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A review by okevamae
Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire
4.0
Seasonal Fears is set in the same world as Seanan McGuire’s previous novel, Middlegame. It follows childhood sweethearts Melanie and Harry as they learn the secrets of a hidden world of magic and embark on a dangerous quest for the one thing that can save both their lives and fulfill their destinies: becoming Winter and Summer Incarnate.
As with the previous book, Seasonal Fears is beautifully written and centers around some concepts that can be a little hard to grasp – in this one, it’s humans as the embodiments of seasons – but it has interesting characters and a plot that will keep you entertained. Just be prepared, especially in the beginning, for a lot of conversations that are a little hard to follow, complete with characters commenting that what other people are saying doesn’t make sense. I didn’t like Seasonal Fears as much as Middlegame, but it’s still worth the effort to stick with it.
One thing was very confusing, though. I kept hoping something would explain it, but nope. As far as I can tell it’s just a mistake that made it past the edit. I did read the ARC, though, so maybe it was corrected?
Representation: Latino side character (Literally, that seems to be it. Disappointing, as McGuire is usually better at representation than this.)
Overall it’s a 4-star read, which I’d bump down to 3.5 because of the apparent continuity error and the lack of diversity, but then round back up to 4 because I liked it more than I didn’t.
CW: child abuse and neglect, gore
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
As with the previous book, Seasonal Fears is beautifully written and centers around some concepts that can be a little hard to grasp – in this one, it’s humans as the embodiments of seasons – but it has interesting characters and a plot that will keep you entertained. Just be prepared, especially in the beginning, for a lot of conversations that are a little hard to follow, complete with characters commenting that what other people are saying doesn’t make sense. I didn’t like Seasonal Fears as much as Middlegame, but it’s still worth the effort to stick with it.
One thing was very confusing, though.
Spoiler
Summer, while speaking to Harry, said that he was William Monroe for three hundred years. Wasn’t Monroe Winter, and Diana was Summer? Or was Monroe effectively both, since he kept the Summer Queen locked away? If that’s the explanation, it definitely was not made clear. Super confusing.Representation: Latino side character (Literally, that seems to be it. Disappointing, as McGuire is usually better at representation than this.)
Overall it’s a 4-star read, which I’d bump down to 3.5 because of the apparent continuity error and the lack of diversity, but then round back up to 4 because I liked it more than I didn’t.
CW: child abuse and neglect, gore
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.