This was the sort of situation that called for a certain amount of terror.
This is the book where everything turns.
What starts out with Arden throwing a party to celebrate her ascension to the throne of the Kingdom of the Mists (and Toby finding in Arden someone who hates parties about as much as she does), goes south when Toby returns home to find Simon Torquill on her porch. Because when the man who turned you into a fish for fourteen years and put your life on a different path than you planned shows up, what you want is for him to be your liege’s identical twin brother. And to say that him turning you into a fish was him doing you a favor.
Please don’t mistake villainy for evil. The two can exist side by side while remaining quite distinct.
Sure, because everyone wants to spend over a decade in the koi pond of the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco (I personally would want to spend over a decade in the Gardens; just not in the koi pond, and not as a fish.) As if that’s not bad enough, he also has to be apparently Amandine’s estranged husband, and father of Toby’s half-sister, August; a fact that almost everyone knew and decided to never mention, for various reasons. Surprisingly, Sylvester bothers her the most; I guess finding out that your liege is your pseudo-step uncle and never told you either that or your connection to your tormentor would sting pretty hard. Despite this betrayal, Toby spends a large chunk of the book worrying about Sylvester’s safety. I, for one, wouldn’t bother.
You’ll always come back to warn him, no matter how much danger it could put you in, no matter what it costs you, because he cared for you when you thought you were nothing. You were never nothing. That didn’t matter. Perception is everything in this world.
Toby has never met August though, as she disappeared on a Quest about the time the Great San Francisco Earthquake happened; what that quest is, some people know and they’re not telling. On top of this, Evening Winterose, last mentioned heavily in Rosemary in Rue (7 books ago), is back from “the dead”.
I dislike the dead returning to life,” said Etienne, his shoulders slumping again. “It’s untidy and inappropriate.
This is not the good news that Toby would have thought it would be in Book One, as Evening is one of the largest sources of heartache in this series; not the largest, but probably a close second (or third; one of her sisters may be tied with her if not edging her out).
Love you can spend like currency isn’t really love.
Further secrets come out, Luna gets crazier and even more unlikable and unsufferable (seriously Toby, you had a chance to let her die about 3 books ago; most readers would not have blamed you if you took it); at least Toby and Tybalt are as strong as ever.
I wouldn’t,” said the Luidaeg. “Love is love. It’s rarer in Faerie than it used to be—rarer than it should be, if you ask me. If you can find it, you should cling to it, and never let anything interfere. Besides, he has a nice ass.” Her lips quirked in a weirdly mischievous smile. “I mean, damn. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to wear leather pants. He’s one of them. He’s a clear and present danger when he puts those things on. Or takes them off.
Quentin, Raj, May, Jazz, Dianda, Etienne also make appearances and are the delights they’ve been up to this point. May especially has a large part to play in helping Toby discover what exactly she can do; seeing as no one else is stepping up, I guess Toby’s former Omen of Death is as good a teacher as any. Raj, however, has the distinction of being the person who with one throwaway comment solves the mystery at the heart of the book.
On the downside of continuing family relations, we are one book closer to the big reveal of the mystery of who is Amandine’s mother (someone who I wish would take Luna, Gillian’s father, Sylvester, Amandine, Evening, the false Queen of the Mists, and two other characters who make later appearances for a long walk off a short pier); on the upside, Toby finally finds out she’s the Luidheag’s niece. I would kill to be the Luidheag’s niece, even as continually grumpy and borderline murderous she is in this book.
This is my fault. I know it’s my fault. I should never have let you get so comfortable. You started thinking of me as harmless. I’m safe. I’m the monster at the end of the book, the one that you run to when the bigger monsters start threatening to eat you, but that’s not right, Toby, that’s not right, you forget yourself. You forget me. I am the scariest thing that has ever gone bump in the night. I am what you knew, at the bottom of your un-formed child’s heart, was lurking in the back of your closet. And what I’m telling you, right here and right now, is that you need to leave, because I’m afraid of what will happen if you don’t.
Mags and the Library make a reappearance in this book, and I still want to have a Library Card, and meet Mags in person. Which I can say for a lot of the characters in this series, and is a mark of what a fantastic author McGuire is.
There is no fighting in the Library. Anyone who starts a fight or responds to a challenge will be thrown out. You may think you can take me. You’re probably right. But none of you can take the Library.
Rayseline, blessedly, though she makes an appearance, it’s a short one. I may come to like Rayseline, but it’s not this book.
Suffice to say, no matter what life throws at her, Toby just keeps slamming it back down life’s throat.
Even with all the sturm und drang that occurs in it, the book actually has a happy ending. One that makes me throw my hands up in a silent “yes!” every time I read; doesn’t matter this is my third read through, I still did it. Which I need, because the next two books? While still very good, not my absolute favorites of the series.
Sometimes I think it must have been nice to be alive in the days where everyone knew that Faerie existed. Sure, bands of angry humans sometimes tried to kill us with iron and fire, but nobody questioned where we wanted to celebrate the seasons.
Running through an unfamiliar forest filled with thorns is half an exercise in masochism, and half an obstacle course from the deepest reaches of Hell.
Lying to you would be a mistreatment of what that love means.