ARC Review: Nevernight

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Title: Nevernight

Author: Jay Kristoff

Series: The Nevernight Chronicle, #1

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Release Date: August 11th 2016

Rating:

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 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 love her. And they drink her fear.

– Blurb courtesy of goodreads.com

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts On…

…The Plot

“If memory serves, Familia Corvere was involved in some trouble a few truedarks back. Something about kingmaking?”
“Never flinch. Never fear,” Mia sighed. “And never, ever forget.”
“So. The puzzle begins to make sense. The last daughter of a disgraced familia. Headed to the finest school of killers in all the Republic. Planning on setting scores after graduation?”

Reading this book was an adventure, it was like being punched in the face by my best friend because I never saw it coming but afterwards I was shocked, surprised, and overwhelmed all at the same time. I was late jumping on the Nevernight bandwagon. Everyone seemed to be eagerly anticipating this release but, until I read another glowing review for this book, the hype seemed to pass me by. Now I’ve finished Nevernight I can understand the hype, understand the anticipation, because this book is now competing for my top read of 2016.

When Mia was ten years old she watched as her father was hung for crimes of rebellion and treason, and she watched as her mother and baby brother were dragged away to the Philosopher’s Stone, a pit where all the criminals not deserving of execution are thrown. Mia herself was taken far away to be killed but she managed to escape and when she stopped running she found herself alone in the Godsgrave backstreets. But she wasn’t alone for long. She soon discovered her Darkin companion, Mister Kindly, and met Mercurio, the man who would teach her before sending her off to the Red Church to be trained as one of the deadliest assassins there are.

But after the deadly journey to the Red Church, where Mia and Tric – a boy she met along the way also searching for the Red Church – faced off against sand krakens and Hands of the Red Church, they soon discover their hardships have only just begun.

“Our gift to you,” she said. “A reminder. Walk among them. Play among them. Live and laugh and love among them, But never forget, not for one moment, what you are.”
Aalea released Mia’s hand.
“And never forget what it is to serve.”

All in all there are thirty apprentices competing for only four spots as Blades of the Church, the very best of the best. They are put through their trials; learning sword play from the Shalid of Songs, Solis, thievery from the Shalid of Pockets, Mouser, poisons from the Shalid of Truths, Spiderkiller, and seduction from the Shalid of Masks Aalea. It’s not a journey to be undertaken lightly, as Mia quickly realises, and the fact that she is a Darkin quickly becomes more of a hindrance than a help in the halls of the Red Church. And as the lessons and tests commence the more and more of the thirty apprentices prove they are not made of the iron the Red Church requires them to be.

There is a lot of things happening in this book and there were certain events that I didn’t think were important because the characters or the Red Church dismissed them, and by the time the chapter was done they had been put to the back of my mind, but by the end of the book all those small plot strings came together in a way that will left me in awe.

…The Characters

“I’ve heard tell of your kind. Never met one before, though. Never thought to.”
“My kind?”
“Darkin.”

Mia is a Darkin, someone who can control the shadows and pull the darkness around herself, and as such I expected her to have an advantage in a school of assassins, but if anything it’s the opposite. The first time she uses her ability she is severely punished for it and it’s a hard lesson but one she immediately takes to heart and learns from. Mia doesn’t arrive at the Red Church and immediately become a master of all hands. She works hard training in all the different weapons the Shalid of Songs trains them in. And, as she knows she will never be as gifted as others at thievery or seduction, she works on the skills she does have.

There are other apprentices in the Church who see more in Mia, people who question whether she is sure she wants to walk down the path she is. There is still compassion in Mia for the people she cares for which seems to be missing from most of the other apprentices, but she is desperate to get revenge for her family; for her mother and brother locked away in the Philosopher’s Stone and her father hung as a traitor. Mia is determined and it’s that determination that keeps her going. As a Darkin Mia is incredibly powerful but there is something holding her back from her full potential, something she fears even with Mister Kindly taking away her fears.

“Tric smiled and Mia grinned back, hand on hip. Aalea had told her that silence could be the best answer to a question, if the person already knew the answer. So she remained mute, staring up into those big, pretty eyes and letting Want speak instead. A part of her felt bad to be trying Aalea’s craft out on her friend, but as Tric himself pointed out, he was technically competition.”

Tric travelled to the Red Church alongside Mia and his desire to become a Blade is similar to hers; revenge. He too holds too tightly to his fears and his past at times which gets him into trouble. The relationship that developed between Mia and Tric was a slow burn, but it allowed them to become more to one another than just fellow apprentices; even while, when it comes down to it, they are still in competition with one another.

Mia looked among them wondering. Jessamine with her hunter’s eyes. A broad, olive-skinned boy with a missing ear and chewed fingernails. A thin girl with cropped, black hair, who swayed on  her feet like a snake. An ill-favoured Vaanian boy with tattooed hands who always seemed to be talking to himself. Mia was still putting faces to names. But though they were still mostly strangers, she knew one thing about every apprentice around her.
‘Murderers, all.’

The other characters are all incredibly well developed as well. Each apprentice has their own motivations and desires for being at the Red Church and becoming a Blade, and those desires are not always easy to spot. It’s hard to know who to trust when there are thirty apprentices competing for only four Blade positions. They are each out for their own purposes, not there to make friends but there in competition with one other.

…The Setting

“It’s said Niah gave her daughters nothing, for the Maw has naught inside to give. But these are falsehoods spat by ministers of Aa’s church.
To Keph, Niah gave dreams, to keep her company in her eternal slumber. To Trelene, she gave enigma, the deep dark of the waters beyond the sunslight. To Nalipse, she gave calm; the peace in the storm’s eye. And to Tsana? Her firstborn who so despised her?
To Tsana, Goddess of Fire, Niah gave hunger.
Hunger unending.”

If the story itself was incredible then the world building was beyond compare. We learn all the facts we need to keep the story moving forwards – about the Red Church and its history with the Republic, as well as the Gods each faction worship, about Mia’s familia and Darkin’s – but there are also footnotes throughout the story which, while they aren’t essential to understanding the plot, give a much deeper understand as to the world itself. Through the footnotes we learn more about the kings, queens, nobles, and even criminals who have  influenced the city and it’s customs. The whole world has a very dark feel to it. The closed-off mountain where the Red Church makes it home only amplifies the horrors that are committed in the Niah’s name. There are two sides fighting a war in Nevernight, the Republic who worship Aa and the Red Church who worship Niah, but both sects have their dark side.

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I didn’t see the ending coming, not from a mile away, but I was engrossed even more on the last few chapters than I was before. No one is safe in this book, you never know who will survive the Red Church and who will perish, but you will be hooked from the first page.

What did you think of Nevernight? Was it a favourite of yours or could you just not get into the story? Let me know.

All quotes have been taken from an ARC and may differ in the final publication.