A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee
Star Rating: ★★✫☆☆ • 2.75 / 5 stars
A Japanese-influenced fantasy brimming with demons, adventure, and plans gone awry.
In the realm of Awara, where gods, monsters, and humans exist side by side, Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter.
But when Miuko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again.
With her transformation comes power and freedom she never even dreamed of, and she’ll have to decide if saving her soul is worth trying to cram herself back into an ordinary life that no longer fits her… and perhaps never did.
This book was so… meh. To me at least! Don’t get me wrong – I think that it was written well enough, it simply wasn’t for me. But it wasn’t a bad book, so I didn’t rank it too low.
A Thousand Steps into Night is a Japanese-inspired fantasy novel written by Traci Chee, and published by Clarion Books on March 1, 2022. It features genres such as: fantasy, romance, and YA.
The author had a very digestible writing style, and there are definitely a few things that I liked about the novel, but it still felt really meh to me for whatever reason. But before I get into that stuff, let’s talk about the stuff that didn’t make me feel meh.
Stuff I Liked
The characters were all either somewhat entertaining or generally inoffensive. But the best of those characters was definitely Geiki. He was the highlight of the book for me, and I dearly wish he’d had more presence in the plot than just being main-character-Miuko’s tagalong buddy. Their relationship was cute and fun though.
Speaking of Miuko, our MC, she was… alright, I guess. She wasn’t the worst female protagonist I’ve ever read – not even close! – but she honestly felt a little cliche and middle of the road for an MC.
I also thought that a few of the other characters were interesting, but most of those didn’t show up until quite a ways into the book, and none of them ever stayed long. But that’s kind of all I can think of for things I really liked about this book.
Stuff I Didn’t Like
I didn’t like the plot. Let me be clear, it wasn’t necessarily a bad plot or anything – it was just probably not for me.
There also weren’t enough romantically coded moments between our two lovebirds in A Thousand Steps into Night. And I still felt like the end of the book really left their status as a couple ambiguous. (I could be wrong there though.)
And I can’t think of anything else in the book that stood out to me – stuff I didn’t like or otherwise, which is kind of telling of how meh this novel is. I also didn’t have any quotes that really stood out to me, or that I really liked, which is why there aren’t any in this review. Also, the footnotes thing got really annoying after a a while.
Final Thoughts
A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee wasn’t a good book, in my opinion. But it isn’t even close to being a bad book, and it’s all definitely influenced by the fact that this book just wasn’t for me.
I do recommend those who are interested, to give it a shot. Maybe it’ll be for you.
See ya ~Mar
