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atalea's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Gaslighting, War, Blood, Violence, Pregnancy, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Animal death, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Body horror
chanlo1994's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, War, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Violence, Sexism, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Gore, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, and Adult/minor relationship
chelly_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Pregnancy, Violence, Gaslighting, Death, Infidelity, War, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, and Gore
lmfry's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, War, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, Classism, Animal death, and Mental illness
Minor: Alcohol
readandfindout's review against another edition
4.0
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 3.5 stars stars
Worldbuilding: 4 stars
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
beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The worldbuilding is intricate down to the tiniest detail, and the care that Samantha Shannon took is evident on every single page. I can't imagine what the research process was like for this, but, as with The Priory of the Orange Tree, I can say that it must have been exhaustive (and no doubt exhausting too). I am in awe of the scale of it. Belief, politics, geography, history - it's all here and all believable.
The plotting is also immaculate. The way Shannon has created her POV characters and how she has crafted every twist and turn of the plot to bring them together and apart is masterful. I will say that at times the characters felt more like pieces in the elaborate chess match that was Shannon's plot, rather than fully fleshed-out human beings.
There are four characters - dubbed "storytellers" in Shannon's extensive notes and glossaries - whose points of view we see. Tunuva, a middle-aged sister at the Priory of the Orange Tree, Glorian, the adolescent heir to a fabled queendom, Wulf, a young man sworn to a Northern King, and Dumai, a twenty-seven-year-old apostle at an ancient mountain temple.
Of all of them, the ones I liked best were probably Tunuva, Glorian and Wulf. Dumai I couldn't really warm to, although she was very interesting as a character.
Speaking of characters, this novel has a huge cast - I appreciated the index at the back, which I found an excellent way of keeping track of the characters and their relationships with one another and their worlds. I did feel that some of the smaller characters got lost in the bigness of it all. Of the secondary characters, I probably appreciated Nikeya most. And Canthe (
Aside from feminine agency and power (similarly dominant in Priory), the themes of environmentalism, religion, and belief also come through very strongly. The overarching plot point of the novel is analogous to world events of the last few years (
LGBTQIA+ representation is done well throughout. There are trans and non-binary folk in the large cast of characters, and a range of different sexualities among minor and major characters also. Within the world Shannon has created, this gender and sexual diversity is normalised, which is refreshing to read about. Although this is an imagined world in terms of ethnicity there is still a range of skin tones from white to dark-skinned, which I know many will appreciate.
Although it has its flaws, this was overall a satisfying and highly enjoyable read.
Graphic: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Colonisation, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, and War
Moderate: Sexual content, Gore, and Alcohol
Minor: Vomit
Strong scenes depicting supernaturally inflicted violence (iethe_reading_wren's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, War, Violence, Grief, Alcohol, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Child death and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Gore, Abortion, Excrement, Infidelity, Cannibalism, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Suicide, Confinement, Mental illness, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Classism
zoiejanelle's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Body horror, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual content, War, Infidelity, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Body horror, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death
Minor: Infertility, Adult/minor relationship, and Abortion
bergha1998's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Multi-POV, LGBTQIA+, Romance Subplots, 1 🔥
“I bid you mind my heart. I leave half of it in your keeping.”
“Your pain is not my pain, but I know its shape. I am sorry for it.“
“‘Because you would not believe until you saw.’ ‘Is that so terrible?’”
“He saw danger in difference… Some people need to call others evil, so they can seem pure and righteous in comparison, or to purge contempt they hold in secret for themselves.“
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Grief, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, War, Death of parent, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Animal death, and Blood
arcadiamoon10's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, and Pregnancy
Minor: Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Suicide