Release Date: July 25th 2016
Published By: Harper Voyager
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Purchase: Click here to purchase

Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: Destined to destroy empires Mia Covere is only ten years old when she is given her first lesson in death.

Six years later, the child raised in the shadows takes her first steps towards keeping the promise she made on the day that she lost everything.

But the chance to strike against such powerful enemies will be fleeting, so if she is to have her revenge, Mia must become a weapon without equal. She must prove herself against the deadliest of friends and enemies, and survive the tutelage of murderers, liars and demons at the heart of a murder cult.

The Red Church is no Hogwarts, but Mia is no ordinary student. The shadows loves her. And they drink her fear.

Review: Nevernight was one of my most anticipated releases of 2016, so did it live up to my very high expectations? Hells yes it did!

The short version of my thoughts about Nevernight is this: IT IS BLOODY AWESOME!!! Run out to get yourself a copy. Don’t walk, RUN! This is book is filled with so much awesomeness that I cannot form proper words!

Jay Kristoff is a beloved Aussie author, and following the success of Illuminae, everyone had high expectations of this book. But this book is not Illuminae, but it certainly holds its own ground on every level. I am a fan of Jay’s, not just because of his previous work, but as a person. He is honest, down to earth and absolutely hysterical (follow him on Twitter to see what I mean). He doesn’t hold back in his thoughts and opinions, and this book is everything, and more, that I expected from him. It encompasses everything about him and his amazingly twisted creativity. From the vivid imaginary to the brutality of this world, Jay does not hold back on creating a full and complex world filled with everything from first lust/maybe-love, to blood and gore, revenge, conflict and sacrifice. This book is as complex, raw, honest and funny as I would have expected from Jay. During a conversation with a friend I said “if you read this book without knowing who the author was, you would pick Jay as the author”. That isn’t saying it is predictable in any way, it is saying that it is a 448 page book of what I would expect from this amazing author: world-building, amusement, abruptness, complexity, mystery, quirkiness, bloodshed, intricacy, secrecy, darkness and one absolutely amazing ride! (and a few Jay Kristoff-isms thrown in there too).

This book had me hooked right from the start, with a phenomenal first chapter that is clever, intriguing and somehow sucks you right in! As the pages go on, you find a dark world filled with luscious detail. This is masterful storytelling my friends! The past and present are masterfully weaved together, with little pieces of the puzzle coming together in due course. And the footnotes throughout this book are sometimes relevant to the storyline, sometimes funny antidotes – literally some laugh out loud moments are to be found within these little gems.

The storyline is intricate and dark, with a fierce and determined protagonist, Mia. Mia deeply misses what has been ripped from her, and this fuels her desire for revenge. From the age of ten years old when Mia was pulled away from her life of privilege and hiding from the very people who murdered her father, she has been training to become an assassin. Now at sixteen, she has finally found her way to The Red Church, a training facility for the best of the best, in the hopes of becoming one of the few that survive the training and become the ultimate assassin, a Blade.

The training is not for the weak of heart or stomach. It is brutal and only the sharpest, quickest and most cunning will survive. And even survival does not guarantee that one becomes a Blade. This is everything Mia has dreamt of since she was child, and she will do whatever she needs to do to make sure it happens. She is determined to become a Blade so that she can extract her revenge on those who killed her father and stole her mother and brother away from her. Her only reason to be here is become a Blade, and while at The Red Church she seeks comfort from the shadows that are always there, she tries to keep her distance from the possibly-would-be-allies within the walls of The Red Church, she is ruthless, cunning and utterly determined to make her dream a reality. But hidden secrets, plots and betrayal within The Red Church may change Mia’s life forever.

Never flinch. Never fear. Never forget.

To be honest, I cannot form the words to accurately describe the awesomeness that is Nevernight. I just can’t do it justice, and my brain can’t even try, it is still fan-girling over this AMAZING book!

And that cover! OMG – that cover!!!! The Aus/UK cover is beyond stunning; it is filled with beauty, intricacy, mystery and darkness. It perfectly showcases the amazingness on what these pages contain.

Without getting into the debate on whether this book is YA or not, as YA is subjective, let me say this: this is a fantasy book that does contain some graphic content. Personally, I loved the frankness of it all, but if you classify swearing as “gosh darn”, or if you consider graphic deaths as “she shot an arrow into his heart” and you think that sex scenes should fade to black, then this is not the book for you. Jay does not hold back, his descriptions are vivid and detailed; with lots swearing, stabbing and blood and gore, and sex scenes that could make some blush (bravo Jay for these scenes by the way!). If you want your adult themes to be like an episode of Neighbours or Home and Away then this book will shock you. It is brutal, it is upfront, it is completely honest… and I loved it!

Nevernight is amazing first instalment into this new world with lots of blood, inner-turmoil, courage, despair, treachery and hope - along with a few OMG moments, luscious writing and fantastic twists that will keep you furiously reading page after page and leave you desperate for the next book.

After finishing Nevernight, my only thoughts were really “holy shit that is amazing!” – and a few other profanities to go along with it. And to be honest, a few weeks after reading it, my thoughts are still the same. The random words that keep running around my head when trying to form sentences about this book include: Phenomenal. Bad-ass. Brilliant. Vengeance. Stab. Epic. Betrayal. Amazeballs. Murder. Dark. Assassins. Intense. Fantastic. Blood. Cats. Violence. Tremendous. Fierce. Brutal. Heartbreak. Shadows. Heart. Delicious. Fucking-amazing!

Basically, I absolutely adored everything about this book! Besides the fact that it put me in a huge reading funk and now I just don’t know how other books could possibly compare. Nevernight is epic. This is easily the best book of 2016! I know the year isn’t over yet, but I cannot foresee anything topping the awesomeness that is Nevernight.