A short novella written by an author I really enjoy, this story with a very long title centres around the ghost of a woman, Jenna, who died before it was her appointed time to die, and so she spends her afterlife working to move on, taking time away from the living and using it to move herself, little by little, toward the age she should have been when she died. It’s a complicated concept, and it took me a good half of the novella to really fully grasp it myself, but rest assured it does make more sense when you read it.

There are always ghosts around, and witches, and all sorts of things we either do or don’t see, but suddenly all the ghosts start disappearing from New York City, and it’s up to Jenna and the corn witch Brenda, to find out what happened to them. McGuire’s brilliant descriptive prose really shines here, playing with a different twist on a horror/urban fantasy trope, and I really liked how the mystery of the missing ghosts unfolded, and the bittersweet atmosphere throughout. It’s a short read (I finished it in an evening), so if you’re in the mood for a somewhat different ghost story or if you just like McGuire’s writing in general, this one’s worth your time.

I read very little fiction that is shorter than novel length, so this was a new experience for me. I liked the novella as a form of fiction - it allows a concept to be explored, without hanging the weight of too many words on it.

Unfortunately for me, the concept here of ghosts and time and witches and anchoring and dying days just went over my head. I just couldn't really grasp what was being described and how it affected our characters.

Those stars I have given this novel are for McGuire's writing. This is the first piece of hers I've read, and I just delighted in the prose. The language, the sentences, the beautiful balance and rhythm and poetry of it. I luxuriated in it, and would be more than happy to pick up more of her work.

Review in Spanish:

Seanan McGuire es una autora increíblemente prolífica. Con varias series de novelas en marcha, cada año podemos ver varias novedades suyas que van desde relatos en antologías varias, pasando por novelas cortas hasta novelas propiamente dichas. Muchos la conoceréis ya que la editorial Runas va a traducir las novelas Every Heart a Doorway y Down Among the Sticks and Bones. Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day publicada en Tor.com (2017) es una novela corta (o novellete) que reconozco que he tardado bastante en leerme, aunque no por la propia historia en sí, sino por saturación directa de lecturas. Es una obra muy cortita, de unas 100 páginas. Y lo cierto es que una vez me puse me la terminé en una tarde (siempre que dejo una novela a medias durante más de un mes la retomo desde el inicio, por eso a veces no puedo terminar muchos libros que comienzo).

A ver, vamos con una reseña algo breve. Comencemos por un breve resumen de la trama, que me parece muy intrigante. Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day es una historia de fantasmas, desde el punto de vista del espectro. Jenna espera el día de su muerte mientras ayuda a gente en Nueva York. Debido a que es un fantasma, es una tarea bastante complicada, pues no tiene edad y el tiempo no pasa para ella. Se ha quedado atrapada en la adolescencia. No tardará en descubrir cieta amenaza que asola la ciudad y debería superar sus traumas y miedos para socorrer a las gentes de Nueva York, y a sus fantasmas. La trama de esta novela da la sensación de ser bastante ordinaria, pese a los elemenos sobrenaturales. Y ahí está la gracia de la obra de McGuire. Con pocos elementos crea una historia en la cual muchos nos podemos ver fácilmente reflejados. Empatizar con los protagonistas es una tarea sencillisima (y, dejadme que os diga, conseguir algo así me parece magia).

Hay varios temas que sobrevuelan toda la historia de forma constante, como la pérdida, el suicidio o la aceptación de la propia pérdida. Es una historia dura, o por lo menos a mí me ha resultado dura de leer. No complicada, sino con una carga emocional tremenda. Es cierto que tiene varias capas de lectura y un lector que busque entretenerse con una simple historia de una chica fantasma en Nueva York va a encontrar eso (al fin y al cabo, leemos lo que queremos, no lo que el autor quiere que leamos). Si hay algo que me gusta de McGuire (aparte de lo ya mencionado) es su atención al detalle en todo. Formas de actuar, qué dicen los personajes, cómo lo dicen, los lugares, los temas, los olores. Todo. Puede que la historia te guste más o menos, te atrape más o menos, pero es innegable la capacidad para transmitir temas que tiene la autora.

