I read this book weeks ago and am excited to finally be able to give feedback now that the strike has ended, I loved Unseelie. It is one of the best YA debuts I have read in a good while—on par with Daughter of the Moon Goddess last year, which I also loved. This story turns negative stereotypes about autistic characters on their heads with Seelie and has a rollicking high fantasy plot that would not be out of place next to The Name of the Wind. If you like fairies, shapeshifting, mischievous brownies, magical houses, and YA fantasy, I highly recommend Unseelie. I can’t wait for book 2!

The one quote I wrote down when reading this was ‘I never understood why people just become friends’ and if that’s not the most relatable sentence I’ve ever read, I don’t know what is.

Seelie is the representation I needed when I was younger and had just been diagnosed with autism. We are in desperate need of more genuine autistic characters, who aren’t seen as burdens. Seelie being autistic wasn’t a plot point to overcome, it just was a fact of her character, as much as the fact that she is a changeling.

The other of this book was the magic! This book is just so magical, it felt like a fairytale. There’s shape-shifting, there’s elemental magic, there’s healing magic. The characters have an enchanted wagon, and there’s even dragons! Though I do feel like the world building itself was in need of more explanation and detail than was given.

The other issue I had was the general lack of plot. For a solid part in the middle of the book, it felt like very little was happening. It was mostly just the characters arguing with no real movement of the plot. Seelie is also a frustrating character at times. She often gets angry with the other characters for no valid reason, and seemed to not think of anyone but herself.

The synopsis of this says it a ‘heist’ and that definitely isn’t accurate. The characters more go on road trip than anything else. Enjoyable, but not as exciting as a heist.

Iselda and Isolde are twins, but one is a changeling. They've had to run from their hometown, from their family and have been living on their own for years, since they were 14 or so. And then, with a case of wrong place wrong time, they end up on the run in a whole new way and have to figure things out with new partners... Basically, things are not going well.

I liked this. It was a pretty different kind of fae story and I really enjoyed that. But, to be honest, it took me more time to get through it than it should have. I had trouble focusing and keeping interest. That might be because of external reasons but I usually don't let those interfere with my reading.
I still found the plot pretty interesting and the characters too, especially the main one but I was all that into the romance... Part of it felt a bit like déjà-vu?
I'll still probably try and reread this and read the sequel. Maybe. But I'll definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author.

This book has a lot of my literary buzz words: sibling relationships, faerie lore, romance, fantasy. It also features an autistic main character, and though I can't speak to the authenticity of the rep, it did seem well done to me.

I thought this was a really fun YA fantasy. I liked the way faerie lore was explored, and I enjoyed the sister relationship portrayed in the story. There is a cliffhanger at the end, which I was not expecting, but I will certainly be picking up the sequel to see how the story ends! I would recommend this book to lovers of YA fantasy, anyone who enjoys faerie lore, or readers looking for autistic representation.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid 3.0 star read for me. While there were definitely elements I liked, the story overall was a bit confusing especially as I got toward the end.

I really liked Seelie and Isolde’s relationship as sisters. Their fights felt believable and their love for one another was definitely shown throughout the book.

I thought the representation of an autistic female character was really well written. Seelie’s personality and her reactions were definitely indicative of someone on the spectrum, while not being an over generalization.

As someone who loves fantasy, but could definitely not make it in a fantasy novel I enjoyed Seelie’s honest reactions to adversity and her desire to just give up some times. I very much related to her desire to just go home and give up the adventure.

The other characters in this novel were a bit forgettable. I love enemies to friends to lovers and I felt that the relationship between Seelie and Raze was a bit rushed. I think that in the second book their relationship may feel a little more natural as they get to know one another better.

I also felt that we didn’t get a good sense of why the villain was villainous. I understood that how she treated her nephew and others who were loyal to her wasn’t good, but I didn’t really understand her motivations other than just surface level being ~evil~.

The end of the book is where I really got lost, after Seelie goes to the fairy realm and opens the portal back I basically had to reread those chapters twice and was still confused…?

All in all, I thought this was a slightly average fantasy but with a really vital example of representation in novels especially aimed at young adults. I will definitely read the next book in the series, but I will have higher hopes that the plot line gets a little more streamlined.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Inkyard Press for this eARC to review.

5/5 stars!!!

Ohmygoddddd I cannot wait for the sequel! I absolutely love anything related to classical faerie realm storytelling, and this was such a fun new twist on those tales. I absolutely loved Seelie as a main character, and I got way too attached to both Burch and the Destiny (like also if we don't get Burch back in book 2?? Also I was MOURNING when I thought the Destiny was legit gone??). I really loved the rag-tag group on a wild roadtrip dynamic, and there was always so so much going on! I also greatly appreciated the MC, Seelie, showed us that autism is not one dimensional and will look vastly different from person to person, but that does not invalidate their lived experiences. I loved being able to see myself in parts of her, and to get such a deep experience of how she felt throughout the book. Also deeply in love with Ginger-Himbo Raze and our BFF Olani! I really wasnt expecting the twist at the end, and when a certain item was *destroyed* I started crying. I will be waiting on baited breath for this sequel!

