Thanks Tor for approving my request to read McGuire new novel Seasonal Fears.

I am starting to see that I love stories that are character driven. McGuire does so well creating her characters. I could not stop thinking about Melanie and Harry. I definitely loved this story more than Middlegame.

At first I was very confused about this book, the characters, and what was happening. However, as it went on I became super invested and overall really liked the story!

This gave me a little bit of Hunger Games vibes but with teenagers who are "seasons" instead of just normal teenagers lol. I liked the road trip the characters took in order to get to the final challenge. All the obstacles they faced along the way were both entertaining and nerve wrecking! I also really loved the romance between the main characters - it just added this sweetness and urgency to the story.

I wish there would have been more details of the actual challenge. I feel like the whole book built up to this moment and then it happened within one chapter.

There were some good twists and turns. The family relationship was very interesting to unpack and the plot twist got me for sure! Overall, I enjoyed this book, the plot, and all the unique characters!

IT WAS SO GOOD. I loved it even more than Middlegame, which I didn’t think was possible. This is also a road trip book, normally not something I favor, but I enjoyed this story so much.

There were a few sections I had to reread where McGuire info dumps massive amounts of info about alchemical marriages, the embodiment of ideas, and seasonal coronations. They were dense, but I always felt Middlegame was lacking enough explanation to the reader, so I highly appreciated these sections.

My only spoiler is this - you get to see some friends again 💜

This is a sequel of sorts but for once you don’t need to read the first book to understand what is going on. The main characters are not even in the first book. So don’t worry that you will miss anything. The only thing is that it will spoil what happened in book one. Melanie and Harry have been best friends since they first met. Melanie has a heart condition but that hasn’t stopped Harry from being her friend even when some of the other kids have hung back. But everything changes one day in high school when they both drop dead at the same time and yet rise as if nothing happened to them. Going to the Homecoming dance plans go out the window when a very young Jack Frost comes to Melanie to tell her she is a potential Queen of Winter, and she needs to leave now to head to the coronation. Harry picks her up for the dance and finds out he is a potential King of Summer, but no Corn Jenny has come to tell him this. Melanie finds out that her dad has been killing the Jack Frosts that have come in the past to try and teach her to be Queen and no one can figure out why Harry’s Corn Jenny has never met him but the two are on the run now and heading to the coronation. It seems the seasons need people to be personification of them and there are always lots of candidates to take the job but due to the wrong person having the job as King of Winter he stayed in his position for three hundred years. Now the two are on the run meeting other contenders for the crown and hopefully a few allies to get them where they are going.
I really liked the story and this universe, and I want to see more. It is nice to know that I’m not sure what I will see next in this story universe. The audio version of the book was great and I’m happy I listened to it as well as read it.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Seasonal Fears was a long awaited sequel for many Middlegame lovers. I can't say I was a lover of Middlegame but I certainly enjoyed it for what it was. I'm not sure I can say the same for Seasonal Fears.

The book introduces us Melanie and Harry, childhood sweet hearts. Melanie is seriously ill however, a heart condition. Life seems fairly simple outside of that but when both go down at the football field, a whole new world opens up for them. Possible reincarnations of Summer and Winter and a scheming father.

A lot stands and falls with me when it comes to characters. And in this case I was not grabbed by our two characters. Neither Melanie or Harry grabbed me in anyway. They just kept feeling like these teenage stereotypes of supposed true love. I just didn't care for either of them and none of the side characters were very interesting.

Even the entry of our Middlegame characters felt stereotypical. They didn't quite feel like the characters I got to know in the previous book.

The story itself is interesting. Reincarnations of the seasons is a rather interesting take that has always drawn many towards it like elemental magic. That there are many possibilities, and different ones on different continents I like. Different continents have different ways with seasons and if you are going to have human reincarnations it makes sense to deal with that.

However I found the ending itself, the actual choosing of the reincarnations, weak.

I'm stumped by how McGuire's characterization could be my favorite thing about Middlegame and my least favorite thing about Seasonal Fears. While Roger and Dodger's authenticity was the human aspect that grounded the fantastical plotline and innovative narrative choices of Seasonal Fears' sister novel, Mel and Harry's bland, unlikable personalities were an anchor that weighed the story down. A reviewer I admire recently remarked that there's no such thing as a Mary Sue; merely characters that an author wants you to like SO much that their writing of them has the opposite effect. Flaws become quirks, and backstories meant to evoke sympathy merely evoke eye-rolling. Mel and Harry were quintessential cases of this; particularly gorgeous, tragic Mel . Even the plot echoed this, with stakes feeling flimsy and character motivations undersaturated. The whole "rival avatars of warring factions chosen from birth battle royale" deal also reminded me STRONGLY off the Heir Chronicles series, particularly Warrior Heir, and I couldn't help but feel that these books pulled off the concept better.

