Nightcurse

Oh my gosh. Don't let this cover deceive you, this book is a wonderfully wild and emotional read.

Nightcurse by Emma Hinds is YA fantasy novel that turns the whole trope of vampires and ghosts on it's head. Emrys Swift is so dead. One hundred and fifty seven years worth of dead, to be exact. He’s a Revenant, nightcursed, destined to be stuck being seventeen forever. Hidden away, he spends his infinite days as an undead librarian of witchlore at the NeverEnd library–until a new Revenant arrives and magical artifacts start going missing, jeopardizing his beloved home. Emrys’s mortal enemy and annoyingly attractive shapeshifter Aubrey Vale is determined to solve the mystery – with Emrys’s help. Suddenly Emrys and Aubrey are magically bonded together on a quest into the dark and frost-bitten world of night-kin. But as Emyrs and Aubrey interrogate ghosts and face drowning by mermaids, deathly creatures aren’t the only spectres haunting them. With the ghoulish Night Hunt chasing them down, can they outrun the secrets of Emrys’ death and Aubrey’s life? And if they can save NeverEnd’s future, can they have a future together?

Where oh where to start with this book. I have never read a book quite like this one. As I have read plenty of vampires books, plenty of ghost books, plenty of books with reincarnation, but none quite like this. Much less any of them with dark academia backgrounds. What I liked most about this book, is the sheer fact that you don't know what is going to happen next. Hinds created not only a story, but characters that are so real that they don't follow the usual cookie cutter expectations of plot and character arcs. Which in turn, makes this book so great.

One thing that did bug me about this book, was the setting. I mean, it was fantastic don't get me wrong. But I didn't think the dark academia quite fit the narrative. In the sense that it didn't fit as neatly as it should in the puzzle this book creates.

Regardless, Nightcurse is one that sticks with you, long after the last page is turned.