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will not be posting my review until the Harpercollins Union has a fair contract, in order to not cross the picket line. Please help support the union in anyway you can whether that be spreading awareness or donating.

A great sisters tale that infused awareness of autism and I am so here for this. When important topics of awareness are infused into a fantasy or science fiction it entices students to learn empathy for the MC and this will carry over hopefully into their everyday life. I will definitely be recommending Unseelie.

I was so excited for this book I can barely explain it. A story about sisterhood with an autistic protagonist? And fae? In my favorite genre of YA fantasy? Sign me up.

That is why it pains me so much to say this book was a flop. I left it languishing in my currently reading pile for around a month at 50% because I just didn’t want to read it anymore, and now I’ve finally pushed through and it was even worse than I expected. I want to be clear that this rating is not at all reflective of Seelie’s autistic traits being annoying; it’s the craft of this book that is poor.

The opening scene in this novel is very compelling. Seelie’s experience of the Revelnox festival is richly described, the sounds and sights clearly filtered through her autistic perspective in a way that was very relatable to an autistic person such as myself. I particularly enjoyed the moment when Isolde asked Seelie if it was too loud, and she said no, that the loudness was actually soothing. Unfortunately, this attention to detail and description, the experience of the world from a truly autistic lens… kind of peters out. It is remembered in some moments like Seelie’s aversion to touch or struggling with the change of her sister wanting to go adventuring, but the immersion doesn’t remain.

The other aspect of autism that is portrayed is meltdowns. However, it is not really Seelie that has meltdowns, but her magic. The magic is part of her, sure, but we are told Seelie accepts herself as autistic, when she absolutely does not accept her magic. She even narrates that most changelings go back to the fae realm, but she isn’t called to. So are all fae autistic? Or is it because she is autistic and not because she is fae/a changeling? The reveal about the origin of changelings muddies this metaphor even further, and kind of ruins the whole theory about autism and the changeling myth and its use in this book. Back to meltdowns and magic, though, Seelie acts irrationally about it, trying to shove it away and ignore it as if that will protect her (this tracks with meltdowns) and it lashes out when she doesn’t want it to (which is how meltdowns often go when you try to mask them for too long). Does this only affect her this way because she has too much magic? Do all changelings even have magic? The whole thing is convoluted and doesn’t make sense. There is also the missed opportunity for her to connect with other changelings instead of being forced to integrate into the neurotypical world.

Outside of the autism rep, though, this book still isn’t good. We start our ignorant of a lot of information that is being kept from us for no real reason (like why Seelie and Isolde left their family). The plot is formed by a bunch of coincidences that follow very little logic. There’s a lot of deus ex machina, and the middle drags with endless sniping between the characters who rightfully dislike each other. This is not a story of sisterhood; it’s kind of a story about how sisterhood falls apart when given the lightest pressure, but by the end retcons the sister’s legitimate issues and says they’ll work together and always love each other. The whole group also becomes friends somehow? I guess just uniting against a common enemy and forced proximity. It didn’t feel real. And the plot is not really resolved at all when the book ends, so there isn’t a satisfying conclusion to book 1 unless… you’re here for the romance.

And let’s talk about that romance. Because of course we cannot have a story of sisterhood and autism and adventure without some boy becoming an issue. From the beginning Raze is awful to Seelie, but we’re still given tidbits that don’t track with her identity/personality that this will be a standard heteronormative romance plot, and he’s the only male character. The friendship development between Isolde and Olani is much more compelling and believable. It is only when Raze and Seelie are stuck alone together that he finally starts calling her by her chosen name, which means she suddenly thinks he’s dreamy. The bar is in hell. She has to kiss him at one point to break a fairy curse and it’s kind of gross, but that doesn’t deter the narrative. At the end of the book, Seelie is clearly half in love with him and set up to have a full romance arc in the second book. The thing that won her over? He gives her a whole speech about how HE DIDN’T THINK OF HER OR TREAT HER AS HUMAN, but don’t worry, he thinks she’s a person now. This is the full manic pixie dream girl treatment going forward and I hate it. Disgusting. Girls, don’t settle for boys like this.

I gave this a four out of five stars. I really enjoyed this book, the friendships and relationships. I plan on getting a physical copy of this and I totally recommend this book. I will be impatiently waiting for book two to come out. This is a story where the main character is autistic in a fantasy setting but its not surrounding just that, and it’s not about their care taker.