Stepping back into the world of her exquisite Middlegame, Seasonal fears is McGuire's companion novel about the power of ideas given flesh. Years ago a secret society of alchemists attemped to gain power by putting ideas into human flesh, creating anthropomorphic presonifications. In Seasonal Fears, this is about creating the perfect artificial vessel for the crowns of Summer and of Winter and sending them off into battle. For every crown, there are dozens of possibilities, people born with a hint of Summer, or of Winter, or those called to be their Jack Frost and guide them, or the Spring and hold a place of safety. At the falling of the previous Winter, everyone so touched is called to an eternal battle. Only one may hold the crown, and the Alchemists decided that they could take that power for their own.

What the alchemists never expected was that the children that they had created would be so human. That they're loves, and ideas, and choices would lead them into defiance. That the perfect Winter Queen would instead choose her own Summer King and love him with the fiercness of any teenage heart.

While I love and adore McGuire, under every pseudonym, unfortunately this is not her strongest work. In Middlegame the embodied powers could literally undo the fabric of reality. Here as personification of Summer and Winter, the stakes feel a little lower. Plus with the main characters having been childhood sweethearts, and deeply committed and connected before the action even begins takes away a little of the drama. This is not to say that it isn't a fabulous read. I absolutley devoured it. It's more that knowing what McGuire is capable of, I have the highest of high expectations.

While this second in the Alchemical Journeys is not my favourite, it is still a strange and unique and beautiful world to explore.

4.5 stars

Much easier to get absorbed into than Middlegame, Seasonal Fears starts off on an insane adventure right from the very beginning.

I absolutely loved Middlegame (after a rocky start), so I was afraid to move on to Seasonal Fears and leave Roger & Dodger behind. Luckily, Melanie and Harry are sweet, innocent protagonists - the perfect vessels to be corrupted by alchemists and the dark, hidden world around them. Their love story is this beautiful undertone to a lot of horrific actions. After getting caught up in this undertow over which they have absolutely no power, it's all they can do just to stay alive. While this is a familiar concept for Melanie, who has lived under a death sentence for as long as she can remember, Harry has lived a pretty charmed life. If there's a chance he can save his girlfriend from this death sentence, though, he will do anything.

"Bone-white, bleach-white, white as the driven snow. Her lips seem terribly red against the pallor of her skin, and her eyes are very blue, and she would be beautiful if she weren't so entirely terrible. She is the ghost of a girl, and not a girl at all."

I am so thankful that I received Seasonal Fears as an ARC - it introduced me to one of my now favourite series and took me on a seriously dark and creepy adventure. Is it weird to say I'm already looking forward to rereading this series in the future?

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

This book was SO good. I'm a sucker for Seanan McGuire's books all together, and while this book wasn't my alltime favorite by them, I was hooked from the first few chapters.

The author is talented and keeps us reading with their writing style. The storyline was unique.

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire, a fun read. If you are a fan of McGuire and enjoy her other type of books, then this book is for you!

Engaging, sometimes horrifying, often very confusing... this fantasy tells the story of two teens whose intertwined destinies make them the likely next candidates for the human embodiment of Summer and Winter. It's a dense, complicated read, mostly worth the effort, although the end felt strangely anti-climactic.

Seasonal Fears (Alchemical Journeys #2) by Seanan McGuire was one of my most anticipated releases of the season. I'm so glad I decided to continue this fantasy series. McGuire has quickly become one of my favorite authors and this novel is a pretty great example of why that is. If you're looking for a story with great world-building, characters, and plenty of unexpected twists, you have to try this one.

I really liked this one. I'll say it: I think I've become a Seanan McGuire fan for life. She has proven over and over why she's in my top 10 fave writers. I will definitely be purchasing for the library.

Sean McGuire dazzled me with the Middlegame where we met Roger and Dodger (language and math) and this time, she tells us about the Summer and Winter courts. Her lyrical prose begins with the fall of the current king and queen.

