Everything that's great about the October Daye series continues strong in #17. I started off swallowing the pages down as fast as possible to get to the end and I was not disappointed. Seeing Toby's world through the haze of what-could-be was the story I didn't know I wanted, but am so glad Seanan knew needed to be told.

The 17th book in the outstanding October Daye series rips Toby away from the world she knows and places her within a false world built on illusions and lies. It's sad and scary to see her so changed, but the adventure that ensues from this crazy setting is powerful and suspenseful, and absolutely delivers. This series remains excellent, and there's clearly so much more to come.

Wow. As a lover of this series, I didn’t see this coming. When I was a kid, DC comics ruled our house. We always looked forward to the “what if” or Bizarro World editions. This book is exactly that for this series. Trapped by a Titania plot, October’s life is upside down with Tybalt desperate to retrieve her. It’s a super fast paced read with a Rayseline novella afterwards. Not a cliff hanger, this is a very complete chapter in the life of Sir Daye. A fun quick addition to the series.

dnf @10%

I didn't realize this book was part of a series and unfortunately I didn't get to read the others in time.

The seventeenth novel in a series, this was quite fun.

I was scared of how repetitive it would be, but it wasn't! The story was well done and the characters stood out on the page. You do have to read the rest of the previous books to understand it, but this urban fantasy series is magically addictive. I had such a good time with it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-arc!

Many, if not all, of us have wondered what our adult lives would be like if some important fact or event of our childhood had been different. It is not an unusual thing to daydream about even if we never discuss it with another person, but no matter how vivid our imagination we can never really know how that other life would play out. Time travel and the ability to peer into alternate Earths are not tools we currently possess. Luckily, they do exist in the worlds of fiction – along with many other ways for us to see what those other lives may have been like. One of those methods, a grand illusion that affects not just the Kingdom of Mists but the bordering kingdoms as well, was set in motion by the long-missing Titania, Queen of Faerie, at the very end of the sixteenth book in the October Daye series (Be the Serpent), and in book seventeen, Sleep No More, we get to experience the depth and breadth of that illusion. Which means we, along with our narrator Toby, get to see firsthand what Toby’s life would have been like had she been raised not just by her emotionally abusive and magically manipulative mother, but also by a father who loved her and with a doting older sister who didn’t go missing before October was born.
For long-time Toby fans, this book is a double-edged sword. It’s cool to see what a close relationship October and her sister August might have had if their lives had been a little different, or to see a Simon Torquill who never descended into evil as far as he did in the real world. It’s also painful to see how a Sylvester Torquill devoid of love and a Quentin absent Toby’s influence might have turned out. McGuire does a fantastic job of pacing out the reveals of how our series regulars are different with altered memories.
But all of that is balanced by the reader’s knowledge of the real world the characters are shielded from by Titania’s working, and the pain of watching Toby, and much of her extended family, come to realize that the real world needs to return, not because their lives were necessarily better in it but because if Titania succeeds in making her illusion world-wide and permanent things will get much, much worse.
Because make no mistake – Titania is a faerie Supremacist. She’s never liked the shapeshifters and part-animal descendant lines among the Fae, and she’s not very fond of changelings (half-human, half-fae) either. McGuire has never pulled her punches in expressing Titania’s unsavory qualities – but most of the time we’ve seen them, it’s been in novellas and short stories as opposed to on full display as the centerpiece of a novel. And of course, not everyone thinks Titania’s vision for Faerie is bad, which adds levels of complication for Toby and the few allies she has.
There are those who might question why, seventeen books into a series, we would need an entire book where our lead character is not herself. Could this have been done earlier or maybe not at all? I don’t think it could have been done earlier – Toby and her found family needed to be in a certain formation and at a certain point in their interpersonal development in order for this story to work. And so did the readers. Any earlier and the impact of a complacent Toby who accepts her place, who doesn’t recognize most of her loved ones would not be as effective. And I do believe this story needed to be told – while I have no insider information, I think the things Toby and her gang have learned about themselves by the end of this book will heavily inform their actions in upcoming books, for better or for worse.
There are so many moments I want to call out as effective character-building or relationship-changing moments or just really cool scenes – but they would all be spoilers. Suffice it to say that I cried once or twice, but also cheered. The final chapters are a whirlwind of action and emotion. And, for those concerned: NO CLIFFHANGER. Everything important is resolved. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t unanswered questions – it’s an on-going series, after all.
The book contains the usual bonus novella, this time narrated by Rayseline. I don’t want to say too much about it so as to not spoil certain moments in the main novel, but I will say this: while I am not a believer that every villain needs a tragic backstory followed by a redemption arc, I do think Rayseline, like Simon before her, deserves the redemption arc she is on. This novella is an excellent start to that, the events of the main novel notwithstanding.
Final note: The eighteenth book in the series, The Innocent Sleep, releases in October of this year, and tells many of the events of this book from the POV of Toby’s husband Tybalt. I’ll be posting my review of that close to, if not on, release date.
I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Sleep No More released September 5, 2023.