Y quiero finalizar la reseña (que quería ser breve y al final...) destacando los personajes. McGuire tiene una habilidad especial para forjar personalidades. Para crear personajes reales, actuales y vivos. Son personajes que no busca un objetivo concreto en el lector (el que motiva, el que te hace llorar, el que pone en marcha la trama) sino que son personas con miedos, motivaciones y momentos de alegría o tristeza. Esto me parece especialmente complicado, porque todos sabemos que la realidad a veces puede ser no demasiado real, y la ficción necesita ser coherente para no caer en el caos. Por eso digo que McGuire es especialmente buena en este sentido. En definitiva, una obra interesante, que se lee rápido, divertida, entretenida y dura. Os recomendaría comenzar a leer a la autora por las novelas que va a publicar Runas o por relatos suyos. Aunque esta obra es totalmente recomendable.

This is a ghost story. Jenna died while running through the night in the Kentucky wilderness, grieving for the sister who just committed suicide in NYC. She hasn't been able to move on.

Jenna spends time volunteering at a suicide hotline, and the dedication of this book is for those who have considered killing themselves. The poem at the beginning, from which the title is taken, is really powerful and I'm glad I read the book for that alone. 

The story itself doesn't hang together really well. There are ghosts, who can give time to or take it from the living. This somehow goes into a ghostly ledger that leads to the date upon which the ghost would have died if not for the tragedy that ghostifies them, but I never really understood the math. Nor did I understand the anchor concept that the author goes into later. You see, the ghosts of NYC, where Jenna dwells now, begin to disappear. This is bad because of something-something-anchor-or-chaos. 

Mcguire is good at emotional resonance. You can feel how much she cares about the issue of those who despair. But there is a LOT of hand-wavium in this story. I'm usually pretty good at understaning magic systems but I could not get my head around this one. It felt like the author needed things to be a certain way as a motivation for her plot to go the way she wanted, so she forced it. Interesting characters, weak setting.

This book is about Jenna, a girl who died too soon and became a ghost in order to collect her missing time.
In this novel, people who die earlier than they were supposed to, get stuck on Earth as ghosts and are forced to take time from living beings until they reach the age they were supposed to be when they died. Jenna volunteers on a suicide help-line and only takes time from the living when she feels that she made a difference on the people that called the help-line. Because she's so strict with the amount of time she takes, she became an old ghost.
Then, all the ghosts of New York disappear except Jenna and Delia, an even older ghost. The city needs to have at least one ghost to anchor it so Delia stays in NYC while Jenna looks for the person responsible for the disappearances.
Jenna is a heartbreaking character. I love her and I admire her for the way she deals with what she lost. Brenda and Delia are also great characters with great depth.
The plot gripping and the book is fast-paced. I liked it more than I expected and I think the plot and  characters will stick to memory for some time. It is a fast read ant it made me curious to read more of this author.
I recommend this book to everyone that likes urban fantasy and everyone that wants to read a fresh new take on ghosts and the way they interact with the living.

If I had to select one book to be labelled the perfect supernatural fantasy (and fortunately, I don't), I would choose Seanan McGuire's <em>Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day</em>.  There is more story, more power, more poetry, and more creativity in this novella than just about anything I've ever read.

Jenna blamed herself for her sister, Patty's, death.  Then Jenna blamed herself for her own death.  But Jenna died too soon and so she spends her remaining time volunteering at a suicide prevention hotline in New York. One day Jenna realizes that the ghosts of New York are vanishing until she realizes that she is all there is holding the city in place.  Jenna is unintentionally pitted against a corn witch that manages to trap Jenna in glass (a ghost prison of sorts).  But Jenna isn't one to sit by and instead takes matters into her own hands.

The only drawback to this book is that it is too short.

McGuire has created a world that feels so real and natural that I half expect to see a ghost as I head in to work. She has created some new 'rules' for the behavior of ghosts in literature (though I'm still personally fond of Jonathan Stroud's <em>Lockwood and Co</em> series' rules) and while establishing these rules McGuire has given us some interesting characters and a mystery that we get caught up in.  And she gives us beautiful, lyrical language.

Again...the book is too short to absorb everything that McGuire has put in here.  A little more time with the mystery and a little more time to get to know Jenna and those around her wouldn't hurt the book at all, and very likely would draw more people to the book.

This book is number one on my recommendation list and it seals my appreciation for Seanan McGuire and her work.

Looking for a good book? <em>Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day</em> by Seanan McGuire may just be the perfect urban fantasy novella and its only shortcoming is that it is too short.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This one is better for the adults at my public library than my high school.

