A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A Drop of Night by Stefan Bachmann
on March 15th, 2016
Genres: Gothic, Suspense, Mystery
Goodreads

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.

A Drop of Night was the kind of story that left me questioning how I really felt about it once it was over. To be perfectly honest, I drafted this review, started it with an AWESOME gif and then stopped because I realized I didn’t know how I really felt about it. I realize that’s an odd thing to say considering I gave it 4 out of 5 stars but hear me out. A Drop of Night had a lot going for it. The writing was unbelievable! Bachmann has an incredible talent for drawing you into a world so similar to our own yet so vastly different and making you see the gorgeous setting. The detailed described for the Palace was incredible! I honestly found myself Googling “underground palace” because I just could not fathom him making all of this up! Every room, every theme, every detail was unbelievable and impeccably done.

So why was I left confused about my overall feelings then? Because I instantly hated Anouk, our MC. She had MAJOR mommy and daddy issues and she was a royal bitch.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand most of our MC are “damaged” in some way shape or form, but it wasn’t the mommy and daddy issues that turned me off; it was her attitude. She was absolutely horrible to the rest of her group on their “expedition” and instead of owning up to just being a bitch she blamed it on her parent issues. I mean seriously, every thought that went through her head made me want to put the book down, but the writing and plot was so compelling I kept going.

And what a plot it was! Cassi (My Thoughts Literally) understands how horrible it is to instantly know where a plot is going. It’s one of the reasons “mystery” or “suspense” books don’t really appeal to us. We already know what’s going to happen! And while I knew where A Drop of Night was headed it honestly was pretty great to see exactly how the path unrolled and how everything went down. It was great to see, not only what happened to our characters but also how the “current” story meshed with the “past” journal entries that were sprinkled throughout the book to give it that extra depth. All in all I did enjoy A Drop of Night. It was touch and go for a little bit but, as I continued to read, and things happened, and characters grew, I found myself unable to put it down. And in the end I think that’s all you can really ask for in any Mystery book.