I didn’t have much interest in him in the beginning, but he became a crucial part of the story as he became more solid (the irony is not lost on me). It takes a while for Vince to open up and become a solid character, which Black executed well. It takes a lot to like Charlie, but in the end we all have enough darkness to relate.

Like all of her main characters, Charlie is an underdog with a low opinion of herself brought on by a past built full of people that were too flawed (or maybe too human) to teach her differently. I feel like she explored that more in this story. Just what I was expecting, but maybe not for allĪll of Black’s books have this gritty darkness to them, drawing out the shadows of her characters’ thoughts. “No one writes like Holly Black.” (John Green, number-one New York Times best-selling author) “Black is a master at world-building.” ( The New York Times Book Review) Remember while you listen, light isn’t playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister-all desperate to control the magic of the shadows. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires.īut when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear-and at worst, nonexistent. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden-a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms.Ĭharlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading.

You can alter someone’s feelings-and memories-but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences-but also to increase power and influence. Number-one New York Times best-selling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies in the vein of Ninth House and The Night Circus

Book of night by holly black