A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire

Short version of review: excellent book but don’t start here! It’s worth it to read this series from the beginning!

Longer version: I love Seanan McGuire. She has quickly become my favorite living writer and I feel very lucky that she is so prolific. I was first introduced to her work when her book Parasite , written as Mira Grant, was nominated for a Hugo Award. I loved it and quickly devoured the Newsflesh series before I realized that Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire were the same person.

I started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. I had read some Urban Fantasy before, and I fondly remember Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde books, but my tastes run more to science fiction and then secondary world fantasy, so I was hesitant to dive into such a long series. I picked up the first book, Rosemary and Rue, when it was on sale as a kindle daily deal, and I found it disappointing compared to her other work. I reminded myself that it was her first published novel, so I cut it some slack. Then Incryptid was nominated for the Best Series Hugo in 2018 and I dove into that instead. I loved it! So I vowed to give Toby another chance. And I was so glad that I did! It is no one of my favorite series.

I was overjoyed when The publisher and NetGalley awarded me an eARC of A Killing Frost, book fourteen of this series. It is fantastic, but you should NOT dive into this unprepared. You need to read the previous volumes to really appreciate how much a master of her craft Ms. McGuire truly is.

As the author herself has commented more than once, writing a fulfilling well planned out series is a different challenge than just writing one good standalone book. Each book in the series has to be rewarding and stand alone, while building on what came before in a way that feels fair and giving clues and hints for the future. It is no small task, and there is a reason that Seanan McGuire has been on the Hugo ballot every year the Best Series Award has existed.

Based on A Killing Frost, I plan on nominating the October Daye series for Best Series Hugo once again and this time I bet it wins!

I actually finished this one several days ago - I was approved and read it straightaway in a day. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Toby Daye stories. Actually, most Seanan McGuire (or Mira Grant, for that matter) stories. She has a marvelous, immersive writing style - I fall into her books quickly and wander around in her worlds until the last pages (and sometimes even longer, as her characters tend to linger in my brain, roaming about while they wait for the next installment).

October's story continues to develop in new and interesting ways, and McGuire has done an extraordinary job bringing full backstories to so many of her (previously) ancillary characters with the latter books in the series. I am always astonished at the breadth and depth of the world-building she undergoes, in everything from her long-form series like this one to her shorter stories and novellas (both in-series and stand-alone). I am also continually amazed at the way she weaves storylines and character development together across multiple books - sometimes serially and sometimes skipping several in the interim. I can't imagine how she plots this all out, there must be an FBI-quality map of criss-crossing threads spanning several walls in her house to keep them all straight!

I have particularly enjoyed watching the family relationships around Toby develop: Simon, Amandine (Almandine!), Sylvester, and August have all shaped October, even when she didn't realize they were doing so, and seeing how their characters evolved over time has really helped deepen Toby's own story. I love this series because the good guys don't always do good (or at least not anyone's good but their own), the bad guys often turn out to be (unsung) heroes, and redemption is possible but ALWAYS comes at a cost. I think these are solid messages worth remembering these days, and the way she weaves these lessons into her storytelling - never preaching, never heavy-handed, always softly almost as an afterthought - means that they resonate without interrupting the story. It's a very cool feature of the series for me, and one I look forward to watching continue to develop over time!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

It's no secret that I'm a huge Seanan McGuire fan. I love her Wayward Children series, Incryptid is just tons and fun, and Middlegame was top notch... but my greatest love is her October Daye series. This world is so developed and deep and expansive. There are schemes aplenty, with long-term payoffs for following the series. This one is no exception - it brings some long-running storylines to the front, reveals that you already knew some of those secrets the whole time if you were paying attention, and smacks you across the face with how blind you were to seeing them.

I really want to say more, but I'm afraid to spoil things. I mean, it turns out that we already knew *******, that you can't count villains out just because ******* *********, that the world of Faerie has strict rules about so many things but is completely okay with ******** ***********, that ***** really is *********. (please note that asterisks aren't indicative of number of letters. I'm not risking ANY spoilers!

I'm glad we have a few more books contracted, but I don't want to wait for the next one!!!

Highly recommended, but start at the beginning.