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jdstadler 's review for:
A Day of Fallen Night
by Samantha Shannon
A worthy prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree that expanded upon the lore of that world with a new cast of characters centuries in the past. Truly put the EPIC in epic fantasy. But even with the sprawling sense of adventure, the characters remained the strongest part of this book for me. Every POV drew me in, and it was so satisfying how each character grows up and deals with hardships throughout the near 900 pages of this book. Romances were subtle but extremely effective, and the grief certain characters went through had me crying on many an occasion. Similar to Priory, it was refreshing to have a fantasy world with queer relationships normalized. The inclusion of loving, queer families was very heartwarming, and extra credit to the author for including non-binary and trans characters as well. This book improved upon all the flaws of the first book (mainly pacing issues), so it’s 5 stars from me. I did have a similar problem to the first book where some high-action scenes were sloppily written to the point I felt lost, but honestly I can overlook that for how strong every other aspect was.