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annlouise's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use
purplesapphire's review against another edition
3.25
Good start of a series. Easy to read and decently paced to keep you interested even if the plot leaves a bit to be desired. It's supposed to be a mystery but we don't get all that many actual clues to follow. Check those content warnings too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Physical abuse
graymyles's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Probably my fifth reread of this book. As an introduction to a long series, this was a great book. It touched on several overarching plot themes and met a lot of characters you will see throughout the series, establishing a good baseline for all of it without being overly informative like a lot of fantasy series can be. The story is set in recent day (catching up to modern 2024) San Fransisco giving a familiar feel to the story and allowing the reader to balance the new magic and fae system and references with something more familiar. Out of this series, it’s not the best, but is close. There are times when you’ll love October, the main character and times when you’ll chastise her, giving her a very 3 dimensional feeling. As detective novels go, I would say it’s intermediate. The twists aren’t too predictable, and if you’re reading it for the first time, you may not ever see the end coming (I remember not expecting that twist until October starts puzzling it together). As fae series goes, I’d say it’s really good. It blends common knowledge with more niche references to fae folklore easily and only scratches the surface of larger themes and ideas as it should being the first of a long series. The sex scenes are fade to black, and the only real graphic moments are of fantasy violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Blood
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
blacksphinx's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I've been following Seanan McGuire on social media for several years, and she's always been upfront that this book has some issues. She's said it's kind of a rough start to the series and contains language and attitudes she would edit out if she could. I have read far worse things. This was a fun and snappy popcorn read - extremely readable and entertaining. I've never read a urban fantasy book before and I found it to be fun.
It's not perfect. We have a prologue that leads into a 14-and-a-half years timeskip that really felt like starting the story off by smacking into a pothole due to a lack of explanation. The story then later gives us the infodump of how that 14+ year situation resolved in a dream sequence, which was, certainly a choice. Our protagonist really has no self preservation instinct and almost bleeds to death multiple times. I felt the plot struggled a little because it had to introduce so many characters to us, not all of whom are big movers and shakers in this particular story. But I never felt like putting the book down. Even if I was a touch annoyed at how slowly we collected clues for the mystery, I just kept reading. I found myself thinking about the story and the characters at work. I just had to know more, and as soon as I finished this book I picked up the second book in the series without even pausing to mark this one off as "finished."
[Side note, I've heard Seanan McGuire talk about the language issues in this book and early series before, it's probably that she kept negativity comparing things to "hookers" and women kept calling each other bitches.]
It's not perfect. We have a prologue that leads into a 14-and-a-half years timeskip that really felt like starting the story off by smacking into a pothole due to a lack of explanation. The story then later gives us the infodump of how that 14+ year situation resolved in a dream sequence, which was, certainly a choice. Our protagonist really has no self preservation instinct and almost bleeds to death multiple times. I felt the plot struggled a little because it had to introduce so many characters to us, not all of whom are big movers and shakers in this particular story. But I never felt like putting the book down. Even if I was a touch annoyed at how slowly we collected clues for the mystery, I just kept reading. I found myself thinking about the story and the characters at work. I just had to know more, and as soon as I finished this book I picked up the second book in the series without even pausing to mark this one off as "finished."
[Side note, I've heard Seanan McGuire talk about the language issues in this book and early series before, it's probably that she kept negativity comparing things to "hookers" and women kept calling each other bitches.]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Classism
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, and Dementia
Whorephobia, drowning.ricksilva's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
October "Toby" Daye, half-faerie and former PI, just wants to leave the hidden magical side of San Fransisco behind her. She lost everything in a job gone wrong. She failed her liege, and lost her family and fourteen years of her life.
But of course she gets pulled back into it all. Magically cursed into solving one more murder, she quickly discovers that she may be the next target of the killers, and is forced to question her old friends and allies, even as she renews her connections to the faerie realms.
October is a great throwback to the hardboiled detective icons of Mickey Spillane, with a bit of not-always-reliable magic, and a troubled past that she's in more than one form of denial about.
The worldbuilding is great, from the workings of magic to the fantasy version of San Fransisco layered on top of and in between what is visible to human eyes.
Plotwise the book does a nice job of planting all sorts of seeds, referencing past adventures and dropping hints of future intrigues, all while spinning an action-filled mystery with a solid share of tragedy, and the occasional glimmer of hope and wonder.
The one weakness of the story is the lack of agency of the protagonist, and this may to some extent have been intentionally thematically, but it still results in a story that is almost entirely reactive. Things happen to Toby, and the plot spirals out of her control, and then more things happen to her. And so on.
I'm hoping that this sets up a more proactive version of Toby as the series moves forward. Because there is a lot to like with these characters and this world.
But of course she gets pulled back into it all. Magically cursed into solving one more murder, she quickly discovers that she may be the next target of the killers, and is forced to question her old friends and allies, even as she renews her connections to the faerie realms.
October is a great throwback to the hardboiled detective icons of Mickey Spillane, with a bit of not-always-reliable magic, and a troubled past that she's in more than one form of denial about.
The worldbuilding is great, from the workings of magic to the fantasy version of San Fransisco layered on top of and in between what is visible to human eyes.
Plotwise the book does a nice job of planting all sorts of seeds, referencing past adventures and dropping hints of future intrigues, all while spinning an action-filled mystery with a solid share of tragedy, and the occasional glimmer of hope and wonder.
The one weakness of the story is the lack of agency of the protagonist, and this may to some extent have been intentionally thematically, but it still results in a story that is almost entirely reactive. Things happen to Toby, and the plot spirals out of her control, and then more things happen to her. And so on.
I'm hoping that this sets up a more proactive version of Toby as the series moves forward. Because there is a lot to like with these characters and this world.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
maryellen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I had fun with this one. I always love fae stories.
Rep: white female MC with PTSD, Asian coded female side character, various other fae race side characters.
CWs: Blood, confinement (in a pond as a fish), death, grief, gun violence, injury/injury detail, kidnapping/attempted kidnapping, medical content, murder, racism (within the fae there is discrimination and prejudice towards changelings and half fae), toxic relationship, violence, emotional abuse. Moderate: Ableism, child death, gore, sexual content. Brief: Dementia.
Rep: white female MC with PTSD, Asian coded female side character, various other fae race side characters.
CWs: Blood, confinement (in a pond as a fish), death, grief, gun violence, injury/injury detail, kidnapping/attempted kidnapping, medical content, murder, racism (within the fae there is discrimination and prejudice towards changelings and half fae), toxic relationship, violence, emotional abuse. Moderate: Ableism, child death, gore, sexual content. Brief: Dementia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gore, and Sexual content
Minor: Dementia
laurajones's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence and Physical abuse
Minor: Dementia