Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC which I received in exchange for an honest review!

This was unfortunately not the book for me. I tried several times to get through this boot but I just couldn't and ended up DNFing the book. I am going to try this book out later on as an audiobook.

In a world where every person has two personalities, one that exists only during the day and the other during the night, dark magic in a border town is running amok and an intrepid special investigator is on the case.

I was really excited to get an eARC of this book, the premise sounded so intriguing. I have never read a story where the main character has a split personality and I thought that this would lead to some really interesting plot. I was also intrigued by the promise of a witch hunt gone wrong. Unfortunately the decision to split the book into two parts, with the first part narrated by the special inspector who is only conscious at night (the night brother) and the second narrated by his musician day brother really hindered the story. This division was awkward because I was really invested in the night brother character and when it switched to narration by the day brother I felt like I had no connection to the story anymore. Also the fact that the two personalities can’t really communicate effectively made the second half less believable because the day brother had information that he shouldn’t have been able to know.

The mystery sub-plot was also a bit of a let down. I prefer when the reader has all of the information to figure out the solution alongside the investigator, but since we didn’t actually have the investigator’s point of view for the second half of the book and instead got a musician playing investigator I felt like there were too many holes and conveniences.

Another thing that bothered me was the lack of any reasoning for why everyone has two personalities. It’s definitely an interesting concept, but I expected it to have some kind of thematic significance and I wasn’t able to find any. This was also exacerbated by the fact that the worldbuilding leans heavily on real world Europe (circa maybe the 1600s?) so it felt very gimmicky as opposed to intentional.

I would definitely pick up another book by this author because the atmosphere and writing style were really well done and I did enjoy my time reading it. If the narrative had gone back and forth between the two “brothers” I think it would have been a stronger story.

A fascinating story, gripping and original. The concept of day and night sibling was new to me and I loved how the author developed this fascinating world.
The plot is fast paced, compelling, and entertaining.
I had fun and read it as fast as I could.
An excellent story, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

David Towsey’s Equinox is a story of witchcraft and secrets with one of the most fascinating and unique premises in a horror-fantasy blend. Two human beings share a human body; one during the day, one during the night. Christopher Morden is a witch hunter in a world where everyone changes with the rising and setting of the sun, each person sharing a body with another. In Christopher’s case, his diurnal counterpart is the hedonist musician Alexander. Brought in to investigate a woman’s almost certainly supernatural mutilation, Christopher encounters a grim supernatural prophecy and finds a witch his night-self is desperate to save.

While the novel has exceptional promise, the writing does not fully live up to it. The plot becomes increasingly convoluted and the skilled prose is muddied down by the difficulties in giving clarity to the events. The narrative grows ever more opaque with each revelation and it is difficult for the reader to follow along.

The characters remain compelling and excellent throughout. The second half of the book is the stronger half, when things are clear and Towsey can push towards a denouement. Getting there is no easy feat and may require the reader to constantly flip back to remind themselves what happened.

A unique and brilliant setting is sadly let down by convolution, with details thrown into the mix that read as clumsy attempts at worldbuilding but serve little purpose to the overall story and end up as more distracting than compelling. But the fantasy provided is grim, eerie and the world is positively terrific.

Should Towsey revisit the setting, there is much he could do justice. Unfortunately, Equinox does not live up to all its potential, though the end is highly rewarding.

I wanted to love this one but didn't.
The great stuff-- The world-building, witchcraft, and premise are fantastic(ish).

The concept of a day person and night person inhabiting one body was intriguing, but often more lacking clear understanding than anything because of the absence of background. I struggled to connect with the characters, and I think the disconnect also contributed to my feeling like something was just a little off and prevented me from loving this. The very slow pacing of the book with a quick conclusion left me wanting. It took me a long time to get through this one.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eGalley of this work in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the unique and fresh concept, and there was a well-developed world and magic system that I found intriguing, but where this narrative really fell short for me was in its pacing. There was far too much information given in the first half of the book before the plot really kicked in, which left me a little unengaged.

Huge thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions in this review are my own.
---
This was a great read full of great worldbuilding, some gruesome witchcraft and intriguing mysteries.

The pacing was great and I enjoyed both main characters' viewpoints and felt they were treated equally well, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

It's also great that this is a standalone story and definitely a complete one that does not drag on unnecessarily into a million pages or more books.

