I was a little put off by the beginning of this story. Toby is definitely not the person that we’ve met in the previous books. I didn’t like seeing her this way.. I was anxious reading it wondering how she was going to return to the character we knew. Over time the spell is lifted and she doesn’t remember who she is although it kind of felt flat when she reunited with her husband & family. Overall I did enjoy the book but I was glad for the happy ending. I enjoyed the bonus story of how the kids survived in Blind Michael’s lands. #SleepNoMore #NetGalley.

"Sleep No More" is the 17th book in the brilliant October Daye urban fantasy series, and my, what a book! I love the author and, having read and loved all the books in the series, I was delighted to get an ARC of her new book.

The previous book ended in a high cliffhanger and drama, with Titiana's threats to get a tit for tat, and Toby waking up in Amandine’s tower in Titiana's twisted version of Faerie. This book continues from the point where the last book ended.

Titiana (the Summer Queen and the second wife of Oberon) whisked Toby into another version of reality (she is, after all, the queen of illusions), the world as she thinks it ought to be. Titania had made Faerie in her own ideal image, and it isn't a pretty sight. All those she deems inferior (such as shapeshifters and beasties) disappeared from this alternate version of Faerie.

Toby lives in Amandine's Tower, together with her step-father, Simon, her sister, August, and her mother, Amandine "the Liar". She is just a low changeling handmaid who is not permitted to use her blood magic, and she is seemingly happy with her lot. She doesn't remember her old life, Tybalt, and other cared-for family members. However, something is rotten in the state of Summerland, in the way changelings are treated, and slowly Toby comes to realize that.

The plot thickens when Li Qin Zhou, the Duchess of Dreamer's Glass, requests the presence of one of Sylvester's bloodline, and Toby volunteers to go. The first cracks of this "perfect" world show when Toby gets a taste (literally) of another life and reality. Wherever Toby is, chaos occurs, so what follows next is a highly intoxicating adventure in the usual Toby fashion that I highly recommend.

I loved the book! It is not the simplest adventure - it takes a while for all the wrinkles to smooth out - but I didn't mind and enjoyed the ride. Give me more of Toby's world!!! I didn't want to leave that world and say goodbye to my favorite characters. We don't see much of Tybalt here, more the pity, but it will be modified in the next book, which I look forward to.

I liked that past events were recapped in the form of flashbacks and explanations to Toby by the Luidaeg (one of my favorite characters) and other characters. It helped to refresh my memory as, after all, it's been a while since I read the previous book. I also liked the relationship that developed between August and Toby. I must say that I liked August better in this book.

It was also interesting to see another (submissive) side of Toby, although I much prefer her usual kick-ass side. The author drew the reader from the first page of this heart-pounding story of deception, illusions, and ceaseless action... Where nothing is what it seems, and every truth brought to light exposes a darker illusion.

There is a bonus to the reader at the end of the book, a novella featuring Rayseline. It was nice to see the events from her perspective. Truth be told, I don't like her and feel she got off lightly after what she has done. The same goes for Simon. He may have had his reasons to do what he did to Toby, but he laughed while he did it. A big no-no. He redeemed himself a bit in the last books, though.

If you didn't read any of the books in the series (is it possible??), you should start from the first book and read it in order. Each book starts from where the previous book ended, so you need to read them in order to understand the subtle nuances and all the goings on.

If it wasn't already clear from my glowing review, I absolutely loved the book and am eagerly looking forward to reading the next installment. I must have it and now! Yes, I can't delay gratification when it comes to books. If you loved the other books of the series, you will love this one as well. This is a book you won't want to miss! Seanan McGuire is a master storyteller, and I am a willingly captured audience!

* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.

This was a solid book, though probably my least favourite of the series thus far.

It was one of those books where I appreciated what was being done with the craft more than I was properly grabbed by it.

It was very much masterfully, done, and a complete and utter mind bender to figure out what was going on, at least for the characters.

Generally I’m thinking I’ll probably like the second part of this mini duology within a series better, but not because this book was poorly done.

I am very excited for what comes next, and will have lots to say about narrative structure cleverness and the excellent choices for what is revlesled when and to whom, when I do get to write up my full length spoiler heavy StoryGraph review (the lack of spoiler formatting in net galley makes me reluctant to post my full analysis dumps.)

Overall this was an excellently done book, that when I have fractional stars will probably get a four and a half or four and three quarters, but that I’ll round up to five here because it really is very well done.

I absolutely loved reading this book! After the ending of Be the Serpent, I needed to know how this story would go! That this reality that Titiana had created, and how it put Toby in this servile role to August, as sisters, because Toby's a changeling...it was infuriating!

Tatiana is the basis of everything wrong with Faery. Sure, Oberon didn't make things better, but that's because he was clueless. Which is bad in its own right, that kind of neglect, but he didn't chose all these wrong things. I don't think Maeve, wherever she is, is causing this harm, but she hasn't done anything as of yet that says, I am Maeve, and I disapprove of this, I fight against this. And that first part is the key qualifier there.

It was interesting to see Toby like this, it was almost like the first book, where she didn't know much about her magic. She does know that she's the daughter of a Firstborn, and that her talent lies with blood, she's just never been allowed to use it, let alone train with it. So watching her learn to use it again was really great!

The thing is, that Toby made a life for herself, that she's very close with August, and there are good things and bad about what she knows about the true reality. But it was still hard, because seeing Tybalt, and knowing what he's worried about, that was hard to read!