So, you weren’t going to start with a book 17 right? But hey, maybe you’re reading this because you haven’t read the series yet and want to see if it stays good, it does!
Fir those who have read the series but haven’t started this one yet my first thought was it’s going to be okay right?!? Toby’s a hero! It’s going to be ok…..?
Enjoy.

Wow. McGuire really likes to torture her characters. I'm very curious, and fearful, of what happens next.

Myth: 4/5

This story was a little slow at the beginning, simply because in October’s state, the reader is reliving a new, slightly different version of faerie. It was absolutely required for the story as a whole, but it was a different path than the past 16 books in the series, which sort of jumped October right into the action.

Magic: 5/5

I continued to be amazed at what Seanan McGuire does with this series and the lore. In the midst of rewriting faerie, we are still able to learn more about the Three and the biggest problem that I’m sure Toby will eventually face.

Overall: 4.5/5

Though I personally lost a little patience with the first ~30% of the story, Seanan McGuire ultimately delivered, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This story brought forth a new side of Toby, a side that’s been there but not always highlighted. It was certainly a unique way to keep this long-running series fresh.

“Sleep No More” by Seanan McGuire is simply stunning. It opens to a warped vision of October and yet throughout the story, October is still so much herself. The novel will be dissonant but necessary as October finds her way to the edges of Titania’s illusions. What makes it truly fantastic are the details in what Seanan has written that so completely map the changes and yet make a surreal amount of sense. I absolutely got chills over how the story unfolds.

Another intriguing aspect is how the magic functions, how totally believable each aspect is and how Seanan enfolds the changes to October into the magic. For me, it also engendered some deep and intense emotions over October’s situation, not just her own scenario but also everyone around her that loves her. The transitions on characters are unbelievably good. Seanan McGuire has completely flipped her universe around, made extremely believable changes and still manages to envelop her readers in the emotional weight of October’s life. To me, this book deserves all the awards and I can’t wait for others to read this novel. It changes everything, not just in the universe of the character but it is an eye opener if you have not yet realized the full weight and talent of Seanan McGuire. This book will convince you of her unbelievable talent. Do not miss this but do catch up on the entire series before you read this one. Trust me, it's worth the read and simply stunning how the world is built, the characters are written and how much you fall in love with the story.

The newest October Daye novel picks up immediately after the confrontation in the previous book. Toby is now the dutiful changeling daughter of Amandine and Simon, planned for a life as her sister's handmaid. However, there are still people who remember her as a hero, and they come calling for help.

Without giving away major points, I will say that this novel tore at my heart as a reader. Toby is one of my favorite fictional characters and I wish a happy ending for her, even though heroes often suffer in Faerie. Her struggles against what is right versus what is easy, and what others need versus her preferences resonate throughout the book. I adored every minute of reading her adventure and am thrilled that the next book in the series is not far off.

Thank you to DAW for my #eARC.

Series Info/Source: This is the 17th book in the October Daye series. I got a copy of this on ebook through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I feel like I will probably be in the minority when I say that this was by far my least favorite October Daye book to date. I really hope this series ties up soon. The below contains spoilers for previous books in this series (but not this book).

The story starts with us following an October who is happy with her life as the daughter of Amadine and Simon Torquill. She is a changeling and is hidden away in Amadine's tower, her main goal in life is to provide companionship to her sister September. As Moving Day approaches (a day where faerie can safely cross the borders of different kingdoms) things start to unravel. October finds out that her life may not be this relatively peaceful existence. People keep calling her a hero and she begins to discover she can do powerful blood magic.

I hate the "oops the main character lost her memory" plot device and that is basically what this story is. Yes, it does this creatively but we spend the whole book watching Toby get back to who she was at the end of book 16.

I just don't see a lot of point to it. Yes, the characters do grow some as a result of their unique experiences in this book, but in the end it seems that more harm than good was done. These characters end up remembering all their experiences from the twisted new version of faerie they've been dwelling in; in some cases this is good...in most cases this is bad.

This is still very well written, McGuire is a top notch author and always writes beautifully. I am just a bit dismayed at the turn this story took and how long this series is being drawn out.

