A Day of Fallen Night

Happy publication day to Samantha Shannon!

I would like to thank Bloomsburry and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review, I'm truly honoured.

This book is a prequel to The Priory if the Orange Tree, set 500 years before the events of that book. I must say I have not read the Priory but this did not affect at all my enjoyment of the story. Samantha's clarified on her Goodreads that reading the Priory before may help understanding the world, as the Prequel is slightly longer and politically more complex. As I tend to prefer reading events on chronological order, I chose to start on A Day of Fallen Night and do not regret it.

The book follows different POV across different regions - Glorian (East), Dumai (West) and Tunuva (South), and Wulf (initially in the North but across other regions as well). Samantha did a terrific job building the characters stories, personalities, and arc, slowly building our connection and curiosity about them.

I loved the beautiful writing and the worldbuilding, with rich and diverse characters. I was more partial to Dumai and Wulf because I loved their backstories and personalities, and there was slightly more action in most of their chapters and less religious background.

My only (small) complaint is that the first half felt a bit too slow. I know Shannon was setting up the story, but I have felt that every time something was going to happen, we would switch POV, and return when the events already happened. However, I loved how the story evolved and everything was tied up on the second half of the book.

I could not recommend Samantha Shannon work more. She is definitely a name to follow and remember regarding High Fantasy.