Thursday, May 18, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

 



Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on September 13, 2022 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Silver Under Nightfall is a Queer Paranormal Romance/Romantic Fantasy novel by Filipinx author Rin Chupeco, who's largely known for their young adult SF/F works (This novel doesn't seem to be advertised as YA and its hero is 23 years old, although it shares some YA tropes). Admittedly, when I requested this book, I had two reasons to not be super enthusiastic about it: I'd not liked my prior attempt at reading Chupeco's works - her YA novel Wicked as you Wish - and I'm not really a huge vampire novel fan. Silver Under Nightfall is definitely a paranormal romance-esque novel featuring Vampires and Humans so it's very much in that second category even if this book is far queerer and stranger than say...Twilight. But I requested the book thanks to some pretty strong blurbs and prior praise for Chupeco's other stuff, and hoped I'd like this book better.

And I very much did like Silver Under Nightfall better than my last taste of Chupeco. The novel features a non-binary main character Remy and puts him in a general situation that is pretty common in such books: a vampire hunter (reaper) who is suspected and ostracized for possibly being half-vampire, a crippled father who used to be a reaper himself who berates him for any mistakes and has his own agenda, and a kind heart that is often taken advantage of by others, even as he's one of the best vampire hunters his country of Aluria has. It even features some really obvious twists and turns that you'll see coming a mile away. But the book also features a queer polyamorous relationship between Remy and two vampire characters that is really well done and highly enjoyable (and very horny) and a strong theme of Remy having to realize that he is worthy of having happiness in his life, no matter what others think of him. That relationship is enrapturing and lifts this novel immensely, making me very willing to overlook some of the genericness of some of its setting.

More specifics after the jump:

Mild Trigger Warning: Parental and emotional abuse, as well as use of a minor for sex. At least one female character in backstory takes advantage of a 15 year old Remy and basically emotionally entices Remy into having sex with her, a relationship that continues due to that character holding intelligence Remy needs and his father essentially insisting he keep getting that intelligence. Remy's father is also abusive emotionally. The book is very clear that these things are wrong, even if Remy doesn't recognize it, but these issues are there.


--------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------
Remy Pendergast is a reaper, meant to defend the human kingdom of Aluria from its vampire clan neighbors. But while Remy is one of the best reapers there is, he is not comfortable with and is shunned in Alurian society. His father used to be one of the greatest reapers until he was injured and lost a political power struggle and his mother had a dalliance with a vampire before being killed by one...leaving Remy to be birthed from her dead body. The people call him a cambion or half-vampire and distrust him as if he was one of them....they even call him Lord or Lady when he prefers the neutral term "Armiger". The only times he feels wanted is when he is used by noble ladies for sex...even if he tells himself that such sex is worth it in order to gain intelligence from those ladies' ears.

But when Aluria begins negotiating an alliance with the Vampiric Third and Fourth Courts, Remy finds everything he knows changing...for it introduces Remy to the infuriatingly arrogant Third Court king, Lord Zidan Malekh, and his beautiful fiancé and Fourth Court heiress, Song Xiaodan - a pair who take a special interest in him. That interest only grows when Remy and the kingdom confronts a strange new menace - the Rot, a type of never before seen undead who keep returning to life as bigger and more monstrous berserkers intent seemingly on destroying everything in their path. Soon Remy will find himself working alongside Xiaodan and Malekh in order to discover what is behind this new threat, and he'll begin to realize that vampires are not all the kind of monster he was raised to hunt...and that he might want Xiaodan and Malekh just as much as they want him.....
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Silver Under Nightfall features some very trope-y and very predictable plot work, as it follows its protagonist and sole (third person) point of view character Remy. Remy is the ostracized, abused, and misunderstood vampire hunter who is incredibly good at his job, even if he's not able to handle the most deadly of vampires (just like pretty much any human). We've all seen the type before in similar books, even if Remy's being non-binary is an additional and unusual twist (Remy still uses he/him pronouns, but prefers the neutral "Armiger" to "Lord" or "Lady" which is something most humans around him don't understand or account for). Similarly, just like we've seen before, the vampires Remy encounters are not all as evil as Remy has been raised to believe. And well the book features a number of plot twists that are remarkably obvious if you've read anything before, like a pair of characters who are so obviously evil and behind the mysterious monsters that are roaming the land from the very beginning, as well as others that just seem pulled from thin air (a last act villain comes from nowhere). There's also, like I complained about in my review of the other Chupeco book I've read, kind of too many ideas going on here in this book.

And yet, despite all of that, I really really enjoyed Silver Under Nightfall thanks to its character and relationship work. Part of that is due to Remy himself, a 23 year old who might fit some genre tropes, but is a bit more complicated and unusual when you get down to it. He's a boy who spends most of the book unable to understand his own self worth, or that he might deserve to get some of what he himself wants. He was forced as a child to take up his father's famous weapon and become a Reaper, held responsible for his mother's transgressions in eloping with a vampire by even his father, who emotionally abuses him and treats him more like a tool than a person. And that's a similar to how other people treat him, with his father's rival's estranged wife using Remy for sex ever since he was 15, and enticing him to more of it by withholding information about vampires from him, while others treat him as if he's half-vampire himself as a result of his mother and shun him or blame him for vampire and monster attacks. At the same time, despite all this, Remy wears his heart on his sleeve and cares for people even if they don't treat him well....and especially if they do treat him even half-decently, like a noble lady who understood to call him "Armiger" or his vampire friend Elke, who he helped when she had to escape the abusive vampire scientists of the Fifth Court and keeps her secret as she passes for human. Remy cares even for those who abuse him, which makes it hard for him to recognize that abuse or even to act against those, like his father, who don't deserve his support or covering up. It makes him an easy protagonist to like and care for.

And then there's the relationship between Remy and Xiaodan and Malekh, which is tremendous in how it develops Remy throughout. Remy is physically attracted to both of them, even if he recognizes that attraction more easily to Xiaodan (Remy has never been with a guy before, even if he never shows any revulsion towards the idea). But as they both flirt with him and make advances on him in their own ways, Remy finds it impossible to understand how either of them could want him without wanting something tangible in return. This is especially the case not only because they're vampires, who he finds hard to trust (especially the arrogant Malekh, who opens his acquaintance by kicking Remy's ass), but because they have each other...he's used to helping a married partner cheat, but the idea that they could want him together is something he can't quite understand. And yet they do find him attractive, both physically and emotionally, and when Remy finally realizes that and accepts that, and is willing to act upon it, it is wondrous to see and read. And....very sexy, as there is a LOT of sex between them - the book isn't quite explicit on the level of erotic fiction, but it is still at times fairly descriptive at some individual acts, with the book being very horny in the middle to third quarter of the book.

These relationships work so well, as does the various ways each of the characters all react to each other and to others. And well, I haven't talked about the dialogue here which builds those characters (very good) and the side characters who also have their own things going on and some depth (Elke for example). It's a lot of fun even as it touches on serious themes, and it makes this book work so so well, and made it really hard to put this book down until I finished it. The end result is a satisfying novel despite a weak plot structure, and the book's conclusion promises more in a sequel. And if that sequel's characters are as well built as this novel's, I'll be very happy indeed.

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