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A review by jesi_reads
The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker
2.0
I really wanted to like this book; I got it as my Book of the Month choice for November, because the premise seemed so cool. An agent of death, reaper of souls, stuck between two different worlds thanks to her mixed heritage? On a mission to impress a goddess of death and earn her place in one of the worlds after she's cast out of the first?
So promising, but I still didn't like it.
Ren's entire character is best described as "reactionary." She has very little agency in her own story--a theme that's brought up a few times, by herself, so credit where credit is due--but even with that in mind it's tedious. Things happen to Ren: She does not happen to the story.
The pacing felt strange to me. It starts slow, accelerates randomly with the inciting incident, then slows back to a crawl while Ren literally packs her bag and leaves. Her brother, Neven, comes along with his newly adopted stray cat (the cat is killed within five minutes saving Ren's life for some godforsaken reason) because he loves his sister. Then a huge chunk of time is skipped over for her journey to Japan, and they both turn up horrifically out of place.
Ren and Neven manage to get into Japan's equivalent to the world of Reapers they've just fled, but it really does feel like they're fumbling around in the dark. Again, the plot happens to these characters; the characters just have to cope with what's being done to them. They get help from an apparently disgraced Shinigami named Hiro, which is the only reason they make it as far as they do. Ren barely speaks Japanese and can't read it, rendering her especially ill-equipped in their new world, and is dependent on Hiro to educate and inform them of the targets Ren has been assigned to kill.
Ren's descent into darkness is sorta-quasi-foretold, but not enough to really keep me on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen. Morally grey characters are intriguing when done well, but Ren just comes across, again, as reactionary and lashing out. She's swept up in the tide of the plot, but is blind to anything outside of what she wants. Ruthlessness is interesting; her blindness to what other characters might want from her and how they might manipulate her is irritating.
Her dismissal of her brother's concerns reflects this. Neven has valid concerns and a strong instinct towards empathy and compassion. Where Ren might torment the dying as she takes their souls, saying there's no heaven or hell and only death and refuses to comfort those afraid to die, Neven spends time with those he reaps and tells them stories and listens to their stories in turn. Neven is belittled as too soft to be a Reaper, and Ren is equally short-tempered with his kindness. Neven has a feeling something is off with Hiro and is incredibly suspicious, but Ren overrules him and Neven gives in to her wishes because he loves her.
The action stops-and-starts through the main portion of the book. At no point was I ever really concerned about if they would succeed, nor was I worried about what their plan would be. Ren's overpowered, so there was no point investing emotional energy into it. The romance with Hiro is forced at best, and his unwavering dedication to Ren is a disturbing red flag, and I feel she pivots too quickly to his side, forsaking her brother (and his dedication to her) entirely without a second thought. I genuinely read that part anticipating her having some secret, master plan to get away from Hiro and get back to Neven, having seen what Hiro has become and how she herself has warped, but no. It was probably the part of the actual story I was most disappointed in.
I feel like the story would have been far more interesting if it was told from Neven's point of view. Neven, too, is an outcast from the other Reapers. He's labelled as too kind and is generally seen as a disgrace to what the ideal Reaper is or should be. A story about the soft-hearted Reaper, who brings death with gentle hands and comforts you as you go, and his unreciprocated dedication to his sister as she struggles to find a place for herself would be heartbreaking and far more compelling.
So promising, but I still didn't like it.
Ren's entire character is best described as "reactionary." She has very little agency in her own story--a theme that's brought up a few times, by herself, so credit where credit is due--but even with that in mind it's tedious. Things happen to Ren: She does not happen to the story.
Spoiler
The pacing felt strange to me. It starts slow, accelerates randomly with the inciting incident, then slows back to a crawl while Ren literally packs her bag and leaves. Her brother, Neven, comes along with his newly adopted stray cat (the cat is killed within five minutes saving Ren's life for some godforsaken reason) because he loves his sister. Then a huge chunk of time is skipped over for her journey to Japan, and they both turn up horrifically out of place.
Ren and Neven manage to get into Japan's equivalent to the world of Reapers they've just fled, but it really does feel like they're fumbling around in the dark. Again, the plot happens to these characters; the characters just have to cope with what's being done to them. They get help from an apparently disgraced Shinigami named Hiro, which is the only reason they make it as far as they do. Ren barely speaks Japanese and can't read it, rendering her especially ill-equipped in their new world, and is dependent on Hiro to educate and inform them of the targets Ren has been assigned to kill.
Ren's descent into darkness is sorta-quasi-foretold, but not enough to really keep me on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen. Morally grey characters are intriguing when done well, but Ren just comes across, again, as reactionary and lashing out. She's swept up in the tide of the plot, but is blind to anything outside of what she wants. Ruthlessness is interesting; her blindness to what other characters might want from her and how they might manipulate her is irritating.
Her dismissal of her brother's concerns reflects this. Neven has valid concerns and a strong instinct towards empathy and compassion. Where Ren might torment the dying as she takes their souls, saying there's no heaven or hell and only death and refuses to comfort those afraid to die, Neven spends time with those he reaps and tells them stories and listens to their stories in turn. Neven is belittled as too soft to be a Reaper, and Ren is equally short-tempered with his kindness. Neven has a feeling something is off with Hiro and is incredibly suspicious, but Ren overrules him and Neven gives in to her wishes because he loves her.
The action stops-and-starts through the main portion of the book. At no point was I ever really concerned about if they would succeed, nor was I worried about what their plan would be. Ren's overpowered, so there was no point investing emotional energy into it. The romance with Hiro is forced at best, and his unwavering dedication to Ren is a disturbing red flag, and I feel she pivots too quickly to his side, forsaking her brother (and his dedication to her) entirely without a second thought. I genuinely read that part anticipating her having some secret, master plan to get away from Hiro and get back to Neven, having seen what Hiro has become and how she herself has warped, but no. It was probably the part of the actual story I was most disappointed in.
I feel like the story would have been far more interesting if it was told from Neven's point of view. Neven, too, is an outcast from the other Reapers. He's labelled as too kind and is generally seen as a disgrace to what the ideal Reaper is or should be. A story about the soft-hearted Reaper, who brings death with gentle hands and comforts you as you go, and his unreciprocated dedication to his sister as she struggles to find a place for herself