Book of Night

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

#1 New York Times bestselling 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

In Charlie Hall's world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences-but also to increase power and influence. 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. 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.

And sometimes, it has a life of its own.

Charlie 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. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires.

But 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, non-existent. 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.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn't playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

'Black is a master at world-building.' The New York Times Book Review
'No one writes like Holly Black.' John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author

© Holly Black 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

  • With a gripping, perfectly paced story and a killer ending, this dark fantasy feels like an instant classic

    Guardian

  • Dark, strange, thick with mystery and twists — a story so believable in its magic, you’ll be keeping one eye on your shadow as you turn the pages.

    Leigh Bardugo, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ninth House

  • If Neil Gaiman channelled Stephen King, the result might be this book . . . scintillating prose, whiplash twists, and a voice of character that demands to be heard from again.

    James Rollins, New York Times bestseller of The Starless Crown

  • Holly Black is a master of fantasy with the Midas touch — there is no story she cannot turn to gold.

    V.E. Schwab, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

  • Superb, entangling magic and mystery around the gritty horrors of human nature, neglectful parenting and the scourge of severe income inequalities . . . Will have you frantically turning pages and finishing in less time than you thought possible. Everything you could want from a modern fantasy.

    SFX

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