Kat Kennedy's Reviews > Nevernight

I usually take my time, and can be quiet erudite when it comes to expressing my love for a book. Today is not that day.

No, you see, you can’t be eloquent and merciful to a book whose main theme is stabbing. Not just other people but stabbing you, in particular, right in the heartsole (Because, at my heart, I am an arsehole – get it? No….?)

[image error]

Anyway, before I read this book, I was a deadened husk inside. That book didn’t change that aspect of me much except to poke so many holes in my exterior facade that water leaks in when it rains.

Let’s roll things back.

So I read this book back when it was a glimmer of a book. I loved it then but I LOVE everything about it now. This book is to breaking readers hearts as maestros are to music. Sorry, I’m still so hung up on this book.

I don’t want to say the theme of this book is stabbing. I want to say something more intellectual like it’s theme is revenge and the slow leaking of the humanity in one who has lost so much. But if you said the main theme was stabbing in your SAT test I just don’t frankly think you’d be wrong.

Mia, as our protagonist, drives the story along with three other great supporting characters: Mister Kindly, Tric and our mysterious narrator with their many, many delicious footnotes. Mia, herself is a dry, witty, savage, raw creature who is being moulded into a deadly weapon at a school for assassins. (Think Hogwarts, except if you fail a lesson – you die.) Mister Kindly is her shadow assistant. Acerbic and snarky and part of her special abilities which is all I’ll say about that. Tric – I have no words for. No. Words. Don’t touch me!

As for our narrator, I feel like it’s humour and the many, many world building details included in the footnotes really brings this story to life. What would otherwise be a tense, dramatic story is added a certain levity through the narrator’s wit. It carries it in a way, where the sadness and more depressing aspects of this story might usually bog a reader down – is lifted and given perspective by the narrator.

The writing is outstanding, with the usual Kristoff flair. It was simply stunning, rich bodied and full of flavour. If I sound like I’m describing a coffee then I can only attest to my sleep deprived state. The pacing and the plot, I felt, were fantastic. Right when you started to feel bogged down in world building and such, Kristoff throws in some stabbing or some sex to liven it up. It’s like he’s come across the perfect formula for me, personally. Which, if he has, I ain’t gonna complain.

A word to the wary – this book is graphic. In violence, in sex, in language. It’s definitely for the more mature readers out there. But if drinking the blood of your enemies is your thing, as it is mine – then I highly suggest you give it a try.