⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Book of Night is a story about Charlie Hall, a low-level con artist, whose world is thrown upside down when someone from her past returns.

“Never met a bad decision she wasn’t willing to double down on.”

This book is one that I’m a bit conflicted about. While I did like what I read, I’m not blown away by it. It had some aspects that I really liked and enjoyed, but also some parts which I struggled to read through.

The world-building and the shadow world/magic were very confusing to me. Honestly, if someone asked me right now, I wouldn’t be able to explain it, despite having read the whole book. Gloamists, quickened shadows and magic, having to feed your shadow pieces of yourself etc. I think it could’ve been written clearer, or maybe it is just me who didn’t understand it haha.

I liked the plot and Charlie being a talented thief and con artist. It made for an interesting character and interesting premise. The book is also clearly an adult book, with different focus points from YA books and Charlie who comes across as an adult due to her mannerism and the way she thinks, I liked that.

The pacing and start were very slow and with the confusing world, I had a hard time continuing the story. The last chapters though were truly amazing. They were exciting and full of plot twists and reveals, which I enjoyed. There were also flash back chapters, which confused me at first, since I hadn’t noticed them being flash backs. They also disrupted the flow of the book for me. It was also really confusing when the flash backs were suddenly from another characters POV.

Charlie is a protagonist, who fell a bit flat to me. A lot of the story revolves around her and what we’re told about her. I would’ve liked to be shown who she was, as in the last part of the book, throughout the whole book instead of being told it repeatedly.

Overall, it was a very slow book with a difficult world to understand, but with an amazingly written ending.