Name: Silver Under Nightfall
ISBN: 9781982195717

Rin Chupeco

Full of court intrigue, queer romance, and terrifying monsters—this gothic epic fantasy will appeal to fans of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree and the adult animated series Castlevania. Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost. When a terrifying new breed of vampire is sighted outside of the city, Remy prepares to investigate alone. But then he encounters the shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress Xiaodan Song and her infuriatingly arrogant fiancé, vampire lord Zidan Malekh, who may hold the key to defeating the creatures—though he knows associating with them won’t do his reputation any favors. When he’s offered a spot alongside them to find the truth about the mutating virus Rot that’s plaguing the kingdom, Remy faces a choice. It’s one he’s certain he’ll regret. But as the three face dangerous hardships during their journey, Remy develops fond and complicated feelings for the couple. He begins to question what he holds true about vampires, as well as the story behind his own family legacy. As the Rot continues to spread across the kingdom, Remy must decide where his loyalties lie: with his father and the kingdom he’s been trained all his life to defend or the vampires who might just be the death of him.

Silver Under Nightfall

anya

"A shame," Riones said. "Though ifI were a vampire, she'd worry me, too. We could use something like that ourselves. Fire lances can only do so much, and even then, it takes an awful long time for them to reload.”

 does she, Riones." Remy watched the carriage roll back to the city, leaving them behind. “So does she."

someone said this book had great dialogue and i don’t know if i lack social interaction or if i hallucinate all my conversations with people but i genuinely could not get through half the awkward cursing. there’s an argument to be made that the vampires are at least allowed some of the stiffness being nobles or whatever but even then it was hard to read. what i disliked more was the clumsy bits of exposition that were inserted into dialogue + the rest of the book that felt so out of place sometimes and ruined the flow of writing. the structure of the book also seemed to transition oddly - i could never sense if there was a moment we were building to and i actually don’t remember a single high tension moment/pivotal moment that wasn’t during a battle or fight. whenever there was a twist i wasn’t surprised or shocked since i guessed some of them and the others were just not impressive or meaningful to me at all. maybe i hallucinated reading this idk. 

Ya girl is finally pulling herself out of a reading slump, and this was one of the first books she finished.

What can I even say about this book that hasn't been said yet?? The character work, the plot twists, the world-building, the ROMANCE; all of it was immaculate. I am sitting here staring at my screen trying to figure out what to say because I just finished this book not 2 minutes ago and I am REELING.

I guess the only thing I can say is this: this is a story about a person who has never been shown affection without strings attached, and how he discovers his own self-worth. He learns that he is worthy of love, and even when he has been abused, betrayed, and ridiculed, he still chooses to rise above and be a shining light in the world. 

It was bloody. It was gothic. It was hilarious. It was romantic and passionate. And it was a beautiful story to watch unfold. People say this is Castlevania meets Bridgerton and Queer and I have never heard a more apt comparison for a book. 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book if you like any of the things I have said. 

Emily B

4.5 STARS:

Ya girl is finally pulling herself out of a reading slump, and this was one of the first books she finished.

What can I even say about this book that hasn't been said yet?? The character work, the plot twists, the world-building, the ROMANCE; all of it was immaculate. I am sitting here staring at my screen trying to figure out what to say because I just finished this book not 2 minutes ago and I am REELING.

I guess the only thing I can say is this: this is a story about a person who has never been shown affection without strings attached, and how he discovers his own self-worth. He learns that he is worthy of love, and even when he has been abused, betrayed, and ridiculed, he still chooses to rise above and be a shining light in the world. 

It was bloody. It was gothic. It was hilarious. It was romantic and passionate. And it was a beautiful story to watch unfold. People say this is Castlevania meets Bridgerton and Queer and I have never heard a more apt comparison for a book. 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book if you like any of the things I have said. 

Sophie Wang

the first 80%: so much fun!!!!! it takes a while to get into, as all books about court politics do, but the plot stays intriguing and the romantic developments between the characters is really fun. 
but then the pacing severely falls off in the last 20% and things start coming out of the left field with very little buildup and it left the final scenes feeling very anticlimactic and confusing, on top of the science getting very handwavey, so i’m a little apprehensive about how chupeco is going to layer the 8(!!) courts’ politics on top of the existing moving pieces in book 2. 

also: a huge pet peeve of mine with fantasy novels is when foreign languages are poorly incorporated and used. and here, the chinese names the author chooses to use don’t make much sense and are quite stilted (changge shui being “singing waters”, literally translated), and the few lines of dialogue she chooses to use sound google translated (“dengdai” for “wait”? come on.) not to add that the british narrator for the novel butchers the names so bad that 20% in, i had to switch away from the audiobook.

it was pretty bothersome, because even being fluent in chinese-english the extensive cast was already extremely difficult to keep up with, much less with the narrator fucking everything up in my ear the whole time. there is also not any incorporation of other chinese elements in the novel, so i’m frankly quite confused as why the alurians had the whitest of white names (remington pendergast, tennyfair, valenbonne, astonbury—it’s a doozy to keep up with) and the 4th courts were all chinese names only for the distinction to not matter at all in the medieval(?) worldview.

