I wanted to love Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire. Middlegame was one of my best reads of 2019, a ma

I wanted to love Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire. Middlegame was one of my best reads of 2019, a masterwork of bendy sci fi.The core of Seasonal Fears was perfect. Harry and Melanie have been in love since they were small, fully committed to one another as Melanie struggles with a lifelong heart problem that dooms her to eventually die young. But the summer king and the winter queen are dead, meaning their crowns are up for grabs. Harry and Melanie are activated as candidates, and must enter a deadly competition. If they lose, Melanie is as good as dead. If they win, the two of them live, linked and loved, for as long as they’d like.I love McGuire’s worlds. The core is always her characters. Melanie and Harry are believable and romantic, both realistic about their odds and hopelessly committed to each other. The supporting cast and the elemental world is interesting, and I always enjoy elemental magical systems.But it was just too long. McGuire has a tendency to digress, and add parentheticals. It’s part of her style, and I often enjoy it—there’s nothing wrong with it on its own. But this particular novel, which is 476 pages in total, could have and should have been closer to 300. The digressions were much too expository and often dug themselves in circles. It really comes down to this: at a certain point, you have to trust that the reader sees what you’ve already demonstrated, whether it be Harry’s privilege, the two teens’ love for each other, or the world-building.McGuire is usually good at trusting the reader to follow her, and then using the parentheticals as bonus material or foreshadowing only. In this novel, I think there needed to be a more demanding editorial eye to cut the text down, in order to let the romance and the sharp, dangerous action take center stage. The action is cut apart by long, lengthy descriptions and exposition. McGuire also uses digressions almost apologetically (or even pedantically) in unnecessary ways—for example, explaining why Harry as a young boy understands consent so implicitly, when honestly she could have just let it be with a sentence.I was fully invested in Harry and Melanie, but around ¼ of the way through the novel, I stopped feeling like they were in any danger. The first fourth of the book was the best part, because it built so much around Harry and Melanie and the mystery of what was going to fall onto their shoulders, and Melanie’s heart condition. But the further into the book I got, the harder it was to stay as invested. The stakes, the suspense, and the dark serrated edge of McGuire’s Alchemical Journeys world were blunted by its extra length.I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Seasonal Fears is out now.Content warnings for misogynstic violence, torture, ableism, domestic abuse, suicidal ideation. -- source link
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