Review: Night and Silence

Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars, rounded up because seriously DAW, we need more books in this series, okay?

"A little more than kin, and less than kind." ~ from Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare

In late 2009 my friend Diana (The Literate Kitty) pressed me to read Rosemary and Rue, the debut novel by an author by the name of Seanan McGuire. It had everything she knew I loved- Shakespeare, Celtic fae, cats, and a contemplative tone. Oh, and lots of coffee. Twelve books later and if anyone asks what some of my favorite urban fantasy series are, they're going to hear all about my love of Toby Daye and Kate Daniels (by Ilona Andrews) and how these two series, though very different in tone and their heroines' nature, have given readers some of the finest urban fantasy out there. (It's been a stellar week in urban fantasy with both series releasing books within a week of one another!) If pressed to choose a favorite between the two, I honestly don't think I could. But let me tell you about Toby.

McGuire's October Daye books are a series that looks at marginalized races (changelings, mixed bloods, shapeshifter fae, humans), mental health issues, and families and their secrets. The series is largely set in the San Francisco Bay area, in a fae kingdom called the Mists. Toby Daye holds onto her last traces of humanity proudly and is undoubtedly one of the most productive and useful changelings in the Mists. She's not alone, though. We've also met a slew of changelings with remarkable talents, including the powerful portal-punching Chelsea, sisters with rare gifts of sight, Karen and Cassandra, and (in theory) brave Marcia, who manages to make herself indispensable wherever she serves. (So many people suspect Marcia is more than she seems.) All in all, while most pureblooded fae have looked down on the changelings, it seems that the present crop can possess rare skills. Overlooking them and trying to marginalize them has proven foolish, especially for one False Queen, and her collaborator in a neighboring kingdom, King Rhys. Also, we've recently seen in one of McGuire's best-deal-on-the-internet Patreon stories, some pretty important changelings have been changed, via hope chests, into pureblooded fae. Who knows how many people in this 'verse were initially part human in origin? Certainly not Toby Daye. After all, when we first met her, Toby knew very little about her own family and those that surround her. She was too traumatized by her upbringing and some searing life events.

Part of the reason that Toby was in the dark about goings-on in her own family was due to having lost fourteen years of her life after being turned into a fish by the man that turned out to be her stepfather, Simon Torquill. (Some significant relationship information withheld from her by her liege, Sylvester.) Toby went through a serious depression after recovering her original form and finding her daughter Gillian and Gilly's father Cliff had moved on with their lives and wanted nothing to do with her. Cliff married a woman named Miranda, who has embraced Gillian, a toddler when Toby disappeared, as her own daughter. Toby's depression and risk-taking behavior made those around her careful with what they have told her. But the truth will out, eventually. Over the course of eleven books we've come to see Toby's mother as cruel and mentally unstable, learn that Toby had a missing older sister, August, that her stepfather Simon might have been trying to spare her a worse fate than being a fish, and that Toby's mother and two of her fearsome aunts are Firstborn among the fae- direct descendants of Oberon. While Toby's growing friendship with the Luidaeg, her aunt Antigone, has become surrogate mother-like in some respects, her relationship to her other aunt, Evening Winterrose, has become one of overt enmity. And in the most recent book, The Brightest Fell, Toby parted ways with her mother, Amandine, after Amy forced Toby to find her missing sister August, by doing some pretty despicable stuff to Toby's fiancé, Tybalt, and her Fetch sister May's girlfriend Jazz.

Toby has come a long way since we first met her. She's been something of a wrecking ball, taking down a False Queen and installing a real one, and doing the same in a neighboring kingdom. All while solving mysteries, murders, and championing changeling rights. The Dóchas Sidhe race that she, her mother, and sister August belong to was supposed to be one of hope (and more than just a hope chest kind of hope) but Toby is the only one that's currently supplying it in her family line. Though she represents hope, in multiple respects, Toby herself hasn't been able to catch much of a breather. We can assume that there are times where she and her chosen family (Tybalt, May, Quentin, Raj, and Jazz) can just chill. Of course, chilling doesn't make for a dramatic plot, so usually when we see Toby she's literally bleeding all over everything and running on fumes.