Overall rating: 5/5 stars

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

"Equinox" by David Towsey hooked me from the description. Two people sharing a body, one who lives during the day, the other who lives during the night? Sold. Even more intriguing, when I soon discovered this wasn't just the protagonist's plight, but the whole population's affliction. The more intricacies that unfolded about this fantasy world - like how it works with children - the more interested I became.

The story itself was a gripping mystery that roped me in with gruesome magic (no spoilers, but you'll see) that was fantastical, inventive, and fun. I was very impressed by the worldbuilding. The authoritative and deft way Towsey presented Reikova had it reading like history and not fantasy which did the story a great credit.

Like night-siblings to one body, there are stories in this book. One is a mystery about a witch hunter investigating murder and magic in a small town with secrets. The other is a fantasy about a world where two completely different people that inhabit the same body. As I continued to read I kept convincing myself there was a reason for them to intertwine, but I was left at the end feeling like this could have been two separate books. I would love to read more Christophor Morden mysteries and I would equally read another book that took place in this universe, an exploration of its origins, and especially a story from a female protagonist's perspective, as I can imagine women would have far worse difficulties sharing a body with their day/night siblings than the brothers in this book did. Until then, I am left a little unsatisfied but still did enjoy this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for letting me read an advanced copy.

The story has an interesting plot and mugic, but I couldn’t get into it. I didn’t vibe with the writing style.

(This is a shortened version of the full review on my blog: https://dampskunk.wordpress.com/2022/06/04/equinox-2022-by-david-towsey/)

NB: I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. Inasmuch as I can be sure of such things, I believe that this has not affected the content of my review.

Equinox succeeds entirely because it has a fantastic conceit. And what a conceit it is! Basically, every person is two people sharing a body: During the day, you are one person, with one name (e.g., Aleksander), one job (e.g., musician), one set of hobbies (e.g., cheerfully debauched pleasure-seeking); and then you go to bed, and wake up an hour later as someone entirely different: new name (Christopher), new job (witch finder), new set of habits (collecting preserved birds’ eggs). You, a night-person, might have some vague, dreamlike memories of your day-sibling’s actions, but if the two of you want to communicate you need to leave notes for each other, and your lives remain entirely separate. Indeed, if your day-sibling is convicted of a crime, then you are released when you awake at night, but you have to report back to prison by daybreak (because, of course, if your day-sibling is hanged for prison-breaking, you die too). The whole world consists of two sets of people: those who live during the day, and those who live during the night.

The plot of this book is really nicely built upon this conceit: Christopher Morden, a witch finder, is summoned to the prison because one of the inmates has had a weird occult thing happen to him, and Christopher is dispatched to the inmate’s home village to see what’s what. Because of the body-sharing, his day-brother, Aleksander, must necessarily come along for the ride—which is of course wildly unfair for many reasons, but the one that really stuck out at me was the fact that the party that Christopher travels with moves by day, so it’s Aleksander who gets all the hassle of riding a horse for hours in the rain, while Christopher wakes up and hangs out in a tent chatting with people at night. Throughout the book this dual pattern of occupations continues: We see Christopher trying to figure out the occult badness at night, while Aleksander just kind of hangs around in the town during the day. Things are made all the more interesting because, remember, there are two sets of people in the town: The night-people, whom Christopher interacts with, and their day-siblings, who Aleksander makes friends with. They live mostly separate lives, except not really, because they share bodies with the night-people, and so the day-people can tell Aleksander things that are useful for Christopher’s investigation—but indirectly, of course, because, remember, the day-people are only telling Aleksander things that they sort of vaguely know about their night-counterparts, or the night-counterparts of their acquaintances, and so links get tenuous quite quickly. Still, as the plot progresses, the discoveries unfurl, things fall into place with a magnificent tour-de-force juggling act of characters and connections that would not be possible without the day/night body-sharing conceit.

And yet, although the book itself works quite well, it leaves behind many unanswered questions deriving from the logistics of how such a world might work. Some of these questions I think are perfectly fine to leave unresolved, but fascinating to think about. For example, day-siblings and night-siblings have separate jobs and are separate people, but live in the same house. How do things like political secrets, intelligence/spycraft work? Your sibling will have memories of what you know, even hazy ones, so do you both need to be cleared for intelligence work? Do you both have to agree to share a career if there’s sensitive information involved? There are a few characters who work in close proximity to their other selves—there’s a constable who has the same job day and night–but there’s not much discussion of how common that is.

