I think it was a great followup. I don't typically enjoy prequels because they are inherently tragic, but I think it played with tragedy well while still giving us an interesting story. I also got really attached to the characters. It did drag a bit at parts, but I knew it would given the length. Overall I liked it and I really want a book about our three tree mothers. I need to know the full story. But if we ge the next gen story like she has been teasing that works for me. 

I WISH I COULD GIVE THIS BOOK TEN STARS. i dare say it was even better than The Priory of the Orange Tree, but only because it had such a fantastic book as a foundation. 
A Day Of Fallen Night built upon the lush and brilliant world of Priory and expanded upon the mythos and magic i fell in love with in Priory. the story was much faster in this book, with multiple viscerally real and flawed storytellers that made me fall in love time and time again. the plot was so deep, so intricately woven, and there was not a single point (past page 100) where i felt comfortable putting the book down for too long. 
although the audience somewhat knew the story that the book would tell, the devil is truly in the details. the characters and their arcs truly made this book worth reading and enriched the lore of the world tenfold. getting to know the players in the folklore intimately was just magical… i will never read Priory the same way. 
also… the romance in this book was NEXT LEVEL. i did not think Samantha Shannon could top Ead and Sabran, but i was very, very wrong. the two main romances in this story were sapphic, which i loved, and all mentioned partnerships were extremely three-dimensional and believable. i won’t put spoilers here, but the enemies to lovers was SERVING in this book and i wept MULTIPLE TIMES over one particular couple. and over other things as well.
this book simultaneously re-opened and healed some aching wounds inside me—wounds surrounding womanhood, motherhood, family, religion, love, duty, and identity. i was a complete sniveling mess for the last ~150 pages of the book, but i wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. 
Samantha Shannon has done it again. A Day Of Fallen Night is truly a masterpiece. 

15000000/5 stars 

For fans of The Priory of the Orange Tree, diverse fantasy worlds and sword weilding dragon riders, too. 

I absolutely loved this book. 

 

I thought it was so interesting to see what happened 500 years prior to THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE aka 500 years after the slaying of the nameless one. I feel like there's a lot of stuff mentioned in the previous (next?) book that we get the back story for in this book which I loved! 

 

I really liked the characters and I loved the connection between Inys and the Priory - there's a lot more to it than what I was expecting... 

 

Even with how much I enjoyed reading it, I have to admit I was constantly thinking 'why is this book so looooooooong' - I just can't cope with books that are longer than 300 pages, even if I do enjoy them... 

 

Anyway, I am itching for a book set post THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE!