Full disclosure: Before I start, I should mention that my opinion
isn't wholly unbiased, since the author's a friend of mine.
Hopefully that will still be the case after she reads this review.
. .
Just kidding. I actually really liked Bitter Night.
The protagonist Max is a Shadowblade, a supernatural-and
supernaturally competent-warrior bound to protect her witch
Giselle. As a Shadowblade, Max doesn't age. She is better, faster,
stronger than any ordinary human being. And she hates it. Giselle
betrayed her trust to make Max what she is, and though she is
magically compelled to protect Giselle and follow orders, Max works
against her witch in every way she can. But when a new threat comes
along-a threat to the family that she can never see again, to the
friends that she has made despite herself, and to the world at
large-Max must decide whether to accept her slavery and help
Giselle, or remain defiant as the world is destroyed around her.
Bitter Night is an urban fantasy, and Francis fills the world with
all kinds of magical creatures. Most of these are cool-sounding
creatures mentioned only once or twice; they contribute to the
world-building and not a whole lot else. Francis chooses just a
couple of magical creatures to develop, which works just fine.
Where the world-building really shines, though, is in characters
like Max herself. The Shadowblades, and especially their daytime
counterparts the Sunspears, are a unique bit of world-building, and
their abilities and limitations are developed through the novel
instead of being given to us in a lump.
The characterization is spot on. The third-person point of view
alternates between Max and Alexander, the Shadowblade of a rival
witch, and both characters are real and relateable. Max is
definitely the protagonist of this book despite the shared screen
time, however. Her relationships are many and nuanced, and Francis
does an admirable job of developing them within a fast-paced story.
Alex is a little less nuanced but no less believable, and the
tension that develops between him and Max is plenty of fun.
The novel starts fast and ends faster, and the pacing is both a
strength and (occasionally) a weakness. The speed at which things
happen is part of the fun, and it doesn't move too fast-that is,
not until the end, where it picks up even more. This makes for an
exciting climax, but the speed leaves a couple of holes in an
ending which I otherwise quite liked. The basis of the novel's
resolution is established early on but gets forgotten-it isn't
built up at the end of the novel, which makes the resolution
startling. The other problem with the highway-speed ending is that
the aftermath is a little bit neglected. Francis has placed a lot
of focus on character relationships, and the relative speed with
which these relationships are dealt at the end is
disappointing.
Overall, though, Bitter Night is a fast, fun read that plays with
some very interesting characters and concepts. It's also the first
novel in the Horngate Witches series, and while it works as a
stand-alone, it also paves the way for what looks like some very
interesting conflict in book two, Crimson Wind (out March 2011).