Speaking of jobs, how does money work? It seems like the day-sibling/night-siblings have separate expenses and possessions and sources of income. Is it ever the case that one steals from another? Is there a branch of civil law specializing in day/night-sibling torts? Or what about physical movement? Aleksander didn’t kick up a fuss about being yanked away from his rather aimless life as a gig-musician to go on Christopher’s out-of-town investigation, but suppose he had? Suppose every morning he had started traveling back home, refusing to go along with Christopher? What happens if your day-sister gets a fabulous promotion that requires her to move to a new city, but you have a husband and children and family here, and don’t want to move?

Some of the weaknesses of this book are related to Towsey’s willingness to import just a bit too much of our own social order into this fascinating world he’s constructed. There are the broader issues about statehood and government and law and trade that I’ve brought up above, but there are simple things, too. In an entirely secondary world fantasy, I’m scratching my head every time Christianity is mentioned. Or consider sex: At one point Aleksander falls asleep after sex in bed with a partner, even though he knows perfectly well that this means that Christopher is going to wake up naked in bed with someone he absolutely does not want to be naked in bed with. And this will always happen if post-coital snoozes cross the day/night border. Why, then, do people still fall into a post-coital snooze? Much more likely in such a society, the connection between having sex and falling asleep would be completely severed.

Speaking of sex, let’s talk about its main weakness: its treatment of bodily autonomy and reproduction.* Several times in the book we have characters asking things like, ‘Is she your daughter or…?’ and receive answers like, ‘She’s a night-baby, if that’s what you’re asking.’ In other words, it really matters whether a child is born of your own consciousness, at the same time of day when you’re present, or during the other time of day, to your sibling. And there’s a whole horrible dystopian bit of world-building wrapped up in that concept. Suppose you are a day-person, and your night-sister decides to become pregnant: You are stuck bearing a child for nine months that you had no say in conceiving; and if you deliver the baby during the day, you are stuck with a child that is ‘yours’ that you never wanted.

And now consider it from the night-sister’s perspective: You desperately want a child, you carry one for nine months, and then it is born to someone else, and so can never be truly ‘yours’—assuming it is born at all, because your night-sister doesn’t abort it the moment she realizes that you’ve co-opted her body to do something with it she never wanted in the first place, or give away the child as soon as it is born, so you never even see it. And even in the best-case scenario, where the child is born at night, and becomes ‘yours’, that child’s day-sibling is going to fall under the care of your day-sister and your partner’s day-sibling—two people who may not even like each other, and have no desire for a child.

And now consider it from the perspective of the children: If Alexander, the day-brother, was wanted and loved by his parents, then Christopher, the night-brother, was born and raised by an entirely different set of people who were forced into caring for him by their day-siblings. And he would never have known anything different. Fully half the people in the world at any one time have grown up cared for by adults who never wanted them and may not love them.

There is no part of reproduction in this world that is not horrifying and sad, in a way that Towsey doesn’t seem to recognize. I see from his author bio that he is a man living in the UK, and I find myself, uncharitably, wondering whether his lack of uterus and insulation from the horrible anti-choice laws infesting the US, is part of why he doesn’t see the horror of what he’s constructed.

And yet, I can’t recoil from this, because the whole conceit is just so damn cool—and, indeed, is cool in ways that, like its horribleness, Towsey doesn’t seem to recognize. The fact that the entire world becomes populated by new people seems to offer an opportunity for some much more radical world-building than Towsey gave us. People switch jobs between day and night; maybe the king during the day is not the king during the night. Maybe the government during the day is not the government during the night. Maybe the laws and national boundaries of the people during the day are not the same as the laws and national boundaries governing the people at night. How would trade work? Would carters and shipping companies have cross-crepuscular contracts to ship goods for the night-people during the day, and vice versa? Suppose two countries are at war during the night, but are both part of the same nation during the day? There’s so much more to play with here!

This is a stand-alone book, which I usually appreciate these days. But in this case I want to read more set in this world. There’s so, so much more to play with, both horrifying and fascinating. And that is the core of good SFF.

*Bodily autonomy is not just a question that affects reproduction, of course. A sub-plot of the book involves a war brewing and soldiers. And if your day-brother goes for a soldier and gets his arms and face shot off, that’s going to have consequences for your career as a concert-pianist.

