I'm really torn on this one.

Book of Night is Holly Black's first foray into adult fiction. It's an urban fantasy, with shadow magic.

The world building is patchy. I'm still not entirely sure how it all works, and the overall structure of the magic world. I felt lost a fair few times, thinking I had missed info because I didn't understand bits of shadow magic but I'm not sure it's explained in the best way. The pacing was a *bit* off - the first half quite slow ans not really getting going until the second half.

But, as with other Black novels I've read, it's the characters who make the book for me. I really liked reading about Charlie Hall. She was fun, and reckless. I like reading about broke FMCs struggling to make a living and the dodgy decisions they are forced to make.

I loved Vince, there was not enough of him in this for me.

The ending was a bit of a sucker punch - I guessed the twist a while before we got there, but the ending was *mean*.

It was a patchy thing I think but overall I had a great time reading this and it was led by interesting characters for me.