I must admit, I spent a significant proportion of Godsgrave being frustrated. Although Jay Kristoff drip feeds us with additional details about these shadow hungry beings, there remains more questions than there are answers. The final sub plot, which I hope will form a bigger part in the concluding novel of the trilogy, is the origins of the darkin, the purpose of them, and their shadowy accomplices. This is unsurprising given that Mia has been trained to have marks not friends. She continues to process her grief at the loss of her family, but slowly starts to trust and form new relationships whilst simultaneously questioning the benefit of them and doubting their verity.
In tandem with this Mia undergoes some major emotional developments in the novel. The central plot follows this mission as she abandons her position with the Red Church and sells herself in to slavery for a chance to assassinate them both when they appear at a gladiator tournament in the capital city Godsgrave, from which the novel takes its title.
The first chapter is in a roman style font, indicating that it is a contemporary storyline, and the early italicised flashbacks explain what we have “missed” in the interlude.Ī key theme of Godsgrave continues to be Mia’s thirst for revenge and the deaths of Consul Scaeva and Cardinal Duomo. Jay Kristoff opens the novel with a ‘Dramatis Personae’ of the characters, which is a great refresher if you are not reading this immediately after Nevernight, and serves as a prologue before the novel properly begins. It picks up shortly after the climax of Nevernight and follows Mia in her early career as a Blade in the Red Church of Our Lady of Blessed Murder.
Godsgrave is a dark fantasy set in the unique world of the Republic of Itreya, which is similar to Ancient Rome in its political structure, and serves as a biography to the protagonist, a now eighteen year old assassin Mia Corvere.
Style wise though, Godsgrave is still a tome full or black humour, bloody gore, and is a cleverly woven narrative that ends with a cliff hanger so tense and unexpected that I literally shouted at my copy of the book in frustration. However both of these tools are used a lot less than they were in Nevernight. There are technical aspects of the book that are unchanged, for example it has a dual narrative where a past event is indicated by the use of italic font and the unknown chronicler uses footnotes to provide the reader with extra information. It has enough similarities to its predecessor Nevernight that I think those who enjoyed that offering would also like this. Godsgrave is the second book in The Nevernight Chronicle by Jay Kristoff.
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