A Day Of Fallen Night by Say Shannon

BREAKING NEWS

This week’s number one bestselling book in the country, released last week by @bloomsburypublishing is A Day of Fallen Night by @say_shannon 

The more I am immersed in the literary landscape, the more I feel that fantasy doesn’t get the recognition it deserves as a genre.

When I met Shannon last week, we talked about the immense pressure faced by authors who have had a bestselling, viral book, like The Priory of the Orange Tree, which she has followed with this mammoth prequel. 

So is it any good? You know we would never lie to you & refrain from posting about books we didn’t enjoy. This one was simply phenomenal & deserves its number one spot.

The narrative follows four women in four different parts of the world, each going through torment and challenge. This is a time of dragons and wyrms, of myth & legend, of political turmoil and sickness that was a clear reference to covid. It is a world in which identity and love are approached in a modern way, with a sapphic focus that made me think about what the world and history would have looked like if we hadn’t had a heteronormative approach as the norm.

The pace definitely picks up to the point where I was skipping chapters to get to the next bit of the story line for one woman or another because I needed to know what happened. I found myself going back to check different points because this is so intricate and the storylines are very separate until the end. 

It is a gargantuan book at 845 pages not including index, but I saw this as huge value for money. This is a book to accompany you for a few weeks (plus!), you will find yourself living in this world. I literally started to dream about it. 

When I was lugging this around on the train (can kindle readers kindly refrain from laughing) I marked page 262, because it was at this point I reflected on how much I was going to miss being immersed in the characters and magic.

You may feel intimidated by a book of this size or of epic fantasy in general. I would suggest reading a certain amount of pages a day and taking your time. This was masterfully done, with intricate character building and twists that kept you guessing. C