This review originally appeared on the book review blog: Just One More Pa(i)ge.


“‘Nothing is where you start. Own nothing. Know nothing. Be nothing.’ / ‘Why would I want to do that?’ / […] / His smile made her smile in return. / ‘Because then you can do anything.’”

“Never flinch. Never fear. And never, ever forget.”

Every time I pick up and start a new epic fantasy novel/series, it just feels like coming home. I have really spread my “reading wings” over the past years and found so many books that I have loved from so many different genres, truly. But my first love, my reader origin story, was always fantasy and it’s still my comfort reading zone. Anyways, this series really needs no intro, honestly. It’s super popular and well-known already, so my review(s) likely won’t add anything new to the table. But I am so excited that I am finally picking up these books (especially after loving the co-written Illuminae Files trilogy last year – dang Kristoff is prolific and consistently phenomenal). Bring on the binge read!

So, as a quick summary to start, I’m going to just copy and paste the little one-liner that starts the inside flap blurb. It basically sums up the entire book and, honestly, I just like the way its worded: “In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.” There you have it.

Right, so 10-year-old Mia Corvere saw her father killed, her mother and younger brother hauled away to be imprisoned for like, the rest of forever, and herself stolen away to be silently and secretly murdered. But instead of dying, Mia was found by the shadows (a little cat shadow that she named Mister Kindly, to be more specific…and let’s just take a moment to honor that nomenclature for a murderous, fear-eating shadow being), escaped, and managed to get taken under the wing of a sort of pre-assassin-in-training-trainer. When we really start taking our journey with her, she is off to find this secret school of assassins, haunted by some terrible memories of a discovery she made about her mother’s fate when she was 14, and dead set on doing anything and everything necessary to avenge her family. This, and some other plot-related parts of the novel, are honestly pretty typical of a YA/NA fantasy series. A young female protagonist fighting for something “bigger” than herself (though in this case, I do love that it’s so personal, her scruples are kinda there/not there as it serves her, and it’s not like a big “chosen one/save the world” situation), the “school” aspect, and a very intense hierarchical religious system and schism. Now, that being said, they’re sort of clichés for a reason. It’s a great staring point for a hero/story and, really, looking at Mia’s age, it does make sense that she would need legit training before taking down all these well-guarded and powerful men that she’s pledged herself against. So while they’re things I’ve seen before, they’re a part of the genre I love and they were very well written, developed and executed (pun kinda intended) so it really worked for me.

Other notes: wow can Kristoff pace a novel. I felt like I couldn’t stop reading and at the same time never felt rushed. It was perfect. Also, I loved some of the aspects that added originality to this novel. First, the use of shadows/dark and the kind of “shadow magic” Mia is gifted with. And I said she wasn’t like a typical “chosen one,” even though she’s one of the only people with this particular gift, because I thought it was really cool that the one other person she meets with this power doesn’t seem interested in explaining anything or mentoring her in it and (mini, baby spoiler), doesn’t turn out to not really be helpful anyways, once she does have greater access to him. And the ending makes it clear that she wants to know more and will work to find out, but, I don’t know, I enjoyed that there wasn’t more knowledge about it from any real source. Also, in addition to the obvious fighting and poisoning skills that the assassin students learned in their “school” experience, I enjoyed some of the other foci, like theft/pick-pocketing and seduction/secret-gathering. Those were kind of out of the box as far as assassin work, but totally make sense. Plus, the creepy but totally cool facial reworking to make them less noticeable was a nice touch. And last, possibly greatest, the plot twists! Oh goodness! When reading makes me gaps out loud, that’s a win, for me. I loved it all, even the one that kinda broke my heart a little (though I should have expected it, really, considering the author bio literally says he doesn’t believe in happy endings).

Last comments: this was bloody and bloodthirsty with no holds barred death, basically from everyone towards everyone else. The snark was real, the dialogue was smart, the narrator voice was spot on (and let me just take this moment to share that the footnotes were all spectacular; hilarious in a dark, sarcastic way that I straight loved), Mia is vicious in the best way (but had some minimal softer moments that I appreciated), and I am about to dive into book two immediately, the second I finish writing this final sentence…