This is a story best savored as we learn about the seasons and kingdom when the summer king sleeps and the winter queen reigns. We learn about candidates who awaken when a new king or queen is needed. There are Jack Frosts and Corn Jennies who aid these contenders for the throne. This science fiction fantasy is brilliant, complex, well developed, and downright magical. I am always left in awe of McGuire’s mind and her magic with the written word.

As we learned in Middlegame, there are always those who hope to take advantage and bend the outcomes in their favor. In Seasonal Fears we meet Melanie Cosgrove, a fragile teenage girl with a weak heart and protective father who shelters her even from the Jack Frosts who seek her out. We also meet Harry March, a young boy who is as drawn to her as he is to the summer sun.

He is a football player, and she is his biggest fan. The two are in love but as winter falls, so does Mel and to save her, Harry will have to believe the impossible and accept his fate.

I loved the race, battles and folks we met along the way as Harry and Mel run away or perhaps towards their destiny. They are traveling with Mel’s Jack Frost, but where is Harry’s Corn Jennie? A wicked game is a foot, one without rules until they reach the court. They aren’t the only ones hoping to fulfil their destiny and for the losers; it means the end of the road.

Our young couple will be tested as the seasons call to them, but a little help from Roger and Dodger will steer them in the right direction. From the world-building to the outside threats, I was enthralled. We learn about Mel’s parents and their intentions. We meet those involved in the courts and the rules of who reigns and how. Someone wants to be Mel’s partner on the throne and will stop at nothing to succeed.

There is so much I want to discuss, but will leave you to unfold the story on your own. I confess I re-read a few chapters before moving on just to be sure I understood this complex world. McGuire writes stories that are original and ones you’ll want to read again and again. I have already grabbed the audio versions as this is a series I will want to revisit.

If you love McGuire’s Wayward Children series, you’ll want to devour the Alchemical Journals. You’ll discover romance, suspense, magic and a world as intriguing as the characters who reside there.

“I couldn’t tell these stories without someone who wanted to listen. The Impossible City isn’t far from here, and I can take you, if you’d like to go. Just take your hand, close your eyes, and trust me. I know the way.”

/

I’m a devoted Seanan McGuire fan so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to read her latest novel SEASONAL FEARS thanks to NetGalley and the publishers. SEASONAL FEARS is the latest installment in what I might term the Alchemical Journeys cinematic universe which includes the first (adult) book MIDDLEGAME and the Up and Under series (which is middle grade). SEASONAL FEARS is in some ways a stand alone and in other critical ways relies on the lore and world-building of previous books.

If any of this sounds confusing, it is. These books are deeply wrapped in lore and frankly I was confused for a good 50% of SEASONAL FEARS. The world of alchemy and magic McGuire has built in these books does not come naturally to me. I have a much easier time with the middle grade series. Nevertheless, SEASONAL FEARS contains McGuire’s trademark spark and I ended up really enjoying it.

After wading through the dense magic of this series, it’s really all about characters and their relationships. Melanie and Harry were childhood sweethearts and they’re now inseparable, despite the fact that Melanie’s been sick from infancy and is slowly fading away. When it’s suddenly revealed that they are contenders to become the next incarnate Summer and Winter, they must fight tooth and nail to save both their lives and claim a new throne.

Seasonal magic is one of my favorite forms of fantasy and while this book is A LOT, I’m very glad I read it. I hope McGuire writes the next book in the series and takes us to fall and spring next!

Thank you to the publisher Tordotcom for providing an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I think I’ve finally discovered why I can love Seanan McGuire’s novellas but have yet to get onboard with any of her full-length novels. Seasonal Fears is a less technically ambitious companion novel to Middlegame, but I found it equally as frustrating. Novellas truncate her tendency to endlessly over explain concepts that are both incredibly vague and bizarrely detailed. Her stories are so much more about the vibes than the plot, which works better for me when the ratio of word count to contemplative ramblings is condensed. Seasonal Fears had the recipe for everything I love - alchemy, elemental magic, and ageless beings with endless quips up their sleeves. But it’s a formula that doesn’t always equal the sum of those parts.

