SING FOR THE COMING OF THE LONGEST NIGHT is the rare story that almost immediately made me feel like it was written for me and my community. Despite the fact that my life doesn't necessarily look anything like the lives of the main characters (I'm desi and queer, like Layla, but I'm also American, not poly, not a parent, and not partnered at the moment), they speak a language that I speak, struggle with questions that have often pounded their way through my brain, and find their support and safety with people who love their whole selves. I see my own relationships and friends and families in theirs, and I also question my own values and convictions in ways that echo their questions - what do I sacrifice to keep parts of my life separate from each other? How do I relate to people whose priorities are different from mine, even when equally valid? How do I live as a queer brown non-Christian person in a world that doesn't want me to be those things?
Layla and Nat's relationship really drove the story for me, and I was so struck by how much I could relate to both of them, even when (especially when!) they disagreed with each other. I loved that each had legitimate reasons for not liking aspects of the other, and that those differences didn't necessarily go away even as they grew closer in both understanding and affection. Their perspectives were written so richly and deeply that I could hold all those contradictions together at once.
That all these character dynamic are tied together in a lovely, imaginative fantasy story feels only right to me; the blurry boundaries of our queer lives fit in so well with the magic lived and practiced in this world, from Ari, who is learning and growing with practice, to Nat, whose magic is bound with ritual and his own Jewishness, to Meraud, whose desire to use a part for a whole is too ambitious - but when you can do good in the world, why wouldn't you try?
Meraud is, in fact, the one character who I struggled most to get a handle on. Layla names him as "not wholly knowable" at one point, and he remained so to me throughout the book - a source of frustration, sometimes, to both the story's ensemble and to me, a reader. I could feel the shape of him through Nat and Layla's love for him, but sometimes I wanted to understand a bit better why they loved him. But that's realistic - love doesn't always work in whys. That they love him is enough for the reader, most of the time.
Regardless of what I felt (or didn't feel) about Meraud, I was thoroughly entranced by the journey to look for him - the clues Layla and Nat have to put together, the people they met, the intricate way magic and mystery are built out. This is definitely a story I'll be coming back to again and again. And also, Aelthel is amazing.
-Deepa
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Top reviews from other countries
RF
A fantastic, thoughtful, and absolutely beautiful read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2021
Eleanor
Amazing, beautiful and heart stopping.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 17, 2018