#SeasonalFears #NetGalley Thank you to the publisher and @NetGalley for the E-ARC copy of this book. The rating of this book is entirely of my own opinion. #SeananMgGuire #MustRead2022

Absolutely loved this follow up to Middlegame. It actually stands alone from Middlegame just fine; you don't need to have read that before reading this. They're quite different books when it comes down to it. I would expect people who disliked Middlegame but like McGuire's other fantasy writing (particularly Wayward Children) will really love this.

Seasonal Fears is not as creepy or spooky as Middlegame, but it is much more coherent as a story--largely because it's narratively linear where Middlegame felt like it was all over the place. It's set in the same world, and there are some slight character overlaps, but for the most part, it's a very different story, with very different people. Much more fantasy driven, and a lot easier to follow. There's a bit of a race going on, and that keeps the pace of the story going at just the right clip. I like the variety of characters and motivations.

Also! For once an author set something in Alabama and didn't drown the writing in cliches--there's just a dash, just enough that it feels plausible.

It's definitely up there as one of my favorite non-horror Seanan McGuire books.

Note: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book in exchange for sharing my honest review.

While I really enjoyed Middlegame, I just couldn’t get into Seasonal Fears. It felt very lofty, very pretentious, and a lot of the language and ideas just kept repeating themselves. I had to DNF this book, which was very disappointing.

I cannot even begin to try to explain how perfect this book was for me. Damn!

McGuire does an amazing job at describing what is going on around the characters so that you feel like you are experiencing it as well. 
Seasonal Fears is a mind-blowing, mind-melting modern fantasy.
An intense epic fantasy novel that I know readers who read her previous novels will freaking love this story!
This book has it all... perfect prose, brilliant plot, engaging world and multi-faceted characters.
I finished this in one day and I didn't accomplish a dang thing while doing so.
It was well worth it!
Amazing, dark, terrifying and magic book! I don't have enough words to tell how much l love this one!

Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom,
Seriously! Thank you so much for this eARC!
Seanan McGuire is an absolute favorite of mine!
I will post my review to B&N, platforms, blog and Waterstone close to pub date!

I'm sorry, I really am. Let me preface this by saying - I loved Middlegame. I'm a longtime Seanan fan. I did not like this book.

I think that Middlegame is a pretty perfect SFF standalone. When Seanan and Tor announced that they were publishing a second in the same world, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. I managed my expectations and went in hoping for the best. SPOILERS BELOW. For those who don't want to see spoilers though, my recommendation is this - if you loved Middlegame, skip this. Pretend Middlegame is the standalone it should have been.

Another reviewer described this book as "death by exposition," and I completely agree. She explained the same concepts over and over, and at the 60% mark was still going over the same (fairly basic, especially for readers who read Middlegame) concepts. It was overwritten to a degree that set my teeth on edge. It felt like she was beating me over the head, yelling, "This is a world of CONCEPTS and METAPHORS DO YOU GET IT YET??" Not to mention that those concepts were inconsistent (did characters have the option to renounce the throne or did that mean they died? That changed throughout depending on what she needed her characters to believe in the moment. Also, as the other reviewer pointed out William seemed to sometimes be Winter and sometimes Summer. It was also unclear if "running parallel" meant that Mel and Harry were supposed to hate each other or love each other? So many inconsistencies.)

I'll leave my complaints about Aven to simply - that plot was set up to be a major thing and it completely fizzled out. It didn't make any sense and it was completely unnecessary. Aven wasn't a character as much as an angry plot device, but she wasn't even used as that successfully!

Roger and Dodger show up at one point, and to say that I hated what she did to them is an understatement. They were nearly unrecognizable as characters. They were mean and self-obsessed and barely seemed to like each other. They became a kind of deus ex machina instead of real characters, because Seanan simply waved her hands and declared "Roger is Language so he literally knows everything that can be expressed in words including facts and history that he has no way of knowing because WORDS. Dodger is Math so she can be invisible and no one near her has to obey distance or time or really anything she doesn't want to because NUMBERS." Some of the conversations between them and Kim/Tim seemed to contradict principles set up throughout Middlegame. She brought Erin back with really no reason at all (using the "well Roger and Dodger reset the timeline and saved her" explanation), which for me totally undercut the ending of Middlegame. Erin didn't even serve a purpose and had similar character inconsistencies to the rest of the returning Middlegame cast.

I want to give this one star, but out of respect for Seanan's other work and the fact that I did actually finish the book (reluctantly, hopefully, disappointingly), I will leave it at two stars.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley.

