A Killing Frost (October Daye #14)

A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire

Oh. My. Heavens. This book broke my heart and put it back together in the beautiful way that only books about beloved characters can do. This is the 14th novel in the October Daye series, and there have been several very long story arcs and big questions running since the beginning, and with this book we finally have the hints of resolution and answers to, well, at least some of them.

It’s hard to say a whole lot without spoiling, and this is a book that MUST NOT be spoiled, so this review is going to tread carefully. . .

Simon is one of the main focal points in this book, and while he’s been one of our reliable baddies since the beginning of Toby’s saga, he became a much more complicated character after The Brightest Fell - mostly because we the reader learned more about him. I really enjoyed having some of my Simon questions answered in this book. He continues to be a compelling character, and the more I learn about him the more I’m sympathetic to him - and I REALLY hated his guts before - you know that’s some good character development and reveal when an author can make you sympathetic to one of your series-long, love-to-hate villains.

Toby continues to be the hero we love. She charges into her quests without revealing much of her plan so we just get to ride along. There are definitely a few classic Toby moments in this one, and lots of blood as is to be expected. While I wish she as a person would have a care for herself and those who love her when she’s hero-ing, as a reader I really love reading the scenes where she just follows her instincts and breaks all the rules to try and force the world to her will. It’s so great.

The Ludiaeg is amazing as always. Terrifying and compassionate in turns. I always get a little thrill when she enters the story.

Tybalt and Quentin continue to grow in their own ways and to call Toby on her nonsense, which I love. I could always do with more Tybalt.

And May. I’ve always liked May, but she had never quite grabbed my attention as firmly as some of the other characters. That certainly changed in this book.

And finally, plot stuff. Without giving anything away, there’s this one really big thing that happens in the second half of the book, and when I read it I was sitting on my couch literally freaking out because I had no one to talk to about it. It’s a huge moment, revealed with Seanan McGuire’s knack for writing world changing moments that are both timelessly epic and simply relatable.

So to sum up, I adore this series and it’s characters, and this book did a lot that made my reader heart very happy in terms of the big overarching story arc, world building and character development.

"Things in faerie never start making sense until the moment they're ready to unravel"

"Growing up doesn't mean getting over everything that happened to us as children"

"the sea came first and the sea will come last and everything in the middle is only a story sung by children who have achieved temporary mastery of air" 

This is an unbiased review.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy.