Where do I begin? Especially as seeing as I can’t even give a synopsis of the plot because if you haven’t read the series yet (or haven’t gotten this far), the plot of this book is just one large, glaring spoiler.
The ending of this book is great(ish); the majority of the book though I want to shake Toby so hard her teeth rattle. Just shake her, and then keep shaking her, and then maybe slap her upside the head. Yes, I know it’s not really her fault, that events that occurred at the end of the last book are to blame, but still. October Daye is a fighter, and a sarcastic one to boot, so reading an entire book of her being practically a NPC in her own life is hard. And it didn’t get any easier even if this was my second read through; in fact, knowing how she was going to act in the book made it in some ways far worse. This book is just dark. Dark, depressing, and dark; not as dark or depressing as the last book, but still depressing.
I’d learned that I was easy to placate with the promise of a place and people who would at least pretend to love me. But then, I’d always known that about myself, on some level.
In fact, there are very few likable characters that appear in this book; we’re talking Tybalt, and the Luidheag, and maybe Etienne, possibly Dean and Rayseline once you get to the novella at the end of the book, and I am quickly running out of people who my opinion of was not vastly damaged by this book. Sylvester and August I frankly didn’t expect any better of, but Simon, Quentin and Toby were vast disappointments. In fact, there is a scene where Toby is faced with a choice that will help her in her relationship with Tybalt, and thanks to August, she has an inner monologue that made me thankful Tybalt can not read minds, because in my opinion it was borderline relationship ending.
Seriously, the above GIF is how I felt about Toby at that moment.
Though this quote made it slightly better:
August and Simon were no replacement for a loving family that I’d chosen and assembled entirely by myself.
Thankfully the large problem at the heart of the book is dealt with, along with all the irritants it dragged along with it (more Amy, what joy); though the therapy bills for quite a lot of the characters will probably be large enough to enable their psychiatrists to buy a house in San Francisco proper. And thank someone that the big news Toby dropped on Tybalt towards the end of Be the Serpent is still true, because those two have at this point truly been through enough and that would just probably break them as much as it would break me.
Next, The Innocent Sleep, aka “this book but from Tybalt’s POV”.
Favorite Quotes:
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When the Queens Ride, it’s to carry sacrifices to the Heart of Faerie. They used to go down the oldest and longest roads once every seven years, and come back with their company reduced by one, until fair Titania grew jealous of her sister, and asked her oldest daughter to find a way to break the Ride. So she did, and Maeve was lost to us, and the sacrifices stopped. When my brother Rode, it was intentional mockery of the Queens, to spite Titania for having failed to control her children, to shame our mother for being unwilling to help him. There are other Rides, but in the end, a Ride, a true Ride, is always a sacrifice.” She looked at me levelly. “Someone always pays.
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She had tried to create perfection, but she could never have succeeded, because this was perfection, flaws and all. Anything else would have been a lie.
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I appreciate it greatly, because it’s not over. It’s never over before I say it is.
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She’d been a lot less bossy when she was a tree.
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He had spent the entire spell locked in with Poppy, and now flinched when people mentioned mortal television in his presence. Served him right.
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You can be a hero no matter where you’re standing in the fray. There are people who need you, and people who love you, and people who would be, quite sincerely, lost without you.