They Mostly Come Out At Night

Fast-paced exceptional fairy-tale fiction. I really enjoyed this one, it flew by and afterward it was tempting to push everything else aside and just read through the next four books. A marvelously fun read, reminiscent of countless things yet still enthrallingly unique. It conjures a storybook world of magic and myth that has the classic feel of a childhood story, but with added sophistication to give it more depth and maturity.

The Yarnsworld setting is fantastic and intriguing, and through it's unique twists it leaves the reader with multi-layered questions about what is real, what isn't, and what might be. It's a great stand-alone story that leaves the reader with philosophical questions rather than sequel musings, and I love that. I particularly love that the series keeps going with more stand-alone stories in the setting, and I am definitely hooked and will read the rest.

The structure was cleverly conceived, with chapters alternating between three related narratives; legends the main character knows, dreams he has about a prince, and then his own waking life. From the beginning the stories parallel each other thematically, but it's also easy to see that they interrelate, even if the 'how' is not immediately obvious. They render a setting rich with possibility and mystery.

Patrick creates a storybook feel where everything is dreamlike and familiar, but with a sort of unsettled undercurrent of more mature themes. Those themes never become overly explicit or gorey, but they are present enough to destabilize the reader, which in turn removes the solid anchor of an expectation of happy endings. That combination of a familiar feel but with off-key themes allows Patrick to recreate the sensation of a youthful reading experience of such stories even for a jaded adult audience. It is a delicate balance of just enough hints of maturity and just enough echoes of the familiar set against the strange and unique, and the author handles it masterfully well.

Do not let the imperfection in my score deter you; this was a great story and I highly recommend it. There were only two minor quibbles that make me rate this a 4, rather than a perfect 5!

First, some of the framing of the setting for this otherwise stand-alone story comes not from this book, but in a short story entitled And They Were Never Heard From Again. In combination, this is undoubtedly a 5-star story, but without that additional window of understanding, I don't think the narrative contained entirely within They Mostly Come Out at Night really captures the full depth of the setting. It is brilliant in context, but some of that context isn't there as a stand-alone. Without getting too spoilery, a lot of the deeper questions about what Artemis and the Pale Lady have done don't feel quite natural to ask without previously understanding the true nature of stories in the Forest and the first novel doesn't explain that as explicitly as the short story does. That story is free from the author's website, so for the full experience I encourage you to read it first and then read this novel.

The other minor quibble is that, given the pacing, there were some twists that I felt didn't get quite enough breathing room. Other readers may disagree with my preferences in that regard, and I certainly think that it was a choice of the author rather than any failure in his craft. It was most striking to me when a big reveal about 3/4s through gave me whiplash because the characters were given so little room to reflect upon it. If you love stories to race by moment to moment, you'll never notice it, but as I tend to fall in love with more ponderous tales, breezing by such turning-points in the narrative didn't quite meet my personal preferences.

I cannot emphasize enough how minor those quibbles are, however. Really, for anyone considering whether they want to start in on this series my advice is, "Yes, but start with the short story rather than book 1."

It's really good.

The problem with this book is that I never got super invested. In anything. Except for that cover, which is legitimately amazing.

The world seemed interesting, but I always felt faintly outside of it. My reaction to even major plot twists was more "well that was interesting" than real horror or shock. I never got very attached to either of the main characters, and almost all of the side characters felt extremely one-dimensional.

Lonan's just problematic from the start. I began intrigued by his backstory, but the way it played out lost any real depth once it absolved him of literally any responsiblity for the tragedy. This becomes a running theme.

In general, he seems to exist for the other characters to revolve around him. There's a character we're supposed to hate because basically everything in the world wrong with Lonan's life is his fault, even when it feels very far-fetched. There's Lonan's love interest, who exists for him to long for, despite not having spoken to her for ages when the story starts.

There's an entire long scene in which Lonan goes on and on about how he forgives this person who has wronged him just before this person dies, to this person's face, and I was attempting to read it all with my head in my hands. It was horribly self-indulgent and I was cringing the whole time. (It also seemed very long, though how much of that was because I wanted it to be over before it started I don't know.) I think it was supposed to make us like Lonan more because he is so gosh darn forgiving, but it backfired really badly because all I could think was who does that?!

Admittedly there is also the old healer lady, Mother Ogma, who is kind of amazing in her own right. I would have loved to read a whole story about her.

The Magpie King and Adahy storyline was generally more interesting, but the pacing suffered due to the back-and-forth between that and Lonan's story. I also never quite got attached to anyone there (Adahy, despite being significantly more likeable than Lonan, was kind of oblivious), so it never really took off for me, despite a few interesting developments plot-wise.

The interludes with mythological characters throughout were not badly written and lent themselves well to the atmosphere of the story. The problem was I didn't enjoy them. A chunk of that was Artemis, our trickster character (an archetype I adore), was just a creep. You didn't feel intrigued watching his shenanigans. You weren't definitely rooting for him or rooting for him even though you knew you shouldn't because he was so charismatic. He was just kind of an asshole who somehow got away with things and for no real reason I could fathom they told stories about him. At one point I was rooting for a spider to eat him, and given my horror of the creatures, that should probably tell you enough.

The fact that the first story is an Artemis story probably soured my view on the ones that followed, even the ones with the Magpie King (though those were universally better, I feel).

The idea of magic as Knacks was interesting, and I'd like to have seen a bit more about that than I really got.

Overall I was just hoping for more than I got with this one.