Review Night and Silence

Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book seems to answer most of the leftover questions at this point in the series. It also continues to spiral out consequences from October’s actions. If McGuire has one consistent theme for this series it’s that even the heroes trying to do their best have consequences that echo out that aren’t always positive. It’s one of those things that is much easier to do with a long-running series. There have been a few books (especially in the last five years) that explore the afterlife of being The Hero. Some of them are funny, some are more serious, and some are cozy. But with a series we get to see things spiral out from the inciting incident. And some of these consequences spiral into other consequences causing further complications.

My only complaint is that we never get to see October have a happy book. Obviously October’s Happy Day wouldn’t even make a fun short story. But I mean, unlike other detectives or similar heroes, the consequences of her actions always seem to bounce back on her rather than being externalized. I would love to have at least one book where nothing bad is happening to October and her family and, instead, she’s just being a hero to help others.

• Seanan-McGuire
• Fantasy