"Ad astra, to the stars, no trouble, be well. "
I was so excited for this book, it sounds like something that I would love. While I did really enjoy it, it didn't live up to my expectations exactly.
Beware The Night focuses around a clash of classes at it's core. We have the powerful Imperial /Doggio, the oppressed Basso that must follow all rules or suffer dire consequences and, of course, the rebels known as The Night. This is a pretty common set up for many dystopian novels, but I enjoy that trope so I was on board. Our main protaganist is Veda, a Basso who is lives with her grandfather in poverty and her main job to keep them for starving is fishing. She also happens to be best friends with a Doggio, Nico. Obviously, there friendship is more than frowned up and so they sneak around to spend time with each other. We also have another boy that enters the picture early on, Dorian and he's about to upend Veda's world as she knows it.
I'll start with the positive. The various classes all worship either the Sun or the Moon, I know we've seen this all before but this author does it right. We get the history and stories about both the Sun and the Moon. It's well done and beautiful and I was really happy for its inclusion. I also really liked the setting and the fishing elements. It felt authentic and I just liked the idea of all the Basso getting up in the morning and heading to the large fishing spot. It was quite different and really cool. Learning about the rebels aka The Night was also really fun and I'm always a sucker for some good rebel tropes. The spot they call home is also completely badass and even though we do get a good look at where they live - I could've used even more. It was just cool as hell.
The character and world development is quite good, even though it's not a long book. I didn't feel particularly confused at anything that was presented. I liked our leads for the most part and rooted for all three of them. I would've liked a little more development with Dorian but I think we'll get more of that in the second book. I also loved all the betrayal in this book and it doesn't hold back. This book is betrayal, betrayal and then more betrayal. I loved it! Some I saw coming, some I didn't. Either way, good stuff. I also adored the relationship between Veda and her grandfather.
I have to be careful because I really don't want to give anything away. The stuff that didn't work for me so much is some of the reasoning behind decisions didn't always make sense or add up. We also enter love triangle hell - I'm really not one for love triangles very often and I can tell this one is going to drive me completely mad. I get that Veda has had her life turned upside down so I can give some slack to her being confused about people and making choices but she spends WAYYYY too much time thinking about boys. She is constantly thinking about her feelings and changing them in a moment's notice and it was just too much of it. It took away from the fairly large story going around them and it was frustrating. I very much doubt Veda's biggest concern would be who she had real feelings for, instead of the chaos that is happening and finding out about her past. I didn't like it and I didn't buy it and I know we are in for a ton more of it in the second book.
Overall, I think this was an enjoyable and fast read. I do think it probably could've been another 150 pages and finished out the story honestly, but I'm sure I'll give the next book a try. This book is probably going to be a little more for people who haven't read as much fantasy, so aren't used the tropes as much then people who have a lot of experience in the genre. I'd check it out for yourself and see what you think.
Thank you to Swoons Reads and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.