I have "The Innocent Sleep" to review and read as well, and will be reading that in a couple of weeks. I am going to try to just sit back and trust McGuire's thought process because she very rarely lets me down as an author. However, I couldn't help but feel like this was filler.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was well written but a weak installment in the October Daye series. This felt a lot like filler to me and I am not sure why we needed this book. However, I am going to try and trust McGuire's process and hope that somehow this was vital to the series. I will be reading "The Innocent Sleep" soon, which covers the same time period as this book but from Tybalt's POV.

Excellent, truly excellent. Sir October Daye has been turned into changeling October with no memory of her previous life. Stripped of all her life experiences she is completely lost when strange events and people start demanding she remember impossible things. This series doesn't have a bad book in it. This is my recommendation whenever someone wants a truly good series. Every character is well written with a unique personality, an immersive world and a storyline that is so good I hope for at least 20 more books. This is truly a five star book.

Sleep No More is the seventeenth novel in the October Daye series and it is a trip. This is a well established series and you will need to read all the books in order to understand most of the storyline in this one. Titania is back with a vengeance and she might not be able to physically harm Toby, but that leaves a lot of latitude on what she is allowed to do. Being the Queen of lies, she had woven a huge one where Toby never met Tybalt, changelings all know their lowly place and purebloods rule. What would a faery look like if all those things were true and Toby is the submissive servant child of Amandine and Simon, born to serve her pureblood sister August.

It has been four months that October has lived in this lie and for the reader an October that has forgotten all of her history and how awesome she is, well it is a struggle. She doesn’t understand why the man they call the King of Cats looks at her with something that looks both like pain and hate when they meet. She can’t tell why when she accidentally tasted her blood different memories flood back of things she doesn’t remember and when she rode someone else’s blood it was the same. There is definitely something wrong but does she really want to give up this life and the family she has for the other version of Faery. We the reader are screaming yes…but Toby oh Toby isn’t so sure and it takes some convincing from our favorite character the Sea Witch to assist her in coming out of this lie and possibly saving Faery before it helps Titania set this lie as fact.

“The truth is, four months ago, Titania wrapped as much of Faerie as she could reach in an illusion so seamless that it’s taken us this long to find a way to reach you. We need your help if we’re going to put Faerie back the way it’s meant to be. We need you so we can save our world.”
“Oh,”I said faintly. “Is that all?”

Again a fantastically original story from Seanan McGuire. She really has created an intricate world and it was fascinating to see where all our favorite characters were and what they would be doing in an alternate Faery. It was also terrifying to see what Titania was capable of. I still hope we someday get to see Maeve as we now have two of the three in current time. Oberon while present is still somewhat of an enigma and we only get a few glimpses of him. There are a few issues with Titania’s world, since in her version all the Sea Fae have been destroyed so she had to stash their land ridden halflings somewhere while trying to make this reality stick. As new horrors come to light Toby is driven more and more into the woman she really is and finds the version of herself as Sir October Daye who is willing to dive into danger, cause trouble and be the disruptive force she always is to set right what once was wrong.

***Courage isn’t knowing everything will be fine. It’s knowing everything might not be, and doing what needs to be done anyway, because someone has to.***

Seventeen books into the series and again I am really wowed by the imagination and storytelling brought to life. I really look forward to reading the companion book to this one from Tybalt’s PoV, since we don’t get a lot of time with him in the story. But I’m sure there are going to be some great nuggets in that one as we see this world of lies through his eyes as he tries to get the love of his life back and hopes she remembers the news shared with him right before this nightmare happened.

“Why are you in my dream?” I asked, challenging.
Lowering his hands, he looked at me. Without anger, without hate, with only sorrow and love in his eyes. “Because, little fish, a man is allowed to weep for the loss of his heart,”

If you are a fan of stories with Fae mythos in modern day, I have not found a better one. The first few books of the series are a little dark but by book three I was hooked and never looked back.

Bonus story:

Candles and Starlight is a bonus story told from Rayseline Torquill’s PoV about her journey in Blind Michael’s lands while she was tucked away with all the other halfling kids that aren’t supposed to exist in Titania’s world and the things they did to survive. I liked this story and how Rayseline is a different person than the one she used to be while she was going crazy. With her blood balanced she has a chance to become something else and she took this situation to really explore some of who she could be in the future. She may have even made up for some of the bad deeds of her past.

