The Nevernight Chronicle by Jay Kristoff | Book Review

Hello book lovers!

I bring to you another review. This time I’m going to talk about The Nevernight Chronicle series by Jay Kristoff. I read these books in November 2019 and I enjoyed them a lot. I won’t be spoiling anything, I’m not like that, so keep reading. Also, I think this series is one of those which the less you know about it, the better.

For obvious reasons I’m only going to give you the summary of the first book, Nevernight. It is about Mia Corvere, who wants in at the Red Church, the best place to become an assassin in the Republic. Mia has to overcome all the challenges to become a Blade and had her revenge against the ones that destroyed her family. But there’s a killer running free in the Red Church and someone is trying to bring down the whole congregation, threatening Mia’s life and her plans for revenge.

The plot of the whole series was very interesting and since I didn’t know much about it, I didn’t see coming any of the plot twists, which only made me feel more intrigued with the story and how everything was going to unfold. However, there were moments in the three books where I got the feeling that nothing was happening, so I got a little bit bored in those parts.

I’ve seen a lot of people saying that because of Jay Kristoff’s writing style, they don’t like the book or DNF it. Personally, I didn’t have any problem with it at all. I got easily pulled into the story. The only moments I got lost were when the footnotes were very long, sometimes I had to reread the last paragraph after reading the footnote, otherwise I forgot what I was happening in the story. You don’t have to read the footnotes as you read the books, you can ignore them if you want, but they help in giving more details about the world and its creatures.

The world building was great too. Getting to travel through the Republic of Itreya with Mia, Mister Kindly and her other friends was amazing. There was always something dangerous happening, that’s why I got bored when there were no monsters or people fighting or getting in the way of Mia. I don’t know what that says about me, but I enjoyed the fight scenes a lot, either with people or with monsters, they were all fantastic in my opinion.

There were a lot of characters in the series and talking about some of them might be considered as spoiler, but I will talk about Mia and Mister Kindly.

Mia Corvere is our protagonist, she had a rough childhood, but what made her keep moving forward was her desire for revenge against the people that destroyed and ripped her family apart in front of her. She is so badass and she will go to unimaginable lengths for the ones she loves and cares. Even when I didn’t agree with her methods or way of thinking, I supported her and only wanted to see her happy and find peace.

Then we have Mister Kindly. He is Mia’s passenger. I won’t say much about it because like I said, the books are more enjoyable the less you know about them, but Mister Kindly is made of shadows and has been with Mia since the day her life became hell. There are no words to describe how much I love this cat that is not a cat. He sometimes managed to make Mia see things differently and even when I doubted of his motives, at the end I understood that he loves Mia so much, he just wanted the best for her and to see her happy. He was also very fun to read, which only made my love for him grow and grow. This is one of my favorite things he says to Mia in book one:

“… i think you had best visit the weaver after the boy…”

“And why’s that?”

“… your brain and ovaries seem to have switched places…”

I wouldn’t recommend this series to people that doesn’t like violence, reading about vengeance and that might be triggered by topics such as murder, death and things like that. The content is not for everyone, even more so for young readers because of the language and some sexual scenes.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the whole series.

“The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us.”

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“If you can’t hurt the ones who hurt you, sometimes hurting anyone will do.”

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“Some answers are learned. But the important ones are earned.”

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“The brightest flames burn out the fastest. But in them, there is a warmth that can last a lifetime.”

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“That’s the power of words: twenty-six little letters can paint a whole universe.”

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“To live in the hearts we leave behind is to never die.”

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“We are not made more by the stories we read, but by the stories we share.”

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The next two quotes feel like a punch to my heart, each for a different reason.

“But I would strike a thousand bargains with the Night for one more moment with you. I’d die a thousand deaths and defy them all, just to hold you in my arms one more time.”

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“”Only forever?”

“Forever and ever.””

Overall, it was a very entertaining story and it certainly left a mark on me. I can’t say it is one of my favorite series ever, but I was very pleased with the books and I’m very happy I decided to finally read them. Even with how dangerous Itreya might be, I’m very interested in visiting it some time.

I gave the three books 4 stars each. Like I said, there were moments when I was bored and felt like the story was only getting longer without a reason.

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And this is it for my review. In the comments tell me if you have read the series, or Nevernight at least, and what did you think of it.

Until the next post!

Happy reading 💙