This was my very first book by Samantha Shannon and she did not disappoint.

I walked into this book completely blind to the world of priory, and I am thankful for that. I got to fall in love with these characters, with no clue of what history they would create for the future world.

And boy did I fall in love with these characters. I loved them all, everyone who had a moment on these pages, stole pieces of my heart. I do think Glorian holds the most though. Her story was the one from the beginning that gripped me the most, while I struggled a bit with Dumai and Tunuva.

Surprisingly, Wulf and Nikeya stole my heart from their first appearance in the story as well.

I think Samantha did an amazing job with this world, and these characters. They all had their own stories, no matter how intertwined they may have became at parts.

This review is very late because I was also sent an physical ARC and sort of forgot to review it here on Netgalley, apologies!
I loved this prequel. It was Priory of the Orange Tree 2.0, which I was totally fine with because I loved Priory of the Orange Tree. For me, nothing get me going quite like a doorstop of a book, dense with world building and intrigue. I loved the range of POV's we got in A Day of Fallen Night, especially reading from the perspective of a woman in her fifties. We just don't see that enough in the fantasy genre, where a main character is older than her late twenties, and it's always a breath of fresh air.
It's been nearly a year since I read this book, so the details are not fresh in my mind. What I am left with is an extremely fond memory of reading the entire thing over the course of a week between Christmas and New Years, delighted I could return to a world that I held so dear.

Samantha Shannon is simply amazing. While thick, this book is engaging and keeps pulling you in. I will always recommend her work.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback.

I am in AWE.

When I say I adore Samantha Shannon's brain, I mean it wholeheartedly.

For this book, Shannon takes us around 500 hundred years before the Priory of the Orange Tree setting. The ambiance, the characters, and the issues you will encounter in this prequel are entirely new and different. So, please be wary when picking this big baby up, as it may take a while for some readers to warm up to these characters' stories.

Now, compared to Priory of the Orange Tree. Yes, A Day of Fallen Night feels slower as the action takes time to happen. However, if you've read Shannon's work, you are in for a great time. There is never a predictable twist or outcome; you will be hooked and want to know what will happen and how things will resolve.

It is not an easy read. What I mean by this is that if you are not into fantasy or want fast-paced stories, you won't enjoy this as much as everyone else. A Day of Fallen Night, just like Priory of the Orange Tree, has a deep and vast world-building. There is so much information thrown at you, and its characters, complex and addictive and easy to love, are more concerned with the twists and turns that link their stories. In short, A Day of Fallen Night is focused on exploring religion, politics, and conflicts within its world-building that may not be as fascinating or intriguing for everyone.

Besides the story and the unique voices of each POV, I was fascinated by how committed Shannon is to making the reader feel the difference between Priory and Fallen Night. The language and spelling differ from what we have seen in Priory. I didn't notice this at first; my brain was ready to accept these little details without question, so thank you to the reviewer who pointed it out!

Overall, don't be intimidated by Samantha's big babies. I promise she is an incredible author who can captivate you with her characters and stories.

Thank you, Bloomsbury, for the ARC a while agooo, I read this nonstop the moment I got it on Netgalley, and I felt spechiaaaaal.

A wonderful, well written, fantastic follow up. Samantha Shannon is honestly a genius. Will purchase for my library.

This was such an intricately woven storyline set within complexly crafted worldbuilding that felt very original and unique despite being a universe that we have already visited. The plot complimented Priory in the Orange Tree very well without feeling like it was doing the same thing again, and it opened the whole world up to give context and reality to myths and stories that were previously mentioned in Priory through the characters and the journeys they go on. Samantha Shannon is such a master with creating compelling stories, and her latest doesn’t disappoint!

A really great prequel to Priory, I enjoyed this book so much. Samantha Shannon's writing is atmospheric and while this book felt a bit too long, I enjoyed the ride a lot.

I loved Priory of the Orange Tree and knew that I would enjoy this massive tome (seriously you could absolutely kill or severely wound someone with this). Builds upon the already exciting world to dive into the history of certain characters that make you ache.

I have to state I did not read the book this is the prequel for, I wanted to read this one first before continuing the series. However, I do not think any reader needs to have background about the other book to understand this one. I certainly did not get lost and understood everything that was written.

The amount of care the author put into this book shows. The story, characters, plot, and the vividness of the scenes is honestly ground breaking in my opinion. This is a stellar fantasy book and I will now be tuning into the entire series!

