We Rule the Night | Review // What an absolute pleasant surprise!!!

Greetings readers!

Here I am with another long overdue book review. But I am happy to say that this was quite a surprising read! I didn’t know what to expect, but I wasn’t expecting this much fun. I feel so bad for taking so long to read it!!

We Rule the Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett

Pub Date: April 2nd, 2019
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Price: $23.49 CAD
Goodreads

Two girls use forbidden magic to fly and fight–for their country and for themselves–in this riveting debut that’s part Shadow and Bone, part Code Name Verity.

Seventeen-year-old Revna is a factory worker, manufacturing war machines for the Union of the North. When she’s caught using illegal magic, she fears being branded a traitor and imprisoned. Meanwhile, on the front lines, Linné defied her father, a Union general, and disguised herself as a boy to join the army. They’re both offered a reprieve from punishment if they use their magic in a special women’s military flight unit and undertake terrifying, deadly missions under cover of darkness. Revna and Linné can hardly stand to be in the same cockpit, but if they can’t fly together, and if they can’t find a way to fly well, the enemy’s superior firepower will destroy them–if they don’t destroy each other first.

We Rule the Night is a powerful story about sacrifice, complicated friendships, and survival despite impossible odds

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BUY IT

Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

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*I was provided an ARC by HBG Canada!*

We can all agree that this cover is absolutely stunning. Look at that phoenix, all that fire and grace…ooooooooh I love it! And I can honestly say that the insides are pretty darn amazing too!

What I Liked

These Rock-Your-World Ladies were everything

Revna and Linné were fabulous, fabulous characters! They were polar opposites, but I still loved each of them so much. Revna comes from a impoverished family with a tainted name and she has wondrous control over an illegal kind of magic which just spells all kind of trouble for her. She is a keep your head down kinda girl for the most part, but that doesn’t mean she’ll let anyone trample on her. She’s tired of people seeing her prosthetic leg as a liability and she proves all these rats wrong!!! Ahhh did I mention how much I loved her???? Because I adored her!

So then there is Linné who had a little Mulan escapade until she’s found out and gets her second chance in this female air force. She comes from a privileged background which gives her some perks but she definitely has different kinds of battles to face compared to the other girls. I really enjoyed her growth in this novel, even though half the time I was yelling at her for being so stubborn all the time!

Other characters…

The dudes were pretty much trash. trash. trash. Sorry buds, but I was having it with none of you. Yup.

The Action and The Magic!!!

I have only read one other book that deals with like planes and war craft, and that was a while ago. But it is such an interesting setting and I would love to see more books revolving around it. There is so much risk that comes with flying, so many skills you have to be prepared with. And what is special about this book is that the metal was alive, and it absorbed the feeling of its pilot and navigator. So if you are nervous then the plane is nervous too and I thought this was an incredibly enriching detail. It added so much more…uhh…life. XD

The magic really worked well to create this immense amount of action and suspense. There were so many risks, so many high stakes and I was quite nervous in the latter half!

It’s All about the Ladies

Remember how I mentioned the men in this book were trash trash trash? Well it’s because it’s true!!!! They did things that I just wanted to arrrrggghhhhhhh. *huffs* These ladies were living in a sexist society that was all about having the men at the front and the women at home. It was that BS. Where women on the front would be considered distractions to the men. UGH. I just…I got so mad, because that is still a reality in different places. SO I loved watching this get tackled in the book. There was I think maybe one cute interaction with the male pilots but other than that, I didn’t care for them it was all about ma girls.

There was no romance…I mean the men were trash so no prospects there anyways and I didn’t get any f/f vibes either *shrugs*

It was all about the friendship and boy did it take a while. And I was completely happy with this. Girls makes friends with each other at different paces, some quite fast and some quite slow. So I loved seeing the range of types of friendships. I know girl on girl hate is a no-no for some of y’all, but it happens and we can’t deny that. It just has to have proper foundations and preferably not be over a trash boy, which in this case it is not.

The Questionable

A little slow in the first half. It takes a while for these girls to get in the air and I felt like we were getting into a tedious cycle. I think the second half of the book makes up for the slowness of the first half.

But lets talk about this ending that was left wide-open. Literally nothing was resolved. Like I didn’t expect them to save the world…but I still wanted maybe some kind of resolution. Some kind of closure. I totally see where the author was going with the ending and I appreciate it that it shows a cycle of oppression, but I want more!! And I wouldn’t mind a sequel, but I don’t think we are getting one.

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Overall, I really enjoyed this read. It was all about the experience. Flying through the sky with these girls, enduring the backlash they face with them, growing in friendship even if it is not always harmonious. This novel is rich, fun and intense!

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars

Recommend?: Yeah!! You will love this feminist, fighter pilot read!

Let me know what you think! Have you read this? Are you looking forward to reading it? Have you read any air force books? Would you want to fly a plane that experiences your emotions?

Happy reading!

~ Rendz