Daytide by Chris Panatier: A Strange, Funny Story of Faith and Despair

A bleak premise with an unruly streak

Chris Panatier’s Daytide begins with a grim idea: a psychological pandemic called the Longing, an affliction that seems to end only with its sufferers’ deaths. Kaya Sinh has succumbed to it, choosing fire. Her friend Adam is left grieving and clinging to the support group they attended together, with little else to help him keep going.

That bleak setup gives the novel a serious emotional center, but the book’s character is anything but solemn. The review describes a story about faith, belonging and angels, alongside abrasive jokes and strange behavior. Its supernatural figures, as the reviewer puts it, are hardly conventional: they get “pissed on Turpentine” and dress up as historical figures while getting into fights. The collision between despair and farce is part of the book’s appeal, and also a signal that readers should expect a story willing to take sharp turns.

Adam’s unlikely offer of hope

Adam’s life shifts when Father Hayle Carnoth turns up at the group and says he has found a cure for the Longing. Adam suspects the priest is simply trying to recruit people for a dwindling congregation, so he sends him away. Carnoth keeps returning, though, and the threat of the Longing continues to close in. Eventually Adam agrees to hear him out.

The two visit a nearby cathedral, where something has appeared inside its steeple. That discovery opens the door to the book’s religious and supernatural elements without removing the personal stakes: Adam is still a grieving friend trying to find a reason to continue. The premise sets up a question of trust as much as one of belief. Is Carnoth offering genuine help, or does Adam have reason to doubt him? The review gives away no answer, and the tension between skepticism and possibility is a useful thread for readers to follow.

When the wildness works

The reviewer calls Daytide a “proper fibbertijibbet” and a “will-o’-the-wisp”: elusive, eccentric and difficult to pin down. That description gets at both the book’s energy and its unevenness. The review admits that the story doesn’t work all the time and that its middle section sags. It also raises the obvious risk of a premise doing too much of the work. A wild idea can catch a reader’s attention, but it still needs characters and writing that can sustain that attention.

In the reviewer’s view, Panatier supplies much of that support through characters who linger in the mind. Some seem so vivid that they take up residence there; at the same time, the reviewer acknowledges that secondary characters can get lost amid the activity, making them harder to keep track of. That mix of strong impressions and occasional confusion suggests a crowded cast whose individual personalities may land more firmly than every name or role.

The jokes are another clear strength for this reviewer. The novel is described as packed with one-liners that prompt laughter, helping its odd mix of material feel lively even when the plot becomes crowded. Panatier throws a great deal into the story, the review says, and somehow makes it work. That’s a reader’s response, not a promise that every turn will suit every taste. The pleasure appears to come partly from watching the author commit to the book’s peculiar logic.

A book for readers who like a gamble

Daytide sounds best suited to readers who enjoy fiction that mixes spiritual questions, supernatural strangeness and irreverent comedy, and who don’t need every stretch of a novel to move at the same pace. Those looking for a tightly controlled story or a consistently serious treatment of grief may find the shifts less appealing. The reviewer is candid that this could be a love-it-or-hate-it read, even while landing firmly on the side of enjoyment.

That divided response is a fair expectation to carry into the book. Its central idea is bleak, its supporting imagery is deliberately outlandish, and its humor appears to push against the darkness rather than smooth it away. For the reviewer, the uneven middle and sometimes hard-to-follow side characters don’t outweigh the cast’s staying power, the jokes or the sheer audacity of the plot. Daytide looks like a good pick for readers willing to be surprised, especially those who value a distinct voice over a perfectly even ride.