Oh, Nevernight, where do I begin to praise your excellence?

Let's start at the very beginning...

From the outset, Jay Kristoff promises us a bloody, murderous and uncompromising story. A story comprised, I must warn you, of much blood and gore, a lot of violence, persistent use of strong language and spattered with some very excplicit sexual descriptions (not your average YA). If that doesn't catch your eye then Nevernight probably won't be the book for you. But if that fills you with excitement then what are you waiting for?

Never flinch. Never fear. Never forget.

Mia Corvere is a girl with cold-hearted revenge in her soul. Orphaned at a young age after the hanging of her father and imprisonment of her mother and younger sibling, Mia narrowly escapes her own death. After being brought back from the brink by her mentor and spending years training in the bloody arts of the murder, Mia embarks on a journey to seek her revenge and battle her way to the top of the deadliest assassins at the Red Church. Mia is everything I love in a character. She is strong, she is centred, she is determined, she is passionate, she is independent and, despite everything, she cares. She is so real and her character was incredibly well developed. Her language leaves little to the imagination and if cursing offends you then I urge you not to pick this book up. I loved everything about her from the very beginning right up to the very last page. I can't remember the last time I willed on a character as much as I did Mia. Believe me, it wasn't an easy journey. Kristoff threw in as many curve balls as he could to throw Mia off task and as a reader I relished every challenge she faced.

There was also plenty to like about the many other Acolytes in the book. I actually really liked Tric and was really glad to learn more about his background.

I was actually very saddened by his death but I LOVE that Mia avenged him at the end.

Another character I loved was Ash. Another strong, unrelenting female character? Yes, please! There were many sides to her character and I loved the idea of her being the cheeky one.

I, personally, was not expecting the curveball that Kristoff threw into her character development! Maybe others did but I was blindsided because I liked her so much and doted on her relationship with Mia. But I LOVED the arc and thought it made a lot of sense.

I loved the rivalry between Mia and Jessamine. It made sense that Jessamine felt the way she did about Mia and I always felt a little on edge whenever her character was mentioned in a scene with her. Hush was a sneaky little devil too.

I absolutely LOVED everything about the Red Church. I thought each of the Shahiid's were interesting, my favourite was Spiderkiller, despite not knowing an awful lot about her. It reminded me of a much, much more deadly version of Hogwarts. The training and challenges were relentless and bloody: everything I had been promised from this book. Whilst some of the descriptions were extremely violent and made me flinch on occasion, I loved how real this made the world feel.

My only slight down point on this book was that it did take me a little while to get into at first. The writing style is very heavy at the beginning and it's not particularly easy to read. Whether this changed throughout the book or whether I got used to it, I'm not sure. But a few chapters in and I was totally hooked and unable to put it down. I actually grew to really love the use of footnotes. They made the main body of the text less of an information dump and that way I felt myself really thrown into the world Kristoff had created. I also liked the flickers back to Mia's past as they really helped to build and establish her character and personality.

I could go on and on about how much I loved this book but the only real way for you to understand is to immerse yourself in the story. Push through those slow opening chapters and you'll get a real treat, I promise! This is an action-packed, extremely bloody and fantastic story that I certainly will not forget. Jay Kristoff, I applaud you and cannot wait to see where you take us and Mia Corvere on her next adventure. Incredible!