Review of Sleep No More & The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire
*Warning, there will be spoilers for previous books in the series if you read ahead. As this review covers books 17 & 18 in a series, I don’t recommend starting here anyway. Go back and read Rosemary and Rue and you will have a much better understanding of the complicated character relationships.
Hail, 2023, the year of two Octobers! Just like the author decided to publish two October Daye novels back-to-back, this review is a two-for-one special. Why? Because the books are related. They tell the same story, but from different perspectives. In Sleep No More we see October (Toby’s) side, and in The Innocent Sleep we hear from Tybalt, our favorite leather pants wearing cat. Toby and Tybalt are finally, finally married. Too bad October pissed off one of the Queens of All Faerie. Titania, formerly hiding within Toby’s best friend Stacy Brown, re-makes reality into a twisted mirror. Changelings and mixed-bloods are not welcome in Titania's vision, and Toby is thrown back into an altered version of reality. Usually, that wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that this time, October is happy to be there. Titania’s re-written world has Toby content playing the dutiful daughter to Simon and Amandine, and the loving companion to her sister August. Titania's illusions make it so she doesn't remember anything else. Not even her husband or the fact that she is pregnant.
I found the beginning of Sleep No More a little boring. The problem with memory erasure is that characters wind up having to discover what they are forgetting at some point, and we readers already know that information, so it gets a bit repetitive. What I did like was a different look at pureblood fae society and customs, which we get courtesy of October’s newly forced role. Even the resolution of the story I thought was a little boring. I thought to myself “Haven’t we done this before?”. Though, in fairness, some of that probably has to do with Titania's lack of imagination and stubborn refusal to believe that she isn’t perfect.
I enjoyed The Innocent Sleep more than Sleep No More mostly because of these criticisms. In Tybalt’s book, there was much less repetition because his experience was so dramatically different from Toby’s. He was shunted out of reality altogether, and had to find allies, his wife, and his way back. Tybalt’s journey took us to places we don’t see much of, like the Undersea and the Court of Cats, and gave more flavor to those places and their inhabitants. There was way less repetition of information we already knew, because Tybalt didn’t lose his memory. Things were only duplicative once his story aligned with what happened in Sleep No More, and that is the price you pay for having an adventure told from multiple viewpoints, even though repeat dialogue is never the most interesting to me. I will be interested to see how some of the breadcrumbs (I think) were dropped in this book play out later in the series. Also, I really enjoyed the novella at the end of The Innocent Sleep, which is about Dianda’s rise to power in the Undersea. Overall, 3 stars for Sleep No More and 4 stars for The Innocent Sleep.

I love all the October Daye books and this is one of the best of them. It was heart wrenching in the best of ways and I enjoyed figuring out the rules and implications of the new world Titania built compared to the world of the earlier books.

An introduction to a fantasy world with wonderful well written characters. If this is your first story in the series, you would benefit from searching out the previous books in the series. This story is so well written you can enjoy as a magical fantasy story of its own.
Tobey the main character finds out her whole world might be a lie, but she is resistant to find the truth as it may take away the only family she knows. Tobey will have to believe her magic will show her the way.
Thank you NetGalley and (publisher, DAW) for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Sleep No More is the 17th novel in Seanan McGuire's urban fae fantasy "October Daye" series, one of my favorite series in SF/F at this point. If by some chance you have no knowledge of the series and are still reading this review anyway, well the series follows the half-fae (Changeling) October Daye, as her work as both a knight of the local Fae Kingdom in San Francisco and her private detective work in the human world gets her deeper and deeper involved in the affairs of Faerie. More importantly, the series really thrives on showcasing its irreverent blood working heroine as she winds up over all the books building her own found family with whom she feels at home....and who aid her as she gets deeper and deeper into trouble.

Most likely however, if you're reading this review, you've heard of or at least read part of the series, and it's kind of impossible to write this review without going into spoilers for the series' first 16 books as Sleep No More builds directly off a MASSIVE cliffhanger in the series' last book, Be the Serpent. At the end of that book, after October had finally dealt with a threat hinted at for 15 prior books, she found her world and herself massively changed in a way that was simply wrong....and horrifying. It was a twist that was downright brutal and unprecedented in this series, and it left me begging for a conclusion.

Sleep No More is that conclusion in part - McGuire actually wrote an 18th book from Tybalt's perspective because there is so much to deal with in this new world that can't be seen here in this book - as October lives in this new world for a while until cracks start to form and set her down the road to restoration. It's yet another gripping book in the series, although its ending leaves a little to be desired...given the sheer amount of threat our series' new antagonist poses, it does feel like our protagonist's set things "right" a bit too easily (especially after everything in the last two books). But well, if you're an October Daye fan, you'll remain hooked on the series after this book and wanting more now that this cliffhanger is resolved.

Spoilers for the First 16 books are below and untagged. If you want to read further, you're reading at your own risk. Spoilers for THIS book will be discussed in a secondary post.

