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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
2.5 A fantasy murder mystery, but there's not much detective work going on here. October Daye, a "changeling" (half human, half fae) is cursed by her frenemy Evening to discover her murderer for she will die. Toby's been reluctant to become involved in anything to do with the fae word since spending fourteen years as a fish, cursed by the bad guy she's been hired to track down (she once worked as a detective). But the curse demands that she investigate, so investigate she does. Or at least she goes to a bunch of different fae locales, usually getting attacked and beat up long before she can discover any real clues about Evening's murder. Only at the climax does any true information about the whys and wherefores of the killing come to light, and Toby gets to do to the bad guy what the bad guy's been having done to her all throughout the book.
The fantasy/fae world McGuire creates is a fascinating one, and she sets up lots of potential romance partners for Toby for future volumes, so I wouldn't be surprised if later books in the series end up being stronger than this first one. Worth giving #2 a try, in any case.
The fantasy/fae world McGuire creates is a fascinating one, and she sets up lots of potential romance partners for Toby for future volumes, so I wouldn't be surprised if later books in the series end up being stronger than this first one. Worth giving #2 a try, in any case.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love the style, but here I figured out the mystery really quick and I expected more of a whodunnit.
I thought this was pretty good. It was an interesting version of the Faerie world.
There was a toxic relationship involving grooming that never got called out, and it just put a really bad taste in my mouth.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very cool book. Irritated that the pronunciation guide has the wrong pronunciation for "kitsune" though.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a friend knows my taste very well. this book is fantastic so far
A promising beginning to a new urban fantasy series. A large portion of the book is dedicated to setting up the world and some longer running mysteries and conflicts and there is much more emphasis on building the mystery than on action scenes than the typical UF book. Overall this makes for a very slow paced book that takes a lot of time to establish many characters and interpersonal conflicts that are... well, honestly, totally superfluous to the main conflict in the book. There are honestly so many side characters that they take center stage and leave the "main" plot as an afterthought. This might have bothered me more if said main plot was interesting or engaging but it was a pretty cookie cutter mystery with a magical macguffin where the obvious bad guy with an obvious motivation turns out to be the bad guy with the obvious motivation by the end i.e. its almost an anti-twist as the first immediate guess of the reader turns out to be the correct.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No