I recently finished reading the book The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker. The book is darker than I expected, although given the premise I’m not sure why I expected something different. This is the author’s first novel and I am very impressed. So many different threads are woven together to create this story and it is very impressive that the author didn’t seem to lose track of any of them.
The Plot
The Keeper of Night follows the story of Ren Scarborough who is a young (only a couple of hundred years old) collector of the dead. Born to a British Grim Reaper father and a Japanese Shinigami mother, Ren has been raised by her father amongst people who hate her for who she is. Her younger brother Neven is the only person to ever show her love. She is bullied by other young Reapers while the elders of their society ignore it. And when I say bullied, I mean BULLIED. As a type of immortal, Ren is not easy to kill and all of her wounds heal within moments no matter how devastating those wounds would be to a human. Her fellow Reapers break her bones, remove digits, and threaten to gouge out her eyes. The opening scenes of the book were truly intense and that intensity continues on a lesser extent throughout the book.
One day after a particularly cruel moment of bullying, Ren loses control of her Shinigami powers and causes harm to her bullies. She knows that this will mean being punished by the elders. Punishment for a wayward Reaper means being nailed up by your hands and feet in the entrance of the headquarters for others to torture and laugh at… that is, if you’re lucky. If you’re less lucky, the punishment could mean being chained up in the basement for a millennium or two until you learned to behave. Fearing for her freedom, Ren hurries home to the flat she shares with her younger brother and packs her bags to finally put her escape plan into action. Neven packs to go with her, knowing that he is not cut out for the Reaper life anyway.
The two eventually reach Japan. Ren and Neven travel through the country searching for a route to the Underworld in the hopes of finding Ren’s mother and getting work in the Shinigami system. But while the English Reapers only ever saw her as Shinigami, in Japan she is only seen as Reaper. Ren sets out to prove her worth and find answers about who she truly is and where she truly belongs.
Thoughts
This book is rather dark, as I mentioned before. The bullying is intense, but so is the general plot. Most of the characters are involved in the business of death in some way and that is not always pretty. The author, Kylie Lee Baker, is of Japanese, Chinese, and Irish descent. It is clear in her writing about Ren’s struggles that she understands very personally the difficulty that can be faced by a person who isn’t accepted fully by any of the cultures they themselves identify with. The interactions between Ren and her fully Reaper brother Neven, especially once they reach Japan where he is the one who is visibly different, are very well written. It is a struggle to feel as though one doesn’t belong and that emotion is dealt with interetingly in this story.
The author has done a wonderful job of retelling several Japanese folktales in this story. She uses the Japanese mythology and shapes those characters into unique beings to fit her story. I really enjoyed the different stories within the book. I know that there is a sequel planned and I hope that there is a continued look into the different creatures of Japanese folklore.
After a bit of a rough start for me as far as the story goes, I wound up really enjoying the tale. It definitely has a creepier edge to it, but creepy on more of YA level than on an adult horror level. Certainly creepy enough to sink your teeth into for the season we’re in. If you’re into mythology re-tellings and creepy stories, this book will likely be right up your alley.