A review by podanotherjessi
Night Shine by Tessa Gratton

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The characters, setting, and themes of this book were brilliant. This is all about change and finding yourself and all those spaces between hard binaries that we impose on ourselves and others. This is Tessa Gratton, so of course she explores gender, but there's also a lot of talk about morality not just being black and white in this book as well. There's also just such a beautiful and deep exploration of relationships. I loved and hated the characters in turn, and I wanted to see them all happy.
But the book also had several shifts in the plot, and not all of them worked for me. And the ending itself was a huge let down. Spoilers below for details why, but it just didn't quite sit well.
For one, I didn't love the shift to Kirin being a more raditional villain. I think it was supposed to be more complex and nuanced than it ended up. As for the ending, it just ended up a little too happy. I think something a little more bitter would have been more fitting, and a lot of better endings (for my taste) presented themselves along the way Shine tied to the mountain and unable to leave, or banned from the palace by Moon and unable to return, or giving up her heart for Shadows. And I can't believe Sky just accepted Kirin after everything he did! I know their relationship wasn't the focus, but Kirin was a dick.


Characters: 10/10
Plot: 8/10
Setting: 10/10
General Appeal: 9/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Originality: 9/10
Ending: 5/10
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