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.