Loved how everything worked out! I'm so excited to see how this is going to affect things going forward. I mean, I think it's supposed to last that certain amount of time, but who knows? I love that we're getting another full length book this year and maybe it will go a bit further in time then this one, but I can't wait to see what happens next!

The story of Candles and Starlight was really fantastic! I loved that we got to be in this character's head at this point in time, right before, and the aftermath of, Tatiana's created reality, and why things were the way they were when Toby and company collected them in the main story.

Loved reading these stories, and I can't wait for Tybalt's story of this time! I just love this world and this series so much!

Another fantastic addition to the October Daye series! Toby lives in Summerland with her father, Simon, sister, August, and mother, Amandine. She is a changeling, born to serve her parents and sister. But, in typical Toby fashion, she manages to land herself in trouble. This is obviously an alternate reality, with most of the characters we have seen before. Not everyone has been affected, and slowly, with their help, things are set to right.

A great bonus novella featuring Rayseline, it was really interesting to learn more about her, and her motivations.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Daw for the ARC! Seanan Mcguire never disappoints!

What a tangled web we weave...

Seanan McGuire did a terrible thing. Be the Serpent, book 16 in her October Daye series, ended shortly after a triumphant battle in which Toby and her friends defeated Titania, the evil Summer Queen of Faerie, and forced her to submit to a geas that by all rights, should have kept Toby and her friends safe -- Titania cannot harm Toby or her family. but Titania is ancient and wily. Her final words to Toby are

“I can’t hurt you.” She finally smiled. “But I can make you someone else’s problem.”

And then, in the final chapter we met a new Toby, living with her mother Amandine the Liar and her pureblood sister August as a servant, with her husband Tybalt nowhere in evidence. Clearly Titania found a loophole to subject Toby without "harming" her, within what her geas understands as harm.

So this is where Sleep No More begins. Toby is living in an illusory world crafted by Titania. This is a Toby you will hardly recognize. She is submissive, a timid servant. And it is not just Toby. Titania's Brave New World covers several faerie realms in the vicinity of San Francisco. Everyone there has been brainwashed to perceive a distorted history that makes a world as Titania believes it should be. Several things that Titania believes should not exist do not exist in Titania's illusory world. For instance, shapeshifters (Cu Sidhe and Cait Sidhe among them) died out long ago, and the Undersea is uninhabited.

Titania is powerful, but not all-powerful. She is one of these people -- you probably know some in Real Life -- who is so smart she's stupid. She is the queen of illusions, but her ability to alter reality itself is limited. That leaves cracks in the edifice she has constructed.

The exploitation of the first crack is a splendid little story involving some of my favorite characters from the October Daye world <spoiler>January O'Leary, Li Qin Zhou, and their adopted electronic dryad daughter April</spoiler>. I really enjoyed this. After the opening of that first crack, though, the story becomes more of a slog. The illusion Titania created is complex and built of many parts, and it takes Toby and the allies she gradually gathers (and you, her reader) time and effort to work their way through them in detail.

Toby's husband Tybalt is a minor character in Sleep No More. Presumably he is off somewhere else doing other important stuff most of the time. Indeed, we know from the publisher's blurb that book 18, The Innocent Sleep, will tell Tybalt's story during this time.

Seanan, you are not yet forgiven. We're still mad about the cliffhanger and the wimpification of our badass heroine. Perhaps The Innocent Sleep will clear your account.

CANDLES AND STARLIGHT

As usual, McGuire ends the book with a bonus novella. This one is called Candles and Starlight, and is temporally contemporaneous with Sleep No More. It is told in the first person, by Toby's sort-of-cousin Rayseline, the daughter of her sort-of uncle Sylvester Torquill. Raysel has had a super-messed-up childhood and is still afraid of a bunch of powerful fae. Near the end of Be the Serpent Raysel and Toby managed to make Toby Raysel's legal guardian for a year. Raysel is looking forward with gleeful anticipation to a year of living in Toby's home with Quentin, May, etc.

She doesn't get it, because she and Toby are caught in Titania's spell almost immediately. Candles and Starlight tells her story from that point until the moment when she appears in Sleep No More.

I thank NetGalley and DAW for an advance reader copy of Sleep No More. This review expresses my honest opinion. Release date: 5-Sep-2023.

Thank you Seanan Mcguire, DAW, and Netgalley for this free ARC in exchange for a review.

There's a reason this is the only series I've stuck with for this long; it's worth it. There's only one previous book I didn't love, and this addition was great too.

The only thing I didn't like, was how <spoiler>angry Tybalt was with Toby. I get him being angry about what happened, but why at her, when he knows it's not her fault? I'm guessing we were supposed to find that romantic somehow, but really it just made him seem immature.</spoiler>

Other than that, it was as good a read as the rest of the series in general, so if (as is likely) the series continues, I continue on with it.

Do you remember the Doctor Who episode Turn Left? The alternative-history, alternative-world, "could have been" episode that wasn't huge on pushing the main story forward, but was an astonishing character study that is genuinely one of the best episodes of Who ever made? Sleep No More is the Turn Left of the October Daye books, and it's brilliant. And more powerful in that there is a companion novel in The Innocent Sleep. Any other pov would have detracted from October's journey, but knowing that we'll get the other side of the story is genuinely a having your cake and eating it too situation.

Of course, this is a Seanan McGuire book, so that ending is going to knock your socks off. Possibly my favourite of all of the October Daye or October Daye adjacent stories ever written