This book was worth waiting for! I was on tenterhooks after the last volume, Be The Serpent, ended in a cliffhanger and this follow up did not disappoint!

I love Seanan McGuire. (Note: I review a bunch of her books so I am copying part of some of my other reviews here to save time.). She has quickly become my favorite living writer and I feel very lucky that she is so prolific. I was first introduced to her work when her book Parasite, written as Mira Grant, was nominated for a Hugo Award. I loved it and quickly devoured the Newsflesh series before I realized that Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire were the same person.

I started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. I had read some Urban Fantasy before, and I fondly remember Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde books, but my tastes run more to science fiction and then secondary world fantasy, so I was hesitant to dive into such a long series. I picked up the first book, Rosemary and Rue, when it was on sale as a kindle daily deal, and I found it somewhat disappointing compared to her other work. I reminded myself that it was her first published novel, so I cut it some slack. Then Incryptid was nominated for the Best Series Hugo in 2018 and I dove into that instead. I loved it! So I vowed to give Toby another chance. And I was so glad that I did! It is no one of my favorite series.

I was overjoyed when The publisher and NetGalley awarded me an eARC of Sleep No More - I couldn’t stand waiting any longer to find out what happened after Toby was ensorcelled to believe that she had never left her mother. It turns out that Toby wasn’t the only one affected (or is that effected?). A large chunk of Faerie was totally rewritten and it was a thrill to see our characters acting familiarly yet differently based on their new roles in this revised timeline. It reminded me of the TNG episode Condundrum in all of the best ways. As the book progressed, the cracks in the illusion start to show in interesting ways. I was very excited to see January, the cyber-dryad show up in a pivotal role. This was a stellar entry in this series.

And the bonus novella was excellent! It was from Rayseline’s point of view and really fleshed out her experiences during this time period in a way that I really appreciated getting, but would not have fit into the main narrative flow of this story.

October Daye is perpetually on the top of my best series Hugo ballot - she deserves to win. This type of long running series excellence is what this award was designed for and none of the other nominees come close. This was another amazing entry in this series and I cannot wait to devour the next one!

I have been with this series since the beginning, and I’m always amazed at the storytelling abilities of this author. This latest installment in the series has Toby not knowing who she really is, and it was a little painful to see her not as herself., and there are other characters in this same predicament. However, and this isn’t a spoiler, we get to see how this helps with some healing for all the characters in the long run. Speaking of that, make sure to read the novella at the end, too. It was eye-opening. I was mesmerized by the whole book which was written exquisitely with wonderful prose and a very engaging plot. I’m ready to see what’s coming next. Highly recommend.

Look, it’s hard to stay with a series once you get past the 6-book mark. Most series either become tired rehashings of the same plot or the characters arcs have turned into a Gordian knot of motivations and betrayals so that you don’t even recognize your faves.

The October Daye series skews towards soap opera, but in the way that draws you in and doesn’t let go. Toby is as much herself in book 16 as in books 1 through 3. That’s not to say she hasn’t grown as a character. She’s faced new challenges and held new accomplishments and she’s built a whole new family from adversity but at her core she’s still the same Toby who rose dripping from the koi pond.

Book 17 is different. It has to be. In Sleep No More we see a Faerie where October was never a hero and it is agonizing. Again, I’m trying to avoid excessive spoilers, but the first several chapters have you hanging on the edge of your seat, wondering if anyone will ever see how wrong it is and change things back. Then we have to learn if that’s even possible.

This book could’ve been a series-breaker. If it’s hard to keep your audience for so many books, it’s harder when you pull the rug out from underneath and give it a good shake. The genius of McGuire is that she’s got the rug’s design engraved on the floorboards in more detail than we could’ve guessed. Now we wait and see what happens next. Personally, I’m betting there’s a trap door and I cannot wait to see where it leads.

Okay let me start by saying I love this series and have ever since the first book. I eagerly await each new title, and October is one of my favorite characters in urban fantasy. When the last book ended with a beyond dramatic cliffhanger, I had no idea where things were going to go but was eager to dive in.

Even given all that, when I first started this one I was stunned at where things were going and almost stopped reading because pathetic rule-following Toby was driving me insane. I turned to other reviews to see if anyone else was equally irritated, only to find myself faced with a forest of five stars, so I persevered with some skimming because I could only read her mewling about obligation and her second class status so much before I kept finding myself so irritated I almost walked away repeatedly. I am so glad I hung with it, and should have known better than to ever question McGuire, because this turned out to be a fantastic story - albeit one I doubt I would read again unlike many others in the series.

