing really picks up. The first half is quite slow in comparison.

I enjoyed the read overall but was definitely left with a lot of questions than answers about the magic and about Vince. I don't know if there will be a sequel but there is definitely room for one.

"There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. Had fingers made for picking pockets, a tongue for lying, and a shriveled cherry pit for a heart.
If her shadow had been one of those magic ones, she was pretty sure even that thing would have run away in horror."

Charlie's been out of shady business for ten months, since the repercussions of the last job left her with a gunshot wound. She's sticking just to bartending at Rapture Bar & Lounge, though Balthazar, who runs a shadow parlor in the basement, keeps trying to bring her back to work for him. But even when Charlie tries to stay away from trouble, it manages to find her. Doreen shows up, asking Charlie to find Adam. Doreen reluctantly agrees to get the due date for Posey's college tuition extended (if there's one thing Charlie cares about, it's her sister), so Charlie contacts Adam, pretending to be a gloamist after a particular book on shadow manipulation. He agrees to work that (imaginary) job for her, if she can move something that he has.

That same night, Balthazar bounces a man from the shadow parlor, saying that if he fences what the man has to sell, it will look like he has the Liber Noctem. The book was stolen from Lionel Salt, who is very rich, very powerful, and very much wants it back. Charlie suspects that the man was in possession of a page or two of the book... and perhaps Adam has the rest, which is why he's so interested in getting someone else to pass it along for him. Then Charlie finds the man dead in the street, and her interest grows. She starts to dig, and finds that the man, Paul Ecco, was a rare book dealer, including books on shadow magic. His bookstore could have a wealth of goodies for her to sell off. She calls his store, and someone answers, claiming to be Paul.

And then that evening, right after closing, someone visits Rapture. Hermes works for Salt, and he wants to know how Paul Ecco got possession of the Liber Noctem. He attacks Charlie with his shadow, breaking bottles and pushing the shadow down her throat, suffocating her. She finds herself saved by her boyfriend, Vince. He has a mysterious past - his shadow was stolen at some point, and he doesn't talk about his family, but Charlie can tell he came from money. But she never suspected he might know about shadow magic, and now it seems she's gotten herself into the biggest mess yet, between Adam, the Liber Noctem, and whatever secrets Vince has been hiding.

This was the first Holly Black work I've read, so I can't compare her adult debut to her young adult novels. I thought there was some decent worldbuilding here. The world became familiar with gloamists and shadow magic 20 years ago, and Easthampton, Massachusetts is a central spot for practitioners. There are a variety of ways shadows can be manipulated - alterationists work for others, changing the appearance of their shadow, tweaking it to adjust emotions, carapaces alter their own shadows, masks are interested in probing the secrets of the universe, and puppeteers send their shadows out to do tasks for them. In this book we mostly see the work of alterationists and puppeteers. There's also a lot of discussion on how to become a gloamist, which is Posey's goal. People have various ideas about how to get a quickened shadow; your shadow must have life if you want to do any kind of shadow magic. There's a mix of timelines here. Most of the chapters take place in the present, but we also gets some chapters from Charlie's past and her start as a con. I had a hard time getting really engaged with this book, though I can't pinpoint why. The ending leaves space for a sequel, but it didn't read to me like there definitely will be one. I would suspect that older fans of Holly Black's other works might like it (though, again, I can't speak to similarities with previous books).

Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for the eARC. Book of Night was published at the start of May.

Dnf. I didn't find anything about this story to grab me, which is heartbreaking as her cruel prince series is favorite. Didn't enjoy the characters or the pacing.

ARC received by netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am really sad that I didn't like this book more. I am not sure if it is because Holly Black is trying to write for an adult audience but the tone of this book just did not work for me. I love her YA works and would have loved to see that again here, but instead we get something that feels very generic. While the concept is certainly interesting it also feels very, very slow to start. I didn't even get into the meatier parts of the plot because this book just couldn't hold my interest for that long. I will give it an extra point because I did enjoy the main character and how she clearly knows her flaws and isn't afraid of them.

I know this book isn't getting good reviews from most of the people that read it, but I think the problem is that the people that have read this book are fans of Holly Black. Authors with large fanbases generally have a style or a formula that they use pretty much all the time in their books, and the readership has some expectations going in when they pick up a book by the author. I've been reading Holly Black books since high school, so I'd consider myself one of those fans with a set of expectations.

This book really didn't feel like it was written by Holly Black, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Honestly I'm impressed at how she was able to flex her writing ability to create something so different from what she normally writes. It's her first adult novel, so maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised. It feels very gritty and raw, something along the lines of Stephen King, but with a touch more Holly Black. I don't have a great way to describe it. I really hope more people who don't typically read young adult fantasy but enjoy dark gritty modern-day fantasy give this book a try, as I don't think it's bad. It's just not a book that a typical Holly Black fan is going to enjoy.

