A Book and a Cup of Coffee: the nevernight chronicle

book playlist

Hello hello everyone! If you've been around my blog and Twitter in the last few weeks, you'll know just exactly how much a little book called Nevernight has totally and utterly destroyed me. As one does, I took to the interwebs to express my emotional despair to the one and only creator of this world and the characters within. I got to chatting with Mister Kristoff himself and reached out to him for an interview. He kindly obliged, huzzah! Yeah. I just said "huzzah"...

Nonetheless, below you will find my questions in black and Jay's answers in blood red, of course!

Huge thanks to Jay for taking the time to chat with me about his book.

You can find my review here, and find Nevernight for preorder on Amazon, The Book Depository, and add it to your TBR on Goodreads.

Nevernight is released into the world on August 9th.

· The mythology and world building of Nevernight is so deeply fleshed out and intricately detailed, the world within the book feels so familiar and yet is wholly unique. What influenced you the most when creating the world Mia lives in, and how long did it take you to really lay out the foundation of this universe? What this book has made me think of most similarly are video games such as Assassin's Creed, Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, and Skyrim; yet the imagery and mythology, everything down to the social hierarchy is still so unique.

If you look to the heart of them, most great SciFi/Fantasy worlds have one key difference that defines them above all others. A Song of Ice and Fire has a weather cycle where summer and winter last for years at a time, Dune has the Spice Melange, Name of the Wind has Sympathy. In Nevernight, the key difference is the day night cycle, which sees around two and half years of daylight followed by a couple of weeks of nighttime. That one difference influenced everything in the world—religion particularly, but also the economics, politics, and day to day (or turn to turn) life of the average citizen.

It took me around two years to really get the world right. I’ve been writing Nevernight on and off since 2012.

· The Great Twitter Genre Debate of July 2016 has certainly branded Nevernight as a wholly unique book. Pubbed by an Adult imprint with a 16 year old main character and certainly full of mature themes, Nevernight is quite daring in some circles and can almost be branded as a pioneer to the literary world. What is your stance on what constitutes a YA book, and is there something you want your readers (of all ages) to take away from this debate?

It’s a good question, with a pretty long and complicated answer. YA means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but in truth, there is only two common elements across any YA book you can find out there:

The MC is a teenager.
The publisher says it’s a YA book.

That’s it. There are no genre conventions that unite YA books. They’re not all:

· Coming of age books (eg, Katniss in tHG—at the start of the book, she’s already the primary caregiver for her family, and has views about herself, her government, and the the system she lives in which don’t change at all. She doesn’t “come of age”, she’s already functioning as an adult).

· Books that deal with teen issues (again, what “teen issues” is Katniss dealing with in tHG?)

YA isn’t a genre. It certainly isn’t a rating system. YA doesn’t mean PG. Books are YA because their publishers say they are. YA is a concept that exists by fiat. It’s a demographic, marketed to by publishing houses.

What would I like readers to take away from the debate? READ WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT.

· I notice you're a big rock music fan! I always try to put together my own playlist or "soundtrack" for a book when I read, and Nevernight is quite the beast to tackle for this purpose. What artists, bands, and albums did you listen to the most while writing? Or are you someone who prefers instrumental music or silence while writing?

I do listen to a lot of rock, but not often while I’m actually writing—the lyrics pull me out of my own words. So the music I listened to most while writing NN is by an Italian pianist named Ludovico Einaudi. He’s brilliant. Sweeping, wonderful, dark, beautiful stuff. I couldn’t have written the book without him. Key tracks would be Primavera, Divenire and particularly, Eros (which I think of as Mia’s theme song).

But I listen to a bunch of heavy bands while brainstorming. Big influences on NN were Bring Me the Horizon, Tool, Karnivool and Type O Negative.

· Side note: I totally imagine you as a My Chemical Romance fan. If my intuition is correct, which album is your favorite and why?

Yeah I love MCR. J Such a shame they broke up. It’s The Black Parade for me, all the way. That album is just wall to wall great. I think I actually got a bit misty eyed the first time I heard the song Welcome to the Black Parade. That band had The Feels.

