Nightfall
Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski
On the island, there are 14 years of light followed by 14 years of night. When the night years come, the villagers leave the island as quickly as they can – but leave everything behind as if there are unknown people returning to their homes. Marin doesn’t understand – but she knows that when Line goes missing she and Kana will have to be the ones to save him from the dark.
Marin! You great idiot. What were you thinking? You caused alllllllll of those issues. And then you wonder why people are mad. I guess you do sort of redeem yourself.
Ooohh, I didn’t see one of the big twists coming. Eeei! I get so excited just remembering back to it. I guess that was the turning point of the novel, and after that the surprises sort of ended, but there was still some movement. Just not as much as I might have desired.
The blurb on this book is great (in comparison to some others I have read lately). It doesn’t give too much away, and it lets the authors build suspense naturally. You really don’t know what is coming next. Honestly, the blurb didn’t make me excited to read it, but then I got stuck in it…
I totally understood the side of the woods’ monsters. And I couldn’t understand why the villagers wanted to come back for the days of light. What’s wrong with living in the desert? It can’t be that bad if you survive 14 years there.
The ending left me lonely and sad, and not knowing what would happen next. What will Kana do? Line and Marin have their lives all good to go (you know, since they are in love and there’s a whole bunch of other things in the way that will be fine), but Kana has nothing.
I’m giving this 4 stars. I found myself unable to put it down. It called to me. It’s not 5 stars though, because now that I know the ending, there is nothing left for me.
Some lines were truly funny, and required sharing with my partner, my workmates, the wider world! But others were thought-provoking and hard to take in. It reminded me in some way of 
There’s not much I can really say here, it is such a tiny little volume. I snaffled it up in around a half-hour. The action is fast-moving, and tries to keep your attention that way. I did drift off at points, but I think that’s just me.
There’s little bit of swapping between perspectives when they are all fighting in the Dream, which is not highlighted by different chapter breaks. This still works though because it feels like you distinctly stepped between each character in different places.
This novel had some fantastic laugh out loud parts that I couldn’t help sharing with my partner. And then she laughed as well. I really enjoyed it for those moments, and the language twists and the sheer absurdity of the fights that take place.
This novel was slow. Very, very slow. The first half of the novel happened, and nothing had happened. The princess they set out to see isn’t all that exciting. I thought she might be in peril! And additionally, 2/3 explorers already knew who she was.
The synopsis might not set you on fire, but I’d advise jumping right in anyway. The front cover might make you feel like it’s just for cutsie little kiddies, but really it isn’t. There are real issues being explored, it’s just that the backdrop is of fantastic dragons!
Max’s unique mature mindset makes it possible for the author to expose monstrosities in a matter-of-fact manner that nonetheless touch the reader and leaves them thinking about humans in general. Sometimes it felt like there was too much to absorb.
Normally I couldn’t tell you the names of half the characters, but the advantage of this novel being pretty much from Monica’s perspective (which is limited to dealing with people as she can’t really go out very much) meant that I got a good solid grasp of them in my mind. When the perspective changes up, you still don’t know the whole story or a truth.
If you are squeamish, this isn’t the novel for you. Apart from the part about eyeballs, which is my personal phobia and that I skipped over, I can say the horror was visceral.