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  • Book of Night

  • By: Holly Black
  • Narrated by: Sara Amini
  • Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (128 ratings)

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Book of Night cover art

Book of Night

By: Holly Black
Narrated by: Sara Amini
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Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Number one New York Times best-selling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies in the vein of Ninth House and The Night Circus.

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 naïve 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 doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you listen, light isn't playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

©2022 Holly Black (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Black is a master at world-building." (The New York Times Book Review)

"No one writes like Holly Black." (John Green, number one New York Times best-selling author)

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What listeners say about Book of Night

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Opportunity wasted for a great story and performance.

The blurb is quite enticing for the seedy/magic/modern twist sun-genre, however the story just fails to go anywhere. The storyline revolves around a girl (in the past)/woman (in the future) who some how manages to hit every “down trodden poor person” trope ever thought of, and then doubles down with “I like broken men and domestic violence because my mum did”…. Definitely not worth the purchase, especially as the narrator doesn’t pronounce simple words correctly or maintain a stable character voice, lending a certain feeling of just shabbiness through and through. Spend your credits else where.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great plot and narration

Holly Black has done it again, a great start to hopefully a long series. The narration was excellent and well paced.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great beginning

Raw and radiant. Holly never disappoints ! Started a little slow but gathered momentum to a cliff hanger finale. Love how the author grabs you by delving into damaged, hanging by a thread characters that have so much in common with the struggles of life, feelings and living ordered lives. Absolutely love the rawness of Charlie as well as her insecurities as she tries to recognise her true self. I cried and laughed for her - A perfectly engaging work!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enter a dark fantasy world of shadow magic

If you’ve ever pondered what it would be like to have your shadow come alive, then Book of Night explores the notion for you.

I became quite taken with this world of magical shadows - with their capacity to become sentient beings, that can communicate and perform activities. Gloamists - those who can command the shadow magic are revered and feared.

BoN diverts away from the YA work we know from this author. It’s dark adult fantasy which feels at times like a fog blanketing any hope or light within the story. Many of the characters are unlikeable, but that is the purpose to demonstrate the ruthlessness of this setting, I got definite Gotham vibes reading this story.

As the layers are peeled away with scenes of past and present the reader begins to understand the disconnect between characters, and the dangers for them. Vince’s character really hooked me, whilst Charlie- our FMC who has always been viewed as somewhat of a bad egg by others, evolves into her own. I do feel we’ve more potential yet to come from her yet.

I enjoyed how the author lulls the reader with the climax providing a sense of well-being, before that twist at the ending.

My only critique was I listened to the audiobook and the narration felt very monotone in parts. There were a few mispronunciations which irked me. But that’s just my particular preference.

I hear there will be a second book - I hope so -it felt very unfinished, I would love some resolution to the story.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Characters that really grow on you and very well plotted

I really enjoyed this story. The characters really grew on me and not little line was a throw away. I love it when everything matters.

Excellent worldbuildingnfor the type of story being told. Gritty. Down and dirty. Then very satisfying to see the magic used in the hands of professionals.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

'Book of Night' is a dream come true.

“Okay kid," she told it. "The universe belongs to the curious.”

I finished listening to 'Book of Night' by Holly Black on 11 May and I still cannot stop thinking about it!

'Book of Night' is a dream come true. I’ve always loved the concept of shadows manifesting into corporal beings that can move and act independently, ever since Peter Pan first flew into my life!

The world concept and the plot itself are both terrifyingly believable, only taking that tiny step beyond reality into frequent imaginings. I have always found something magical and mysterious about shadows. After all, even when I'm alone, my shadow is almost always there to haunt me, guard me, and accompany me. So Holly Black breathing life into shadows is truly thrilling and strangely familiar, it felt right. This is how it is supposed to be, how shadows were made to function.

The writing is phenomenal, and the plot is well-paced. It contains just the right amount of everything. A wonderfully glorious balance of tragedy, love, joy, mystery and horror, prose and dialogue, past and present. And the ending is so perfect, I think I might have died, my heart did funny things, things it's not supposed to do. Although, I would definitely never say no to more if it became a series. 'Book of Night' has the potential to be one after all.

The characters!! They were all so amazing and honest and raw. I wish I had the right words, but I don't think I could do any of them justice. I will say this though, Charlie Hall is a very realistic character, she is good at what she does, but she is not overpowered, not insanely perfect. She is riddled with imperfections that make her wonderful and moody and loving, and thoroughly enjoyable. I feel so emotionally attached to her and I do not wish to let go.

My favourite conversation:

"Do you think that stars
have shadows?"
"I guess if there's some brighter star...
Like the kind that's about to become a black hole.
Don't they flare first?"
"Quasars. They flare as they're dying.
I guess that would give any other
star nearby a shadow.”

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Totally enjoyed this story

This is a cool concept for a story with a great twist to the take .

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dry, dreadful, juvenile

I found this book to be full of flat, predictable characters, and dry as a bone for plot. The writing was juvenile and clunky. Way too many cringey turns of phrase, awkward run-ons, and description of the intimate scenes that read straight out of a teenage boy's fantasy.

There were too many characters to follow along, with haphazard world-building. More than a third of the way into the book, I was still waiting to learn what the stakes were. Sensationalism only goes so far.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed it, interesting ideas

Slow to get into events but the building information at the start was good value.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Book of the year

I enjoyed this book so much. I have not been this enthralled in a long, long time.

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