One of the plot devices that McGuire has used in this series, several times now, is the idea of "look again." Toby can go somewhere and brush by someone that a few books later turns out to be a crucial person she's been looking for. (Impressive plot planning by McGuire here.) The idea of looking deeper and realizing that you don't really know what you're looking at until you need to know, is an interesting one. (It's also one that an author has to be careful not to overuse.)

"We stood there, wounded, frozen, exhausted, and waited for home to start feeling like home again. We waited for safety to come back. We were going to be waiting for a very long time." ~ The Brightest Fell

In Night and Silence we see a Toby who is still reeling from what her mother did to force Toby to find her sister August. Her relationship with Tybalt feels like it is hanging by a thread and Toby is in despair about how to fix things. Toby's friend Danny ineptly tries to encourage Toby to rectify a relationship she fears is irretrievably damaged by talking to Tybalt, who doesn't want to talk to her at all because he has such terrible PTSD. (Ironically, Toby's never been the sort of person to feel very hopeful. Also ironically, when you look a lot like your cruel mother, your mistreated loved one may have issues with you.) May, Toby's Fetch sister, is also trying to hold things together for Jazz, who has recovered a bit better than has Tybalt, but remains deeply shaken. Raj, Tybalt's nephew and heir, treads lightly and often furtively, to avoid too many questions from Toby. Quentin, Toby's squire, ponders whether there is anything he can do other than just be there for all of them.

It is into this messy well of sadness that a new crisis falls- Toby's now-human daughter Gillian is, once again, kidnapped. This time it clearly isn't Sylvester's mentally unhinged daughter Rayseline, since Raysel was elf shot several books back and is still deep in her now full Daoine Sidhe one hundred years' slumber. And Toby is pretty sure that it isn't even a once-again ensorcelled Simon, lost somewhere in deeper Faerie after the events of The Brightest Fell, a failure of Toby's that has her on edge yet again with Sylvester, her uncle, and liege. (Sylvester has asked Toby to keep her distance because his wife Luna is so upset over Simon's being on the loose again.) So who is it and what do they want? Because the only reason to take Gilly is to get to Sir October Daye, Knight of Lost Words, Hero of the Realm. In the process of solving the kidnapping and rescuing Gillian, a question long held by readers of the series will be answered and lives will be forever changed.

It's obvious that the events of this novel have been long-planned by McGuire, over the arc of twelve novels. The payoff is huge. In some ways even bigger than in The Winter Long. I was caught off-guard by the events of the book, which were so very different from what I had expected. On the one hand, the revelations, the outcomes, were rather stunning. On the other hand, part of me was uneasy with Gillian being kidnapped again (she was first kidnapped back in One Salt Sea), and the fact that yet again, we have the revelation that someone wasn't who they seemed to be. Plus, another round of demands we've heard before. (How many times can you viably do this, dear author?) Yet there are major developments built upon this platform. Even the revelations come with their own revelations in this book.

Night and Silence left me with so many new questions. One of the most stunning outcomes was disquieting to me because of the looming settlement of Toby's debt with the Luidaeg, who called in the debt of the Selkies a year ago. What's going to happen? (Readers will see what I mean when they read the novella Suffer a Sea Change included at the end of the book and think about the Selkies and the Roane.) While things with Tybalt are better resolved by the novel's end, the means by which this is achieved still seemed precarious to me. Is that truly safe, given the way the Cait Sidhe work? One thing I was glad of is that Toby finally realizes the changelings of the Mists need more attention. And hey, the seneschal of Goldengreen could use a changeling hero's help with her present project. Finally, the other thing, that big reveal... Seriously, what is wrong with some of these fae and human people? The level of their racist hypocrisy is simply stunning. What does it all mean? Decide for yourself, Reader. This is one installment that will leave you thinking until The Unkindest Tide rolls in.

"The world had changed. The world wasn't changing back." ~ Night and Silence

I received an ARC from DAW via NetGalley and a paper ARC from the author.





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