Scan barcode
rinku's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
4.0
This second party of A Day of Fallen Night was just as emotional and dramatic as the first one. All storylines are so engaging, especially Glorian’s. Throughout the book, I felt so sorry for her, she has such a hard life. It’s so sad to see how she slowly loses control of the situation. This leads to her marrying some old guy and just shows how dutiful she is. With this dramatic situation, I appreciate that we don’t really know how our characters will get out of the situation. It was a bit cliché though that Wulf arrived when they’re all gone. Wulf really has it not easy here, he meets Dumai and Tunura under very unfortunate circumstances. There is just a lot of misunderstanding because they don’t speak the same language .
Towards the end, we learn how the magic got into the Queen’s bloodline which was so interesting . It also gets really dark with a literal child dying in a gruesome way on page and also Dumai dying which was so sad . The writing is so good here, and everything is good to imagine, especially the settings. But I have some critiques here and there which is why I gave this part “only” four stars. Maybe I was a bit impatient after the slow first half, but the pacing here was just too slow for me. Adding to this feeling were the time frames that were sometimes a bit too big for me. This is furthermore a personal thing, but I’m just not ready yet to read about a pandemic. Additionally, I struggle a bit with understanding the moral of the story. Is it that history is repeating itself? I don’t know, for me, this is just a bit depressing.
I really love that every main character is queer and how many casual female characters, like doctors or astronomers, and not like in other fantasy books. Glorian’s character development is so great here, and I loved the relationship between Wulf and her. Especially after her birth , Glorian was so powerful. This was probably my favourite moment in this novel. In general, the solidarity between the women was so great. Nineya is also such an amazing character.
I personally liked A Day of Fallen Night more than The Priory of the Orange Tree. The characters are way more interesting and lively here, and the plot is just so engaging.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Confinement, Suicide, and Cannibalism
More...