(The Black Parade is my favorite album as well!)
You're so interactive with your readers when it comes to social media. Is this part of the job description or your decision to bring the work and your audience closer together? And is it something of a full-time job as a result? I know your readers certainly appreciate the contact, it makes the work seem that much more real and not like some faceless, nameless android suddenly spawned a book.

I do really try and engage with everyone. I really love talking with readers and meeting them on tour. It gets harder and harder as time goes on and I get more followers, though, because as lovely as it to chat with you guys, I’m sure you’d rather I wrote you more books! J

I tend to do my twitter replies in big bursts lately, when I have a chunk of free time. I might go quiet for a couple of days, then take a train ride to the city and tackle hundreds of @’s in one hit. So don’t be worried if I don’t respond right away.

· How does writing something so detailed alone compare to writing with Amie, for instance? Aside from the obvious co-author split of ideas and having someone to constantly bounce ideas off of, and whatnot. And on that note, when writing with Amie on the Illuminae Files, who do you find is the "good cop" writer and who is the "bad cop"? That is to say, who does the most character killing and heart-wrenching scenes, and who does the most heartwarming cheerful scenes? I think your readers certainly have a good idea of who is who, but would you set the record straight?

It’s harder working alone, to be sure. Writing is a really solitary job, and that’s become even more apparent after working with Amie. Writing alone, you need to lay down swathes of work before you can show anyone, and you’re often feeling like you’re fumbling in the dark. Fortunately, I have an awesome wife who’s the most well-read person I know and I bounce ideas off her constantly.

I tend to be the Bad Cop between me and Amie. I lean darker, and she’s far more positive and enthusiastic, which I think is why we work well as a team—our strengths complement each other, and we challenge each other’s ideas.

But all that said, don’t be fooled—Amie has come up with her share of brutal stuff too J

· How does writing high fantasy right after coming off Gemina feel? Was it an easy switch to make, or did you have to remind yourself what you were doing?

I tend to work better when I have multiple balls in the air. I’ve found if I get stuck on one project, it’s good to have another one to switch gears to. Your brain is a wonderful machine—it can solve problems even when you’re not consciously thinking of them. So having other projects to jump into when you’re struggling is a huge help.

· What is your writing process usually like — lots of careful planning and storyboarding, or are you a "pantser" who writes by the seat of your pants? As such, what advice would you impart onto writers young and old who are just starting out?

I think of myself as a Join-the-Dotser. I have a rough idea of key conflict points or scenes, and usually know vaguely how the novel will end, but often I’m not sure how I’ll get there. So it’s a matter of taking those key scenes and joining the dots between them. We have to plot far more intensively on co-authored work though.

Advice to young writers—finish the book. There are a million first chapters out there. Not quite as many final chapters.

· Lastly, what is one thing you want your readers to take away from Nevernight as our wait for book two begins?

