Book of Night by Holly Black (Book of Night #1)

Reviewed by Sam!

What I drank prior: I’m at a wedding!!! So I’ve had a fuck ton of alcohol and there’s more to come but I’m in the shuttle back to the hotel so I’ve got time to write a review.

Goodreads Overview:

In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.

Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgängers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

Holly Black makes her adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies.

Drunk Overview: ok so there’s this… theif? Con artist? Whatever? Chick who is out of the game but then ends up accidentally falling in to a job that goes very very wrong that involves her very quiet but loving boy friend. There is magic and the magic has always been there but not in the public eye but now people know it exists so there’s a whole thing about wanting it but fearing it when you don’t have it… I guess.

So babes is involved and trying not to die but then finds out bae isn’t who he says he is….

Spoiler-free Thoughts: not gonna lie. It’s been a while since I’ve read this so we’re gonna use bullets today.

• First thing’s first. This book was not great. I listened on audio and I found myself having to go back a lot because I just couldn’t focus.
• I didn’t really understand the magic? I think the concept of magic that is only just been revealed to “muggles” and the consequences of that fascinating. I just think she could have done much more with that.
• The bf’s whole deal was ok. Again, could have been done better but I did like the ups and downs of the relationship. Normally books like this have toxic relationships but before all the shit hit the fan, this one wasn’t really that.
• I haaaaaaated the sister. Like so very much.
• I did like the main character. She just wanted to left alone, begrudgingly accepting the nonsense the folks around her put her in. She had to help cause she had the skills but she didn’t wanna lol
• The end was a bit weird, mostly because k can’t remember it
• I do not plan on continuing the series. Not even worth the hate read.

What to pair it with: a terrible coors lite. Like a warm coors lite. So bad and frankly has no substance

Rating: 1.5/5 shots

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,
Sam