Equinox es una novela de fantasía que ha pasado bastante desapercibida, o eso me parece al menos, que ofrece una investigación sobre unas acusaciones de brujería en un mundo muy particular, cuya descripción supone la parte más interesante del libro.


David Towsey ha imaginado un mundo que se divide en dos, la noche y el día, en el que las personas comparte cuerpo destinadas a nunca encontrarse, ya que cada una dispone de la mitad del día para vivir mientras que su hermano o hermana espera pacientemente a que sea su turno. Aunque compartan el cuerpo, las personalidades, ocupaciones, relaciones amorosas… pueden ser y son totalmente independientes. Por ejemplo, el protagonista de la historia es Christophor un investigador del reino especializado en brujería, pero Alexander, su hermano-de-día, es un músico un tanto tarambana.

Los hermanos se verán obligados a desplazarse a una pequeña ciudad del sur para realizar a cabo una investigación de algo que parece claro que es brujería. A Towsey no le duelen prendas en describir los horribles resultados de los ritos a los que intenta poner coto, dando lugar a escenas tremendamente desagradables, aunque el resto del relato no tiene para nada ese componente cruel.

El libro está basado en esa dualidad inventada por el autor que le da bastante juego, ya que los sospechosos que actúan de una forma determinada durante la noche, al amanecer cambian totalmente por que es otra persona la que hace uso del cuerpo. Me resulta muy curioso que apenas exista comunicación entre ambos seres, ya que parece lógico suponer que se pudiera pasar información a través de un diario o algo así, pero es un recurso apenas utilizado.

Quizá se le pueda reprochar a Equinox que en ocasiones el ritmo de la lectura resulta demasiado pausado, aunque creo que la forma en que se van desvelando los acontecimientos es bastante correcta, dejando al lector espacio para que vaya haciendo sus propias deducciones. La prosa es elegante y hace que la historia fluya, ayudando tanto en la definición de los personajes como en los abundantes diálogos y soliloquios.

En definitiva, Equinox es un libro pausado sobre una investigación de brujería que gira en torno a un concepto bastante original que es el quid del libro, haciendo que sea una lectura recomendable.

Content Warning - some body horror

In a world where two souls share a single body; one sibling by day, another by night; Christopher and Alexsander are brothers.

The night-brother, Christophor, never seeing the light of day, works in the darkness as a special inspector of the supernatural. A witch-hunter, in fact, he has personally seen a number of witches to their deaths.

When he is roused one evening to the prison, he finds an inmate who’s day-brother has torn out their eyes. They can't say why they've done this, but Christophor is horrified to see that teeth are now growing in the sockets.

(If that's more than enough to make you turn away, do so, it doesn't get any less body horror from here!)

Alexsander is forced along with Christopher on his investigation, as always, and is acting more strangely than usual.

And, of course, a big, black clock is ticking down to the fulfillment of...something.

So it's all very mysterious and kinda gross. I'm not generally one for body horror, but the day/night thing caught my attention, and I do love an apocalyptic dark ritual. Also I have SO MANY QUESTIONS how this whole day/night thing works in practical terms.

Christophor is wry and practical, and doesn't seem overly fond of his brother; perhaps an inevitability for many folk in this setting, if all they see of their other half is what they leave behind that annoys. Certainly he isn't alone in this issue. But he carries that world-weary attitude with him everywhere he goes, a weight he places nightly on his shoulders, along with his cynicism and more than a touch of conceit and snobbery.

He's observant, and he papers over his emotional reactions with a practical nature that's really just waiting to be shocked out of him.

As to Alexsander, for the first half we only get snippets of him. The day/night siblings only share a sprinkling of memories, and though there are ways of making it more likely something will squeeze through, the only surefire way is to write them a note where they'll see it, and hope they bother to pay attention.

He's a musician, though. A good one, by the sound. Christophor heartily disapproves but can't do much about it, and given the way Alexsander gets dragged along on his investigations, he deigns to suffer it.

Halfway through, Alexsander takes up the tale, and as expected by the brief flashes, he's quite the opposite of his night-brother. He's emotional, and quite unsure of how his night-brother can see terrible things and continue with equanimity. He's friendly and curious, and he loves to discuss art in all its forms. He has all the personality that Christophor lacks.

Not that Christophor is unlikeable, he is, he's also a dour and serious man, while Alexsander is definitely not.