Unfortunately this title wasn't for me. I'm sure others will enjoy it,

'Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day' by Seanan McGuire is a kind of whodunnit ghost story, with a different premise than I've seen before.

Jenna is still hanging around, but she's no longer living.  She is upset over her sister Patty's death, and blames herself.  She blames herself for her own death too.  In this book, people who die sometime have a debt of time they have to work off.  Jenna can do this by taking time from the living, but she chooses not to do that and instead works at a suicide hotline.  The problem is that something is making the other ghosts around Jenna disappear, and Jenna may be the only thing that can stop it.

I liked this world and the main character.  The vibe of the book is a bit sad and melancholy, but I liked that with this book.  Jenna has a pretty sad existence and a lot of guilt to get rid of.  She doesn't let this stop her, and that makes her a pretty strong character.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

2/1/2017
http://fangfiction.blogspot.com/2017/02/new-stand-alone-novella-seanan-mcguire.html

Author:  Seanan McGuire 
Title:  "Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day" 
Plot Type: Urban Fantasy (UF) (ghost story with a twist)
Ratings:  Violence—3; Sensuality—0; Humor—1   
Publisher and Titles:  Tor (1/2017)

PUBLISHER'S BLURB: 
     When her sister Patty died, Jenna blamed herself. When Jenna died, she blamed herself for that, too. Unfortunately Jenna died too soon. Living or dead, every soul is promised a certain amount of time, and when Jenna passed she found a heavy debt of time in her record. Unwilling to simply steal that time from the living, Jenna earns every day she leeches with volunteer work at a suicide prevention hot line. 

     But something has come for the ghosts of New York, something beyond reason, beyond death, beyond hope; something that can bind ghosts to mirrors and make them do its bidding. Only Jenna stands in its way. 

     "Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day" is a new stand-alone urban fantasy novella from New York Times best-selling author Seanan McGuire. 

IN THE AUTHOR'S OWN WORDS:
     When asked in an interview to tell what the story is about, McGuire gave this answer: “Time. Sisters and debts and the need to stay when sometimes you really want to go, but most of all, time. It’s a ghost story and a love story and a story about the price we pay to stay ourselves." 

     In another interview, she said this: "Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is about ghosts and grief and giving up and giving in and letting go. It’s very dear to me. I think it’s going to be dear to some other people as well, and really, that’s what matters most of all."

MY REVIEW:  
    This novella is a master class in weaving world-building details into a story in such an intricate manner that the reader is hardly aware of the author's intent. I've read one or two reviews implying that the world-building is confusing, but that is absolutely not the case--unless you are a reader who enjoys the world-building info dumps used by lazier, less-skilled authors. McGuire is one of my favorite UF authors, and I was happy that she finally wrote a stand-alone novella set in an all-new mythology. Not to be too over-the-top on my praise, but it's like opening a beautifully wrapped gift box containing a dark, but lovely, gem. Yes, this story is very dark, but it has such a solid emotional core that the darkness never feels oppressive. 

     In the first few pages, a family living in Mill Hollow, Kentucky, in 1972 loses both of their daughters. Patty, in her early twenties, commits suicide not long after she leaves to make a new life in Manhattan. Jenna, grieving for her older sister, dies under mysterious circumstances during a thunderstorm. In this mythology, if a person dies before his or her time, that person becomes a ghost. Ghosts have the ability to "go to the light" (to use the popular, woo-woo phrase), but Jenna doesn't like the way most ghosts move on, so she decides to do it her way (which I will not be explaining here).

     McGuire always demonstrates masterful story-telling skills, and that is definitely the case with Jenna's story. Chapter one is almost as a mood piece, with Jenna deep in grief for her sister, but in chapter two, when we catch up with Jenna in 2015 in Manhattan—her sister's place of dreams and death—she is a ghost who has learned a great deal about how ghosts function in this world. In chapters two and three, we meet the people and animals (rescue cats) in Jenna's life and learn about the relationship between ghosts and witches. Then, in chapter four, the New York ghosts begin to disappear, providing the catalyst for the main plot. Now, it's up to Jenna and her witchy friend, Brenna, to figure out what's going on and to rescue their friends. In this world, ghosts and witches are not usually friends (for reasons that soon become apparent), but Jenna and Brenna have managed to achieve a guarded acquaintanceship, if not a full friendship, over the past forty-three years that Jenna has been a New York ghost.

