Book of Night: The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller

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But for me, the biggest issue is that the story just doesn't make sense. The different parts of the magical world felt randomly tossed together without really blending into a cohesive whole. And the characters' actions don't really ring true for me either. Charlie, in particular, did so many things for no reason other than that she "makes bad decision," which is literally the explanation given. Book of Night is a huge disappointment. The magic system is confusing and nonsensical, the characters are almost aggressively uninteresting, and the plot is a dragging, tedious mess. 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 intrigued by it. The tone reminded me a lot of Ninth House. I really liked this book! This was such a unique and intriguing urban fantasy book full of mysteries, magic, and betrayals. Charlie Hall is a con artist who works for gloamists, magicians who alter shadows to steal, kill or worse. Charlie tries to separate herself from her past mistakes, but her past catches up with her. Charlie learns that her boyfriend, Vince has been lying to her and soon after she finds herself caught up in lies and murder. She will do anything to survive and protect the people she loves. Well, well, well! As devoted fan of “The folk of the air “series, this was one of the most anticipated first book of brand new and author’s first adult fantasy installment I have been longing for!

I have to be honest: I could give additional star just for the last line Charlie said: I sighed so many times and hugged my e-reader as if I was hugging Charlie. ( you’ll understand me when you read it) 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. C’mon. Knight Singh got murdered in his bed, and the room was trashed. Someone made off with his personal folio of magical discoveries,” Balthazar called after her, unconvinced. “This is what you were best at.”The writing is good, I believe it is a bit more mature which goes well with the age group, that being said, I think I found The Folk of the Air series more quotable! The story is confusing at first because the world needs some time to get into although it is not very complex once some answers are provided. The story is told mainly through Charlie’s POV with chapters from her past. Oh, and the other thing I think that marks Charlie as an adult character (she’s nearly 30) in a book for adults is just how … resilient her mess is. I think with YA there’s a sort of social responsibility to indicate to young people that there’s hope in the future and the things that may have damaged them, while they won’t magically go away, don’t have to control their lives forever. When you’re adult, you kind of ARE your damage and that’s that. And while it’s a fairly cynical way of thinking about it people, this is a more-than-fairly cynical book. Well, if you're going into this expecting it to be like, The Cruel Prince, then, yeah, you might be disappointed. It's no Folk of Air. But is that really a fair comparison? That's like if you're disappointed that 10 million dollars isn't 50 million dollars. It's still 10 million dollars. I have complex feelings: there are so many pros and cons for making me decide how I truly felt about it!

but i do still have lingering questions... the main one being what is the point? i guess once we find out how shadow manipulation gone wrong works i was compelled. but the idea of manipulating your shadow to have horns/wings or to like do some tasks for you? i didn't understand the point unless it's supposed to be a power for power's sake/the rich can have it and you can't thing. felt like a weak reason for this magic to exist in the first place. The worldbuilding was so awkward and confusing, I'm still not sure I understood it, even after having read the whole book. I don't think the magical system is that complicated, yet somehow, the explanations provided just didn't work for me. Most of the time, I felt like I was guessing at what everything means. (Shadows give you magical powers... and feelings? Gloamists trade shadows and have power, but why? What is carapace, Cabal, Hierophant?) Love was a family religion, passed down to her when she'd been too young to protect herself from belief." The magic system was not complicated but the explanations provided didn't really worked for me. I was confused the whole time reading this book. I'm still not sure I understood any of it.The ending chapter was actually really good. It was abrupt but fascinating. If only the entire book was as good as the ending point! Like I said though, it's no Cruel Prince. My main complaints are that, 1. I guessed the ending. 2. The magic world was interesting but CONFUSING and as a world that really only has like one magical thing and shouldn't be that complicated, I felt like it took me a lot longer to grasp than it should have. 3. I NEEDED MORE ROMANCE, maybe I have a problem (I high key can't make it through 80% of books if they don't have sufficient amounts of romance in them) but I felt like I could've used a little bit more umph in that department. And Vince, that devoted, coming from wealthy family, introverted, caring man who lost his shadow for a long time ago attracted me with his mysterious, inscrutable identity. I loved him from the beginning. The characters were some of the dullest and most unmemorable I've ever come across. To say Charlie is unlikable would be to imply she has some personality for me to dislike. But she doesn't. Her only attributes seem to be that she has righteous anger and she makes bad decisions, but I don't really understand why. There's no insight into her underlying motivations. We are only told constantly of what she is, but never shown. On contrary, the second half is so much faster with so many plot twists: so many things happened at the same time so it left me breathless. So balance of pacing was one of the weakest point of my reading.

Charlie poured a shot of Four Roses for a tweedy guy in dirty glasses who looked like he’d been sleeping in his clothes and told her he didn’t like his bourbon too sweet. Then she crossed to the other end of the bar, pausing to make a whiskey-and-ginger for Balthazar himself when he waved her over. The third thing I enjoyed is execution of the mystery: when Charlie is forced to get a compelling task related with her past which results with revealing secrets about shadows. She realizes she’s risked more than she can handle.If her shadow had been one of those magic ones, she was pretty sure even that thing would have run away. 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 Of course each of those elements are crucial. But in my opinion; character building is most important thing about a story. And it gets more important when you start new series because it’s long time commitment just like watching series more than two seasons. You patiently wait for what’s gonna happen to them at the next book, cheering for them, getting angry with them, being happy for them, screaming at them. They should be easy to connect so you can root for them. Firstly: when I read a book, I ask myself what’s more important for me? Pacing? Way of storytelling? Plot line? Structure? Execution ? Ending? The most richly accomplished of the brothers’ pairings to date—and given Connelly’s high standards, that’s saying a lot.