Jay Kristoff’s Godsgrave is the second book in the Nevernight Chronicle.
At the tail end of Nevernight, Ashlinn Järnheim, an acolyte of the Red Church, betrayed the Church, leading to the death of countless assassins and destruction of many temples. In the heat of the moment, Mia rescued many of the Red Church’s leaders and earned her place among the Blades of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, but even after several months of faithfully serving the Red Church, many of her superiors disapprove of her status as a Blade. Things only get worse when those same supervisors declares Consul Scaeva, the man who played a part in the death of Mia’s family, untouchable. She reluctantly obeys these orders until an old enemy gifts her with suspicions about the Red Church’s motives. Mia decides to betray the Red Church’s orders and exact her revenge on Consul Scaeva at the conclusion of the grand games in Godsgrave on the spiritual day of Truelight.
Like a vengeful wraith, Mia Corvere returns to the series with an insatiable thirst for vengeance. Becoming a Blade of the Red Church and killing for them has not mitigated her desire to see Consul Scaeva’s blood flow from a deadly injury. When her superiors forbid her from killing Scaeva, she steels herself to betray the Red Church and find another way to end the despicable tyrant. To do this, she sells herself to a gladiatorial collegium, but in doing this, she got far more than she bargained for. Throughout this book, she places many moral and sexual challenges. Her plan requires her to infiltrate and betray a group of people who she fights, bleeds, and bathes with daily, a group that share their histories and treats her like family, a group that makes her question her beliefs about her worldview, a group that transforms from pawns to partners. Godsgrave is a fantastic sequel. First things first, this book includes a noninvasive recap of important characters from the Nevernight. This is extremely helpful to those who read Nevernight a year ago and easy for binge-reading bookworms to ignore. This simple summary is a wonderful tool, that doesn’t intrude on or slow the down the book’s rocket fast plot progression that begins from chapter one.
Like its predecessor, the book jumps unflinchingly into action with two stories that alternate between past and present, but unlike it, both stories are fast paced, enthralling stories. The book carries this intensity throughout, even magnifying it as it approaches the conclusion.
Adding to the list of improvements, the footnotes are back better than ever before. In the previous book, the pacing and narration was weighed down with tons of exposition that while necessary, is endlessly boring. Even when the exposition faded, the book had a bad habit of picking some of the worst times to have a footnote, often detracting from the story. However, in this book, all the comments were spot on. Some were informative, all were sarcastic. Some made you want to laugh, others made you want to kill something, either way, they were treat and an enjoyable part to the story.
Another enjoyable change was the inclusion of memorable characters. In Nevernight, most of the 28 acolytes were never named and few of them had anything resembling a personality. In Godsgrave, the characters are much more well-rounded. Many have unique personalities that made the standout and received backstories that emotionally tied them to both Mia and the readers. Every character had a story to tell, that not only expanded the reader’s knowledge of Itreya, but expanded Mia’s knowledge as well.
It is important to note that, despite being young, Mia still curses like a sailor. These curses are emulated by many members of the collegium and unavoidable along with Mia’s sexual exploits.
This 421 page book earns 5 stars.
The Nevernight Chronicle
In a world illuminated by three suns. true darkness only falls once every 2 and a half years. In this life of light, many worship the sun goddess of light and goodness. Only the assassins of the Red Church worship the goddess of darkness in the shadows.