Sigh.
I love Seanan McGuire. Her Wayward Children series is consistently delightful, and her horror writing under the name Mira Grant is visceral and sharp. But this needed at least one more pass from an editor. Now, I know it's only a galley, but the continuity errors were glaring and frustrating. The biggest offender is all of the stuff about William Monroe. See, this is in the same world as Middlegame, meaning it's also very concerned with fundamental aspects of the world being embodied by people. About every hundred years, Summer and Winter get new human hosts. Or that's how it's supposed to work. When the novel begins, it's been closer to three hundred years since new hosts were chosen. This is because William Monroe the current king of (undetermined season) was keeping the crown from changing hands by imprisoning his opposite number. But the story cannot remember what season Monroe embodied! When we first meet him, he's just become the Winter King. But he's also called the Summer King, and Harry, the male lead, speaks to the actual force of Summer and he remembers being William Monroe! This is such a blatant screw up that it cost this book a star.
I also felt that the leads were under-characterized. Melanie is sick, Harry is rich, they're in their late teens and super duper in love. But I felt that the consistent harping on how in love they are was sort of overkill. It took away from time that could be spent with other characters, like Melanie's long lost sister Aven, who is one of McGuire's manic pixie monster girls. Aven barely feels like a threat, when she really should be.
The book is also inexcusably repetitive. It's like McGuire can't keep track of what her characters know and when they learn it, so we get expositioned to death, and I constantly found myself thinking, didn't we already learn that?
Couple other things that irritated me, since I might as well finish what I've started. Most of the chapters begin with excerpts from the in universe book series staring Avery and Zib. I wouldn't mind this if the excerpts seemed to be somehow related to the main story, but they didn't feel like that to me. Also, McGuire has/is actually writing those novels, so I felt like useful in story information is actually in other books.
And finally, the end of Harry and Melanie's quest is such an anticlimax. They reach the magic labyrinth and have to prove themselves to take the crowns. Which involves just... talking to the forces of Summer and Winter. They have a friendly chat and the seasons are like "sure, you guys are great." We don't even see Melanie talk to Summer.

I don't want to give the impression that this was a bad book. But it isn't nearly as good as Middlegame. Also, I get the feeling that this is going to become a series, and maybe this one was necessary to set up whatever comes next? Anywho, I didn't hate it, but it's much weaker than I was expecting.

3 years long unbearable waiting is finally over! Second installment of the series blew my freaking mind as I expected! At some chapters: I got lost because of extreme complex rules of how the science, alchemy and magic blended to create the rules of the seasons! I got bombarded of how king and queen reign, at which months they sleep like as if they’re death, how hundreds of Ascendants and Incarnations fix the system , why the parallels are most dangerous and unexpected couple the other candidates should beware and who the hell were Jack the Frosts, Jack in the Greens, Stingy Jacks and Corn Jennies!

My head is about to explode because I tried so hard to absorb how this entire system truly works ( I’m still not sure I understand each of the completely! )

Welcome to the universe of contenders who fight tooth and nail to become next Summer King and Winter Queen!

I loved poor Melanie Cosgrove: fragile, delicate girl, suffering from heart disease, about to die anytime! And her 17 years old dedicated, football player lover Harry March who is adamant to take care of her. But their impossible love story takes another direction at the day both of them collapsed at the football yard. Did they die together? But Melanie opened her eyes, feeling more alive and stronger she’s never been before, running towards to see what happened to her boyfriend! Thankfully they won the war against the grim reaper even though Melanie’s heart stopped at the time she’s collapsed and now both of them started to turn something different.

Their fainting was not a coincidence. It’s truly connected to the 300 years long winter king William Monroe’s duel with Diane ( Yeap, the one and only Diana she’s only seen a few chapters at the first book) Like a chain reaction their encounter not only affected Melanie and Harry’s lives, but also a girl who is attached to the IV tubes, captured in the basement!

When Jack Frost achieves to reach to Melanie to tell the truths about her true nature without doctor father’s intervention, Melanie finds herself trapped in a car with her boyfriend and her new 13 years old Jack Frost as runaways to fulfill their destinies! But this is going to one of the wildest and bumpy ride with so many casualties! The blood shall run!

Even though so many of the book confused the hell of me and burned my brain cells, too couldn’t put it down! I loved the characterization, complex world building, the cliffhanger at the end!
I cannot compare this book with anything! This is outstandingly unique, intelligent, peculiar, one of a kind just like its author’s brilliant mind!

I couldn’t give less than five stars to a book that explode my mind! It is SPECTACULAR!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan- Tor / Forge for arc copy of this incredible book in exchange my honest thoughts.