Seasonal Fears is a roadtrip book, which are always inherently moreso about the journey than what lies at the end of the road. But when you’re not particularly interested in what’s happening on the trip itself, it makes a very rushed and anti-climactic ending all the more frustrating. For such a richly imagined world, the two main characters have all the personality of slices of matching white Wonder Bread. Melanie and Harry only work as characters in the way two empty planets orbiting around each other do. Their entire motivation is tied so impossibly tight to the other it doesn’t even allow for vastly more interesting characters like their smart aleck companion Jack Frost to create a fun dynamic in the group. And the side plots with more engaging characters all dead end in way that results in emotional disconnect to them as well. Seasonal Fears as a story feels like it’s running a breakneck race to a finish line, only to pause and take the final 100 feet at a leisurely stroll. And the runner still wins.

This is a very different book from Middlegame, perhaps in every way that counts except for Seanan McGuire’s characteristic rambling style of writing. She takes a lot of words to explain a concept I don’t think she even really understands, an effect that is very intentionally trying to leave the reader disoriented. I give this book points for being creative, but creativity alone isn’t enough to sell me on a project. For me, I mostly just felt frustrated and a bit worn down by a story that left me with an unshakeable sense of “But… you did this for what?”

Seasonal Fears is the long-awaited follow-up to Seanan McGuire's tour de force of SFF, Middlegame. When I originally read Middlegame in May of 2019, I had the understanding that it was a standalone novel. Since that time, to my complete delight, we have been blessed with two books from the companion series, The Up-and-Under, and now THIS!!!

Seanan McGuire has blessed the world with her words. Literally blessed; life-changing, jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring goodness. That's the best way to describe The Alchemical Journeys.

In this second installment, we follow two new main characters: Melanie and Harry. They're a pair, much like Roger and Dodger from the first book, although Mel and Harry are not brother and sister. Nevertheless, Melanie and Harry are two sides of the same coin. They're also in love; teenagers completely devoted to one another.

Melanie and Harry are in high school, living somewhat normal lives. Melanie has a chronic illness and is expected to die at any moment, but besides that, somewhat normal. When Melanie collapses one day at Harry's football practice and Harry, athletic as heck, suddenly collapses right along with her, they realize their connection may run deeper than they even imagined.

Insight arrives with an unexpected guide who clues the pair in on the truth behind their lives and the greater world around them. Together the couple, along with their new friend, set out on a journey, one full of dangers and intrigue, in order to meet the destiny they didn't even know existed for them.

Seasonal Fears is just as enjoyably mind-boggling as Middlegame. I was in no way disappointed by this. I'll also not pretend that I followed everything going on in this book. I recently reread Middlegame in preparation for this release and discovered even more to love on that second time through. I have no doubt this will be the same and that's right, I am already planning to reread this at some point.

This series is the type of epic, complex SFF that you have to be cautious not to get too mired down in the details. Yes, of course it is important to pay attention, but I wouldn't take notes or anything. Trust McGuire will deliver you to exactly where you need to be. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Nothing more is required of you.

Just know you may feel a little out of control from time to time, like it's losing you. Stay the course. You'll make it, you'll love it. McGuire doesn't just create a world in these books, she develops a whole new cosmology. It's stunning. I have no idea if there will be more books in this series, I certainly hope so. I definitely need more alchemical journyes in my life. Yes, please!

Thank you to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I absolutely loved this. All the stars!!

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really should say that I love this at the same level I loved Middlegame, the previous book. I should say that, but I may be a Summer Child. Seasonal Fears might outdo the other in my heart.

The sharp characterizations, the deeply mythological feel, the worldbuilding (including the children's books by Baker (also McGuire)), and the freakishly delicious tale all wrap me up in a warm, warm blanket of goodness and kept me excited from the first to the last page.

Mel and Harry were SO DELIGHTFUL. Their love story was not only uncomplicated and pure and trusting and heartbreaking -- it was also extremely heartwarming. I don't see many books with two kids who are this pure and courageous and devoted to one another.

Some people might think that would make for a boring book, but McGuire kills it. After all, she really knows how to torture her characters. Fire and Ice, baby. Fire and Ice. And on top of that, I'm a sucker for road trip books. Add the good, easy stuff together, add a little scale that might recall what happened in Middlegame, and know that in this game, everyone dies... and I just lose it. I lost it. I kept tearing up and freaking out and I was invested enough for three books.

So yeah. I may love this book. Never a dull moment and even though it was really rough on me, I loved seeing these wholesome kids do their thing.

