Tuesday 12 October 2021

Book Review: The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker (YA/Fantasy)

Title: The Keeper of Night
Author: Kylie Lee Baker
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: 12 October 2021
Pages:
364
Format: eBook - EPUB
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Source: ARC via NetGalley

A girl of two worlds, accepted by none… A half Reaper, half Shinigami soul collector seeks her destiny in this haunting and compulsively readable dark fantasy set in 1890s Japan.

Death is her destiny.

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.

When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death…only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side.

 

The Keeper of Night was a dark, action-packed tale that caught my interest right from the first chapter and held it until the end. I loved the premise, especially the way the story delved into Japanese folklore, and the characters were compellingly flawed and morally grey, making them realistic and engaging. The text was easygoing reading, the prose atmospheric, and it was certainly a page-turner. I finished this first book interested to know how things would play out in the next. Recommended if you enjoy the darker end of the spectrum of YA fantasy. It gets 4.5 stars from me.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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