Secrets in Unlikely Places: Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire

Happy Book Day, Seanan McGuire!

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of McGuire’s work. I’m also very fond of her alter-ego Mira Grant’s books. Therefore, I was delighted when DAW (via NetGalley) kindly offered me an ARC of Night and Silence. I’ve read books faster than this one, I’m sure, but I’d be hard-pressed to be able to list any off of the top of my head. Enough introduction, let’s get into the good parts.

Night and Silence (2018)
Written by: Seanan McGuire
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 368 (Kindle)
Series: Book Twelve of October Daye
Publisher: DAW

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley.

Why I Chose It: I have eagerly devoured all of the books in this series, some of them multiple times, and there was no way that I wasn’t going to read this. I love this series.

Premise:

Things are not okay.

In the aftermath of Amandine’s latest betrayal, October “Toby” Daye’s fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams. Jazz can’t sleep, Sylvester doesn’t want to see her, and worst of all, Tybalt has withdrawn from her entirely, retreating into the Court of Cats as he tries to recover from his abduction. Toby is floundering, unable to help the people she loves most heal. She needs a distraction. She needs a quest.

What she doesn’t need is the abduction of her estranged human daughter, Gillian. What she doesn’t need is to be accused of kidnapping her own child by her ex-boyfriend and his new wife, who seems to be harboring secrets of her own. There’s no question of whether she’ll take the case. The only question is whether she’s emotionally prepared to survive it.

Signs of Faerie’s involvement are everywhere, and it’s going to take all Toby’s nerve and all her allies to get her through this web of old secrets, older hatreds, and new deceits. If she can’t find Gillian before time runs out, her own child will pay the price. One question remains:

Who in Faerie remembered Gillian existed? And what do they stand to gain? No matter how this ends, Toby’s life will never be the same.

There will be no spoilers.

How do you review a book that you’ve been breathlessly anticipating for an entire year? It’s not entirely acceptable to just copy and paste multiple copies of Kermit the Frog flailing around everywhere, so one must attempt to gather one’s thoughts.

This was not easy.

Because, you see, this book takes a mystery that has haunted the halls of the October Daye series for a few books now, cracks it open, and then plays with the gooey insides. It also adds another mystery or two and leaves the reader breathlessly anticipating the next volume. It’s going to be a long year.

I am doing my damndest to avoid spoilers, so, much like the Luidaeg, there’s a lot that I can’t say. What I can say is this: never, ever assume anything about these books. Just when you think that you’re certain about something, McGuire gleefully turns that idea on its head. We’ve seen the impossible done within the pages of this series multiple times: doors that were supposed to stay sealed were ripped wide open, characters who were supposed to be dead have been resurrected, and events that shouldn’t have been possible went ahead and happened anyway.

Checking in on the characters…we continue to see growth from October. She has gone from the would-be lone detective of Rosemary and Rue to the head of an active, loving chosen family. The cover already tells you that this family is fraying at the edges, thanks to the events of the last book. Tybalt is, unsurprisingly, suffering from a pretty severe case of PTSD. The raw pain of his experience is heartbreakingly realistic and portrayed in all of its ugly glory. I am pleased to say that he was not 100% absent for this volume. I was also pleased to see a reunion between October and someone that she had been semi-estranged from (and I cried when it happened). My favorite side character (Dianda Lorden) makes a brief, but excellent appearance.

The mysteries continue to build, even as answers to some older questions begin to emerge. We learn a bit more about Amandine’s heritage. We discover more information about Toby’s ex, Cliff, and take a tiny peek at the way that he must have suffered and struggled after Toby disappeared years ago. Cliff doesn’t get a lot of page time in most of the previous books, which makes sense. He’s made it clear that he’s moved on, and Toby has moved on herself.  It’s easy to forget that Cliff’s still there, in the background, trying to live his own life. Poor, forgotten Cliff. The events of this novel are going to drag him, kicking and screaming, from out of the background, I expect.

All that I can say about the end is that it doesn’t tie things off in a neat, tidy bow. How can it, after what our heroes have gone through? This is not to say that ending is a bad one. It’s simply painful. There’s a bit of hope there, but I was left with a feeling of uncertainty and even some slight dread for what may be to come for Toby and her family.

Bonus! As with several previous volumes of the series, there’s novella waiting for you at the end of Night and Silence. “Suffer a Sea-Change,” while lovely, doesn’t do much to help with most of the cliffhangers of the book. It does, however, give the reader a taste of what’s going on in the rest of the world and show the further fate of a particular character who undergoes a transformation during the novel. It also features of a lot of the Luidaeg, who is my favorite primary character. We take a dive into some of the painful bits that she either can’t or won’t talk about much. She’s a very layered character that we don’t get to see take the center stage too often. What we learn in “Suffer a Sea-Change” gave the character some unexpected depth and makes me shiver at what’s coming for the Selkies (and if you’re caught up on the series, you know the origin of the Selkies and what makes their relationship with the Luidaeg so complicated).

In conclusion: If you’re caught up on this series, you must not miss this volume. Please read it and then come back and talk to me about it. I’m kind of dying over here. There are so many secrets that I’ve kept for several weeks now, and I’m eager to chat!