Review 5/5

Thank you to @bloomsburypublishing for an early arc of this book for review and congrats @say_shannon on another absolute masterpiece.
This will be an overall spoiler free review (more after the book has been out for a bit longer 🥰)

I enjoyed every single word in this book. It was one of the most immersive fantasies I’ve ever read and as a huge fan or priory, it gave me goosebumps to hear the origins of some of my favorite aspects of it.
One of my favorite parts is the prologue, which perfectly sets up the oncoming novel. This is a story of mothers and daughters. Cages and freedom. Choices and Must-Do’s.

The storytelling is also amped up in ADOFN, something I fiercely enjoyed. Some of my favorite moments were forming connections across the two timelines while reading, as well as the ones that had my eyes flaring open in the middle of the night when something finally clicked.

This book had some incredible male side characters that will stick with me, but what really made this book shine was the women. Strong women. Sensitive women. Queens. Female warriors. Human women. Women with magic. There were also incredible and complex mother/daughter relationships. There were women who are duty bound to have children, adoptive mothers, surrogate mothers, women who don’t want children, mothers who have lost children. All these relationships, all these female roles, stood out fiercely and our extremely relevant to our modern socio/political conversations regarding women.

My recommended reading order for these depend on preferences, honestly. You can read either of these first. However, if you prefer a bit of a faster pace and more action I would read Priory. If you want to read in timeline order, and like slower built, character led plot and more story telling, pick ADOFN. I would also recommend this first if you’re struggling with the world building in Priory as this one shows their origins.

Did not finish. Not for me. I was bored reading this book. I am realizing that epic fantasy with detailed world and lots of characters might not be my genre.

It was so hard to go into this without any expectations, as someone who thoroughly enjoyed and favourited 'Priory of the Orange Tree', but let me tell you - this is a new favourite. I was not let down. Samantha Shannon has done it again, and I cannot wait to get more books in this series in the future. I love this world and its magic, and I adore the way Shannon writes her characters.

I found that I preferred this one to Priory of the Orange Tree. Mostly because after reading both in a similar time frame, I'm still remembering pieces of A Day of Fallen Night, rather than Priory. (And it's not to shit on Priory, I had a good time there).

By the end of the story when things were getting sticky, it was such an awesome read. I was in the car listening to it on a road trip, and I was enthralled by the way the story twisted, how it turned, how the characters did their thing, and ugh it was so good.

The beginning was a little bit of a slog, but totally worth it to get to that masterful ending. So much so that the slog at the beginning doesn't even register.

I haven't read Samantha Shannon's other series, but this really leads me to want to pick up The Bone Season.

Thank you to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for this ARC of A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon. This was an absolutely amazing book and I highly recommend it.

oh my GOD. This book was STUNNING. INCREDIBLE. BEAUTIFUL. I don't know how Samantha Shannon does it. Her ability to create a world and create a romantic story in a super cool fantasy world is UNMATCHED. I wish I had read this before Priory because it would make the story less dense and even more enjoyable. I think it might be even better than Priory.

Samantha Shannon is one of my favourite authors and this newest novel in the roots of chaos series just cements that idea even more. I loved the rich history that we dive into and really enjoyed all of the political intrigue that was present within the novel. Samantha always knows how to write a powerful women and now we have 3 of them once again. I truly is an epic fantasy and the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

This review is incredibly late, and for that I apologize! A Day of Fallen Night is another masterful work from Samantha Shannon, her story telling ability is off the charts! It did take me quite a while to get into this book and I felt it was a little slow for some parts, but it happens with books this long and didn't detract from the overall story. A truly epic fantasy that is full of beautifully written and nuanced characters.

This book is no joke. It is absolutely massive. The world building is top notch, the character development is spot on, and the ending isn’t rushed and flows so well. It does get a little long in the middle, but that’s natural with any book this size. Definitely buying a copy for my shelf because that cover is perfection.

How do I begin to review this masterpiece? Let’s just start by saying this will end up being one of my favorites not just of 2023 but of all time. I cannot wait until my collectors editions of this an Priory arrive for my birthday. Again, Samantha Shannnon creates a world filled with characters I adore and root for along their epic journeys. However, where I feel this book is a cut above Priory is in the fact that we’ve already established this vast and intricate world in Priory, so no time is wasted in world building or lore of the land. Instead, we cut straight to the action and do not let go for 850 pages. Seriously. Action packed 850 pages. There was only one very small section (50ish pages) about three quarters of the way through where I felt it slightly dragged, but all is forgiven as it gallops (literally) towards it’s epic conclusion. As the final chapters came to a close, I found myself shedding a tear and wishing for more. Samantha Shannon cannot write fast enough for me. Do yourself a favor and treat yourselves to these tomes this summer. I promise you will not regret it.