Book of Night

The narrative flashes back to Charlie’s adolescence. Under the tutelage of Rand and his friend Ms. Presto, Charlie became an expert pickpocket. She practiced on mannequins before going to the mall to test her skills. Rand and Ms. Presto were pleased with her progress.

Charlie started breaking into houses to pretend to herself that she lived there with loving families. In one house, she watched a TV show about shadow magicians, or gloamists. Early shadow workers learned independently and only discovered a community in the late 20th century.

In the present, Charlie reels from the violence at the bar. Even though the gloamist Hermes is dead, his shadow continues to struggle. While Vince takes the man’s body to his van, the shadow breaks free and attacks Charlie. She throws a candle at it, disintegrating it. Vince returns and Charlie assesses his calm, collected demeanor. Odette returns and helps tend to Charlie’s wounds. She calls the police, and Charlie ensures that Vince is gone before they arrive.

Charlie drives home, where Posey notices that Charlie’s shadow is behaving strangely. Charlie showers, washing away all the blood and broken glass. When she gets out, Vince’s van is outside. Charlie considers how little she really knows about him, but when she goes to meet him outside, she also realizes that she’s in love with him. Vince confesses that he was incensed with rage when he saw her being attacked, and he enjoyed killing her attacker. Charlie is astonished at this uncharacteristic display of emotion. They have sex outside. She notices that she is the only one casting a shadow.

The narrative flashes back to Charlie’s adolescence. Eventually, Rand became both fond of her and threatened by her skills. He took her to meet his friends, older con men who treated her like a little sister.

Their next job was to steal a magical book from an old man. Charlie was cautious, but Rand was arrogant, believing that nothing could go wrong. Pretending that Charlie could channel demon voices, they met the old man, Lionel Salt, and two of his friends. As Charlie and Rand began their performance, Charlie felt ill and realized their drinks were poisoned. Charlie made herself throw up and fell unconscious. When she woke, a mysterious boy helped her escape, making her promise not to look back at him. On the way, she saw the book they were planning to steal and took it. Outside, she ran into a man who called the police.

Later, Rand was discovered dead alongside the body of a missing girl. Charlie managed to get the stolen book to their client, Knight Singh, who offered her more work. Charlie vowed revenge on Lionel Salt.

The narrative returns to the present. When Charlie wakes, she realizes that Vince has been lying about most of his life. In the shower, her legs are still bleeding from the previous night; she experiments with feeding blood to her shadow.

Charlie decides to confront Balthazar about her attack. At his house, he denies setting her up but fills her in on the Liber Noctem. The book was bought by Lionel Salt before being stolen by his grandson, Edmund Carver. Then someone sold one loose page to Paul Ecco. Salt hired Adam to get it back, but Adam failed. Balthazar suggests she retrieve the book for Salt’s $50,000 reward. On her way out, Charlie sees the Hierophant watching her.

At home, Charlie makes up a story about going out for the evening while Vince is away so she can search his room for clues. She finds a mysterious metal disc, which she steals. His driver’s license reveals his full name: Edmund Vincent Carver. An online search shows that he and a young woman died the previous year. Charlie realizes that Vince must have faked his own death and gotten involved with her so he could hide from his family. He must have killed the man at the bar so he wouldn’t be recognized. Further research reveals an article about a relative named Adeline Salt and comments about Vince’s dual nature. One person calls him kind and compassionate, while another calls him a cold-blooded killer. 

Posey has set up a meeting with Malhar, a university student who is writing a thesis on shadows. Malhar wants to test Charlie to understand her shadow better. He tells them he’s researching the ethnography of shadows and their consciousnesses. After some testing, he confirms that Charlie’s shadow is quickening. Charlie asks him if he knows of the Liber Noctem, also called The Book of Blights. He’s fascinated by the idea that the book was written by a Blight.

The narrative flashes back to Charlie’s adolescence. After Rand died, Charlie felt restless and unmoored. She returned to the meeting place of his friends and asked them for a new job. One told her about a group of gloamists wanting someone to steal a page from a book from a museum. Charlie dressed up in a school uniform and followed a tour group, hiding until the museum closed. She found the book but was morally unable to damage it. A disembodied shadow came and moved the book to an easily accessible place so that its master could steal it the following day. After it left, Charlie cut the page from the book and took it with her. She met up with the gloamists, but they tried to cheat her out of her fee. She responded by setting the page on fire. Later, she uploaded a photo of the page to the internet.