I would like to be reinstated as a book detective because I saw that plot twist coming from a mile away.

Book of Night is Holly Black's debut into the adult fantasy world, and it's quite a different vibe (urban fantasy) than The Cruel Prince (YA high fantasy). To be fair, I also wasn't a huge fan of The Cruel Prince, but Netgalley put this book back up to read for free, so I snagged it thinking it would force me to read it and then I could take it off my TBR. In hindsight, it was pretty low on my TBR, and I probably should have left it go because urban fantasy isn't typically my thing, but I took a chance on this book, and it didn't really pay off. I also want to mention that some of my problems with pacing might be because the PDF I received from Netgalley had some formatting/spelling errors that made some sections difficult to read.

One of my biggest issues is that not only does the blurb provide any idea of what the plot might be about, but the first 50% of the story is relatively directionless. We meet Charlie, a young woman who has a not-so-happy past that is consistently dumped on the reader through entire chapters that basically act as flashbacks. She's a bartender who used to do some not-so-savory jobs for not-so-savory people, and now that past is catching up to her. At almost exactly the halfway point, we get introduced to a new job for Charlie, aka stealing the Book of Night. There were parts of the plot that I enjoyed; I thought parts of Charlie's backstory were unique and interesting, I liked the mystery behind Vince's past, and the last 20% or so was definitely way more enticing. I think this book had good ideas, but poor pacing that left it feeling like it was lacking in execution. This felt way longer than 300 pages because the first half was such a slow read, but then there were also some sections that went by so fast I felt like I missed things. I thought the plot twist was interesting, but I called it from one of the early flashback chapters (and not even just parts of the twist, I literally guessed the entire thing). I think the next book has the potential to be interesting, but I just think this one suffered from starting way too early.

I also struggled to get connected to the characters. As much as I thought Charlie had a solid backstory, she didn't intrigue me much as a protagonist. She felt very reluctant to step (back) into the world of magic, which is fine, but she never fully obeyed the call to action, at least in my reading of it. Also, for some reason, I kept picturing her as Vi from Arcane but straight... Vince was probably one of the more interesting characters for me, but he disappeared for a large section of the story. I didn't mind Posey, and I thought her eagerness juxtaposed well with Charlie's hesitance. A lot of the side characters had either really basic or really bizarre names that I struggled to keep track of. It felt a bit difficult to remember who was who, so I didn't really form opinions on the other characters.

I think there is a specific audience for Book of Night (people who love urban fantasy, creative shadow magic, and complex, morally grey female protagonists), but unfortunately, I think it wasn't the book for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-copy!

3.25/5