And the style will either win you over and make you hugely admire Jay Kristoff for having the guts to write however the fuck he wanted – or it really won’t. When I first started reading, I was tempted to call it bad writing.

The way that Jay Kristoff writes these books is incredibly specific.

But the main reason why these books just won’t be for everyone is the writing style. First of all, there is a lot of violence, sex, swearing etc. It took me a good four or five hours of the first audiobook to really get into it – and then I was hooked, but it could easily have gone the other way. I completely understand why some people wouldn’t get on with these books. The number one thing that I would like to say to anyone thinking of reading this series is – it is not for everyone. To become an assassin or “blade” within the Red Church is no mean feat – after all, the church is literally founded on murder – and we follow Mia as she trains, finds out more about the organization that she is striving to join and continues to seek her revenge. We meet her as she is seeking out The Red Church, a cult of assassins devoted to The Mother of Night or Our Lady of Blessed Murder, alongside her shadow-daemon – a cat made of shadows called Mister Kindly. Mia was forced to watch her father’s execution at the hands of the country’s leading figures and she is determined to avenge her familia. So, what is this series about? The first book introduces us to Mia Corvere, a young woman living in an Italian-inspired fantasy world where it is almost never night because of the three suns which hang in the sky. I need to join a bookclub ASAP so I can make them read the Nevernight Chronicles and discuss spoilers with them but, for now, we’ll keep things spoiler free. I wanted to write a full series review to mark my finishing the trilogy and to get all of my (non-spoiler) thoughts down.

It was such a brilliant conclusion but, whilst I think that how Jay Kristoff wrapped everything up was brilliantly done, my heart is definitely not okay. This series took me completely my surprise this year and I have barely been a functional human since finishing Darkdawn a few days ago. I haven’t felt this attached to a book series or a cast of characters since Harry Potter (not that Nevernight shares literally any similarities with Harry Potter – they are very, very different books and that’s putting it mildly). The Nevernight Chronicles are quite possibly deserving of the title of my new favorite fantasy series.

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