{"id":165616,"date":"2022-05-09T12:33:44","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T01:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=165616"},"modified":"2022-05-23T12:19:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T01:19:50","slug":"review-book-of-night-by-holly-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2022\/05\/09\/review-book-of-night-by-holly-black\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Book of Night by Holly Black"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Holly<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s surprising to me that Book of Night<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is only Holly Black\u2019s first adult fantasy novel. Given the delectable darkness of her excellent YA Folk of the Air series, I found myself wondering just how much more adult she could get. Turns out, a whole lot more \u2014 and it\u2019s fantastic. While Holly Black fans will not find The Cruel Prince 2.0<\/em> in Book of Night<\/em>, they will find something equally as twisted. Come for the morally grey vibes that are by now Holly Black’s trademark, but make sure you stay for the chaotic mystery that unravels. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"Holly<\/a>

Holly Black<\/p><\/div>\n

In a sinister version of our world in which you can manipulate your shadow at will to gain power and status, talented former con artist Charlie Hall is determined to stay on the straight and narrow. If that means monotonous nights spent bartending while trying to stop her sister from experimenting too<\/em> much with shadow magic and keeping tabs on her suspiciously wonderful boyfriend Vince, she\u2019ll just have to deal with it. But it doesn\u2019t take long for trouble to find Charlie, in the form of a scheme to track down the Liber Noctem<\/em>, a mysterious book which could put her back in the path of a dangerous enemy \u2026 and which also offers Charlie the possibility of sweet revenge.<\/p>\n\n\n

Most thrillingly, Book of Night<\/em> is a crime novel disguised as a dark fantasy, although there\u2019s plenty of magical mayhem to go around. Any object as powerful as the Liber Noctem<\/em> is bound to have a string of bodies attached, and Charlie finds herself following a trail of murders before long to get to her prize. But you couldn\u2019t wish for a better heroine to lead you through the dark. Smart and fearless, Charlie Hall has the grit of an unscrupulous grifter, but the heart of a girl belonging to a much more wholesome novel (if you can find a way past her hard edges, that is). She\u2019s the perfect lead for a narrative as murky and twisty as this one, and while her choices might raise your pulse from time to time, you\u2019re guaranteed a good time as you follow her through the criminal underworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you like your fantasy novels with a serrated edge, then this one’s for you. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo\u2019s Ninth House<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Book of Night<\/a><\/em> by Holly Black (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘If you like your fantasy novels with a serrated edge, then this one’s for you.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":165622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[14240,6799,1974,8363,4212,4484,4963],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/BookofNight-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165616"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166143,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165616\/revisions\/166143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}