Reviews with content warning for Racism - Her Name Is Knight

The dual perspectives & narration is *chef's kiss*
As you learn who MC is, you learn who she was and how she came to be.

The author explores topics like rape, genocide, slavery juxtaposed against love, family, justice, and forgiveness. I was crying at the end.

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ester_ku's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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vcoutant's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense

4.0

Intense FMC goes through a heinous before to get to a badass after to end at a promising now

Great, complex main characters

Especially loved the audiobook, the difference in diction between before and after

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rinku's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Her Name Is Knight is a really brutal and dark book which gets 3.5 stars from me. I liked the idea behind it a lot and found Nena to be an interesting character, but the violence was sometimes a bit too much for me, and some moments were a bit too predictable. This book includes many triggering topics, like graphic (sexual) violence and death of parents, so please only read this book if you’re in the right headspace for it.

Nena is an assassin, working for the Tribe, an organization that fights for African countries and diaspora. I find this concept just really intriguing and it’s more morally grey which I liked. On one of her missions, she sees a man she has terrible past with and decides that she wants her revenge. The story is told in two timelines; we see this present time story but also a past timeline where we see how Nena became an assassin. This past of Nena is very brutal and disturbing, and it’s so terrible to think about the fact that these kinds of things probably happen in reality as well. The present timeline is not less shocking and brutal, so be prepared. It was so intense how

she shoots the “wrong” guy

. Besides this, I liked the feminist undertones the story has, like Nena rejecting the term “female” for women, and the thematization of colonialism.

My biggest issue with this novel was how predictable the plot became towards the end. It was so obvious that

Paul is the father of Elin’s boyfriend. I didn’t really understand why Nena didn’t just kill him right there when she’s so ruthless. It was also kinda predictable that the bad guys would kidnap Georgia.

. What shocked me though was the reveal that

that Oliver is her brother. Cort’s and Nena’s breakup was sad but also understandable

. I also loved how emotional the final chapter was.

Nena is a really interesting character and also kinda likable. The struggle of her different identities is quite intense: On the one hand, she talks about killing like it’s nothing but on the other hand, she’s focussed on protecting the weak people. I also think that Nena’s trauma was depicted quite well. Besides this, the cast is all Black which was great. Georgia is such a great addition to the cast and Cort is so likable as well.

All in all, Her Name is Knight is a thriller that deals with topics not every thriller does, and has some interesting characters that I can’t wait to read more about.

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mamaofperfectpayton's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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minayana's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was a decent read with a good premise, a great narrator (read at 2x speed) and a refreshing storytelling format. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much as I expected. While reading Her Name is Knight I was also reading Who Fears Death (which was very slow and I didn’t like much) which features the same heavy topics and themes, so unfortunately I feel like I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I would have otherwise.

The Pros

The characters:
I really liked the cast of characters (minus the villains obviously). I loved reading about Nena being accepted into her new family during the “before” chapters, and then Nina taking Georgia under her wing during the “after” chapters.

The storytelling format:
I really enjoyed how the book consistently went back and forth between her backstory and present time, and it created a stark contrast between her life “before” and “after”. Although I love a good backstory reveal, sometimes it’s nice to know from the beginning. This was also a downfall for the book as well. The “before” chapters are brutal and very descriptive, and after all the emotions and despair of those chapters, sometimes the “after” chapters feel boring and don’t bring any emotional impact.

The narrator!
She did a wonderful job, and I especially enjoyed the subtle distinction between when she is voicing a male or female character. Sometimes narrators tend to do too much when voicing the opposite sex, but I thought she did great.

The Cons

Overdramatic writing:
It felt like there was some type of analogy or simile every sentence. Obviously that is a major part of writing as a whole, but for some reason they stood out every time and took me out of the story quite a lot.

Insta-love:
I am usually 50/50 on insta-love, it really depends on how it’s done. Nena deciding she felt an ease with the MMC (can’t remember his name) that she’d never felt before with a man was VERY sudden. I don’t think she even had a full conversation with him before she felt comfortable with him, and for her backstory and her own thoughts stating she’s never felt this way with a man before, it was extremely abrupt.

Overall, if you are considering reading this book I would say give it a shot if you can stomach the contents. It has really heartbreaking themes, which at some points go into pretty graphic detail.

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