HELLO I LOVE SEANAN MCGUIRE

This year has been very good to me, reading and book wise. One of the best things has been finding a new favorite author!! Not only that, but an author who has a RIDICULOUS amount of books published already. Sooo many more books to read and look forward to! Seanan McGuire has very very quickly become one of my top five favorite authors.

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First encounters:

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I read Middlegame in late April, right before it was released. At the time, this was her most recent novel. I am like…still blown away by how fucking GOOD this book is. You can read my full review of it here, but like, it’s probably my favorite read of 2019. I don’t think anything else really comes close. It was so dark and complex and mind blowing, and everything I could possibly want in a book. Middlegame blends science and magic and mystery, and tackles subjects like isolation due to others being unable to understand you, suicide attempts, greed, and attaining the ultimate power. The best part though is that it’s really about a sibling relationship at it’s core, and that drives the novel. It’s brilliant and you all must read it!

I went to see Seanan at her panels during New York Comic Con, and was honestly blown away by how cool and interesting she is. The most striking thing (at least what stuck with me) is how she loves fae and fairytales. She was on a panel called “Not Your Mother’s Tinkerbell,” which was all about how we tell fairy stories that are more realistic. Fae are not these happy gentle folk – they are vicious and twisted and have their own sense of morality. I walked away with a huge appreciation for her imagination and storytelling ability.

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Finding Toby Daye and the fae:

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Meeting her made me even more excited to read more of her work, so I started reading one of her urban fantasy series, the October Daye series. I had bought the first book during comic con (to get it signed) and I FLEW through it. After finishing I then proceeded to immediately purchase the next 9 ebooks so I could binge read the series 😂. I read through book six, which ended up being a great stopping point. I will definitely be finishing up the series (what has been released anyway) during my holiday break. To give you an idea of how much I loved them – I read those six books in five days hahaha.

This is a WONDERFUL series about the intersection of the fae and human world in Northern California. There are so many incredible characters that I love. I think it’s a perfect series for people who have been reading YA fae stories but want something that is not YA.

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Finding the right door:

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And now, a few days ago, I started reading her series of novellas – the Wayward Children novellas (beginning with Every Heart a Doorway). The premise of these is so incredibly cool. It basically follows children who have traveled to different magical worlds, but are now back in our world and are trying to move on. I only have read the first so far but I already know that I will love the rest of them. We get a glimpse at different worlds, how these experiences can massively change people, and how to cope with such major changes.

I love that the idea behind traveling to a different world is that children find one that is inherently suited to who they are – they find the right door, one to a world where they can be purely themselves, without having to change or hide. It’s a great message about being able to accept who you are without reservations.

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For the future:

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Thankfully as I said, Seanan has a HUGE body of work to explore. I still have the rest of the October Daye series and the Wayward Children series to catch up on. Subterranean Press also recently released a collection of her short stories, called Laughter at the Academy, which I bought but haven’t read yet. I’m also very excited to read her InCryptid series, which is another urban fantasy series about a family of cryptozoologists (aka a family that protects cryptids – monsters – from humanity, and vice versa). I haven’t even mentioned that she also writes under the name Mira Grant!!! I haven’t even read any of her work under that name. Those novels are more sci-fi/thriller/horror from what little I know.

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Have you read any of Seanan’s (or Mira’s) work? If not I hope I’ve done my job in convincing you to try at least one of her books haha.

Did you discover any new favorite authors this year? Who should I be reading??