Book Review: Book of Night by Holly Black

Book of Night by Holly Black
Length: 306 Pages
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Trigger Warnings in this book for Violence, Gore, Familial Abuse, Parental Neglect, Mentions of Incest and Mentions of Drug Addiction

“There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked, from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. Had fingers made for picking pockets, a tongue for lying, and a shriveled cherry pit for a heart. If her shadow had been one of those magic ones, she was pretty sure even that thing would have run away.”

I've spoken before about how much I love Holly Black's works. The Folk of the Air series is one of my favorites of all time, and before that, when I was little, I was obsessed with The Spiderwick Chronicles. They were some of the first books that I just devoured, usually reading one a day, and I of course loved the artwork of Tony DiTerlizzi (and yes, I was disappointed by the movie). So in a way, I feel that Holly Black shaped who I am today, contributed to my love of dark fairytales, mythology, and even parts of my creativity. There just weren't books out there to feed my fascination like The Spiderwick Chronicles did! So of course, I was thrilled to bits to find out she would be writing her first ever adult book, and my sister lovingly preordered it for me! And as always, Holly Black did it again, weaving something together that will both mesmerize and break your heart.

Charlie Hall is known as "The Charlatan", an expert thief and conwoman who has made her name stealing, mostly priceless tomes from "gloamists". Gloamists are people who can do a special sort of magic, able to command their shadows, to make them change into fantastical shapes, or slip through the smallest crack to find out dirty little secrets. Now, after a brush with a gun, Charlie has decided to go the straight and narrow, and works almost exclusively as a bartender. But the lure of fast money and the thrill of swiping something right from under someone's nose is still there. She wants to be good, for her new boyfriend Vince, who has mysteriously lost his shadow, and for her sister, Posey, who craves a quickened one more than anything.

Unfortunately, trouble seems to be drawn to Charlie. There is the mysterious death of a rare book dealer, his shadows torn to bits--his last known sighting? The bar where she works. When she sticks her nose in it, it ends in her being harassed at her work by a gloamist who's looking for a special book and a special person. Vince comes to her rescue, killing the gloamist as easily as squashing an ant. There are secrets that Vince is keeping, about his past and his present, ones that Charlie will do anything to discover--even if it breaks her heart in the process. Thus begins a tale of blood-fed shadows, dark cabals, and proof that revenge is a dish best served cold.

This book was a beautiful blend of horrific fairytale and gothic mystery, which is nothing less than I've come to expect out of Black. Full of her wonderful, biting prose and characters that are so perfectly rendered they feel real, I couldn't wait to find out all the secrets in this book, but loved every minute it took. I recently described Holly Black as the queen of writing "bad girls", and she has done it again in Book of Night. Charlie is a loveable hard-ass with as much bite as her cocktails, but has that sort of vulnerability you can easily lose with characters like this. All I can say is read it--it's the urban fantasy you've been waiting for.