     The two strongest parts of this novella are the seamless way in which McGuire gradually slips the ghostly mythology of Jenna's life into the narrative and the fact that Jenna is such an intelligent, diligent, morally upstanding young woman—but not a dull pushover or a saccharine-sweet Mary Sue. To put it plainly and simply, Jenna is that rare good person who tries to do the right thing. 

     At the core of the suspense-filled plot, McGuire plants a message about kindness and urges us to work harder at showing compassion towards one another: "People aren't so good at being good to one another. We try hard enough, but something essential was left out in the making of us, some hard little patch of stone in the fertile soil that's supposed to be our hearts. We get hung up on the bad, and we focus on it until it grows, and the whole crop is lost." Given the currents of hate that are currently swirling through America, this passage truly resonated in my soul. 

     If you are looking for a top-notch, stand-alone UF story with a thoughtful, relevant message; interesting and intelligent characters; and a well-paced, innovative, engrossing plot, I guarantee that you will enjoy this book. I recommend purchasing this novella (192 pages) as an e-book (currently $2.99) rather than as a paperback (currently $10.43) or an audio book (currently $14.95)—primarily because of the pricing.

     Final Note: McGuire's titles are always fun to research. This one comes from a line in "The Widow," a poem by Martha Keller that was published in the July 1940 issue of Harper's Magazine. 

          "Dusk or dark or dawn or day,
           Bar no ghost from glass, they say,
           If you want the dead to want you."

     McGuire includes the full text of the poem at the beginning of the book. Most of the clues to the plot twists are in the poem, but, of course, some lines are not as pertinent as others. So, take an hour or two, sit back, relax, and see what this terrific story is all about.

FULL DISCLOSURE: My review of "Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day" is based on an electronic advance reading copy (ARC) of the book that I received from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I received no promotional or monetary rewards, and the opinions in this review are entirely my own.

This is not a bad book, but I felt slightly disappointed when I finished this sad novella about death and suicide. I think the world-building’ premises were full of imagination, the rules of this ghost story original and interesting, but the mystery plot was too weak and didn’t grab my interest and the book delivered less than what I expected when reading the first half of the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm already a big fan of Seanan McGuire under her darker fantasy Mira Grant persona, and hed Toby Daye series has been on my tbr pile for a while. No surprise that I really enjoyed this. Jenna is a very likeable heroine who is actually a nice person. It's hard to keep up a convincing portrayal of goodness without falling into saccharine steriotypes or becoming unbelivable, but McGuire walks that line with breath taking poise. 

This is a nice self enclosed novella, combining and interesting magical system, a new take on ghosts and gritty urban settings. Well worth a read.

McGuire has a way of creating whole new world settings and then settling the reader in them like an old familiar building.  She expertly slips out details to help the reader grasp the new setting, while leaving out whole areas that are tangential but your mind fills in from these hints.  In this case, the workings of ghost and witches and the different types of magic.  Unique to her other works, and a great read.

An interesting novella but unfortunately not the type of thing I would normally gravitate towards as ghost stories aren't generally my thing and definitely not a patch on Every Heart a Doorway. Not really the piece of short fiction for me at the end of the day, just that bit too weird and out there.

This was a rather haunting book, no pun intended. It’s a poignant and sensitively done tale with a focus on the theme of suicide – the ones left behind, and the ones who follow.

As usual, McGuire’s creative worldbuilding is on full display; a world of ghosts who can turn themselves tangible at will, and work their way to the other side by ‘stealing’ the time from humans until they reach their death-due date, as it were.

It’s certainly one of the more unique ghost stories that I’ve ever read, but with an emphasis on the very real ideas of community, penance and basic human kindness. And there’s an undercurrent of sadness, but it ends on a hopeful note, and Jenna is someone who you can’t help but root for.

People aren’t so good at being good to one another. We try hard enough, but something essential was left out in the making of us, some hard little patch of stone in the fertile soil that’s supposed to be our hearts. We get hung up on the bad, and we focus on it until it grows, and the whole crop is lost.

**

ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from uncorrected proof and may differ from final publication.

In a departure from her more popular series, McGuire tells a tale of ghosts and urban legends. The characters are haunting (pun intended), but it is not quite what I am used to from Ms. McGuire. The concepts are interesting, but somewhat non-cohesive.