Plot Summary:
October Torquill is a happy Changeling. Born to serve her parents, firstborn Amandine and her husband Simon Torquill, as well as her trueblood sister August, October lives a happy life in constant supervision in her mother's Tower as the compliant and dutiful daughter who knows her place. She is as loved as she could be, and if the Faerie of Queen Titania renders her a second class citizen, born to service her pureblood betters....well, that's all it should be.

Except This Happiness....this Everything is a lie. And when October is asked to look into a strange mystery by a noble she's never met before, she soon comes face to face with a person who claims that Toby is not merely just her family's maid, but is a powerful bloodworker in her own right and that she and everyone else is caught in an illusion of Titania's creation. An illusion where cruelty and oppression are normal and the people Toby once loved are either forcibly changed or not allowed to exist. And unless Toby is able to do something about it, it's an illusion that Titania may be able to make permanent.

But when all Toby remembers is this happy life where she's grown up with a beloved sister and father (and an absentee mother), will she even be willing to break the illusion before it's too late?
Sleep No More follows what seemed like a devastating cliffhanger at the end of the last book, Be the Serpent - Toby having defeated Titania, ready to find a moment to relax in her new life after having just told Tybalt that she's pregnant with their child. Except that Titania immediately intervened and we last saw Toby in a life that was very very wrong: acting like the loyal changeling maid of her mother and sister in pure happiness despite it not being who she is at all. It was a horrifying transformation to be teased, and readers have spent a whole year wondering and worrying what had actually happened.

Sleep No More reveals that what had happened is as horrifying, if not more horrifying than what it seemed. Somehow (the extent of which is a mild spoiler) Titania has managed to cast an illusion over most of Toby's world such that the Kingdom of Mists now fits the vision she has for Faerie - one where mixed bloods are gone, Changelings are fully subservient, and Maeve's peoples have been either culled or are non-existent. Toby's family is either missing or warped - Quentin is now a racist pureblood squire of Etienne, Sylvester is unmarried and miserable, Tybalt, May and Jazz are missing (and not missed since Toby has no clue who they are), etc. And just as horrifying is the fact that Toby is, despite some moments of bitterness over how she can't help some changelings coming to her for aid, actually happy about the life she has been magically convinced is real. We know how hard she's worked for a family and love for herself and how she's made the world a better place, so seeing her being happy and content in this far worse world (even with the reality of Faerie as we've known it before not being exactly a super happy place) is kind of brutal.

And so it's not really that surprising when Toby struggles to, when confronted by remnants from the old world of the unreality of her situation, want to take action to replace this new world with her old. The same is true of other characters she meets, and so much of this book features Toby getting caught up in a whirlwind that forces her to try to change things back while at the same time making her feel more and more worse about it. And it's what forms Toby's greatest challenge yet, perhaps.

It's a gripping narrative, but that challenge is I guess part of my only problem with this book - the ending wraps things up way too easily, with Titania being defeated through a method that just seems kind of silly at best and repetitive of other events in the series at worst. Surely it should've been harder to do this, or to at least get into the position to be able to do this, but nope, it's not. More on that in a spoiler post I'll post after the release of this book and the next book.

Still, Sleep No More is a gripping narrative and another excellent installment...and because this story features a lot of things happening off page, we're getting a second new book in a month that features the same story from Tybalt's perspective, as he struggles against Titania's new world from another side. I cannot wait.

I messed up and read the Innocent Sleep before Sleep No More so the stakes were a bit lower here for me than they ought to have been. Also, it means that my review for Innocent Sleep is much more comprehensive since for me, this ended up being the bonus book!

It was absolutely wild reading Toby's voice as demure and submissive and honestly a little frustrating in the beginning! I enjoyed watching her personality shine through as the adventure unfolded but really wished we could have braided Tybalt's perspective in somehow!

5/5 stars: McGuire's October Daye series had been a long time favorite and this latest installment doesn't disappoint. In fact, it's a gut punch but if you've read this series you know McGuire's never been afraid to serve those up. McGuire's world of the Fae is fantastically well-written and thoroughly filled out and includes some of the best cast of characters I've ever read. They're infinitely complex yet incredibly likable; you will grow to love and hate them in turns. Also included is a short story, Candles and Starlight, featuring Raysel's POV during the events of Sleep No More. I love how McGuire uses the shorts to expand the world-building and flesh out the secondary characters of the series. This is the seventeenth book in the series and due to the nature of the story might be a good entry point for a new reader. But I would suggest starting from the beginning with Rosemary and Rue, book one.

I received this eARC thanks to NetGalley and DAW in exchange for an honest review. Publishing dates are subject to change.