Night Shine

Book Title: Night Shine

Author: Tessa Gratton

Date Started: August 21st 2020

Date Completed: August 26th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to the author for this eBook copy for review ◆

I loved another of Gratton's novels, The Queens of Innis Lear, when I read it a few years ago and while I can see the stylistic similarities, Night Shine was not for me in the end. I was unsure to begin with but gave it a good chance, and then another, and another; I kept pushing through to halfway, but when I got to that midway point and felt like my original concerns were still very much at the forefront of my reading experience, I decided to move on to something else.

I know that my biggest problem with this book was the protagonist. 'Nothing' was just... not enough to lead it. She's flat and detached, overly theatrical at times when she's supposed to be saving the day out of nowhere, and totally inconsistent. She feels like a ten-year-old and that doesn't develop through the first 50% of the book at all, and it's honestly uncomfortable when all the other characters feel so much more mature and have a great deal of power over her. She also doesn't seem to understand the hierarchies or magic system of her own world past 'demons exist' which makes it impossible for us to.

While I do applaud the LGBT+ inclusion in Night Shine, I am left feeling conflicted about its representation. Kirin, the crown prince, gets his bodyguard to pretend he's a woman while they're away from the castle (that's not a spoiler, it's in the first chapter) - the book seems to imply that Kirin is transgender (more than somewhere else on the spectrum) but continues to refer to the character as 'he' for as much as I read. I honestly would've felt happier if Kirin was referred to as 'she' in the prose, even if the characters had a hard time switching from the male pronouns.

Furthermore, the relationships between Nothing, Kirin and Sky (the bodyguard) straight-up confused me; if it's supposed to be a love triangle, okay, or a three-way situation, fine, but I couldn't work out what the hell it was. And, again, when Nothing feels so much younger and candid than the men it's confusing and a little uncomfortable for me when she seems to be totally at the whim of these boys who feel older and more mature (it's less about her being immature, and more about the emotional power status the men have over her seemingly without her knowing). None of this is helped by the fact that from the very first page both Nothing and Sky have this absolute blind faith and idolistic love in this prince that we have never met and yet are supposed to immediately fall in love with.

I've read a few other people say that they didn't understand the story, and I kind of agree. I love the quest structure and the fairytale-esque style (it's very Snow Queen, East of the Sun West of the Moon, maybe even a little Bluebeard), but the actual goal of the story is so scrambled (and the protagonist doesn't seem to have one herself but is buffeted along a tide of what other people want) that it was hard to follow the purpose of scenes and events. The writing style, I have no problem with. In fact, I really like the dreamy detached narration, I just found it hard to picture what it was narrating. The story just takes a long time to get going and then moves in stops and starts. As I said, I only got halfway through the book and, while many things had happened, it felt like next to nothing had actually progressed in the story.

I don't really understand why this is being marketed as a queer Howl's Moving Castle. Because it has a witch and a curse in it? There's a lot more to Diana Wynne Jones' book than that. I also think that, while the LGBT+ representation is prevalent, it's pinned most strongly to secondary characters that feel less like they're supporting the protagonist's the story and more like they're put on display (I'm aware of the hints that Nothing herself might get a queer romance, but if there's not a strong direction for that halfway through a book where the story's already grinding, I'm not totally sure I'd enjoy it if/when it did happen).