In a world where telling stories can summon death from the shadows, what price would you pay to keep breathing life into fiction? The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette opens with this razor-edged question and never relents, weaving readers into a tapestry of forbidden art, shadow monsters, and a romance that blooms in the darkest corners of oppression.
Tessonja Odette, known for her lighter fae rom-coms like Curse of the Wolf King and the Entangled with Fae series, takes a dramatic departure into darker territory with this adult romantasy. The shift is palpable from the first page, where protagonist Inana performs illegal stories at the Wretched Lair, her bronze mask concealing her identity while her words dance perilously close to attracting the Shades—shadow creatures born from human sin that hunt artists with relentless hunger.
The premise crackles with originality: art itself is outlawed because it summons monsters from darkness. Every brushstroke, every sung note, every whispered tale becomes a potential death sentence. Into this oppressive world strides Dominic Graves, a Shadowbane—half-human, half-Sinless monster hunter whose very existence blurs the line between protector and predator. When he catches Inana mid-performance, she expects execution. Instead, he offers a devil’s bargain: serve as his Summoner for six months, using her forbidden art to lure Shades into traps, or face the bounty on her head.
A World Built on Blood and Lies
The world-building in The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette deserves particular recognition for its intricate mythology. Odette constructs a religious and political system that feels oppressively real, where:
- Holy Braziers dome cities in protective light, powered by heart sacrifices at regular intervals
- The Sinless hierarchy rules with immortal cruelty, consuming blood to sustain their stripped-of-sin souls
- Astrotheurgy (celestial magic) operates through precise diagrams invoking divine energies
- Nine gods once blessed humanity before the catastrophic One Hundred Days of Darkness
- Shadow creatures manifest in the darkness, drawn to human sin and artistic expression
What makes this system compelling is how Odette gradually reveals its corruption. The gods didn’t abandon humanity for wickedness—the truth runs far deeper and darker, involving political manipulation and twisted interpretations of divine will. The revelation that art doesn’t actually summon Shades through sin, but through a perversion of natural order, transforms the entire narrative from straightforward dark fantasy into pointed social commentary.
However, the complexity occasionally becomes overwhelming. The distinctions between solar and common astrotheurgy, the various ranks of Sinless (princes, dukes, lords, Shadowbanes), and the mechanics of Shade behavior require careful attention. Readers seeking lighter fare may find themselves drowning in the mythology, though those who appreciate dense world-building will revel in these details.
Characters Stitched from Shadows and Light
Inana emerges as a protagonist defined by her contradictions. She’s a storyteller who lies for truth, a survivor carrying guilt over her village’s destruction, and an artist who cannot suppress her creative impulse even when it threatens her life. Her backstory—betrayed by her fiancé Henry, who transformed into a Sinless and literally carved out her heart for a Holy Brazier ritual—grounds her mistrust and rage in visceral trauma. Odette doesn’t shy from the psychological weight of this violation, allowing Inana’s healing to unfold messily across the narrative.
Yet Inana occasionally suffers from inconsistent agency. She demonstrates remarkable cunning when performing at the Wretched Lair, yet makes puzzling choices when confronted with danger elsewhere. Her instant attraction to Dominic, despite his representing everything she despises, sometimes feels more plot-convenient than emotionally earned, particularly in the first half of the book.
Dominic proves more fascinating in his moral complexity. As a Shadowbane, he’s undergone partial Absolution, stripping half his soul of sin and reducing his emotional range. Three shadow companions—Sloth, Lust, and Pride—manifest his suppressed darker aspects, providing both comic relief and unsettling insight into his fractured psyche. His mission to restore the rightful balance between light and dark, sun and moon, requires him to perform acts he abhors while maintaining the facade of a loyal monster hunter. Watching him navigate this tightrope, especially as feelings for Inana complicate his carefully maintained emotional distance, creates some of the novel’s most compelling tension.
