Review: The Brightest Fell – Seanan McGuire

Review: The Brightest Fell – Seanan McGuireThe Brightest Fell
by Seanan McGuire
Series: October Daye #11
Also in this series: Night and Silence, A Killing Frost
Publisher: DAW
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 368
Source: Purchased

My rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star


For once, everything in October “Toby” Daye’s life seems to be going right. There have been no murders or declarations of war for her to deal with, and apart from the looming specter of her Fetch planning her bachelorette party, she’s had no real problems for days. Maybe things are getting better.
Maybe not.
Because suddenly Toby’s mother, Amandine the Liar, appears on her doorstep and demands that Toby find her missing sister, August. But August has been missing for over a hundred years and there are no leads to follow. And Toby really doesn’t owe her mother any favors.
Then Amandine starts taking hostages, and refusal ceases to be an option.

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I adore Labor Day weekend for several reasons.  First, it’s a day off work (and school!).  Second, it’s the weekend of the Disneyland Half Marathon.  Third, it means a new Seanan McGuire October Day novel is coming out!  And this book, oh this book…

It’s really hard to review this while staying spoiler-free, but this is the 11th book in the series, so, while I’m going to try to stay spoiler-free for this book, it’s going to be basically impossible to be spoiler-free for the series.  You’ve been warned!

While I’ve immensely enjoyed the past few novels in the series, a lot of the plot lines have felt like detours to me.  Really enjoyable detours, but still, not quite the same feel as  the earlier books that captivated me.  But this book – to use a horrible analogy, it picks up threads from several previous books and then knits the most freaking amazing scarf ever.

Simon.  Oh, Simon.  Oh how I’ve hated him since Rosemary and Rue.  I know a lot of people are talking about Amandine finally hitting the scene, but it was Simon who really shown for me and had me wrestling with some serious feels.  I was dismayed when I first  read that Tybalt would mostly be missing from this book, but the interactions between Tobey and Simon were so fascinating and beautiful and rough and *real* that I barely missed him.

There’s a lot here to unpack about parental relationships.  Amandine, Simon, the Luidaeg, Sylvester, Luna, Blind Michael, August, even the missing Oberon…  how much can you forgive a parent?  How much can a parent forgive someone who hurts their child?  How do your actions as a surrogate mother, a daughter, a sister define you?

And now?  Well, let’s just say I’m eagerly awaiting next September!

5 out of 5 stars.

 

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