Or rather Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day, by Seanan McGuire, which is a lovely title for a ghost story with many lovely aspects but that is, ultimately, Not For Me.

I picked the book up (from Netgalley, for review; thank you, Netgalley!) because of how much I loved Every Heart a Doorway. I knew it was about ghosts--as in, a story about the "lives" of ghosts, from their point of view, which is a hard world to build, in my opinion.  If you're going to show me a vision of the afterlife that looks pretty much exactly like being alive (these are ghosts who live in apartments and have jobs and eat sometimes), I'm already pretty skeptical. There's an element of "moving on," though--you only stay as a ghost if you go before your time--another concept that I'm kind of fuzzy on, but I'm not bad at suspension of disbelief.

Jenna died too soon--when her sister Patty killed herself, Jenna was distraught and died in an accident. Now, years later, Jenna has moved from her small town home to New York City, where she works at a suicide hotline, "earning" her extra time back to get closer to the right time for her death.  So, this is the first confusing thing--ghosts can "steal" time from living people. Now, what I think when I hear this is that the person's life gets shorter--maybe their death date moves up or maybe they get older. But what it actually means is that the ghost takes some of the person's age--the person gets younger, winds back the time that the ghost takes, and the ghost gets older, closer to their death date/moving on.

Ghosts can also give time--get further from their death date, stay on earth longer, and by giving those minutes or hours or years to a human, cause the person to age.  Apparently most ghosts are eager to move on, so they steal time from people in a win-win situation--people get younger, ghosts get older and move on sooner. But a few ghosts want to stay, and they tend to find bad people and give them back time to keep away from their death date.

But Jenna's odder--she has somehow decided that she has to earn the right to move on. So she works at a suicide hotline, and whenever she talks someone into living longer, she logs that time and only then allows herself to take that time from someone. This was really my first sticking point; I really can't figure out why Jenna would put this artificial gate between herself and the thing she wants--to be with her sister Patty. I didn't get a feel for Jenna's relationship with Patty, either, which was supposed to be the driving force of the novel.

The actual story begins when ghosts start to disappear from the city. Jenna and a few allies are the only ones to investigate--her ghost landlady, a local witch, a homeless woman.  They follow the trail which leads them, for some reason, into Jenna's past.

Talking it through, I think this was part of the trouble I had with the story--there were a lot of different pieces that ended up dovetailing for no particular reason. Jenna's personal story and the problem of the missing ghosts are mostly unrelated, except for a lot of ways they're related.  A lot of the plot is driven by coincidence, in the end, which doesn't work as well for me.

What I will say, though, is that Seanan McGuire can write.  The day to day moments of Jenna's life are smooth and lovely to read, and if I didn't understand a lot of the emotional content, the way it's described was not the problem. I didn't love this book, but I absolutely want to read much more by this author.

I hesitate to call this book an Urban Fantasy, though that's probably what it should be shelved under. The story and characters all clearly have deep countryside roots, with the city not being portrayed as much of a character, or all that welcoming of an entity. New York is the place runaways flock to and the place Jenna chose for her flight but it was never quite home. Instead, the pull of Jenna's small, rural town is ever-present, it's where her bones are buried and it can never stop being home. 

The world-building was fascinating but I found it somewhat confusing, particularly the language around ghosts avbilities to give and take time from the living. In the beginning, I kept having to double back to make sure I understood whether Jenna was aging or getting younger. It took me a while to get into the world and its rules, which wouldn't be as much of an issue in a novel but in this much shorter work it meant that I was confused for a much larger portion of the story. 

Still, I was intrigued by so many things in this story: witches in the corn, covered mirrors, whispering rats, ghost traps. I also especially enjoyed Jenna's posse of elderly cats, as well as her musings on death, the living and why ghosts who linger behind. I would definitely read more in that world, now that I understand the way the main premise works a bit better.

I think this is the most unique ghost story I've read in a very long time.  I can't remember this story line ever.   Jenna's sister died away from home and she is shattered and goes for a run in the woods.  She dies in an accident before her time to go.  Now, many years later she is working in the big city at a suicide prevention hotline and getting closer to her actual time she was to die.  Her life is governed by 42 minute increments.  A local witch is her only friend.  A remarkable book with a few twists that have you regretting every minute you aren't reading this story.  I am definitely going to be reading Seanan McGuire's other books.