The Keeper of Night

Another hard one to rate by stars. 3 1/2 maybe would be better. I really loved the use of Japanese folklore, the lyrical and vivid writing and very unique world building. It felt very much like an anime, I kept picturing it through the lens of anime I've seen with Yokai and Shinigami which I'm a huge fan of. Overall a much darker story than the usual YA offering with an almost horror leaning feel which I also kind of liked. I think, however, I was more entranced by the world and the writing than the characters. Ren is meant to be a grey character, which I actually think is a bold move and a unique one to explore, except that even grey characters need something that makes you like them on some level even if you dislike their decisions. But Ren is really devoid of character traits that create empathy altogether. We're meant to sympathize with her struggles as biracial and her feeling like she never quite belongs, but it's hard to do when her personality is so disagreeable and she makes ridiculous decisions that make her actually unlikable. At the start I didn't mind her and her bond with her brother gave her a huge boost in my eyes, but as the story progresses she just throws those redeeming characteristics in the garbage and never recovers from that. By the end I actually disliked her. Maybe that's the intent, but I wanted some reason to sympathize with how she got to that point and I never felt it. It's such a shame though because I actually really loved the world and Baker's writing which paints such dark sumptuous pictures in my mind as I read. Out of the recent Asian inspired fantasy I have read I really think this was the best in terms of feel, writing and world-building, but character-wise was lacking. I'm going to give book 2 a go in hopes Ren redeems herself at some point and maybe this one will feel better once the story concludes. If you can get past Ren as a character, there's a great story here and a lot to like, especially if you are a fan of Japanese folklore, anime and dark fantasy.