We need to get people off Tiktok and AO3 because this being marketed based on featuring a throuple is a crime when it easily the least interesting part of it (maybe it hits different from "Castlevania" fans?). I am trying to figure out where the comparison to "The Priory of the Orange Tree" comes from, beyond it being a queer high fantasy, since Priory had a very complex and layered plot while this is a pretty straightforward mystery novel. The "Castlevania" comparison though - if it is anything like this, I would be ignoring my dear friends' sound advice and going to watch it, I guess.

Ignoring everything I found out post-factum about the marketing of the novel, I enjoyed this immensely. The plot was excellent and Remy ticks off many boxes of what I enjoy in a main character and what makes them compelling to me (raised and bred to be the perfect weapon but shuned by society? Check. Trauma that deeply affects their relationship with others and their own view of themselves? Check. A hot-headed mess? 

The throuple element was OK but it felt like too much time was spent on it without much pay off. I think where it really fell through was that the dynamic of Xiaodan and Malekh with Remy individually was absolutely delicious but the supposed love and affection between the two of them was something told rather than shown to us. Show don't tell might be outdated writing advice but otherwise you would have to work very, very hard to convince the reader that what you are telling them is actually there and I was not convinced.

Regardless, the remainder of the novel was so well done that I cannot help but put it among one of my favourite reads this year.

We need to get people off Tiktok and AO3 because this being marketed based on featuring a throuple is a crime when it easily the least interesting part of it (maybe it hits different from "Castlevania" fans?). I am trying to figure out where the comparison to "The Priory of the Orange Tree" comes from, beyond it being a queer high fantasy, since Priory had a very complex and layered plot while this is a pretty straightforward mystery novel. The "Castlevania" comparison though - if it is anything like this, I would be ignoring my dear friends' sound advice and going to watch it, I guess.

Ignoring everything I found out post-factum about the marketing of the novel, I enjoyed this immensely. The plot was excellent and Remy ticks off many boxes of what I enjoy in a main character and what makes them compelling to me (raised and bred to be the perfect weapon but shuned by society? Check. Trauma that deeply affects their relationship with others and their own view of themselves? Check. A hot-headed mess? Betty Cooper voice Check check check)

The throuple element was OK but it felt like too much time was spent on it without much pay off. I think where it really fell through was that the dynamic of Xiaodan and Malekh with Remy individually was absolutely delicious but the supposed love and affection between the two of them was something told rather than shown to us. Show don't tell might be outdated writing advice but otherwise you would have to work very, very hard to convince the reader that what you are telling them is actually there and I was not convinced.

Regardless, the remainder of the novel was so well done that I cannot help but put it among one of my favourite reads this year.

I loved the characters’ developments and growth. The plot was well developed, and the twists had me on the edge of my sit. It was incredibly entertaining. 

Where it gets 4 stars is  1. some characters talked way too much and some of the plot unfolded through blocks of that dialogue instead of it unfolding through the action 2. the copious amounts of descriptive gore and violence outweighed the love scenes. The love scenes either faded to black or were just quick glimpses, and I really wanted more balance between the gore scenes and the love scenes 3. sometimes the diction used seemed disjointed. I’m not sure how to describe it, but sometimes it was like they spoke with an old Victorian vocabulary but then the next sentence was like modern American vocabulary. 

I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and am excited for the next installment. 

Floofyflower

I loved the characters’ developments and growth. The plot was well developed, and the twists had me on the edge of my sit. It was incredibly entertaining. 

Where it gets 4 stars is  1. some characters talked way too much and some of the plot unfolded through blocks of that dialogue instead of it unfolding through the action 2. the copious amounts of descriptive gore and violence outweighed the love scenes. The love scenes either faded to black or were just quick glimpses, and I really wanted more balance between the gore scenes and the love scenes 3. sometimes the diction used seemed disjointed. I’m not sure how to describe it, but sometimes it was like they spoke with an old Victorian vocabulary but then the next sentence was like modern American vocabulary. 

I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and am excited for the next installment. 

If you loved Castlevania, this book is for you. Remy is such an interesting and complex character and despite his flaws he is a kind person who only wants to love and be loved and do his best in the world. I loved the MFM relationship and while I wished the sex scenes had a bit of spice to them, I also appreciated that the romance was only a part of the plot. I loved Xioadan and Zidan and Elke as well. All the characters feel well thought out and realized. The world is interesting and I enjoyed this take on vampires. This book was in turns funny, heartbreaking, captivating, and completely unputdownable. I couldn’t put it down and I can’t wait for the next one. 

Katie Allard

Laura Kehoe

I never know what to expect when it comes to vampire books; some are incredible, but others leave me sadly disappointed or just downright annoyed. So I was a little hesitant to read this book. But, I should have known Rin Chupeco wouldn't disappoint me. Yet again Chupeco has created a fascinating world, full of snarky, loveable characters. 

I really loved how real this world felt. There wasn't really any actual magic, although there are supernatural beings. But things were looked at through a more scientific lens, so it felt more realistic in many ways. And I enjoyed the mix of politics, world building, and history!

Speaking of enjoying, I have to mention how wonderful these characters are. They made me laugh, cry, want to punch some sense into them, and every other emotional response you can think of. I fell in love with so many of them and am absolutely dying to find out what happens to those loveable idiots!

If you enjoy action-packed books with a fair amount of steamy romance scenes, I would definitely recommend reading Silver Under Nightfall. I'm so glad I had the chance to read it and cannot wait for the sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.