Title: An Artificial Night
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: October Daye #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fae, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2010

An Artificial Night actually freaked me out a little bit more than other fae stories that I’ve read. Possibly because the idea of losing a child is honestly a visceral fear. Which is most likely why it’s so featured in traditional fae tales – the fae take our children and therefore are terrifying. Having children’s rhymes interspersed throughout just made this all that much freakier and more uncomfortable. But, because of this serious discomfort – I couldn’t put this book down and / or forget about it. It was phenomenal.

I frequently fall in love with McGuire’s characters, and truly enjoy Toby and all of her adventures. But, I must admit I pretty much immediately fell in love with May. I mean, the differences between her and Toby are apparent from the very beginning. And I just found her really cute and kind of naïve, whilst also being a little bit scary. It also made me happy that, even if she is a portent of something that is usually seen as a negative, she was a really positive character.

Connor is interesting as a character from Toby’s past, but I find him kind of painful. I don’t really see the connection between him and Toby, and honestly, every time he shows up, he just causes problems. Mostly by showing his emotions and painting a target on Toby’s back with his somewhat psychotic wife. He just kind of… hangs on and mopes around. Not my favourite character, although not quite detestable either.

Tybalt is so obviously the end game love interest for Toby, and I keep wanting more and more of them. I mean, it’s incredibly obvious that Tybalt has claimed Toby in some kind of way, and that she is entirely clueless about his motives. But this just makes me want more of their relationship. Particularly because I love the whole feline doesn’t do what anyone tells him angle that they’ve got going. I’m not sure if I’m excited for Late Eclipses because I can’t wait to see what other trouble Toby gets herself into, or because I’m excited for more Toby and Tybalt.

Honestly, I was kind of surprised at the fact that Toby managed to triumph like she did. I was expecting her to have a whole lot more trouble than she did with winning the battle. I love that her triumph was totally unexpected and, I feel, has a whole lot of unforeseen consequences. Now onto the next insane battle that she should lose, but won’t…

<- A Local Habitation

Late Eclipses ->

Image source: Amazon