Leni Zumas's writing crackles. Her books are sharp, bleak, funny, and possibly dangerous. When her collection of short stories, Farewell Navigator,...
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Full disclosure: this review may be biased. Not only is the author a friend, I'm also a proofreader of the book. I've had the privilege of watching this book and this series grow over drafts and years. That might make me biased, but it also gives me a perspective that those reading it for the first time might not get.
From the first draft I ever read, years ago, Rosemary and Rue hooked me. I reread each draft faithfully from the beginning-- you have to, to proofread well-- and every time, it hooked me just as hard. I've spent hours absolutely absorbed, and this has happened with every book in the series. Recently, when skimming An Artificial Night (book 3) to suggest excerpts for the back of A Local Habitation (book 2), "just skimming" became reading for an hour, completely engrossed, stopping a bit to get some work done and then diving back in for two more hours. I got completely and willingly lost in a book that I'd already read from beginning to end dozens of times. And although Rosemary and Rue is the first book in a series, each book is a complete story with a satisfying ending. The overarching story arc left me craving the next book like an addict, but didn't leave me dangling with cliffhangers. Being a proofer, I know some of what's coming, and even knowing the main plot through book six or so, I'm still dying to read each book. They're that well-crafted, that full of things that draw me into Toby's world and make me want to stay. It's not just the gripping plot; getting there really is half the fun.
One thing that draws me in is world-building. Seanan combines the Bay Area that she knows and loves with the world of Faerie drawn from her college education in myth and folklore, and adds her own particular twists and touches. Both worlds are vivid and real, sometimes enchanting and magical and sometimes frightening and violent, and I find myself craving every scrap of detail about Fae rules and culture, and of how the Fae interact with the mortal world, easily as much as I crave to know how Toby's going to get out of her next scrape.
Ah, Toby. October Daye, half-human private investigator, sarcastic and impulsive and only sometimes aware of her own flaws, trying to do what's right even when she hates it, and sucked back by that very sense of right and wrong into the world she tried to leave behind. Seanan's characters are complex, layered, and imperfect, trying to be true to themselves but still as unpredictable and fallible as any real person. Even the characters you wouldn't particularly want to know are still people you want to know more about.
You'll find Rosemary and Rue in SF/Fantasy, not mystery, but I'd recommend it just as highly to mystery fans. I'm an avid reader of both urban fantasy and murder mystery, and these two great tastes never tasted so great together! Seanan doesn't sacrifice one genre for the other, and that's what makes it work. The mysteries aren't simple and telegraphed-- there's no obvious butler-did-it or least-likely-person-did-it-- and she doesn't use the classic and infuriating trick of withholding vital information until the end ("what you all didn't know is, Bob was a prison guard twenty years ago, and Bill was an inmate where he worked!") Mystery plotting is a tricky balance, and Seanan strikes it well. And yet the urban fantasy aspect isn't just a stage setting for an otherwise ordinary mystery. Browse any bookstore's mystery section and you'll find loads of gimmick series: musician mysteries, cat mysteries, cookie mysteries (recipes included!), etc. The October Daye series isn't an "x mystery" series; it's an urban fantasy series in which there are compelling mysteries. It's a tale of a woman caught between two worlds and trying to live in both, a portrait of those worlds and an introduction to the people who live there.
I may gush when talking about my friends, but I promise, friendship is only enhancing the gush a little. Speaking as a proofreader/editor, I genuinely and highly recommend Rosemary and Rue to fans of urban fantasy, or murder mysteries, or P.I. novels, or worldbuilding, or complex characters, or folklore, or fairy tales, or Shakespeare, or British folk ballads, or just plain exciting and engrossing stories that are likely to keep you up half the night reading just one more page.
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Rosemary and Rue: An October Daye Novel (Toby Daye) by Seanan Mcguire
Michelle Dockrey, September 14, 2009
Full disclosure: this review may be biased. Not only is the author a friend, I'm also a proofreader of the book. I've had the privilege of watching this book and this series grow over drafts and years. That might make me biased, but it also gives me a perspective that those reading it for the first time might not get.From the first draft I ever read, years ago, Rosemary and Rue hooked me. I reread each draft faithfully from the beginning-- you have to, to proofread well-- and every time, it hooked me just as hard. I've spent hours absolutely absorbed, and this has happened with every book in the series. Recently, when skimming An Artificial Night (book 3) to suggest excerpts for the back of A Local Habitation (book 2), "just skimming" became reading for an hour, completely engrossed, stopping a bit to get some work done and then diving back in for two more hours. I got completely and willingly lost in a book that I'd already read from beginning to end dozens of times. And although Rosemary and Rue is the first book in a series, each book is a complete story with a satisfying ending. The overarching story arc left me craving the next book like an addict, but didn't leave me dangling with cliffhangers. Being a proofer, I know some of what's coming, and even knowing the main plot through book six or so, I'm still dying to read each book. They're that well-crafted, that full of things that draw me into Toby's world and make me want to stay. It's not just the gripping plot; getting there really is half the fun.
One thing that draws me in is world-building. Seanan combines the Bay Area that she knows and loves with the world of Faerie drawn from her college education in myth and folklore, and adds her own particular twists and touches. Both worlds are vivid and real, sometimes enchanting and magical and sometimes frightening and violent, and I find myself craving every scrap of detail about Fae rules and culture, and of how the Fae interact with the mortal world, easily as much as I crave to know how Toby's going to get out of her next scrape.
Ah, Toby. October Daye, half-human private investigator, sarcastic and impulsive and only sometimes aware of her own flaws, trying to do what's right even when she hates it, and sucked back by that very sense of right and wrong into the world she tried to leave behind. Seanan's characters are complex, layered, and imperfect, trying to be true to themselves but still as unpredictable and fallible as any real person. Even the characters you wouldn't particularly want to know are still people you want to know more about.
You'll find Rosemary and Rue in SF/Fantasy, not mystery, but I'd recommend it just as highly to mystery fans. I'm an avid reader of both urban fantasy and murder mystery, and these two great tastes never tasted so great together! Seanan doesn't sacrifice one genre for the other, and that's what makes it work. The mysteries aren't simple and telegraphed-- there's no obvious butler-did-it or least-likely-person-did-it-- and she doesn't use the classic and infuriating trick of withholding vital information until the end ("what you all didn't know is, Bob was a prison guard twenty years ago, and Bill was an inmate where he worked!") Mystery plotting is a tricky balance, and Seanan strikes it well. And yet the urban fantasy aspect isn't just a stage setting for an otherwise ordinary mystery. Browse any bookstore's mystery section and you'll find loads of gimmick series: musician mysteries, cat mysteries, cookie mysteries (recipes included!), etc. The October Daye series isn't an "x mystery" series; it's an urban fantasy series in which there are compelling mysteries. It's a tale of a woman caught between two worlds and trying to live in both, a portrait of those worlds and an introduction to the people who live there.
I may gush when talking about my friends, but I promise, friendship is only enhancing the gush a little. Speaking as a proofreader/editor, I genuinely and highly recommend Rosemary and Rue to fans of urban fantasy, or murder mysteries, or P.I. novels, or worldbuilding, or complex characters, or folklore, or fairy tales, or Shakespeare, or British folk ballads, or just plain exciting and engrossing stories that are likely to keep you up half the night reading just one more page.
(5 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)