A review by bashsbooks
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

This book is soooo long and the space & energy for writing a review is so short, yet I shall forge on. A Day of Fallen Night is just as incredible as The Priory of the Orange Tree - if not moreso. Although I read Priory over a year ago now, slipping into this prequel was much easier than getting into the first book. The worldbuilding and the lore came back to me quickly, prodded along by the fact that this is meant to be readable as a standalone. Sometimes that quality can be repetative when you read multiple books in the same universe, but here it was just a boon. 

A short list of things I liked about this book: 
  • Always amuses me that Shannon not only made Fantasy Catholicism but also made it canonically false.
  • Addition of nonbinary rep - including nonbinary titles! I love the terms Mastress and Lade. 
  • Addition of other trans rep - there are at least two trans men & just like the gay relationships, no one bats an eye at them. 
  • Thrit, I am emotionally invested in this secondary character, he is the best.
  • Gay-on-gay-on-gay violence at one of the climaxes
    where all the narrators run into each other.
No complaints, 100% recommend, I can't wait for the next book in this universe.
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