It's the easiest way to do this; have the day and night siblings be in contrast to (and often therefore in conflict with) each other, and we see it a few times throughout, making the occasional co-op team notable.

Alexsander also gets much more memory of what Christophor does…increasingly so, as we go through this latter half of the story. Practically, it’s clear why–we need to see what’s going on. But given how much effort was made to tell us how little siblings know of their others’ activities, it’s a jarring issue. It would have worked much better to simply allow both to tell their own parts of the story.

It's a slowish journey, followed by a rapid end, meaning we get to know people pretty well. It's a good journey, too, mostly enjoyable. The end was a little too rapid, and there were some issues with the day/night siblings (Alexsander being able to see so much, for example), but nothing to take away from my general enjoyment. B
However, bits of plot showed up either without any sign of previously existing or without being explained, and this did lead to the conclusion being less dramatic than it could have been.

Overall, I had a fun time with this (and many of my questions were answered), and that's the main thing!

If you like dark rituals, weird happenings, and really want to know how the whole day/night sibling thing works, definitely pick this one up.

Equinox was released on 12th May 2022.

This is a book of conflict between two souls. One who is in the sun, and one who is in the night. It’s a complicated subject in its own way, and that’s the beauty of this world. This novel explores the horrific investigation of a suspect that is having some terrible pain, and by terrible I mean terrible. And that is our MC, Christopher, or perhaps Alexsander, is sent by the King to investigate the very cause of this issue.

What then occurs is a myriad of multiple mysterious events, conflicts between characters, and historical rivalry by nations. The writing itself is solid, but sometimes I was confused with the point of view switch between Christopher and Alexsander. I think there could have been improved in that area, as I strongly identified with Christopher’s view on the world, and as an investigator, he stood quite out strongly. He was sharp, witty, and knew what he had to do. Alexsander was the opposite, rather spending his time in leisure.

And there are a lot of hidden truths in this book. The ending does have a very…interesting ending. And the climax does do that well. Though I felt some parts of the books were slower paced, and could have been shortened for a faster pace. Still, this book is great because it reminds you of the consequences of decisions. Poor decisions can happen due to the nature of apathy itself perhaps? Or is it something else? This novel has great prose, an interesting adventure, and mysterious truth that must be covered. I totally recommend it!

Such an intriguing concept. Two souls sharing one body. One only sees the day, one only see the night. A little bit horror, little bit fantasy, a great deal of mystery. Beautifully written and constructed. I really enjoyed it

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked how the story was told from different aspects and the themes that ran through the book.
The only negative for me, was that at times the story seemed to drag on a bit and didn't hold my attention in a way I would expect.
Overall though, a good read and would definitely recommend.

Everyone is not as they seem in this fantasy novel, replete with war, witchcraft and secrets.

Christophor Morden lives by night. His day-brother, Alexsander, knows only the sun. They are two souls in a single body, in a world where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun. Night-brother or day-sister, one never sees the light, the other knows nothing of the night.

Early one evening, Christophor is roused by a call to the city prison. A prisoner has torn his eyes out and cannot say why. Yet worse: in the sockets that once held his eyes, teeth are growing. The police suspect the supernatural, so Christophor, a member of the king’s special inspectorate, is charged with finding the witch responsible.

Night-by-night, Christophor’s investigation leads him ever further from home, toward a backwards village on the far edge of the kingdom. But the closer he gets to the truth, the more his day-brother’s actions frustrate him. Who is Alexsander protecting? What does he not want Christophor to discover?
And all the while, an ancient and apocalyptic ritual creeps closer to completion…

It’s the premise that is going to capture your attention initially when it comes to Equinox by David Towsey. The idea that everyone shares their body with someone else. The night is yours and the day is theirs or vice versa. You and your other half lead entirely separate lives, never meeting but existing just on the periphery of one another. Important decisions like your choice of career or who you decide to share your life with suddenly matter just that little bit more than they did before.

For the more morally ambiguous amongst you, the potential delights of infidelity or the dark promise of crime are beset with all manner of new factors to take into account. I don’t imagine for a second your body sharing counterpart is going to be over the moon if they wake up in a jail cell meant for you*. This is where Special Inspector Christophor Morden comes in. In the dark half of existence, he is tasked with uncovering the truth behind supernatural occurrences. For Christophor, demons and witchcraft are commonplace. He is a veteran of this nocturnal life and you can tell it has been grinding him down for years.

