{Blog Tour} Book Review: Nevernight - Jay Kristoff

Title: Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1)

Author: Jay Kristoff

Release Date: August 9th 2016

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: ARC for blog tour / purchased

Goodreads

Destined to destroy empires, Mia Covere is only ten years old when she is given her first lesson in death.

Six years later, the child raised in shadows takes her first steps towards keeping the promise she made on the day that she lost everything.

But the chance to strike against such powerful enemies will be fleeting, so if she is to have her revenge, Mia must become a weapon without equal. She must prove herself against the deadliest of friends and enemies, and survive the tutelage of murderers, liars and demons at the heart of a murder cult.

The Red Church is no Hogwarts, but Mia is no ordinary student.

The shadows love her. And they drink her fear.

The last book I read before Nevernight was in July. July. God, I am officially in a reading slump. So when I got this book in the mail and saw how big it was, I was intimidated, to say the least. I even remember thinking, "There's no way I'm going to like this book," as I wondered how I was going to fit reading it into my busy schedule.

The story begins with Mia, a girl who can wield shadows. She is born into wealth, until one day when her father is charged with treason and she is taken from her mother. Left for dead, she survives only with the help of a shadow cat. She comes across a man who teaches her everything she needs to know about using the power she was born with, and with his help, she will become the person she needs to be to avenge her family.

"But I'd still rather be called a cunt than a cock any turn."

Nevernight started out intense, and I understand how it may put off some readers. It can be a bit confusing, but to someone who's used to reading high fantasy, this is nothing new to me. There was this feeling of mystery that was kept all throughout the book, something I really enjoyed, because I like knowing that I don't know anything of what's going to happen when I read a book. Another thing I liked was how dark this book was. Especially with this reading slump I'm in, this theme is something that kept me interested.

Another thing I liked was the main character, Mia. She's fierce and brave, and she's not one of the reckless, "Nothing can kill me" type of hero who mindlessly faces enemies. She knows when her foe is stronger than her, and she knows that her life is more important than her pride.

"Never flinch." A cold whisper in her ear. "Never fear. And never, ever forget."

All in all, Nevernight is a very nice choice of book for someone who doesn't know just what to read to get out of a reading slump. Maybe that's just me, but high fantasy has always been my go-to genre when I can't choose what to read. This is a great beginning to a new YA fantasy series, and I'm surely looking forward to reading the next!

RATING:

{Blog Tour} Book Review + Giveaway: Stormdancer - Jay Kristoff

Hey, guys! Welcome to my stop for the Stormdancer blog tour organized by Pinoy Book Tours!

Title: Stormdancer (The Lotus War #1)

Author: Jay Kristoff

Release Date: September 18th 2012

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: finished copy borrowed from Dianne of Oops! I Read A Book Again

Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository

Griffins are supposed to be extinct. So when Yukiko and her warrior father Masaru are sent to capture one for the Shogun, they fear that their lives are over. Everyone knows what happens to those who fail him, no matter how hopeless the task.

But the mission proves far less impossible, and far more deadly, than anyone expects – and soon Yukiko finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in her country's last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled griffin for company. But trapped together in the forest, Yukiko and Buruu soon discover a friendship that neither of them expected.

Meanwhile, the country around them verges on the brink of collapse. A toxic fuel is slowly choking the land; the omnipotent, machine-powered Lotus Guild is publicly burning those they deem Impure; and the Shogun cares about nothing but his own dominion. Yukiko has always been uneasy in the shadow of power, when she learns the awful truth of what the Shogun has done, both to her country and to her own family she's determined to do something about it.

Returning to the city, Yukiko and Buruu plan to make the Shogun pay for his crimes – but what can one girl and a flightless griffin do against the might of an empire?

One negative review was all it took to turn me off from reading Stormdancer around the time it was released. It mentioned the overuse of Japanese words and whatnot, and I knew I'd have a problem with this book. But when PBT announced that they were organizing this tour, I thought, why the hell not? 

And I'm glad I gave it a chance.

A lot of people had a hard time getting past the beginning of this book, and I'm one of them. The first hundred pages were a struggle, wordy but with little action; I actually dozed off after every two chapters or so, but even with those breaks, I missed no detail. I thoroughly understood each of the numerous characters and could clearly envision the dystopian world polluted by proud leaders, blackened rain, smothering air, and cowardly tyrants parading around in iron suits. Anyway, as soon as I got past Part 1 (there are three, if I remember correctly), this book got infinitely better and I started devouring it.

Aside from Yukiko, the MC, a few other characters had their share of narrating. As someone who's read three of the A Song of Ice and Fire books, that didn't daunt me, but my aforementioned splattering of Japanese words did. Well, it irritated me, to be exact. They were often unnecessary to the story, and my life-long affinity for everything Japanese was the only reason why it didn't confuse me. If you've watched a decent amount of Samurai X, I reckon you'll be fine, too.

Yukiko is one of those all-around likable main characters. She wields her katana like it's nobody's business and stands up for what she believes is right, even when faced with the impossible. But even then, she's still a normal sixteen-year-old who can get wounded and fancies boys. Her transformation throughout this book is remarkable, hardening her already tough spirit, and she made me facepalm only once with her romance with the green-eyed samurai (Don't even ask me how he, a lordling from an elite family so there's no freaking way he's bi-racial, got those green eyes.) Mad love wasn't what they had—it was mad lust.

Perhaps the other main character in Stormdancer is Buruu, the mythic creature that ended up becoming Yukiko's closest friend and companion. At first he was a beast with a mind sharper than the other animals, but his time with Yukiko made him almost like a human in thoughts. Watching him and Yukiko slowly learn to trust and care for each was fun and endearing.

Plot-wise, Stormdancer wasn't as complex as I'd hoped it would be, and I attribute its length to the clutter that was the prose. Still, its story is a fun, unpredictable adventure that I enjoyed, and I will surely make time for the sequel in the future.

MY FAVORITE PART is Yukiko and her father's bittersweet team-up in the ending.

RATING:

 

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