North is the Night is a fantasy novel about two young women separated by an evil death goddess. 

Sirri and Aina are simple Finnish girls from a small village when they are attacked by the goddess of death, and Aina is dragged to the underworld. Despondent without her best friend and with no one believing what happened to her—since Finland has begun turning away from the old gods and toward Christianity, the new religion brought by Swedish invaders—Sirri becomes convinced she can save Aina. Determined, she heads north to seek the help of the long-missing shaman Väinämöinen, hoping he can teach her how to cross into Tuonela, the land of the dead. Meanwhile, Aina must fight to save herself and the other mortal girls who have been kidnapped and forced to live in the underworld, as Sirri learns how to cross the veil between life and death.

I enjoyed the first part of this book, where the two women fight to stay alive and find their way back to each other. However, at almost 60 chapters and 600 pages, I found myself losing interest somewhere around the halfway point and hoping the two storylines would wrap up. There are too many gods and goddesses to keep track of, the politics of the underworld is complicated, and there are a lot of double-crosses and hidden agendas to follow, which I didn’t find very intriguing. The romantic storyline also takes some twists and turns. While I appreciate the author making unexpected choices, I didn’t find any of the romance swoony or compelling to read.

Overall, this one started strong, and I enjoyed learning about Finland and its struggle to preserve its culture and religion during a time of invasion by Sweden and the rise of Christianity. However, the pacing felt off for me, and the underworld politics dragged the plot out much longer than necessary.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Disclosure: An advanced copy of North is the Night was provided by the publisher for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.