The Keeper of Night

First, thank you to the publisher and Goodreads for sending me this ARC as part of a giveaway.

Ren, a British-Japanese Reaper has grown up in Britain, collecting the souls of the dead to pass along to Death. Being biracial, Ren has never really fit in as a British Reaper. When her Shinigami powers manifest in front of other Reapers, she decides to run away to Japan with her half-brother, who is a full Reaper. She hopes that the Shinigami there will accept her. What greets her in Japan is a much darker, brutal place than she was expecting. She must complete a quest for Izanami in order to become a Shinigami, but at what cost?

I honestly went into this book having no idea what to expect, but it definitely wasn't this. I had no idea how dark Japanese folklore was, and this book pulled no punches. First, Ren is the epitome of a morally grey character. I sometimes have a hard time with these types of characters. For me, there's a fine line before they're just unlikable. But I feel like Ren's motivations really make her so interesting, even if the things she does are wrong most of the time. The plot was incredibly fast paced, while the visuals were so entrancing and beautiful, even if they were, quite literally, dark. The struggles Ren faces from being biracial were so complex and really who Ren is as a character. I didn't know there would be another book in this series, and now I am waiting on pins and needles for the next book. This ending was WILD. I honestly think that this could read as a sad, dark stand alone, but I am also so excited to see what Baker creates next.

TW: ableism, amputation, assault, attempted murder, blood, bones, bullying, child abuse, child death, death, decapitation, demons, emotional abuse, fire, genocide, gore, gaslighting, kidnapping, murder, skeletons, slavery, starvation, torture, violence