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nat20charisma's review against another edition
4.75
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.
Graphic: War and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide
gardens_and_dragons'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
Graphic: Violence, Pregnancy, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death and Abandonment
Minor: Child death
sophiesmallhands'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
4.75
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Animal death, Violence, Pregnancy, War, and Death
Moderate: Child death and Religious bigotry
Minor: Colonisation, Classism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Miscarriage, and Sexual content
mice_are_nice's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
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
wackly93's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: War, Death, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Death of parent and Terminal illness
Minor: Sexual content
avery_hutchinson'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
4.75
Graphic: War, Violence, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content
hannahpings'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
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
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
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 (iejustgothenough'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
3.5
Graphic: Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Grief, Murder, and War
beckyyreadss'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
4.0
Graphic: War, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Animal death
Minor: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship