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Book of Night (Book of Night, #1)

Holly Black

Start date: June 12, 2022

Finish date: June 17, 2022

Why we're reading this: Illumicrate May 2022 - In The Dark theme
[close] Illumicrate May 2022 - In The Dark theme

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Apr 29, 2022 milliereadsalot rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: arcs-netgalley, adult-fiction, fantasy, least-favourites, paranormal, plus-size-mc, standalones, spooky-season-books, 2022-releases

full review: 4th june 2022

This book is a gritty, moody, classic urban fantasy with a very unique and intriguing magic system, but unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. The worldbuilding is sorely missing something. The concept of shadow magic and sentient shadows is very cool, but by the end, I still had no real idea of how it all worked. How did the world find out about it? I don't feel like that was ever explained. It was just one day secret and one day not?

Book of Night is pitched as Holly full review: 4th june 2022

This book is a gritty, moody, classic urban fantasy with a very unique and intriguing magic system, but unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. The worldbuilding is sorely missing something. The concept of shadow magic and sentient shadows is very cool, but by the end, I still had no real idea of how it all worked. How did the world find out about it? I don't feel like that was ever explained. It was just one day secret and one day not?

Book of Night is pitched as Holly Black's adult fantasy debut. But I'm not going to lie, I don't see what makes this book any more adult than her other works? The only gore in here is one brief scene with a dead body and some descriptions of the gore surrounding that, but it's not like it's any worse than that one scene in the Folk of the Air trilogy where Jude's finger is bitten off. Like that is worse for my personal taste! There aren't even any sex scenes in here to make this adult, and the very few (like two) that there are, are fade to black. This could have very easily been pitched as YA. Bit confused on that?

Honestly, this book is just pretty boring. Considering it is barely over 300 pages, it dragged soooo much and felt so long. It could easily have been a 100 page short story, and I would have enjoyed that more. The pacing was all over the place, especially with a very fast-paced last 40ish pages. The characters fell flat, with so many side characters that were basically indistinguishable from one another. Even our main character, Charlie, has essentially no personality outside of being angry and making bad decisions. Where's the depth?

The ending is pretty ambiguous; it definitely leaves room for a sequel, which makes me very confused because everywhere has said that this is a standalone (apart from the Fairyloot card that came with the book which said this was a duology, but I haven't seen that announced anywhere else?). I wish we were told that ahead of publication/reading, because I find that knowing whether a book is a standalone or part of a series helps me to judge on whether the amount of information left out of the worldbuilding/magic system is appropriate or not.

sample review (29th april 2022)

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free sample of the first 3 chapters in exchange for an honest review!

I was not ready for the sample to be over, I wanted to carry on reading so badly! I was so intrigued by the magic system and the whole world that we were thrown into. I am so excited to read this whole book; even the prologue was fascinating. Such a great start to what looks to be a great book! I will update with my full review once I have the physical book. ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Sep 19, 2025 Dani (Daniiireads) marked it as did-not-finish

DNF 47%

Mostly just because I've lost the motivation to read. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 25, 2022 KayLuvsBooks rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owlcrate-books, illumicrate-books

“Charlie Hall, at her best when doing her worst. Whenever she tried to create something, it broke apart in her hands. But blow something up? There, Charlie had an unerring instinct for greatness.”

If you are reading this because you loved Cruel Prince: Don't. I'm doing you a favor. Book of Night is the farthest you could possibly get from that. I went into this knowing it would be nothing like Cruel Prince but I though I would give it a try anyways. This just didn't do it for me. It wasn't that i ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2023 Catie Wright rated it did not like it

Oh my god I could not stand this. The stuff with Vince was mildly interesting and then the ending ruined it. I'm so sad I didn't love this one because I loved Holly Black's other series but damn. This wasn't good. ...more

1 like · Like · see review