Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

75 reviews

vikart's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A beautifully written high fantasy book that stands within a realm of religions, nations and dragons with intricate and well-thought relationships and huge diversity.
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purkinjefibers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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lynxpardinus's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense

4.0

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nataliemosher's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

An excellent read! It surpassed Priory for me in every way. It kept the richly imagined world, awesome dragons, diverse cast of characters, and compelling belief systems, but was quicker to get into and had a more nuanced and challenging ending. I particularly love both books exploration of how religion and legend can be corrupted accidentally and on purpose to meet the ends of people. Despite its 800 pages, I only wish it was longer!
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nightmarebees's review

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5.0

THIS WAS SO GOOD? i think i even enjoyed this more than i did Priory, which is likely due to either being more familiar with the world going in OR with the increased number of sapphic MCs. 

regardless, i was never not engaged by the story. i felt equally invested in all of the different POVs, and i genuinely cared about each of the main characters. it takes a long time for the separate plots to come together, but i found it very satisfying when they did. i kind of guessed a few plot points, but it never took me out of my immersion in the story. this is just incredibly well executed epic fantasy and i can’t be mad at it for doing what that genre is meant to do. i can’t wait to read more books in this world
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ferlefur's review

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Just like 'Priory', A Day of Fallen Night suffers from pacing issues and a quick resolution to 800 pages of intrigue. Still, amazing read. 
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kynaeus's review

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adventurous hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Although I prefer the story of Priory over Fallen Night, I really enjoyed all of the depictions of Iceland/Norway amongst the Hrothi (the entire region is finally open to us for storytelling) and hope it see more of its people and characters. Really felt for the aro/ace queen, the lesbian moms, the romance between Wulf and <redacted> - all a lot of fun

I felt the plot was slow to start which an interested reader should not hold as a bad thing, the book starts out introducing all the political concepts and characters and kingdoms that this Epic will be covering, one in each cardinal direction of the world. It's all a bit much to start with! But once you are familiar with each of those the storytelling's pace definitely picks up to a medium simmer until the climax. 

The epilogue is nice and ties everything up, and audio book enjoyers will also have an hour long interview with the author to look forward to.

I think my biggest downside was I already knew what things had to happen and be in place for Priory to happen - so my biggest problem is that I knew where a prequel would lead to  - and was just waiting to see it arrive. There wasn't a ton of surprise in the story for me, but it was told masterfully so props to S.S. who was made gay by the orange tree (listen to the interview!)

I WILL say, even though the first book is my favorite, this is still a delightful piece of grand fiction told across years and many viewpoints. It has magic, intrigue, it has gay, there's plenty of distrust and romance to go around, it has a ton of queer representation that is just psrt of the world and isn't soapboxy or trying to make a point. It's just a delightful read. But why didn't those moms take the food? Why.
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sephiefoxx's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“Can you imagine what that’s like – to be seen only for the life you could make, not the life you already possess?”

I did it! After over a year of this booking sitting on my TBR shelf taunting me, I read it. And…wow.

Samantha Shannon has such an amazing skill to keep me enthralled for hundreds of pages. Within the over 850 pages of this behemoth, my rapt attention did not falter once. 

This is a fantastic prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree - filled with the same level of fascinating characters, high stakes, and glorious representation as the original. The way everything comes together and influenced the events and characters of Priory was expertly done and had me squealing. 

A Day of Fallen Night is a rich high fantasy about love, personal journeys, power, magic, and most importantly, motherhood against the backdrop of a cataclysmic event. And motherhood is truly the epicentre of this tale, with almost all of POV characters’ journeys intertwined with at least one theme of pregnancy, birth, motherhood, and/or the relationships with their own mothers. And it is the diversity of these experiences and how the characters interact with these themes that mean that there is a story within that will resonate with so many readers.

Samantha Shannon is truly a marvel at high fantasy, and this series has my heart. The characters and world have their hooks in me deeply. 
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hayreading's review

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There was so much I could appreciate on a second read. The worldbuilding is beautiful. Every character felt so real and I loved them all so much. The interwoven story between this and Priory, while both can be read without the other is amazing. So much of what I love in fantasy stems from this series.
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selimhannah's review

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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