I did really like the main character, Charlie, as she's a character with a rough past that's managed to get through it all. The book is slow moving, and focuses a lot on the past to build Charlie's character. The shadow magic idea is really cool; it's not the most expanded upon here, but that's also in part due to Charlie's journey. I think we'd get more exploration of the shadow magic if more books are written in this world. The villain was a good villain to hate. I think that's always been one of Mrs. Black's strengths in creating despicable villains.

There haven't been any more books announced, but there's definitely more to explore after the ending of this one. Maybe I'll pick it up, but I'll definitely go in with a different set of expectations.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ok I finally finished this ARC. I feel bad that it so long, but this was a hard one to get through to be honest.
I’ve loved everything I’ve read from Holly Black, so I’m pretty disappointed by this.

I found the plot to be really confusing? Like I don’t think I could give a property summary, or explain half of the character motivations, and I don’t even want to try to explain the magic system or politics of the world.

The only character I liked overall was Vince, and unfortunately he disappeared for most of the book. Charlie was fine. She didn’t irritate me or anything, but I just was bored. I didn’t really care about her, so being stuck in her head was not super fun. I honestly think Vince would’ve been a much more interesting protagonist, since his backstory felt much more solid and real? I guess?

Basically when I was reading it kept my attention, but frustrated me, and as soon I put it down I’d forget about it for couple of days, or weeks.
Even with the cliffhanger at the end I don’t really have any desire to pick up the next book in the series, because once again the only character I care about has been sidelined.

Book of Night, by Holly Black, is a magical murder mystery featuring retired con-artist Charlie Hall.
I liked this book, but didn’t love it. It’s Holly Black’s adult debut, so there were high expectations— I thought it was a bit bloated, and had difficulty getting through it at times, but will certainly look out for the sequel.
I recommend to any Holly Black fans, and certainly to anyone who loves both mystery and fantasy,
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you for the chance to preview this novel! Gripping, and heady. Wonderful addition to our Fantasy section. Gorgeous cover work! Thank you so much!

Holly Black strikes again. I don't think there's anything she can do wrong, and Book of Night is no different. I'll probably be rereading this one and plan on buying multiple copies for my library, because the author is so popular with a wide audience and age range.

I love Holly Black, I love how in depth Holly gets with some of the supernatural background information. She is either really good at research or really good at making facts seem believable. I would not want to play Balderdash with her!

Charlie has done some questionable things in her past but I loved the story arc for this character. Charlie is not a good or a bad person, she just is, and I like how comfortable she is with that truth by the end. There are other things that I loved in this book but I don't want to talk about them and possibly give anything away.

I hope this will end up being at least a duology, I would like to see where the ending takes Charlie.

This book is a hard one for me to review. I have loved Holly Black from the frist time I picked up one of her titles. I loved the story and characters in this book but felt...disappointed. I had issues with the writing in this one. I did not feel the flow of the plot was correct when she took us back in time to one of the characters past moments. I understood needing to know how x or y happened and why Charlie felt the way she did. However, many times I found myself skipping these chapters or a large piece of them. I have never done this with one of Black's books but it tells me that the story was still great without them. Overall, I enjoyed the title but believes Ms. Black needs to accept that doing chapters in either terms of a time jump or a changed PoV is not your strong point.

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Throughout her childhood, Charlie Hall was trained by a family friend in the art of deception. Young Charlie proved adept at every task that was thrown at her. Charlie ultimately became one of the most successful con artists around, but leaving that part of her life in the past, as an adult she works a normal job as a bartender.

Charlie's world resembles our own, but it's so much more interesting. It's full of dark, mystifying concepts such as shadow magic and other things I never quite understood. One night at Charlie's work a violent incident occurs and someone ends up dead. This event opens up channels into Charlie's past. She has a mystery to solve.

Book of Night is Holly Black's adult debut and I would say one of the most anticipated releases of 2022. I finished it a little over a week ago and have put off writing this review because I knew it would be a tricky one.
This novel starts out fairly slowly and it does contain a lot of flashbacks to Charlie's childhood.

Initially, I wasn't sold on that past perspective, but eventually I did come to enjoy it and understand why it was important to the development of Charlie as a character. Once the murder mystery begins, it really begins to pick up. I definitely would say I was more captivated by the second half of the book than the first.

At almost 2-weeks post-completing this novel, I will admit, I remember close to nothing about the plot. There were quite a few characters, but the only two I remember by name are Charlie and Vince. I did enjoy how morally grey the characters were and I especially connected with Charlie. I thought she was a great main and I look forward to learning even more about her.

The magic system was interesting, although never fully explained. I definitely do not have a 100% grasp on the way this world works, but I am super intrigued by it. The tone of this reminded me a lot of Ninth House and I would say I did feel quite similarly about that book.

In short, while I can't sit and explain every plot point of Book of Night to anyone, I can say I enjoyed my time reading it. So much so, in fact, that I will willingly and happily reread it prior to the next book being released. I would say if you enjoy dark Urban Fantasy stories with morally grey characters and a dangerous mystery at its core, you should absolutely pick this one up and give it a shot.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I'm so happy to have read this and look forward to continuing on with the series!