A review by serafim
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

4.5

i loved this book right from the intro, with sylvester giving toby sword lessons (i love him so much and he was having so much fun) and

quentin getting squired to toby (i also loved how raj ended up a bonus unofficial squire)

. the plot hook was good, with the threat of war creating good tension even though it was pretty obvious it was gonna get averted, and patrick and dianda were fairly immediately endearing. i absolutely loved how present the luidaeg was, and getting a bit more development on her relationships with people other than toby (that hug.... ❤️). the undersea was really cool, plus a bit more of toby's water trauma! raysel was a slightly better villain this time around, her tragic backstory hitting the right emotional notes and her objectives a bit less unsympathetic, but still not super compelling. throwing

gilly

into the mix was a great way to raise the stakes. tybalt was in top form, really Doing the Most for toby all book long. i didn't like how toby gave up her

county

at the end, her having to juggle

being responsible for a whole knowe

on top of everything else was an interesting dynamic that i wish lasted longer than one book. selkie origin story was really cool. and finally, the award for least emotionally impactful death goes to:

connor

. idk what it is about him that i just dont care? it completely puzzles me. but i very firmly Do Not, which sorta killed the intended effect of the ending a little (a lot)