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bloodmaarked's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Vomit
hanz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I thought the "villain" of the book was poorly chosen, and instead of being a generic evil person, it would have been more interesting to grapple with the dangers of science, like in the first book, but this time it could have been more interesting considering the existing character relationships.
All in all, very little substance despite nearly 500 pages and I won't be continuing with this series.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Chronic illness, Murder, and Medical content
Moderate: Torture and Death of parent
strickortreat's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Violence and Death
Minor: Terminal illness, Medical content, and Chronic illness
saviinvhetin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Stalking, Kidnapping, Torture, and Medical content
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
yellow_ylugbug's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, Medical content, and Terminal illness
cassie7e's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There were a couple moments where the audiobook seemed to cut off and jump ahead a couple seconds. Not enough to entirely lose context but enough to make the sentence break and feel jarring. But I love this narrator.
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Medical content, Torture, and Pregnancy
ninjamuse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Medical content, and Gore
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, and Drug use
leanne_miron's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Murder, Blood, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, and Medical content
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Long sections of complicated worldbuilding are conveyed through explanations, repeated with the building familiarity of a fable, and the shifting tones of a bedtime story gone terribly awry. Convoluted concepts are told and revisited, which makes it soothing and easy to follow, since if one version doesn’t click there will be another try. Most of the story is a conversation, between the characters, the narrator explaining the how and why to the reader. It’s a style where the “why” of each thought is just as important as the “what”, twisting and curling around each other. I love dialogue-heavy stories so I had a great time. The characters are traveling by car for much of the book, so the general cadence is conversation punctuated by violence as they run into other candidates, or the few times the narration cuts away to the aftermath of violence another candidate is doing elsewhere.
Mel and Harry have the comfortable rapport of a long-established relationship and even longer friendship. It gets a bit strained at times because they're young (still in high school) and suddenly discovering you have to leave immediately with a kid you just met can be rather stressful on any relationship. Jack ends up knowing so much that at times I kept forgetting she's still a kid, and I was grateful for the occasional reminders of that fact.
This wraps up several things left hanging from MIDDLEGAME, at first by featuring a minor character from that book. It waits until halfway through before pulling in any major characters from the first book, a decision which works very well to establish Harry and Mel on their own, completely separate from any of the very strong personalities in MIDDLEGAME. When they do show up their appearances are important and brief, confirming the stories as part of one larger whole, but refusing to overshadow the Seasons.
This is an entirely new storyline, linked to MIDDLEGAME by alchemical experimentation and the general goal of embodying natural phenomena in human forms, but featuring a new group of characters and a new way of ordering the world. It won’t be the last book in the series. It leaves open what these particular characters will do next, as well as the more general question of what other things the alchemists have got up to, what other forces are pinned to flesh or naturally manifested. It both introduces and resolves the very important issue of the Summer and Winter monarchs.
This would mostly make sense even if you start here and haven’t read MIDDLEGAME, it’s such a complete story that I think it could be satisfying and understandable to such a reader. However, I definitely recommend reading MIDDLEGAME first, as well as the important but slightly more optional related series, The Up-and-Under by A. Deborah Baker, to know who Avery and Zib are.
As I approached the final chapters the resolution at first felt a bit anticlimactic, a bit too neat and solved after so much effort… then I actually finished it and that feeling is solved by one raising more issue and applying a more definitive catharsis. It fits the pacing and tone of the rest of the book very well, in addition to paying off a detail which was established almost as soon as the book began but hadn’t really mattered yet.
SEASONAL FEARS is an excellent sequel to MIDDLEGAME and a great book in its own right, don't miss it!
Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Torture
Minor: Ableism, Vomit, Gun violence, Suicide, and Child death
kadtide's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Murder, Vomit, and Medical content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Child abuse
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Torture, and Gore