Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Seasonal Fears

Melanie has been dying her whole life under the watchful eye of her alchemist father, Harry has been by her side for as much of it as he possibly can. When they both collapse during practice after school it kicks off a road trip with some strange companions to try and fulfill a destiny Mel was designed for and Harry was born for. But they're not the only ones who could fill their seasonal roles...

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!

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kadtide's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

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kaleidoscope_heart's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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utopiastateofmind's review against another edition

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5.0

(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

Seasonal Fears is this perfect mash up of a rich and complex fantasy world, a love that might be doomed - jury's still out - and a fight that just might change everything they ever knew. While it took me a bit of time to get used to the world, and honestly I could very well be missing things, I ended up adoring every moment. McGuire is able to balance a world we think we know, from Middlegame, and introduce another dimension (I loved the interactions from the first one here). Overall it feels multi-dimensional and a bit otherworldly.

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booksteastories's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Melanie is dying. It is something she has always known about herself, which is why she accepts her father's seemingly simply overprotective ways. Harry is a boy who has it all -- good looks, money, popularity -- except for the fact that his girlfriend has a terminal heart condition. Despite that, Harry and Mel's love for each other could not be stronger....or could it? As strange, deadly things them on a journey together, their bond will be put to the test.

Okay, look. I know my faux-blurb isn't the best but the less you know, the more fun it will be. Also, this is a companion novel to Middlegame and although you do not need to read it to enjoy Seasonal Fears, it will be more enjoyable if you do so.

First of all, let me just say -- there is a lot of explaining going on here. I'd say at least 30% of the book is just events and concepts being explained and then re-explained to the characters, a lot of the time by the same person. Of course, the writing was amazing, so the explanations weren't really anywhere close to unbearable but they were noticeable.

Harry and Mel (as characters) were good characters to follow -- I mean that as in they weren't annoying. Their behaviour was always solidly based within who we saw them as and their reactions never seemed unreasonable. We follow Harry more than we follow Mel, which is a bit of a pity because I found her a little more interesting but Harry is complex and well-written enough to also be a worthwhile investment of narration.

Harry and Mel (as a couple) were wonderful, their relationship was well written and believable. The fact that they're together is not a spoiler but anything else would ruin the fun for you, so.

Now, plot. Well-paced and simple to follow as long as you understand the terminology, and like I said, great pains were taken to make sure that you do understand how this world functions. I don't know if the build-up was quite worth the pay off at the end, some plot lines were resolved quite quickly when we had expected them to take longer but nothing felt rushed.

Middlegame characters do make some reappearances here, which I found delightful. This book takes place about six months from when Middlegame ends and the actions of the characters are shown to have had impact.

Atmospherically, I do not think that Seasonal Fears quite compares to it's predecessor -- it feels... a bit more comical at times? Or maybe a little more light.

Overall, a highly enjoyable read! Great characters, fascinating world, brilliant writing. Some plot lines where resolved a little too fast when compared to the buildup we had had and there was just a dash too much explaining, but those are all minor things to me.

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