I am continually amazed at Maguire's ability to develop this universe and its characters in so many novel directions across so many books. Her world-building is so skillful. Her characterizations are incredibly detailed and her ability to continually move her people in new directions that are consistent yet constantly engaging and surprising never ceases to amaze me.

I can't wait to dive into The Innocent Sleep now and catch this story from Tybalt's perspective!

Another excellent entry in the October Daye series!

SLEEP NO MORE picks up immediately from the absolutely killer cliffhanger which the previous book left us on; I won’t give spoilers for those of you who haven’t read the books or aren’t caught up, but the usual landscape of the series is immediately and completely overturned, leaving the reader delightfully off-balance and puzzling through the mystery right along with our narrator, the inimitable Toby. It was a fast-paced, suck-you-in, very rewarding read, even as you spend half the book screaming and hoping things will get back to normal, full oof a lot of great character development and fascinating plot turns. My one critique is that the ending felt a little rushed and a bit anticlimactic – but it wasn't enough to knock down the star rating, so pretty minor overall.

As always: I can't wait to see where this series goes next. Thanks so much to DAW Books and Netgalley for the advance copy!

Thanks to Netgalley and to DAW for gifting me an early copy of this book and its followup, The Innocent Sleep. You'll find my honest review below. If you haven't read the rest of the series, especially Be the Serpent, please skip this review. I'm avoiding spoilers, but it might still reveal a little more than you'd want to know.

I don't even know where to begin... after the cliffhanger that Seanan McGuire so cruelly left us with at the end of Be the Serpent (I can still hear her maniacal laughter, unless that belongs to The Summer Queen...), I have been living in a state much like Toby - blurred, unreal, and going through the motions. This book brought me back to reality in all the right ways.

First, we have an entirely new world, thanks to You Know Who, evil jerk that she turned out to be... or do we? It seems that a few territories have been affected by magic, changing those who live inside them to who She wants them to be - to get the inconvenient ones out of her way, to trap her enemies where they don't question her, and to remake some parts of Faerie over into the one she always wanted. Of course, her magic isn't entirely capable of all of that, but that doesn't mean she is without a plan. Thankfully, not everyone is as vulnerable to illusions as the rest, but alas, dear Toby is VERY entrenched in her new life and new reality.

Cue the outsiders rocking her world.

This one was a romp through Toby's history, through the world of Faerie as we know it - and as She made it anew, and towards Toby's future.

Highly recommended for urban fantasy fans, folklore fans, Fae story fans... but PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU, start at the beginning. Don't just jump in here. You'll regret missing SO MUCH.

Seanan McGuire is probably easily my favorite author currently. I will inhale anything and everything she writes, and I'm especially fond of the Toby Daye series. The characters are some of my favorites ever, I adore the series's overarching plot, and it's so incredibly well written. So, to say I was excited about this book is an understatement. And, for the most part, it delivered.

We meet a very different Toby in this book. After Titania has rewritten reality to suit her wants, the world she has built forms a very different October Daye. She is a meek, subservient changeling servant to her fey family and she's left with very few of her original allies around her, and of course, she remembers nothing of her actual life. It's a pretty somber read for the first half of the book because as the reader everything feels so different and 'off' and we know what Toby is missing but it's not something she herself can comprehend.

My biggest 'complaint' about this novel is probably just the lack of appearances by some of the characters and how a lot of the loose ends didn't really feel like they came together properly at the end. I still had a lot of questions (hopefully they will be answered in the next installment) and I was honestly a little frustrated with Quentin's 'arc' and his story in this. Not in how he was portrayed: that absolutely makes perfect sense because it's definitely who he would be if he hadn't been practically raised by Toby, but because by the end it felt like he and Toby really didn't have any time to talk or resolve any of what was going on and personally I was aching for it but then Quentin is one of my favorites and I was just being selfish, wanting more.

I do love that we got more of Raysel finally, particularly in the bonus story and I really do like her as a character and think her trauma has been done well and her character feels genuine and raw. Also, I don't know why but Dean just amused me in this book, it was good to see more of him as well without him merely being a sort of side character to whatever is going on with Quentin. But there were a lot of characters whose disappearances weren't explained in this unless I somehow missed them completely and it's a personal niggle for me.

Overall, this is a fantastic addition to the series and continues Toby's story with grace and I'm desperate to get my hands on the next book.