Cohesive. Weathered. Satisfying. These are the three words that best sum up THEY MOSTLY COME OUT AT NIGHT for me.



COHESIVE. From start to finish, every part of this book moved towards the same goal: telling one grand, totally integrated story. It fluidly moves from past to present, legend to reality, doubt to certainty. It is a pasodoble--a dance between the bull and the matador--where there is teasing, prodding, advancing, retreating, until the final moment of reckoning. Benedict Patrick is to be complimented for the lightness of his authorial foot, keeping our eyes glued to the dance even as he continually upends our premises and expectations. He flits from one timeline to another, from POV to POV, and we are with him every literary chasse, drag, promenade, coup de pique.



Folk tales started many chapters--quirky, wondrous...and more than what they appear to be. These vignettes are enjoyable independently but grow in meaning when viewed in the light of the overall story arc. Mr. Patrick draws on old legends, refreshes their threads, and weaves them into a new tapestry that feels novel while retaining their mystery and exoticness.



WEATHERED. This tale simply has an aged feel to it the way a proper legend or myth should. It is a tale that has surely grown in the telling, seeped into various cultures and peoples. It draws on the age-old tradition of fashioning stories to explain the origin of the world and the creatures that live in it. Without giving a spoiler, let's just say I will never look at a squirrel the same way again. (Gluscabe! I shall not forget your majestic origin!)



SATISFYING. This is a standalone novel which reminds me of something I had almost forgotten with all the cliffhanger and ambiguous endings that have become quite popular and can be satisfying in a different way. THEY MOSTLY COME OUT AT NIGHT delivers closure from whence comes the satisfaction that proceeds from knowing you have come full circle and can look back and truly see the relevance of everything that came before.



As I closed the book and reflected on the story, I was confident I grasped the characters' motivations, impetus, choices. I may not always agree, the outcome may not always be what I hoped, but all was clear. This book tugged at my heartstrings because even as I may not necessarily have made the choices the characters made, I understood the the emotions and values behind them. Fear, love, jealousy, anger, sacrifice--these are all things we have intimate knowledge of. As Lonan, Adahy, Mother Ogma, Jarleth, Maedoc, Branwen and the others wrestle with their dilemmas, I was right alongside them, appreciating the difficulties, contemplating the difference between foresight and hindsight and the doubts, second-guessing and finality that attend it. This is what Mr. Patrick's writing allows.



This does not mean that there are no more stories to tell involving these characters, only that the writer has put paid to this particular narrative of their lives.



If I have a quibble with this book it might be that it is too short--not because it is incomplete or unresolved, only that I want more. I did not want the vignettes to stop coming, I want to know more about the little moments of the characters' lives that may not be entirely relevant to the overall story arc but would give me a longer peek at the details of their fascinating existence. I hope to dream of the Magpie King and Artemis and Lonan and all the others for some time to come. Here's hoping I have owl blood running in my veins.