Christophor’s daytime brother, Alexsander, is quite the reverse. A musician by trade, Alexsander seems to have inherited the sunnier outlook; he lives in the light. He never sees the worst in people.
The chapters alternate between Christophor and Alexsander’s perspectives and I love how it quickly becomes obvious that though the two men are fundamentally different there is also a deep bond between them both. They describe one another’s actions, and you get the sense they have become passengers in one another’s lives.

There are moments where the narrative dances the fine line between fantasy and horror. We’re deep into the realms of magic and curses so a bit of body horror flavoured ickiness thrown in for good measure seems like a sensible approach to me.

Towsey writing paints an evocative picture, classic movies like Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter and Witchfinder General kept popping into my head. You know the sort of thing, isolated communities apparently innocent but in reality chock full of secrets with a big old slice of evil thrown in for good measure. I can’t help but be enthralled by this stuff. Where the book really excels is the thought the author has put into the smallest details. Want to annoy your alternate? Go to bed drunk and they wake with the hungover. I always appreciate when a writer goes the extra mile and considers everything about a fictional world they craft. That attention makes their work that much more enjoyable to devour.

I’m already a big fan of David Towsey’s work previous work. The Walkin’ trilogy was a wonderful interpretation of the zombie mythos and he has achieved a similar feat here. Equinox is the reimagining of the police procedural as a dark fantasy novel. I do hope that Special Inspector Morden and his brother will return.

Equinox is published by Head of Zeus and is available now. Highly recommended.

My musical recommendation to accompany this novel is the soundtrack to the television show Unforgotten, specifically seasons three and four. Michael Price’s score has a subtle, mildly disquieting tone that picks up on the sinister undercurrent in the novel.

*Actually, how that is dealt with is pretty clever but I won’t spoil the surprise. It’s clear the author has spent time pondering the logistics involved in his world-building.

“I have seen the sun, despite what my day-brother might say. The night of the summons I was watching the sunset.” - Christophor Morden.
“I’ve seen the moon, whatever my night-brother might think. Pale and full; that’s how it was that morning when I woke in the forest.” - Alexsander Morden.

My thanks to Head of Zeus AdAstra for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Equinox’ by David Towsey in exchange for an honest review. I complemented my reading with its unabridged audiobook edition.

I enjoy books in which the author has confidence in combining genres. In ‘Equinox’ Towsey has skilfully woven elements of horror, fantasy, historical, and crime fiction.

The cover of ‘Equinox’ certainly caught my eye with its image of reflected worlds under the sun and moon. The novel has the intriguing premise of a world in which two souls share a single body. Whether night-brother or day-sister, one never sees the light, the other knows nothing of the night.

The novel has a structured timeline taking place between 13th October and 1 November 1721. Christophor Morden lives by night while his day-brother, Alexsander, only knows the sun. While Alexsander is a penniless musician, Christopher serves as a member of the king’s special inspectorate charged with investigating cases suspected of having supernatural origins. So, basically a witchfinder.

A grisly new case leads Chistophor ever further from home though he becomes increasingly frustrated by his day-brother’s actions. What does Alexsander not want Christophor to discover? No further details to avoid spoilers.

I found this an engaging tale and only discovered after finishing ‘Equinox’ that David Towsey is one half of the writing partnership (D.K. Fields) that had produced the excellent Tales of Fenest Trilogy.

Overall, I found ‘Equinox’ an impressive dark fantasy with a unique premise, memorable characters, and strong world building. It is storytelling at its finest. As a result I plan on looking into David Towsey’s other writings.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

This book was based around an amazing concept; the main characters live in a world where two people share the same body, one referred to as a ‘day sibling’ and the other as a ‘night sibling’. There’s a set of characters who are awake during the day, and a completely different set of counterparts awake during the night.

I did enjoy how the mystery unfurled through the perspectives of the two brothers, but found one of the brothers to be pretty boring and the text too verbose, which meant the entire first half was a bit tedious and slow for me. In contrast, the resolution was fast; so fast, in fact, that I found myself confused at points.

I would’ve loved to have dived a bit deeper into the relationship between the brothers. It was a great concept that could’ve been fleshed out just a little more.

Overall, the book was interesting enough in concept and I’m glad I tried something new. Plus, the cover is BEAUTIFUL.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

The idea of the book is so interesting but the slow pacing just killed it for me I struggled to get through it. This book is well written but just was not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.