I like that this has an autistic protagonist. Though, I felt like I had a hard time connecting due to the constant freak outs I felt they were experiencing. I've read other autistic protagonists before and usually felt connected to them so that was a little harder for me. I really loved the bond between Isolde and Seelie though. Their relationship felt real and reminded me much of my own sister.

The world building needed some work. While the story was well done, I was still a little confused with the pacing and the setting. This was the third cliffhanger book I read in a row so it's not the series fault that I was annoyed by that but, it was a big one... or at least too big of one for me to assume anything else.

Hopefully the worldbuilding picks up a little in the next book otherwise I recommend this.

Unseelie is a YA fantasy about identical twin sisters, one of whom is a changeling and can do magic. I was interested in this book because it seemed like a cool world and the main character is described as having autism, so I was very excited to read it!

I thought this book was okay! I had no idea what unseelie was or that it was a larger part of a genre until I searched this book to write this review, so I think I'm a little out of step. YA fantasy can be hit or miss for me, and this one leaned a little more on the miss. I liked the setup, especially with the main characters being twin sisters. I liked the side characters fine and thought the found family aspect was nice. The plot and the world weren't super interesting to me (I honestly can't really remember the plot), so I hope that they are fleshed out more in the next books if this is a series!

While I am not autistic, I'm a psychologist who works with a lot of teens with autism and I was wondering how it would be portrayed in this book in a magical setting. I'm not sure that I would have picked up that Seelie has autism if I hadn't been looking for it, but I really liked the subtle (for me) representation and the support from the other characters. I noticed more with parallels to changelings in general than with Seelie individually. I was really happy to see an autistic main character in a fantasy story, and particularly a girl!

Overall, I'm glad that this book exists and I think that YA fantasy lovers would really enjoy it! 3 stars from me. Thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley & Inkyard Press for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Man, this was disappointing. I didn't like any of the characters and the magic system was really confusing. I appreciate the autistic rep, though. I just really could not connect with any of the characters or the plot.

A book about autism but told in the way of fae.
Be prepared for a cliffhanger.
I felt as if I missed a plot line in the middle of the book.
Nothing that different of the villain.

What a fun fantasy to start the year! This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2023, and I’m so glad I got to read this one. Seelie is I think my favorite lead in recent memory, and I identified with her so much. The magic system in this world made sense, and I think Raze might be my favorite side character ever. I greatly enjoyed reading an Actually Autistic novel, and I can’t wait to read more from Houseman!

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. At first I tried to get into this and I set it down as a did not finish but I tried to give it another chance. This time I actually finished it! But how I felt from the first time didn't really change that much. I don't really care about originality all that much because I believe that what matters is that authors have a unique and different take on the story they are trying to tell but I still believe that this book could've been executed better and it lacked excitement. I am thankful that there was autistic representation for readers though. I just feel that the story left much to be desired when it came to the writing and the storytelling.

Long ago and far away fairies and humans shared a world. The fairies caused all sorts of trouble for the humans, casting spells, using magic and creating changelings. This did not mean humans had no magic. Some families had quite a lot of magic. Some families had some magic, but most humans didn't have any.
Isolde and Iselia Graygrove are twins of a sort. Fairies made Iselia and tried to swap her for Isolde, but their mother pot a stop to that. She kept both girls and raised them together, even in the face of community discouragement. People were afraid of Iselia and her magic. As a changeling, Iselia (Seelie) had wild magic. She tried, as much as she was able, to hide her magic. When the girls were 14, they ran away from home so their parents would be safe.
Isolde was a pickpocket. Seelie was her protector. On a carnival night, Isolde planned an audacious burglary of a rich house. The crime went sideways and the girls had to run. They were chased by another pair who had planned a robbery at the same house and by the householder. The chase took them through ancient history and current fairy lands. The ending was a perfect place for volume 2 to begin.
I liked the girls. They might be twins, but they are not the same. Seelie wants to find a place where she is safe. Isolde want adventure. Seelie wants to forget she has powers. Isolde want to hunt treasure.
I like fantasy that follows its internal rules. The world created for this story made lots of sense. I especially liked the moving house. I'd like to have one, only it couldn't run on magic.

One of my resolutions in the new year is to get back to reading...to find my joy in it again. Keeping that in mind, I've gone back to an old favorite genre: fantasy. I decided to check Net Galley to see if anything piqued my interest, and I wound up finding this read! I have to say, this was a pretty great read! I liked the fact that it was written by an author that had personal experience with Autism, and they relayed that experience into their characters, particularly Iselia! I was really drawn to her, and her story. The plot was engaging, and kept me interested throughout the book. I didn't like that it ended on a cliffhanger, so am eagerly awaiting the next book!

I love the idea of a changeling being thought of as autistic! I could really relate to the chRcters, they seemed to be people like me and my family.

I look forward to discussing this book more once the HC strike comes to some kind of conclusion. When that happens, I'll be sure to give my full thoughts on my channel.