*** oh yeah, and we do say hi to a few friends ***

TITLE: Seasonal Fears (Alchemical Journeys Book 2)
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
475 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250768261 (hardcover, also available in e-book and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!

Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul.

Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.

So, when a new road is laid out in front of them—a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together—walking down it seems to be the only option.

But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts.

It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all….

"One must maintain a little bit of summer even in the middle of winter." —Thoreau

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Seasonal Fears, the second book in Seanan McGuire’s “Alchemical Journeys” series, is in many respects a classic genre road-trip novel: the lives of the main characters are upended, everything they thought they knew about their world thrown into confusion, because of a supernatural event, after which they must make their way across the country, pursued by evil/adversarial forces, to solve the mystery/finish the quest/find their destiny. Along the way, the characters face their own insecurities and their perceptions of themselves and their friends are challenged (and confirmed or altered).

I had no problem ‘feeling’ the stakes of the journey (even though I was quite sure I knew what the outcome of the journey would be), because of how well McGuire establishes Melanie and Harry from the very first time we meet them, which is several years before the main action of the book. Fans of McGuire’s Wayward Children and Up-and-Under series know how well she writes pre-teens and teens, and that skill is on full display here both when we meet the characters briefly at age six or seven (first or second grade) and when we meet them again as seniors in high school. I instantly believed Harry and Mel’s feelings for each other and the way each navigates the world based on their family life (Mel with a single father and deceased mother and twin sister; Harry with a loving set of parents who also happen to be very rich). Their relationship is not possessive in either direction but is equal in all ways: Harry’s concern for Mel’s physical health is matched by Mel’s concern for what Harry will do after she dies. Each is the other’s anchor. This is even more true once the events of the novel, the road trip to the Labyrinth where the new King(s) or Queen(s) of Summer and Winter will be crowned, commence. Without the emotional anchors of Harry and Mel, Seasonal Fears might have been just another fantasy/horror road trip novel. And I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that several times in the novel, I teared up at how much Mel and Harry love each other, and the lengths they’re willing to go through to protect each other even before things get weird.

The book is also populated with a number of interesting supporting characters and antagonists who complicate things along the way. As mentioned, I was never really in doubt as to the outcome, but several times along the way, I found myself thinking “Okay, this is Seanan, we’re pretty much guaranteed a happy ending, but I can’t wait to see how Harry and Mel survive encountering [XXX].” (I don’t believe in spoiling major plot points, so I’m not going to even name the characters I’m thinking of here.) And because this is Seanan, the antagonists in question do have personality and agency and a deep belief that they deserve what they want – they are far from the one-dimensional roadblocks one often finds in fantasy/horror road-trip novels.

Then there’s the alchemical underpinnings/world-building, which is deep and wonderful and thought-provoking and provides an interesting spin on the traditional “human avatars of natural forces” concept. It is clear that McGuire has put a great deal of thought into how all this works, and she makes every effort to explain it clearly multiple times in the book. Like Harry, I initially struggled a bit with wrapping my brain around the concepts – but also like Harry, I eventually “got it.” Supporting characters Jack and Jenny serve as the author’s mouthpieces when the alchemical stuff needs explaining to Harry and Mel and to the reader.

Seasonal Fears is set it the same world as McGuire’s previous novel Middlegame, which also featured heavy alchemical underpinnings. While this book takes place after the events of Middlegame, it is not a direct sequel. Seasonal Fears builds on Middlegame thematically, for sure, and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that characters from Middlegame do show up in Seasonal Fears – but their roles are purely supporting and their time “on stage” is relatively brief. Still, it was good to see them.

I am highly confident Seasonal Fears will appeal not just to Seanan McGuire fans, but to fans of fantasy/horror road-trip stories and fans of books about alchemy operating in the fringes/underneath the natural world. And I very much hope it sells well enough that book three in the series gets greenlit sooner rather than later. McGuire, of course, already knows where she wants the story to go, and I can’t wait to go there with her.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Seasonal Fears published on May 3, 2022, so I’m only a day late!

Seasonal Fears is this perfect mash up of a rich and complex fantasy world, a love that might be doomed - jury's still out - and a fight that just might change everything they ever knew. While it took me a bit of time to get used to the world, and honestly I could very well be missing things, I ended up adoring every moment. McGuire is able to balance a world we think we know, from Middlegame, and introduce another dimension (I loved the interactions from the first one here). Overall it feels multi-dimensional and a bit otherworldly.