Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

34 reviews

awkwardimagination's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, War, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Animal death and Suicide

readandfindout's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

4.0

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 3.5 stars stars
Worldbuilding: 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Infidelity, Violence, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Cannibalism

hannahpings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

4.5

my god i fell in love with this book and these people and this world. i never wanted it to end and i'm so sad it did. every single one (not an exaggeration!) of its characters had significant depth and nuance, and felt authentic in a way i wasn't necessarily expecting. i'm not going to be able to forget about any of them any time soon, and i wouldn't want to. it's also seeped in the lore and complex politics that i was craving after its predecessor. 

i also loved priory––i think it was fantastic––but for me, there's been a marked improvement in samantha shannon's writing between the two. a day of fallen night gives itself time to breathe, has pitch-perfect pacing, and doesn't fall prey to the same "and then all this happened btw and now we're here" telling-not-showing issue that priory does.

this book made me feel a way i haven't felt in 20 years at least. i truly cannot wait to read all 868 pages again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Child death, Religious bigotry, War, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, Vomit, and Adult/minor relationship

tinybluepixel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Child death, Pregnancy, Body horror, Grief, Gore, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Infertility and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Suicide

bleepbloop's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.5

really good! VERY closely follows the general plot, world and characters of a song of ice and fire but if it were feminist

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, and Death

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed The Priory of the Orange Tree. This book is slow-paced and action packed.  

This book has several points of view. The first is Tunuva Melim. She is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose. In the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hroth which has narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadows – exactly where she wants to be. The dragon of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate. When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.  

The way I rate fantasy books is how easy it is for me to get into the world and these characters. I know I had some advantage from reading The Priory of the Orange Tree and we knew the world, but obviously with it being a prequel, there was a lot of new characters and a lot of things to learn before the events of The Priory of the Orange Tree. I haven’t struggled with this series; it was sinking into a comfy chair by the fire and being able to just relax. I know a lot of people would struggle with the size of this book but with the number of chapters and the fact that the chapters are quite small, it works, if it was over 900 pages, I think it would have dragged a bit. I liked the multiple chapters and that they are very distinct between the four of them and then the several characters within that region. I also enjoyed the love story within this book, and I wanted more of that.   

Again, like with the first book, the thing that stopped it being a five-star read was the big reveals and big twists were just slotted in and then brushed over. I was just waiting for the reaction to be like holy mother of Jesus and it just didn’t happen. 

This was an enjoyable read, but I was expected to be more of a big drop with the twists and turns. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Animal death

Minor: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship

brekker_by_brekker's review

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

holy shit

(dragons and sapphics literally what more could i want?????)

FUCKINF. DUMAI. AND NIKEYA. NO I CANNOT. I CANT. WHY.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pregnancy, War, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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

4.25

This was less plot driven and more character driven than Priory. Some storylines took me longer to get into than others. I was particulalry involved in Dumai's storyline, I thought it was the strongest of them all, but I did fall in love with all the characters by the end. I think this is definitely something to read alongside Priory, as it explains the origins to a lot of that action, and may feel a little empty or leave you wanting a bit more in terms of the resolution of you haven't or don't read Priory. Overall, I really enjoyed it but I think Priory was my favourite of the two.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Death, and War

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It is very easy to lose the plot while listening since there is so much going on. But each narrator did a good job. I wasn't fond of how the last hour or so was just an interview. It was nice but it was also something I would've rather searched for.
I did adore how one of the characters was in their 30's. We need more 30-80 year old characters in fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Violence, War, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship

The adult/minor relationship is an unconsummated marriage.

shlymiller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Animal death, Suicide, and Violence