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“The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us. I can see it in you, sure as I see it in me. You’re a daughter of the words. A girl with a story to tell.”
– Jay Kristoff, Nevernight
Overview
17-year-old Mia Corvere has been beaten down by those who hold all the power in her city. After the murder of her family for her father’s assistance in a failed rebellion, she turns to a curious character who teaches her the way of assassins. Now she is off to join the Red Church to be in the service of the Lady of Blessed Murder. Here she will learn all she needs to seek revenge on those who tore her family apart. She will become a full-fledged assassin. That is if she survives.
Rating
Review
I have read other reviews on this book and it is really a mixed bag, which is exactly how I feel about the book. The world the author created was really interesting and his actual writing style aside from the footnotes and narrator issue is beautiful. Here are the reasons why I didn’t enjoy this book:
Multiple Timelines and Narrators
The first issue I have with this book is the multiple timelines and narrators, especially at the beginning of the book. This threw me off because both narrators are 3rd-person points of view, but they both focus only on Mia’s story. Therefore, I couldn’t fully distinguish between the two sometimes. I only realized after reading the book who the past timeline narrator was. I am personally not a fan of dual timelines in a book even if it’s to give a more detailed background on the main character. After the first few timeline switches, I stopped reading the past one. I don’t have any issues with point-of-view shifts in the book between characters, but I despise shifts in narration.
Footnotes
My second issue is that this book contains footnotes. Yes, like the kind we would see in textbooks in grade school. These footnotes either contain a wealth of information about the place, history, etc. Or they contain comments from the narrator. The former completely pulls you out of the story and you sit there wondering if this is relevant information for later in the book. The latter I didn’t find particularly funny or witty. Sometimes I would miss the denotation for the footnote and have to then go find where this specific information relates to on the page.
Lacking Supportive Character Uniqueness
My third issue is the characters lacked any sort of uniqueness. Again maybe this was due to the narration that feels removed from the main character. Or possibly the fact that the main character deduced most of the background information on other characters. Rather than having a conversation with the other character or spending time getting to know them.
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Other Books by this Author
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