Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

The Blurb On The Back:

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 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.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Jay Kristoff’s latest novel (the first in a new high fantasy series) is a well-crafted revenge tale that weaves together various sources (including Roman and medieval Venetian influences) into its world building. Mia is a driven and dedicated anti-heroine who is fierce in her pursuit of revenge. I particularly enjoyed her relationship with Mister Kindly (whose wry commentary on her antics made me smile) but her relationship with fellow apprentice Tric never really caught fire for me and nor did her rivalry with Jessamine (who was two dimensional). The mythology underpinning the world is well constructed and interesting and the operation of the Red Church held my interest (although I felt that its leader, Lord Cassius remained far too much of a cypher, which was a shame given certain events). Kristoff uses footnotes to expand out small details of his world, which for the most part worked for me although there were a couple of scenes where I thought that they interrupted the action. My only real issue with the book was that the events were a little too predictable for my tastes and given the information given in the introduction about Mia’s successes, I felt that it lacked the tension it could have had. That said, there was more than enough here to hold my interest and certainly enough questions remain unanswered for me to check out the sequel.

NEVERNIGHT will be released in the United Kingdom on 1st August 2016. Thanks to Amazon Vine for the ARC of this book.

Some Kind Of Peace by Camilla Grebe and Asa Traff

The Blurb On The Back:

Siri Bergman is terrified of the dark.

She lives alone, an hour outside Stockholm where she practises as a psychotherapist, her nearest neighbour far away. Siri tells her friends that she has moved on since her husband died in a diving accident. But when she goes to bed at night, she leaves all the lights on, unable to shake the feeling that someone is watching her.

With the light gone, the darkness creeps inside.

One night she wakes to find that the house is pitch black, and the torch by her bedside her vanished. Later, the body of one of her young patients is found floating in the water nearby. Thrown headlong into a tense murder investigation, Siri finds herself unable to trust anyone, not even her closest friends. Who can she turn to for answers?

The truth is hidden in the darkness.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Camilla Grebe and Asa Traff’s psychological thriller (the first in a series) was a Swedish bestseller and has been translated into English by Paul Norlen. Unfortunately I found this to be a dull and limply plotted affair with a passive and reactive main character I couldn’t relate to and a supporting cast of two-dimensional, dull characters who I didn’t care about. This is a pity because the opening chapter is genuinely interesting with the death of a young girl – but it isn’t until the very last chapters that this comes into play again and the circumstances are so ridiculous that by then I simply didn’t care. Siri herself has a flat first person voice (which may be down to the translation rather than the original version) and is incapable of making connections or vocalising what’s going on. In truth, I found her a self-obsessed ninny and I totally didn’t care about her relationship with her dead husband or the cliché relationship that develops with the policeman investigating what’s happening to her. I can’t comment on how authentic the psychotherapy sessions are, but I did find the patients and their backgrounds to be cliché riddled and dull and the revelation of the killer came out of left field (especially their motivation, which I really thought would have rung a bell with Siri a little earlier than it did). Ultimately, this just didn’t hold my interest and while there’s a suggestion it’s going to move into criminal psychology in later books there’s nothing that makes me want to read on.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the review copy of this book.