Reviews with content warning for Suicide - A Day of Fallen Night

That was a very enjoyable slog of endurance. I enjoyed how every POV gave pieces to a puzzle from a ton of different angles. Great diversity and representation.

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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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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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scoutgreimel's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

Is this book as amazing as its predecessor? No. However, that does not stop it from being an amazing book in its own right. In fact, in regards to overall story arc pacing, I do think that this one is a bit of an improvement.

I do not usually find that I have trouble with books that have a slow narrative that jumps between many points of view, but this one was truly a slog at many times. Yet, that did not hinder me from becoming deeply attached to the characters. So attached that I am still sobbing as I write this review.

While this book does not answer every question you’re left with during Priory, if you are a true lover of the lore and world building of the original book (and a freak about remembering details like me), many of the plot and character reveals that come later in the book are not that surprising, but still incredibly satisfying, like Shannon is rewarding you for being so invested in the world she has carefully crafted.

The parallels and foils go crazy (as usual), and just… I don’t know how else to say it, Shannon has made a beautiful, epic, sweeping story that sticks with you forever. AGAIN!

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_persephone's review against another edition

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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

5.0

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fin_pilot's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

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nat20charisma's review against another edition

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4.75

I liked this much better than the Priory of the Orange Tree. I enjoyed following the characters from a young age and watching them grow up. My only issue with it was that it dragged a bit in the middle, but that’s to be expected with such a dense fantasy story.

This was also a great pick to read for June! It had fantastic LGBTQ+ representation.

I can’t decide if it’s better to read PotOT first or aDoFN. I think it could be read in either order, but there is a lot of discussion of the mother and the saint in this book that wouldn’t make sense unless you read Priory.

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awkwardimagination's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring tense 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? Yes

3.5

I finished this last night in kind of a rush so that may have hurt my opinion a little, but I think it stands.

This book was kind of the opposite of the first book, in terms of literary elements. While the plot and pacing have the same strength, I found I didn't like the plot of this one as much as the second one. The fact that I knew so much about the world already also hurt it a little, because I found myself getting frustrated with a lot of the character motivations and actions. Speaking of characters; I liked the characters a lot more in this book then the first one. Oh my god- In the first one I really only formed a connection with Ead, in terms of mcs, and just really liked Tané. Loth felt flat to me and Niclays was just fucking annoying. My favourite characters in the first book were mainly background characters. In this one, I truly loved every mc. Glorian was my fav through out, I fucking adore her (false prophet aside), Dumai was also kickass and I liked her a lot. I felt sympathetic toward Tunuva and liked her well enough, but the other characters in her parts (Esbar and Canthe) bittered her story. I started the story feeling the same way about Wulf, as I did about Loth, but by the end of it Wulf was my guy - I fucking love him.

God did I like how this ended, it was strong and honestly shocking I was not expecting some of the people who died to die. And dont get me wrong, while i did not like the plot of this book as much, does not mean this had a bad plot; I very much enjoyed getting to watch the setup of all the pieces for Priory of the Orange Tree (except for Tané's jewel that confuses me) and seeing all the places and people that we only heard about. God, I love me some world building!

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