TITLE: Be the Serpent (October Daye, Book 16)
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
368 pages, DAW Books, ISBN 9780756416867 (hardcover, e-book, audio)
MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5
SHORT REVIEW: Be the Serpent, the sixteenth book in the October Daye urban fantasy series, is everything Seanan McGuire promised it would be: a major game-changer for the characters, answering at least one long-standing mystery at the heart of the franchise, and at times utterly heart-breaking. It is also, in my opinion, the best entry in the series so far. Content warning for child death. This is the book that begins to answer the question of what really happened to the Queens of Faerie, and I found it to be a highly satisfactory reveal, totally in line with clues that have been dropped since almost the very beginning of the series.
LONGER REVIEW: Be the Serpent, the sixteenth book in the October Daye urban fantasy series, is everything Seanan McGuire promised it would be: a major game-changer for the characters, answering at least one long-standing mystery at the heart of the franchise, and at times utterly heart-breaking. It is also, in my opinion, the best entry in the series so far. Which is saying something considering how much I love these books.
Let’s start with a content warning: one of the inciting incidents of this book involves the death of a child. The death is handled with tact and care and is not gratuitous. It is absolutely necessary for the story to progress the way it needs to. The reader experiences the death at a slight remove (via Toby’s ability to “ride the blood” and see people’s memories), which blunts the pain a little bit – but it still hits hard, as it is meant to. McGuire is known for not killing characters just for shock value; every character who dies in the October Day series does so because the plot demands it or because their story is done and so every death counts regardless of whether the dead character is someone the readers liked or hated. This death is no different, it just feels worse because the victim is a child. So there you are: fair warning.
Every fourth book in this series is a “big one,” changing things irrevocably for Toby, her friends, and sometimes the world of Faerie at large. Very often, this has meant Toby gaining new information about the way Faerie works. One of the series’ long-standing mysteries is “What really happened to the Queens of Faerie, Maeve and Titania?” This book is the beginning of the answer to that question. This is something fans of the series have been speculating on almost since book one, with deeply considered theories and very strong opinions. Of course, I’m not going to spoil the reveal. Some people will love it, some will hate it; I found it highly satisfactory and totally in-line with all the clues McGuire has dropped in the preceding 15 books. And as heart-breaking as many fans assumed it would be. The death of a child may incite the action, but the big reveal and its aftermath are just as tear-inducing.
This is not to say the book is a depressing slog. Despite, or perhaps because of, the heartbreak, the book is fast-paced and exciting. Certain characters’ actions and behavior are infuriating (long time readers can probably guess who I’m referring to) and certain other characters’ responses are heartwarming. There’s the usual amount of humor sprinkled throughout as well – it’s not a Toby book if there isn’t some snarky banter among her found family and appropriate flirtatious tension between Toby and her Tybalt. There are also a few interesting developments for members of the supporting cast starting with the opening scene.
I’m posting this review far enough after the publication date that most fans of the series already know this, but ---SPOILER ALERT--- the book ends on a cliffhanger, the only entry in the series to do so. Sub-plots have carried over across books, but this is a real “oh my god, what’s going to happen” ending. The good news is the next book comes out in under a year and the author has a strict “no more than one cliffhanger per series (if any at all)” policy. So this will wrap up in the next novel, which I believe is titled These Violent Delights.
As is also standard now for the October Daye series (as well as McGuire’s Incryptid series), this book contains a stand-alone novella expanding on the lore of the world in some way. This time, we get another glimpse into the largely tragic life of the Luidaeg, better known as the Sea Witch. I love every story Seanan has written expanding on this character’s long life, and this one is no exception. Like the novel that precedes it, this is not an easy novella to read – it centers emotional abuse levied against the main character by her own family and it lays open wounds that the Luidaeg still hasn’t healed in the present day of the series – wound that may in fact never be healed. Seeing such a formative moment in her life play out is heart-wrenching for those of us who love her despite (or again, perhaps because of) how scary she is.
I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This review is also very late. Be the Serpent published on August 30th, 2022.