The supporting cast enriches the narrative considerably:
- Calvin – Dominic’s blood donor and confidant, hiding depths of loyalty beneath casual banter
- Harlow – The young artist sketching forbidden images, her trauma manifesting in sharp defensive humor
- Bard (Rykar Bodin) – A musician bearing scars physical and emotional, whose murder of a Sinless reverberates through the plot
- Henderson – The antagonistic Shadowbane embodying everything corrupt about the system
The Romance: Slow-Burning Through Shadows
The romantic development between Inana and Dominic unfolds with deliberate patience, though it occasionally stumbles. Their initial dynamic—captor and captive, predator and prey—establishes delicious tension. Dominic’s vow of never showing his fully naked body to anyone (Shadowbanes can only engage intimately while blindfolding partners) creates unique intimacy challenges. When Inana stitches his wound after a Shade attack, the tenderness of her hands on his flesh carries erotic weight precisely because of these restrictions.
The chemistry intensifies through shared secrets and gradual trust-building. Dominic’s revelation about the true nature of Shades and sin transforms Inana’s understanding of her world, creating intellectual intimacy alongside physical attraction. Their campfire conversations, where crew members share traumatic histories, forge bonds deeper than mere desire.
However, the pacing occasionally sags. The romance accelerates and stalls unpredictably, with several “almost kiss” moments that feel repetitive rather than progressively intensifying. The explicit scenes, when they arrive in the latter third, deliver the promised shadow play and blindfolding with creativity and heat, yet some readers may find them arriving almost too late given the extended buildup.
Prose That Dances Between Beauty and Darkness
Odette’s writing style adapted beautifully to this darker material. Her prose carries lyrical quality particularly effective in Inana’s chapters, where the storyteller’s voice naturally flows into evocative description. When Inana performs, readers feel the dangerous thrill of her art:
“Mine is a story of a woman who lost her heart. Mine is a tale of the treachery of love. But when love left me bleeding, I stitched myself back together, turned wounds into seams and sinew into threads.”
The dual perspective alternating between Inana and Dominic provides necessary balance. Inana’s chapters pulse with emotional immediacy and artistic flourish, while Dominic’s offer cooler tactical assessment threaded with suppressed longing. This contrast mirrors their fundamental natures—her overflowing with forbidden creativity, him struggling against enforced emotional constraint.
Occasionally, the prose tips into overwrought territory. Metaphors about hearts, stitching, and shadows accumulate until they risk losing impact. The frequent italicized internal dialogue from Dominic’s shadow companions, while characterful, sometimes disrupts narrative flow rather than enhancing it.
Where the Story Stumbles
The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette demonstrates ambition that occasionally exceeds execution. Several plot threads feel underdeveloped:
- The revelation about Inana’s true nature arrives with insufficient groundwork, making the twist feel somewhat abrupt
- Henderson’s role as antagonist remains frustratingly one-dimensional despite opportunities for complexity
- The broader rebellion against King Kaelum receives mentions but lacks concrete development
- Certain Shade encounters feel repetitive in structure: threat emerges, art calms them, cycle repeats
The pacing suffers from middle-book syndrome despite being a series opener. The journey from Nalheim through various villages occasionally drags, with training sequences that don’t advance character or plot meaningfully. The climactic confrontation, while emotionally satisfying, resolves certain conflicts almost too tidily given the established stakes.
Similar Reads for Shadow-Loving Romantics
Readers captivated by The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette should explore these kindred spirits:
For Dark Romantasy with Complex Magic Systems:
- The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
- A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas
- Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin
For Forbidden Art and Oppressive Systems:
- The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
- An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir
- Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
For Morally Gray Romantic Leads:
- From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
- The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
- Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
Final Threads: Worth the Dangerous Dance?
The Lies that Summon the Night by Tessonja Odette succeeds as an ambitious dark romantasy that challenges readers to question authority, celebrate forbidden art, and embrace the beautiful darkness within human nature. Its intricate world-building and morally complex characters outweigh its pacing issues and occasionally inconsistent character agency.
This is not Odette’s cozy fae fare. This is visceral, blood-soaked, and uncompromising in its examination of how systems maintain control through fear and false narratives. The romance burns slow but eventually hot, rewarding patient readers with intimacy that feels earned despite the bumpy road there.
For readers willing to surrender to dense mythology, political intrigue, and a slow-building romance wrapped in shadows, this book offers rich rewards. Just be prepared for darkness that lingers long after the final page, and cliffhangers that will leave you desperate for the sequel.
The lies that summon the night may be forbidden, but sometimes the most dangerous stories are the ones we most need to hear.