Chimes at Midnight is the 7th book in the October Daye series and therefore this review may contain spoilers for the previous books.
Reading Order:
#1 Rosemary and Rue
#2 A Local Habitation
#3 An Artificial Night
#4 Late Eclipses
#5 One Salt Sea
#6 Ashes of Honor
#7 Chimes at Midnight
October Daye is worried about the increase of goblin fruit on the streets of San Francisco. Harmless to the fae, it’s highly addictive to changelings leading to certain death. In her mission to do something about it, Toby instead ends up banished from the Mists, and her home city. Given three days to wrap up her affairs, she has just the tiniest chance of fixing things.
I kinda just want to say EVIL PIE and leave this review at that. An event that is essentially something horrific is given slapstick status and then carries on as a running gag. I loved it. I won’t spoil the details of the actual evil pie. The best books manage to include humour as part of everyday life. People make jokes or laugh at stupid things others do in real life; I never quite understand why fictional characters have to be serious all the time. Even if the story is serious, it’s OK for your characters to let off steam now and then. This is a huge part of why I love Seanan’s writing.
It was the first instalment that had October and Tybalt as an established couple and I’m glad that Seanan didn’t engineer something to break them up straight away. The relationship doesn’t become boring either and I think Tybalt really starts to show his sweet side. Also there is the dog version of the fae. Just as the Cait Sidhe act in a feline manner, the Cu Sidhe that is featured is hilarious in a doggy way.
There’s plenty of action and I think the invention of goblin fruit is despicable. The route of addiction follows that of most human drugs but there is no hope for changelings to recover and all it takes is one bite. It’s pretty cruel. If I’m completely honest, this book by itself probably isn’t five stars but I love this series so much, I’m happy just to read about the characters. I never got around to reviewing the last one on the blog, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it!
British fans of Seanan McGuire may be happy to hear that her InCryptid series is due to be published by Constable & Robinson next year. Hopefully that will pave the way for October Daye too!
Shelve next to: Cassie Palmer series by Karen Chance
Source: Purchased
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