When I first read this, I was like 9-10 years old and I thought it was well written but the Death of Korps freaked me out so I stopped reading it. Years later and I remembered the summary of this book but not the name or cover so I asked a book group on goodreads (titled: WHATS THE NAME OF THAT BOOK????) to help me out, within a few hours, I got a reply and I confirmed it was the book, I’ll come back to thank the person who solved it for me on this review later.
(THANK YOU AGAIN BECCA! YOU’RE AWESOME!!!!!)

The book started off well, it had promise of the dead days and a good mystery at first with all these deaths what force it was that was coming for valerian. This book is very plot driven which I appreciate but at times it doesn’t line up with the characters either. It felt that the “kids are smart and adults are creepy and mean” trope which at the time of the writing, YA was still in its infancy so I’m not surprised by that. I gave it three stars because the plot has potential and the pacing was good and I liked the concept of the dead days being used in here. ( )

This was my introduction to Marcus Sedgwick's work. Deliciously dark but maybe a bit of a slow read to some. I read it when I was a teenager and got it at a book fair (Yeah, remember those things? Simpler times) It comes equipped with magic, demons, Faustian-style pacts, and gloominess. While I rate this book somewhere between 3.5-4 stars, that is still a fairly strong rating. It's not my favorite work by Sedgwick, but it's worthy to have in my library. If I re-read it, I may update the rating if I feel the need to. ( )

Interesting period piece that dwells in fantasy while staying realistic, even mentioning characters from the true past such as the German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer Kepler. It can get a little slow and boring, but leave many unsolved mysteries to keep the reader enticed. ( )

Irritatingly slow. The plot twist at the end was no twist. The lack of explanations for the plot swirling around the protagonist was inexcusable even for a first book in the series. The writing wasn't stellar. ( )

The characters, the plot, the 'twist' was all pretty cliche. I felt nothing for any of them. ( )