TL;DR: Just like your favorite cupcake, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire is light, fun, and enjoyable to consume.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jenna has a debt, a life debt, that she has to pay off by being a ghost among the living. It’s not all bad, except she refuses to do what she could do and take her time from the living. Instead, she assists at a suicide hotline to honor her sister’s memory and logs each careful minute. When the ghosts of New York City disappear, she finds she can do more for the dead as well.
I’m a fan of most of Seanan McGuire’s work, including under her pen name of Mira Grant. When I went looking for a light read, I stumbled upon this book again and decided to give it a shot. I am glad I did. It’s not deep, but the characters’ motivations are. It’s not complicated once you figure out how ghosts walk among the living and don’t think too hard about those that have lived for generations among them. And it has a satisfying ending. For all those reasons and more, I give this four stars.
The Plot
Jenna’s sister Patty dies and Jenna blames herself for not paying more attention or checking in on her. In her grief, she slips and falls to her own death. But it’s a bit too soon. Every person has an amount of time they’re supposed to have lived, so when you die too early, you end up coming back as a ghost and sealing the time from the living.
Except Jenna doesn’t want to steal it from the living, or at least not all at once. Instead, she volunteers at a suicide hotline and looks forward to her nightly piece of pie at the local diner near her apartment. She has little to no friends, except for a homeless girl she gives her pie money to and a witch who hangs out at her favorite diner.
So when the ghosts of New York City disappear and it looks as if the city will become unmoored, she’s suprirsed to find herself at the top of the list for figuring it out. Being the second to last ghost may have something to do with that or maybe it has to do with Jenna finally living. Either way, she’ll have to confront her past and her fears if she wants to save those like her. Can she figure out what’s happening to the ghosts in time or will she too disappear from New York?
What I liked & liked less
This is a lovely book. It’s not something I’ve easily forgotten, but it also isn’t one that sticks in my head. In other words, I enjoyed it, but I don’t need to own it.
The world building is good. The systems in place make sense, if you don’t poke them too hard. Jenna’s ability to survive after her early death in her teens is glossed over, but since we’re meeting her when she’s in her mid-twenties, it doesn’t matter. She’s also incredibly lucky to have landed on her feet in the way that she does (I won’t say more due to spoilers).
I liked Jenna’s character. She felt like someone who was mired in her past, including her need to punish herself for not saving a sister who died far away from where she was when she was only a teenager. Her self-sacrifice characteristic works well for the rest of the plot also and we see a light, but satisfying conclusion to it near the end.
The mystery is well-done enough for me not to guess who was behind it, but then we didn’t have all the players. McGuire only hints at the other people in the world, which makes solving who’s doing it impossible. We also aren’t introduced to any of the side characters who help drive the plot, besides the homeless girl and the witch in the diner. So, if you’re looking for a mystery to solve, this book may fall short for you.
I liked the prose, the pacing, and the story itself. Nothing tripped me up, which mean that this book fulfilled what I needed it to do, but I may not remember it two years from now. (Not that that is saying much; I have a horrific memory.)
To Sum Up (Too Late!)
If you enjoy ghost stories with an emotionally driven plot, you’ll like this book. If you’re looking for something easy, but with enough character depth to keep you interested, you’ll also like this book. Because Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire filled the hole I had at the time, like a nice cupcake, I’ve given it 4 stars.
About the Author
Hi! I’m Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I’m also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.
Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).
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