“Fairy Tales are not for children, and they don’t care who dies. They never have.”
Agent Henrietta Marchen made some exceptionally dangerous enemies heading up her team of ATI Management Bureau agents as they fight back against a universe of fairy tales constantly looking to happen again at the expense of anyone unlucky enough to fit a story’s mold. They’re only the start of her worries though, as the weight of the personal sacrifice she made to defeat them also hangs over her head and those of of team, who aren’t in the best of shapes themselves…
This is a direct sequel to Indexing, and heavily depends on concepts, characters, and events in that book. Start reading there.
Like Indexing, this sequel is a police procedural in a world where fairy tale narratives are an unseen force always looking to co-opt peoples lives. It’s an unusual and clever concept, brought to another level by the even more imaginative directions McGuire pushes it. Like the first this was originally released in serialized form, although the pacing and scope feel quite a bit different.
This one seems closer to chapters broken up into short story format than the first (which edged more towards connect short stories), but both approaches were successful and it’s nice to see the author able to adapt the style to properly fit the particular story being told. There are some conveniences, and these aren’t quite as tight as her October Daye series, but that’s small criticism and these are still fantastically built adventures that are highly enjoyable to watch unfold.
“Take all the time you need, as long as you don’t need very much.”
I don’t want to spoil any plot details so this will be kept necessarily vague, but Henry and her team are in for a bit of a wild ride this time around. And admittedly, at points the reader has to be content to go along for said ride and things get stranger and more complicated. But in the end it all comes together beautifully and the entire book maintains a wonderful feel of escalating stakes and a constant sense of urgency. Danger, complications, and internal dilemmas all plague our protagonists, and it’s all balanced well to provide a compelling overarching story as well as important moments of character development.
“She moved like she was mad at the world and wanted to make sure it knew.”
McGuire is great at weaving in little details and using the supporting cast to add depth and engagement to her stories, and that ability continues to shine here, particularly in the introduction of some great new characters. But at its heart this particular journey is about two characters before all others, and it benefits greatly from the tight focus on learning more about the past, present, and possible future of them. There’s a ton of information and context conveyed, and it’s integrated smoothly this time without feeling (too much) like things are pausing for info dumps.
“This is a bad idea. Let’s go somewhere else. Somewhere that isn’t actively preparing to swallow us both alive.”
One of my favorite things about this series, and McGuire’s writing in general, is the natural feel to the characters. Their attitudes, speech patterns, the way they tease each other, and other little moments of interaction really help not only to make each cast member distinct and memorable, but also to make the whole thing relatable. Despite the strange trappings, abilities, etc there’s something genuine about the characters and how they react and interact. It an extremely important layer to making this all accessible and engaging the reader, and McGuire deftly pulls it off.
Overall McGuire’s quirky mash up of procedural and fairy tales continues to be spot on for me. Between her wonderful gift for descriptions and generally smooth writing style, characters I legitimately care about, and fascinating world building, I’m adoring this series and really hope there’s more to come.
Derailments of Thought 