Reviews

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Iona Datt Sharma, Katherine Fabian

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jedbird's review against another edition

4.0

Short, interesting, well-done story about queer relationships + magic. Nat and Layla, who don't like each other, have to work together to find their missing magician-lover Meraud. Layla has a wife and children. Nat has a pair of nonbinary they/them friends who are nearly interchangeable, I think by design. Meraud is a powerful water witch who likes to be tied up.

The magic was a bit hand-wavy, which...am I really expecting actual, effective, reproducible magic from a story? No, of course not, but in some books it's more believable than in others, and here it was definitely poetic.

I found Nat most interesting of all the characters, and found myself wanting more information about him. There's not really much information about anyone in this short work, but it's still very filled-out and colorful. If you like the idea of queer polyamorous magic, you'll probably like this.

Spoiler

I was hoping to get something charismatic or enigmatic out of Meraud at the end, but he says nothing. It did render him a bit more of a macguffin than a person.

tortue_abroad's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 stars because I felt like I wanted more from the ending. But in general it was good and cozy and queer. A fun read!

katebird's review

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

windinthewires's review

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5.0

This story is so wonderfully queer and centers found families in a really beautiful way. I adore so much about this story that its hard to put into words. It’s just so lovely reading about adult queer people who get to be happy and unapologetically themselves and where their queerness is an integral part of their lives but it’s not the whole plot, y’know? Instead of unnecessary drama or dumb love triangles we just get this lovely story of all these people coming together in different constellations to create a beautiful queer community and a family in many different forms and it’s just so so wonderful and self-affirming to read.