I adored Young Gothic and with this follow up, my love for this series continues to grow. 5 stars for the best kind of book with an in depth plot and characters you will love.

This series has truly been one of the biggest surprises of the past few years for me. Such a unique concept and characters, with great writing and plotting to bolster it. Fantastic follow-up to the first instalment!

Absolutely love the way M.A Bennet weaves together classic literature and a new contemporary creepy story.

I adore these characters and so glad we got a sequel to find out what happens to them next.

The writing is engaging and gripping and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this author.

🌟 4.5 🌟
Children of the night is the highly anticipated sequel to Young Gothic.

In it we rejoin the young gothics & find how they've been coping or not in some cases with their new powers.
Positives -
I enjoyed the story & was happy to be reunited with these characters. I think there was great foreshadowing throughout the book for the keys points of the finale of this book. I loved following the relationships of the main 4 characters. The development of Hal & Eves relationship is everything! They really care for each other & try to be the best they can be for each other.
I found the new characters really added to the world that's being created in these books. I am eagerly anticipating the next one. There must be more!

Negatives -
Over referencing Harry Potter. It's 2024 & J.K Rowling does not need anymore publicity considering her stance on Trans rights.

Hals overuse of calling Eve Wednesday Adams - I feel like this was overdone & became tiresome.

Even with those in mind, I cannot wait for M.A Bennetts next novel!

This is the second book so best read with the first for context and character knowledge. This has all the gothic requirements, including literally flaming torches, pitchforks, Transylvanian castles, beholden villagers and captive children. The four main characters and their various inner conflicts are well explored & developed, along with a few new entries, such as Van Helsing. Its quite gory in places in the way anything with vampires et al is but it is deliciously predictable for genre fans. Don't approach this expecting high literature or cutting edge innovation, but as a distracting bit of fun it's great!

Everything M. A. Bennett writes turns to gold, or deadly silver in this case. Picking up 2 months after Young Gothic left off Children of the Night is a brilliant spin on the Dracula story. All four of our protagonists are back and they’re straight back in deep, dark, spooky end as they find themselves whisked off to Transylvania. Separated from Ren, who is the very special guest of Florian Necker and his Diodati foundation, they are immediately caught up in the machinations of the foundation, Necker, and the shadowy boss they serve.

Full of fascinating actual Romanian lore, incredible twists, and creepy mystery the found family continue to discover more about their supernatural sides, try to reconcile their darkness and their light whilst also navigating their relationships with each other. Hal and Eve are utterly heartbreaking as they navigate their trauma and fears and Griffin and Ren made me squee on multiple occasions- honestly G’s faith and trust in Ren is inspiring. Both relationships are so wholesome (even when Ed isn’t) in the way they TALK to each other and work things out - not that Hal doesn’t have his toxic moments but that he recognises, acknowledges, and tries to prevent himself from being so again.

This is arguably Ren’s book - it is in Transylvania after all but all 4 are equally the stars and I cannot wait to see what they do next. Please tell me there’ll be more?