Sunday, September 24, 2017

75:120 The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire

The 11th book in the October Daye series.  Things are going so well for October right now. The biggest worry she has right now is that someone will want her to join in the karaoke at her bachelorette party and drinking enough to stay mildly drunk with her metabolism so she doesn't go crazy.  Yeah, life is actually pretty great until she gets home and there is a knock on her door and when opened, it reveals the one person she really didn't want to see...her mother.  Amandine is not here to wish her daughter well on her upcoming matrimony though. Amandine wants to hire October to find her other daughter, August, who has been missing for 100 years.  To ensure her 'cooperation', Amandine captures Tybalt and Jazz and then forces them into their animal forms and into rose thorn cages.  To save them, October had not only better find August but she must do it before there is nothing left of their minds to save.

The biggest problem is that the trail is 100 years old, older than October, and she doesn't have the faintest idea where to start so she goes to Sylvester to ask the biggest favor of her life, for him to wake up his brother, Amandine's husband and August's father (and the one who turned October herself into a fish for 14yrs), Simon.  Now they are on the trail together to search out August who went looking for Oberon himself but she is on a path the Luidaeg set her, one that she sold her way home to get but which means she can't come home until she finds him and he does not want to be found which means even if October can find her, bringing her back to Amandine will be a much bigger problem than she can imagine.

This was a heartbreaking, gut wrenching story but so amazingly well done.  There were so many twists and turns along the way that while I was sure October would eventually succeed, I had no idea what the cost would be although I was sure there would be one.  What I most appreciate is that even through all the anguish, there are some light-hearted moments to keep you from sinking down too far.  My favorite happened during the opening bachelorette party where the Luidaeg performs "Poor Unfortunate Souls" during karaoke party. I literally snorted my tea over that one.

Now I have to wait for another year for the next one to see how people recover from this ordeal.  It will seem like an eternity!


Page count: 354p/15,225p ytd/286,357p lifetime

No comments:

Post a Comment