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maryellen's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Blood, Classism, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm
frantic_vampire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’ll be honest, I don’t have my thoughts together for a review for this book. It was so good, but I just kinda hit a slump halfway through 🤷♀️. So, here are some of my disjointed thoughts:
- Cliff is a jerk
- Quinten and Raj’s friendship is adorable (even if we didn’t get to see a lot of them in this book)
- Toby, drenched in blood: what? It’s fine...it’ll come out in the wash...probably?
- This little found family is seriously one of my favorites 🥰
- Toby’s bio family so shity to her all the time!!
- Tybalt admitting he needs help 😭
- Gillian comes off as such a spoiled brat in the short story
So, those are some of my thoughts from this book. I really enjoyed this and it’s getting four stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Grief, and Kidnapping
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
NIGHT AND SILENCE is a story of loose ends, lost pieces, and forgotten things. So much has changed so completely that it's understandable and natural for a few to have gone astray, to be left behind. But some are not content to be forgotten, deciding instead to take twisted revenge on those who left. It begins broken, shattered in a way that aches beyond description. It's about helplessness, doing the motions when the motions are all that's left because maybe if you do them something will get better. Even that pained calm is broken by terror and blood, by a child in danger, and the strange and winding road to attempt a rescue where the chances of success seem to dwindle with every dead end and false trail.
This wraps up some very major things left hanging from previous books. The main storyline starts in this book and was not present in the last one. This is definitely pulling from the rest of this saga, but there is a major thing that is introduced and resolved at least for now here. It leaves a bunch of things to be addressed in later books, some of them ones that were started earlier and just not handled here, and some of them newly introduced and requiring more resolution later. The main character didn't change, it's still Toby. Lately she's done a lot more reflecting on how her priorities have shifted, but much of her voice is still the same. About half of the main plot would make sense if someone had just started with this book and didn't know about the rest of the series, but then a little past halfway through it would start to feel like it takes a wild turn into some very strange territory. To anyone who has been following the series, or at the very least started reading it a few books back, it should make a lot of sense and have some much needed catharsis. The first half is very focused on resolving this book and the immediate problems, but the true ending of this story delves into some things present since the very start of the series, and its very last moments are an emotional response to what happened in THE BRIGHTEST FELL. That book broke a lot of people, then NIGHT AND SILENCE came along to make sure that they don't quite get time to rest, but must instead claim peace where they can because it won't come easily.
This has an interesting place in the flow of the series because while the plot is engaging it's one that makes me want to re-read all the other books because it feels like there were clues I missed before. It has its own story, but most of the emotional weight of it relies on knowing which metaphorical shoes were waiting to drop. Even the main plot matters so much more if you know everything it took to be here. That's how this kind of series works (and for me is what I love about series novels), but for everything this resolves it leaves behind something at least as interesting in its place for late books to tackle. It makes each book feel like a ship of Theseus, where it always wraps up something, starts something new, and has a piece of its own, for at least a little while before that too is mostly remembered for how it's built upon by later entries in a new and wonderful way.
This wraps up some very major things left hanging from previous books. The main storyline starts in this book and was not present in the last one. This is definitely pulling from the rest of this saga, but there is a major thing that is introduced and resolved at least for now here. It leaves a bunch of things to be addressed in later books, some of them ones that were started earlier and just not handled here, and some of them newly introduced and requiring more resolution later. The main character didn't change, it's still Toby. Lately she's done a lot more reflecting on how her priorities have shifted, but much of her voice is still the same. About half of the main plot would make sense if someone had just started with this book and didn't know about the rest of the series, but then a little past halfway through it would start to feel like it takes a wild turn into some very strange territory. To anyone who has been following the series, or at the very least started reading it a few books back, it should make a lot of sense and have some much needed catharsis. The first half is very focused on resolving this book and the immediate problems, but the true ending of this story delves into some things present since the very start of the series, and its very last moments are an emotional response to what happened in THE BRIGHTEST FELL. That book broke a lot of people, then NIGHT AND SILENCE came along to make sure that they don't quite get time to rest, but must instead claim peace where they can because it won't come easily.
This has an interesting place in the flow of the series because while the plot is engaging it's one that makes me want to re-read all the other books because it feels like there were clues I missed before. It has its own story, but most of the emotional weight of it relies on knowing which metaphorical shoes were waiting to drop. Even the main plot matters so much more if you know everything it took to be here. That's how this kind of series works (and for me is what I love about series novels), but for everything this resolves it leaves behind something at least as interesting in its place for late books to tackle. It makes each book feel like a ship of Theseus, where it always wraps up something, starts something new, and has a piece of its own, for at least a little while before that too is mostly remembered for how it's built upon by later entries in a new and wonderful way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, and Torture
CW for grief, kidnapping, blood, violence, torture.iviarelle's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
None of the complaints I have should be held against the book necessarily. Which is an odd way to preface a review, but I do have a couple of things to nitpick and they're probably very Me Problems.
I tend to binge these books, so the amount of "let's explain things that happened before" here is starting to get pretty intense. And by intense, I mean lengthy. It's understandable, not everyone rereads the whole series before starting the new one each year, and not everyone starts at book 1. But as someone who will tend to reread at least the last few before starting a new release, it gets a little repetitive for me after a while.
I am, however, more than a little frustrated the more I think about a certain character in this book.I hope that as the series goes on, maybe we'll learn more about Janet and why she decided Toby was the enemy and not a potential ally. I can understand it of the fae, but as much as Janet wanted to be near her daughter (for reasons unspecified), she didn't want to even bother to get to know or help her own granddaughter? That stinks to me. I hope there's more to this. I'd love it if she just ends up being purposefully complicated, or deliberately inconsistent, or something explains this at all... but right now, to me, she just seems the lazy shorthand kind of inconsistent because we hardly know anything about her yet.
And yet... and I always seem to have an and yet, but here it is. There's so much this book does beautifully.Toby helping Tybalt take the first steps out of his PTSD, the way he did for her, is so huge and beautiful as an in-book arc. Hinting just obtusely enough for me to not be able to figure out Dugan was coming back until he did was a great balance, imo. The maintained focus on found, chosen family always mattering more than blood relations, even when those overlap. Even the ending and denouement didn't feel so rushed in this one, which was a real joy for me specifically. And as much as the plot's conceit feels a little repetitive, it plays out differently enough that I'm not mad.
There's much, much more I loved about this than I didn't. That's the takeaway here.
I tend to binge these books, so the amount of "let's explain things that happened before" here is starting to get pretty intense. And by intense, I mean lengthy. It's understandable, not everyone rereads the whole series before starting the new one each year, and not everyone starts at book 1. But as someone who will tend to reread at least the last few before starting a new release, it gets a little repetitive for me after a while.
I am, however, more than a little frustrated the more I think about a certain character in this book.
And yet... and I always seem to have an and yet, but here it is. There's so much this book does beautifully.
There's much, much more I loved about this than I didn't. That's the takeaway here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Self harm and Kidnapping
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