Never flinch. Never fear. Never forget.

~~~~~

arc review

ARC Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

3:29:00 PM

Genre: Fantasy, ???

Publication Date: August 9, 2016 by Thomas Dunne Books (US release date)

Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars

I was given this book at ALA Annual Conference by MacMillan Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (From Goodreads): The first in a new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author.

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

You know when you pick up a book, and once you start it you just can't tear yourself away from it? When you're not reading it, it's all that's on your mind. And when you're so close to the end you know there's no turning back, not until you reach the very last page — even if that means staying up well past midnight to do so. And when you're finished, you feel like you've just spent the last few days with a good friend and now their absence is more pronounced. What's more, the wait for the next book becomes excruciating and it is all-consuming as the only book you can think of is this one, and you need to know what comes next, you need another couple hundred pages for your hunger to truly be satiated.

That's what Nevernight did to me. And I've spent days looking for the right words to do it justice in a review, but truth be told it doesn't work that way; it's simply not that easy. Because this book was 5 stars across the board. Right from the first chapter when dual perspectives of the same person narrated the action, comparing what it's like to have sex for the first time to what one's first kill is like, I knew I was hooked. Mia's quest to avenge her family has only just begun, and as we slowly learn more and more about this peculiar girl's past, we realize her plans for vengeance may shift as her future is evolving into something unexpected. Oh, and did I mention Mia is this think called darkin? In a world ruled by sunlight, a rare few possess the intense and unique power of heralding a second shadow; a familiar, of sorts, taking the form of a sentient companion made of nothing but the absence of light, as darkin are in touch with the darkness and can manipulate the shadows around them.

The story takes places in a world where 3 suns cycle through the skies, ruling the heavens only to set once every two years and change, when the dark of night can truly come out to play for a little while. You see, Nevernight is unlike any other fantasy book I've read. Ever. The mythology is so completely unique and fleshed out in such a way it still feels organic; and yet it belongs in a video game or on the set of a movie, it's that cinematic. Everything from the social hierarchy to the system of government to the colloquialisms within the language are so incredibly well thought out. Loosely inspired by Italian culture and themes, Godsgrave certainly shows parallels to the Venice we know today. Video games were a major source of comparison for me while reading. The social system and fashion style is reminiscent of that in the game Dishonored. The mythology aspect reminds me a great deal of the Black Books quest line in the Dragonborn DLC of Skyrim, and the order of assassins in Nevernight is reminiscent of the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim too. Bioshock Infinite and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood also exist in the same vein of fantasy as this story does. It's a heart-pounding read with never a dull moment. The first chapter or two were a little slow to get into, but only because of the information overload you were hit with as a new reader being introduced to a world and characters so unique and deeply concepted. Once you catch onto the swing of the narrator's rhythm and pay attention to the footnotes, you're immediately immersed in an unforgettable story.

There is a duality in the setting of Itreya and the Red Church, as well as a stark contrast between the constant turns (days) that mark the passage of time, and the seldom truedark (nights) that occur only once every so often. The religions within the novel are based upon the 3 suns, their ever-presence, and the rare beast of nighttime. The main character Mia, though only 16, is on her way to becoming one of the most revered and feared assassins in Itreya as she pays her tithe and is granted entrance to the elite Red Church: a Hogwarts for assassins, of sorts; if Hogwarts was in the middle of a desert surrounded by deadly man-eating, many-tentacled beasts and trained young assassins in the wicked arts of murder, thievery, and deceit, instead of polishing young wizards and witches into great sorcerers. Though don't be mistaken, there are sorcerers in this book as well. But what Harry and his friends do by wielding wands, these sorcerers are learned in blood werking and flesh weaving magicks.

But I digress. It is within the walls of the Red Church that Mia truly comes into her own and is honed to her full potential as she competes to be one of the four in her class to be granted the coveted spot as a Blade, an assassin for the church who carries out death sentences in the name of the Mother of Night, the goddess Niah. We follow Mia's journey from a young girl hell-bent on revenge to a weapon whose wit and dagger are equally as deadly. Mia is confident and tough, sarcasm is her favorite weapon, she's fearless and headstrong. She owns her sexuality and is unafraid to go after whatever — or whomever — she wants. Most of all, she is a heroine who is as multifaceted and dimensional as they come.

I won't promise a happy ending because if you know Jay Kristoff, you know he doesn't believe in those. I won't promise a swoon-worthy romance story of two star-crossed lovers; but I can promise the steamiest scenes you'll ever set eyes on. I can't promise you'll walk away from this book unscathed if you can't handle a little blood, (much less a whole pool full of it, for that matter) because after all, this is a book about ruthless assassins training to take lives. I won't promise a bland story that makes you feel the warm and fuzzies, because that's a far cry from the heart-pounding emotional rollercoaster and nonstop action this book entails.

There's action and adventure, there is romance and passion, mythology as unique as it comes and the setting to match, there's a cat made of shadowstuff; I promise you will never read anything like Nevernight.

And most importantly...

Never flinch. Never fear. Never forget.

Playlist: Nevernight

A Chat with JAY KRISTOFF!

ARC Review: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Pages