Review: They Mostly Come Out at Night by Benedict Patrick

They Mostly Come Out At Night by Benedict Patrick (Yarnsworld #1)

Self-published, 2016

Ebook. 216 pages.

About They Mostly Come Out at Night:

"He locked himself away from the dark, but in the Magpie King’s forest nowhere is safe… 

Lonan is an outcast, accused of letting the monsters that stalk the night into the homes of his fellow villagers. Now, he will not rest until he wins back the heart of his childhood love and reclaims the life that was stolen from him. However, locked safely in his cellar at night, in his dreams Lonan finds himself looking through the eyes of a young prince… 

Adahy has a destiny, and it terrifies him. How can he hope to live up to the legend of the Magpie King, to become the supernatural protector of the forest and defender of his people? But when the forest is invaded by an inhuman force, Adahy must rise to this challenge or let the Wolves destroy his people. 

Watching these events unfold in his sleep, Lonan must do what he can to protect his village from this new threat. He is the only person who can keep his loved ones from being stolen away after dark, and to do so he will have to earn back their trust or watch the monsters kill everyone that he holds dear. 

They Mostly Come Out At Night is a Dark Fantasy novel from Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld series. If you like Neil Gaiman and Patrick Rothfuss then you will love this captivating, dangerous world in which ordinary people struggle to find their place in a land ruled by stories."

They Mostly Come Out At Night is one of those book where you feel like you're reading multiple stories all at one time and somehow all of them fit together perfectly, only serving to enhance the reading experience. This book has a premise that  really intrigued and excited me. The story takes place in a small village in which all inhabitants lock up their houses and take root in their cellars from dusk til dawn. Why do the villagers do this? Well, because as the title suggests, the horrifying monsters that will destroy you mostly come out at night. Our particular narrative follows Lonan, a young man who has become shunned in his village due to the belief that he was the cause of a major monster breech many years ago that resulted in the deaths of a couple residents of the town.

The real plot unfolds when Lonan begins having dreams about the Magpie King and his son, Adahy, and this is where things start to really get interesting. I am not someone who normally enjoys reading about dreams or any sort of dream sequences in books, but this instance did not bother me in the slightest, largely because Lonan's dreams simply read as a second storyline to explore. As the story progresses, Lonan begins to explore the meaning of these dreams and in turn begins to more actively change his own life in the waking world. I liked how both storylines moved along at a consistent pace, each complimenting the other and working together to move the plot forward. Nothing moved too quickly and nothing dragged, something which I was really impressed with based upon how much content was covered in a relatively short amount of time.

Lonan himself is a character that I immediately wanted to defend and I wanted to yell at everyone to stop being so cruel to him. He handles everything thrown at him with an admirable attitude--yes, he is bitter and can be short with people, but the fact that he mostly just grits his teeth and moves on is something that really made him appeal to me as a character. I enjoyed seeing his relationships with various villagers and how they developed (for better or worse).

Interspersed between Lonan's chapters and his dreams are short fairytale-like stories that are often about the Magpie King or other figures mentioned in this book. These are sort of like the myths and of this culture and I found the stories both engaging and informative in telling more about some of the background and 'lore' of this particular world. This brings me to the world-building of this book, which was really well done. Not only were the village and the people inhabiting it developed extremely well, but there was also plenty of background that really rooted this culture and world in something solid and authentic. 

The last thing I wanted to mention in this review was really interested in the concept of 'Knacks' and how each villager typically develops one particular Knack while growing up. These were mentioned in some detail in this book, but I do hope to see more about these Knacks in subsequent books, as it sounds like a rather interesting concept and I'd love to know more about them, such as how permanent these Knacks are and the different types of Knacks that exist.

Overall, I've given They Mostly Come Out At Night four stars! I found this book exceptionally interesting and loved the world-building and in-depth background that was provided. I look forward to diving into more of the Yarnsworld books!

Buy the book: Amazon | Book Depository

*I received a copy of They Mostly Come Out At Night courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating of the book. This was a TBRindr request!*