Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

1. Author: Jay Kristoff

2. Name of the book: Nevernight (The nevernight chronicle 1)

3. Editorial: Thomas Dunne Books

4. Number of pages: 419 pages

5. Publication date: August 9th of 2016

6. My Grade: 9/10

7. Summary: The first in a new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author. In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the people that destroyed her family. Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But, after his father execution, the soldiers also come and get her mother, who has to make a choice, to save Mia or her new-born baby, resulting on her mother choosing to save Mia telling her one thing: never flinch, never frear and never forget. Because of her gift for speaking with the shadows and being able to control them, leads her to the door of a retired killer, and thanks to that it will lead her to a future she never imagined. Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. In the start there are twenty-nine apprentices in there, which she manages to engage and create a bond, as much as you can have when you are in a competition with each other every day, form by Tric, a guy who she meets while her journey to the Red church, Carlotta, a slave, Ashlinn and Ozrick, two siblings that had their father as a teacher, who also was Blade but now he is retired as he was mutilated. But also in there she makes a few enemies. During the year or almost year that she spends there, she hast to beat her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves. Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

8. Full opinion: The book at first wasn’t easy for me to read, not because o the vocabulary or anything, but because the two time parallel in the chapters and also o the notes at the end of the page explaining things about the culture or history about that world. It wasn’t because I didn’t like it, but it was because it was the first book had that kind of structure, but either way by the fiftieth page, I started to enjoy it and by midway of the book I loved it, so it got me hooked to the book, probably I read it most off the book in this past two days. But let’s start with what I liked about this book and what I did not like. I enjoyed the group of acolytes that is formed and that lesson after lesson we get to see more about them and mister Kristoff has managed to make them maybe not incredible different from each other but he created some turbulent stories from almost all of them and as most people their personality is marked by it, making them more real, not to relate, because their background is based in slavery, sexual abuse, families murdered, etc; but to enjoy how far they are willing to go to have their vengeance and prove themselves worthy to their god and the Red Church. That also applies to the professors; each tutor has their own chamber that reflects the personality of the classes that they impart their lessons. The one that I enjoyed the more was Mercurio, who make them learn how to steal without anyone noticing, and gives them a list of things they have to rob and the marks each object has so they know what to steal in order to finish at the top of the class.I was amazed by how much creativity the writer put into creating the world, I mean, he did not only create one god Aa, his wife and her for Daughters, each one representing, oceans, the night, the storms and more, but creating the religion of the Red Church, their goddess and what motivates them which is the deaths of those who not only deserve but that their missions demand. Apart from these religions, he created different races, each one with their own cultures; he creates new kind of animals, like the sand krakens, and some kind of magic and portals that work by blood. Each time that I have the pleasure to read a book that its author has put that much creativity and hard-work I just praise them, may be the book it’s not the best one I will ever read, but they deserve some kind of recognition for creating those universes. Also another point is earned by the two maps, one in the beginning showing this world and its distribution, and on the back side we find a map that is found at the end of Mia’s journey on the first book, I am not going to say more as it would be a spoiler if you haven’t read it. And the next thing that I loved is a Spoiler so skip the next paragraph in case that you aren’t there yet.I am still in shock by is the ffact that Ash and Ozrick are the traitors that have killed Carlotta and another student, but also Ash is the one who has apparently killed Tric, I don’t know it for sure as we don’t get to see the body or see if his heart has stopped beating, but I mean the odds are against him. Anyway the fact that during all this time they have been manipulating and doing all this scheming behind everyone and that there is not a moment that they have been under the suspect that the may not have the best intentions is what makes it even more shocking obviously.One of my favorite characters is Tric, I just loved him, his humor, the way he faces everything, and how he has so many angriness inside him but you don’t really get to investigate how this anger is created until he lets it out, I mean sometimes it’s like the death of someone’s parents creates the anger for that character, but at least to me, in this case, Tric is angry for what his grandfather did to him, what his tattoos mean for him and how much he thinks that those things defines him. And despite all of that, his loyal, smart, and very quick, maybe it is just me that think like that, but I really enjoyed getting to know him and how the author developed his story. And yes, the moment when Mia faces Tric grandfather and kills him, I loved it. Maybe it’s the confirmation of Tric being dead, because of the promises they did to each other if anything happened to them, but still, I enjoyed it like a little girl. Another character I lover Mister Kindly, the not-cat. The relationship between them is so funny, and complex, that you can only enjoy it. I enjoyed too the part about the philosopher’s stone, and what was inside it, and how every chapter we know something else about Mia’s story, what’s is inside that stone, what happened to her family, how she got in touch with her tutor. It was fascinating really how Kristoff managed to combine both past and present inside the chapters, it didn’t feel too much for the story, or too crowded with information. There is almost nothing to say about what I disliked, but maybe there is one thing, also spoiler alert, is the fact that Cassius died at the end after saying that “little sister” I mean come on don’t be that obvious, maybe it was more like a figurative thing, I don’t think so, but I mean it’s kind of a recourse, I think, to kill the one that maybe could have help Mia to understand what happened to her and why right when he says if you do this I will tell you everything, I don’t know, probably that’s my only complaint. The type of writing was very easy and really technical when it came to weapons, venoms, and toxins. Also the fact that both past and the parts of the not-cat are written in cursive remarking them as maybe as something that is more than just the present time, something that belongs to the magic part of the book. At least is how I related those two.And that’s all for this book, I know that the second part of this book was realized sometime in September so I am going to purchase it after I have read my next book which is: SINS OF EMPIRE by Brian McClellan.

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