Night and Silence (October Day #12) / Seanan McGuire

Previously reviewed:

• Once Broken Faith
• The Brightest Fell 

Oh Toby.

When I began my review for The Brightest Fell, I remarked from the start that it felt like the book marked a turning point, that we had hit a new stage, that debts were starting to come due.  That isn't to say that she never pays a price, but the prices are becoming more dear.  What she stands to lose more precious, and what she retrieves is not quite whole.

Toby starts this story vulnerable.  There's the humor we all love and expect, but she is raw and exposed, her network weakened.  Tybalt is keeping distant and Gilly has been taken.  Threads of Toby's family history are starting to show, and at it's heart, Night and Silence is a book about family.

The ending is uneasy, uncomfortable, and it should be.  This isn't a happy ending.  Things are too raw, too forced by necessity.  There is hope, but there is also grief from change and the loss that comes from change.

An enjoyable continuation, paired with an excellent novella centered on Gilly and where she is now.

Advance Reader Copy courtesy of Daw (Penguin RandomHouse) in exchange for an honest review; changes may exist between galley and the final edition

Previously reviewed:

• Once Broken Faith

Most of Toby's stories drop you into the action and feed you necessary bits of exposition as they barrel along.

This book takes the time to introduce you to the world setting, and in that marks a note of gravity and weight that has been absent at the start of the stories, but has always lain lurking.  In that, the novel starts off feeling like we've reached a new step, gone past some point of no return in both Toby's life and in Faerie itself.  Fitting, since ina the author's own words, Toby is starting to pay off debts created five or six books ago.

We know something is coming, hints have been dropped and there's the looming matter of Toby's debts to the Luideag.  Matters which were both brought starkly to light in Once Broken Faith when Luideag mentions it would take too long to replace Toby, and then later when she saves Tybalt's life.  But much of that is for a yet later story.

Meanwhile this is Seanan McGuire's writing, so we'll get that wry humor that infuses all of her stories.  It's not all blood and desperate magic.  I mean, the first chapter features the Luideag singing karaoke at Toby's Bachelorette party.  But a bleakness grips the narrative as Toby tackles a deeply personal challenge, one that puts her loved ones in peril, forces her to work with the man who's been her nightmare, and shines a glaring spotlight on the chasm between Toby and Amandine.

A rich, personal, and compelling continuation of the story.  Highly recommend.

Advance Reader Copy courtesy of Daw (Penguin RandomHouse) in exchange for an honest review; changes may exist between galley and the final edition.

-Tybalt, Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire

when Toby's friend's stand to reclaim her, yeah, I totally teared up.

this will go in as "Dark and Stormy Night" for Bingo, I'll have to actually check in on it later to see if this gets me my 5th bingo or not.

This would also fit for "Halloween" due to a significant event within the book.  Possibly others but life chaos (good chaos, but chaos none the less) has me at barely human.

She (as a mortal girl) gets violently beaten to at least unconsciousness (by nasty thug fae) to the point that noises of bones breaking is heard.

She wakes up in a lot of pain, but nearly all the wounds are superficial beyond her broken nose.

Not buying it.