“Never Flinch. Never Fear. And Never, Ever Forget.”
It’s Nevernight in Godsgrave
Rotto doesn’t know how more “not-cat“ he could be as he’s not a cat. Photo Credit: Sandi Parsons
I’ve never been one to fall for a book character, but I can’t get Mia Corvere out of my head. If I ever got another tattoo, it would be Mia’s mantra.
Never flinch.
Never fear.
And never, ever forget. — Jay Kristoff
Possibly it’s because I relate to Mia. Adversity has shaped and defined her while never, not once, allowing it to break her. She is focused and goal-orientated — even if that goal is to destroy those responsible for her father’s execution.
It’s almost never night in the Republic of Itreya
The Republic of Itreya is a world where the three suns only set once every two and half years. It’s a world of shadows, political intrigue, murder, mayhem, and a lot of smut — with footnotes.
“The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.” — Jay Kristoff
Mia, who can manipulate shadows, joins a school for assassins — The Red Church. Mia is seeking vengeance for her father, publically executed after a failed rebellion. Mister Kindly, a not-cat — a daemon made of shadows, swallows Mia’s fear, enabling Mia to become her best self.
The Red Church is full of treachery. Mia must first survive until initiation to be inducted to the Lady of Blessed Murder as a Blade. But who can she trust? And who will she need to kill?
It’s not Young Adult
Booksellers often get confused about where to place the Nevernight trilogy in their stores — frequently defaulting to YA because Jay Kristoff has also written (and co-written) several successful YA series.
Although Mia’s age fits the profile of a YA book, that’s where the resemblance ends. It does not hint at nice, polite sex under the covers. The smut is graphic. Nor does it gloss over the murders. They are bloody, detailed, and gruesome. Nevernight is a series without a filter. This is not a read for the faint-hearted.
“She was ten years old, after all. Alone and helpless and afraid. But here is truth, gentlefriends, no matter the number of suns in your sky. At the heart of it, two kinds of people live in this world or any other: those who flee and those who fight. Your kind has many terms for the latter sort. Berserker. Killer instinct. More balls than brains. And it shouldn’t surprise you, knowing what little you know already, that in the face of this thug and his blade, and laden with memory of her father’s execution never flinch never fear instead of wailing or breaking as another ten-year-old might have, young Mia gripped the stiletto she’d fished from the darkness, and slipped it straight up into the puppy-choker’s eye.” — Jay Kristoff
Footnotes, glorious footnotes
As I often do with fantasy books, I read the Nevernight Trilogy as audiobooks (yes, take it from a school librarian, audiobooks are a very valid form of reading!) I noticed that the narrator, Holter Graham, would occasionally change his reading tone, revealing a fascinating side fact about the world of Nevernight.
I’d finished Godsgrave before I realized that this change of tone was a footnote, often long and detailed. In the audiobook, they integrated seamlessly and flowed with the story.
Kristoff took a lot of flak for the footnotes. Readers would comment on his social media, and it became quite a hot topic.
In Darkdawn, the last book in the trilogy, Kristoff turned the debate on its head and had one character ask (in the footnotes, of course!) what sort of wanker puts footnotes in a fiction book?
“Oh, fuck me,” you were thinking, “it’s been awhile. I wonder where all the footnotes went. Maybe the author got embarrassed by everyone in his own book taking a steaming shit on them, and decided to refrain for the rest of the novel.”
Well, fuck you, gentle friends.” ― Jay Kristoff
For as many readers who disliked the footnotes, there were comments from those who loved them. Writing about the saga in the footnotes was an excellent way to address the debate.
Why I wish I could turn back time and read the Nevernight trilogy for the first time again
The Nevernight trilogy is packed full of twists and turns. Some of them are spoilers to the overall arc — and it’s pretty hard to un-know what you know. So while I’m itching the read the trilogy again, I’m settling for recommending it to like-minded souls — those who like their fantasy dark, smutty, and bloody.
In five or so years, I hope to come back to the world of Nevernight like it's a brand new book, and fingers crossed, if my old lady brain gets a little foggy on the details, maybe get surprised by some twists and turns once again.
Sandi Parsons is an award-winning school librarian with over 20 years experience working in educational libraries. Sandi was a Children’s Book Council of Australia, Book of the Year Award Judge (2020, 2021 Early Childhood Category). She likes her adult fantasy reading to be packed with murder and mayhem.
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