Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

5 reviews

mice_are_nice's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, War, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Adult/minor relationship

shottel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

A Day of Fallen Night is an improvement over The Priory of the Orange Tree in nearly every way. It would take a long time to enumerate all the positive changes, but a few in short: The pacing is better, the diversity is better, the appeal to modern audiences is better, the feminist themes are clearer, and even the cover art is better! Priory's Eastern branch lagged, but the branches are deftly balanced in Fallen Night. The book remediates Priory's odd penchant for mostly only mentioning the skin type of white characters, and features a significant number of LGBT+ (every letter of the acronym! and then some!) main and secondary characters. It draws on contemporary writing trends from other adult-genre books and, seemingly, fanfiction ("It's too cold, we have to cuddle for warmth") to excellent effect. And women's issues, most notably issues of pregnancy and birth, feature far more prominently, with the noble requirement to sustain a bloodline playing a role throughout the book.

This mandate to procreate establishes this book as far more clearly feminist (the idea that women have issues, interests, and stories worth hearing as much as men do) than its sequel. The need for nobility to sustain itself through childbirth is a recurring, central issue of the book, among other issues which concern women more than they do men, which also make frequent appearances.

In some ways, this book feels like it was written to an audience that might be into medieval court drama or epic adventures, but aren't too fond of the biases that pervade those genres. It is a grand epic, fantastically wrote, including women, LGBT+ characters, and people of color as equals to men, cishet, and white characters.

There are only a few places where it falters. The biggest problem I had is that the action scenes are confusing. I found myself frequently struggling to imagine the scene, re-reading portions over and over again. At first I thought it was a me issue, but after a half-dozen or so times, I figured it's probably not a me problem.

Additionally, I flagged two more minor concerns. First, with the presence of so many LGBT+ characters, the lack of transfeminine characters stands out oddly. Perhaps one or both of the nonbinary characters in the book are intended to be transfeminine, but there is no way to know this from the text. I don't make any guesses as to why; it just sits weirdly. Secondly, while *Priory* is a truly self-contained work, *Fallen Night* hints at an intention to write another book set between the two. This is the only change which I find to be a step backwards from *Priory*.

When layered inside an over 800 page grand adventure, these issues are minor, thus my score of 4.75/5. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in grand adventures, feminist fiction, fantasy, or fiction with LGBT+ main characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Sexism, Blood, Death, Violence, Grief, War, Terminal illness, Misogyny, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Kidnapping, Child death, Infertility, Body horror, Gore, Emotional abuse, Torture, Miscarriage, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Cannibalism, Abortion, and Animal cruelty

dragongirl271's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Child death

Minor: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Cancer, and Cannibalism

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Glorian Shieldheart what a fucking badass. I got literal chills during some of her scenes. I also appreciated that this book was even more gay than Priory. Truly iconic. The way that Shannon integrates a whole cast of different identities into these books is honestly inspiring. Because of the length of the book, some of the slow reveals really kept me invested. All in all, I’d love to keep reading from this world! 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Gore, and Abandonment

Minor: Mental illness and Cannibalism

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

I didn’t know a book SO long could be SO fast-paced. I was in love with the characters from the start and got my heart broken and put back together countless times. I love the depth of the history in names of people/places and how the author demonstrates changes in people, places, culture, and languages over time.  I love a book with gay characters in which the trauma has nothing to do with their sexuality. The interview at the end of the audiobook was definitely with the listen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, War, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Cannibalism and Infertility