Book Review: A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann

Seventeen-year-old Anouk has finally caught the break she’s been looking for—she’s been selected out of hundreds of other candidates to fly to France and help with the excavation of a vast, underground palace buried a hundred feet below the suburbs of Paris. Built in the 1780’s to hide an aristocratic family and a mad duke during the French Revolution, the palace has lain hidden and forgotten ever since. Anouk, along with several other gifted teenagers, will be the first to set foot in it in over two centuries.

Or so she thought.

But nothing is as it seems, and the teens soon find themselves embroiled in a game far more sinister, and dangerous, than they could possibly have imagined. An evil spanning centuries is waiting for them in the depths. . .

A genre-bending thriller from Stefan Bachmann for fans of The Maze Runner and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods.

You cannot escape the palace.

You cannot guess its secrets.

Allow me to sum up “A Drop of Night” in one word: weird. Trust me though, it’s definitely a very good kind of weird! I’ve never read anything like it before and I doubt I ever will because it most certainly is VERY unique and one of the big reasons I enjoyed it. Also this is NOT a YA mystery/thriller it is very much a YA horror book.

In the description it says this book is perfect for fans of The Maze Runner and The Cabin in the Woods, boy is that spot on. Throughout my reading I was constantly reminded of both of those movies so I can honestly say if you were a fan of either one or both even, you’ll probably like “A Drop of Night”.

 

I can’t say too much about the plot itself without giving any of the juicy details away but I will tell you what I liked the most about ” A Drop of Night” without spoilers!

This is very fast paced and there are constant twists and turns with plenty of action, there is very little time wasted at the beginning of the book and we are almost immediately dropped into the good stuff right away, I was pleasantly surprised. You definitely won’t be bored with this one!

The story is told from dual POVs that go from Anouk in the modern day and Aurelie in the period of the French Revolution. This made the story both more interesting and more exciting but also made the narrative a bit confusing at times. Although it does add to the overall mystery and suspense of the book, which I’m sure was the goal, in which case it did a fantastic job. I liked not being able to put all of the pieces together before the end of the book!

As I mentioned before this isn’t a mystery/thriller book and is very much a YA horror/survival book, which is in fact what I was looking for when I picked “A Drop of Night” up and it definitely delivered! The horror elements are pretty strong throughout the duration of the book, with Anouk and four other companions trying to survive. Survive what? Well that’s half the fun of the book!  I wanted maybe a bit MORE on the horror/scary stuff front but was still thoroughly creeped out enough while reading to be satisfied.

Another thing I adore about this book: no romance. That’s right! There is absolutely no romance to speak of, instead the book focuses more on the survival of the characters and the action. I find that YA books without romance are very unique and too few and far between. However, I didn’t find that the lack of romance took away from the plot; in fact the plot was too fast paced and action packed to even notice it!

This is a standalone book so the ending concludes the entire story and while there were some things I wanted to know more about everything was wrapped up very nicely!

Anouk, the MC, is absolutely fantastic. She’s unlike many we see in YA books, she’s snarky, standoffish, and a bit of an introvert. I know at first this kind of sounds like your typical angsty teenager trope but it isn’t, she just doesn’t want anyone knowing her business and she develops quite a bit throughout the story, becoming more trusting with others. We learn more about Anouk as the story progresses and we start to understand why she acts this way but she’s still snarky and full of the sarcastic humor I love!

The four other characters were likable but ultimately I didn’t feel like I really connected with any of them and they felt very….expendable next to Anouk. But they were likable as I said, just not very interesting.

This is a very unique, fast-paced, fun YA horror book! Although it was creepy I kind of wanted a bigger scare factor and the characters were a little flat. Overall though I really enjoyed “A Drop of Night”!

Definitely! If you’re looking for a very unique YA book then give this a shot, although be wary if you aren’t a fan of horror!

Links: Goodreads / Amazon / Book Depository

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