Sacaran Nights Review (ARC)
The world of Sacara revolves around legacy. Few people live to inherit, and those who do live their lives to keep the dead alive. They protect their ancestor's ghosts by fighting the corruption always on the verge of taking over. Dagner is one of the few who will live, but he doesn't wish to stay in Sacara. An explorer at heart, he wants to leave the only place he has ever known, but his chances at that were lost when he gained an inheritance he was not supposed to have. Realizing he is trapped, he dives into his role. Someone from his past reemerges to claim the legacy Dagner has become adamant to protect though, forcing Dagner to choose between making his own path that he has always desired and sacrificing everything to save Sacara.
Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Additionally, the author sent me this book as a free advanced reading copy; however, this did not influence my review. This is 100% my honest opinion. Let's begin:
I enjoyed this book a lot, but there were a couple of more minor things that I thought could have been improved a bit. I'll start with those and then go into some well deserved praise. First, I recommend not going into the novel with the expectation that you will be able to keep track of all of the fungi. There are a couple of notes that go with the downside though. I don't necessarily think you are meant to do this. It is not the purpose of the novel; it just would have been nice if you could learn them. Another note is that Shaw does do a great job at creating the journal that is a large part of the book that Dagner uses to keep tack of the fungi. The journal entries that are found before each of the chapters are helpful and also very fun to look at. I personally really enjoyed the drawings because it allowed me to imagine the world better. Now back to the original point. There are just so many fungi (because the world of Sacara revolves around them) that it is near impossible to keep track without going back a lot.
The other minor negative is similar to the first in that it really is only a partial negative. For hardcore fantasy readers like myself, it will most likely not be a big deal because we are kind of used to this happening. A lot of fantasy books work out like this. However, if you are new to fantasy or simply don't read too much of it, the beginning of this book may confuse you for a bit. While the issue is resolved and the world explained, the story is confusing for the first couple of chapters. High fantasy worlds such as that of Sacara are completely different from the real world, so it can be puzzling to be thrown into a story not knowing anything about the world but following characters who know everything about it because they live in it. Like I previously mentioned, though, Shaw does a wonderful job of explaining the world, and I can safely promise you that you will understand everything fairly fast.
Those were really the two biggest negatives I noticed, so it's time to move into all of the good things about this novel. Perhaps my second favorite thing about this author is her originality. Not one thing I have read from Shaw (and I've read it all to my knowledge) has felt similar to any other fantasy book I've read (and I'm an avid fantasy reader). I will confidently say that I highly doubt you will have ever read anything even close to the concept of this. The fungi was a really cool, unique center-point.
One thing I have noticed about this particular author that I thoroughly appreciate is her ability to weave valuable lessons throughout her writing without readers even realizing it until the end of the story when it really hits. This is my favorite part of reading Shaw's work. Her stories, at least thus far, are always very dark fantasy. The first book I ever read by her was so dark, in fact, that it was almost hard to get through at certain parts even though I loved the book; however, I would encourage you to stay to the end if you can because there is always a light that you see after in the form of a valuable lesson or two. This book, for example, teaches wonderful lessons about the grieving process that everyone should learn.
I believe that Shaw did a good job with the worldbuilding. Although confusing at first, the world unfurled nicely, and I had a thorough understanding of it. Shaw excellently incorporates plot twists relating to her world that I, at least, did not see coming. These were very enjoyable and built on the story well.
For the most part, I enjoyed the characters. I liked Corenn in particular as his personality was nice comic relief at times, but he also balanced himself out well to fulfill multiple roles in the story beautifully. The antagonists of the story were written well; I truly felt disgust towards them which is just evidence of Shaw's skill in writing character development. I did have slightly mixed feelings on Dagner. I liked him, but he felt a tad repetitive at times. There were a couple of times when he would go back to a subject and my thought process went to Didn't you move on from this already???. Other than that, though, he was a strong protagonist. As far as Merany and Tytus go, I loved all of the twists that accompanied them; they were some of my favorite in the book.
Overall, the book is very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who likes unique dark fantasy that teaches you important life lessons. There were a couple of flaws, but they are made up for by the pros of the story, and they also may not apply to everyone. I am definitely looking forward to the release of book two!
Thank you to the author, Rachel Emma Shaw, for giving me an advanced reading copy in exchange for this review!
Rating: 4/5 stars
Author: Rachel Emma Shaw
Genre: YA, Dark Fantasy, Thrillers
Series: Masque Duology (Book 2)
Publication Date: May 10, 2021
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