Scan barcode
silvernfire's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Terminal illness
Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, and Torture
Minor: Confinement
hanz's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- 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 enjoyed Middlegame, but this was such a slog. The book could have been way shorter, there was so much repetition and info dumping with characters explaining again and again what was happening to the main characters and also an entire section recapping the world building and plot from the first book. Very little actually happens and the stuff that does is very rushed.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Chronic illness, Murder, and Medical content
Moderate: Torture and Death of parent
traa's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Colonisation, Deadnaming, Grief, Pregnancy, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Torture, and Suicide
Minor: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Vomit, and Ableism
saviinvhetin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
cassie7e's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
Loved the extension of the alchemical world from this sequel. I liked the story/plot and main characters of the first book better, as this one felt a bit too neat and tidy where the first was convoluted and uncertain, but maybe this one would feel that way too had I not come in w familiarity from the first book.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Chronic illness, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Medical content, Torture, and Pregnancy
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
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!
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!
Content Warnings
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
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
Content Warnings
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
meliroo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Confinement, Death, Child death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship
booksteastories's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Torture and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Deadnaming
More...