Outside, night was coming on. A few single flakes of snow fell.
She slammed her fist against the steering wheel.
He watched her, smoke curling from the sockets of his eyes.
There’d always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn’t willing to double down on.
“I’m a good enough thief to steal a shadow from a tower,” she told him. “I can steal back your heart.”
He said nothing in return. And a few moments later, the shadow had melted away, leaving her alone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
All of my novels have left me with vast gratitude for many people, but none more than this one.
Firstly, thanks to everyone who was on a writing retreat with me in Greece and endured my bazillion false starts. You are to be pitied as well as acknowledged.
I owe a huge debt to Steve Berman for helping me with the magic system, several times, including once drawing all over a paper pulled from a roll, which eventually covered my entire kitchen floor in arcane rules.
I so appreciate Marie Rutkoski, for helping me articulate what I was trying to capture.
Thank you, Chris Cotter, Emily Lauer, and Eric Churchill, for talking to me about all the ways people would interact and abuse that magic during the depths of the pandemic.
Thank you, Roshani Chokshi, for pushing me to get the love on the page.
Thank you, Paolo Bacigalupi, for getting me to rethink the beginning （again）。
Thank you to Sarah Rees Brennan, Robin Wasserman, and Leigh Bardugo for reading a very messy draft, convening a Zoom workshop, and making me feel as though I might fix the thing I had made.
Thank you, Joshua Lewis, for making me care about that dead guy.
And a thousand gratitudes to Cassandra Clare and Kelly Link for not murdering me when I changed everything and then changed it again, and then changed it AGAIN. You read so many drafts. You listened to so much complaining. Truly, your patience is endless.
All praise to my fantabulous editor, Miriam Weinberg, who got me to slow down and add all the texture. I so appreciate her, and the enthusiasm and expertise of everyone at Tor Books—particularly Devi Pillai, Lucille Rettino, Renata Sweeney, Eileen Lawrence, Sarah Reidy, Lauren Hougen, Molly McGhee, and Michelle Foytek. Thank you to Sam Bradbury, Roisin O’Shea, and all of Del Rey UK. Twenty years ago, I meant to write a book for adults, and thanks to all y’all I seem to have finally done it.
Thank you to my agent, Joanna Volpe, who believed I could write this book, put it in the plan, and then made sure I stuck to the plan. I am grateful to her and everyone at New Leaf—particularly the terrifying organizing of Jordan Hill, and the strategery of Pouya Shahbazian.
And thank you to my partner, Theo, and our kiddo, Sebastian. Without you both, I would have clawed my own face off long ago.
Lastly, thank you to “the Valley” of Western Massachusetts, where I’ve lived for almost two decades, and yet am still discovering. I apologize for all the places I completely made up, and for cutting some corners with geography. Please consider this the alternate Western Massachusetts, full of lightning farms, bars with absinthe on tap, and shadow magic.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HOLLY BLACK is the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of speculative and fantasy novels, short stories, and comics. She has sold more than twenty-six million books worldwide and her work has been translated into more than thirty languages and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. Book of Night is her adult fiction debut.
You can read more about her on BlackHolly.com, or sign up for email updates here.