When we last left October and her crew, I honestly had no idea how Seanan McGuire could fix what had been broken. I KNEW she could, and I was so excited to see how it would happen.
Watching the past 16 books twine together again in this book and seeing how many threads are now frayed and ready for more story just makes me so happy! I honestly cannot wait to see what happens next for October and crew.
This book (and it's counter part) felt much like a well deserved twisty break of a character pause where we figure out the true nature beneath and what that says about a cast of characters.
I'm honored to have read this book early and I cannot wait to see what happens next.
The King of Cats and his kingdom broke my heart and I'm truly glad we got an entire book in his POV.

Twice-told tales

In Sleep No More Seanan McGuire tells the story of Toby's fight against Titania's attempt to rewrite all of faerie the way she wants it to be. In Sleep No More this story is told in the first person by Toby herself. The Innocent Sleep tells the same story from the first-person point of view of Toby's husband, Tybalt. (By the way, I assume you have read Sleep No More. If you haven't, this review will contain spoilers.)

McGuire has made rather a habit of writing books in which the essence of the plot and the outcome has been given away prior to publication. For instance, several of the novellas in her Wayward Children series have plots that were thoroughly spoiled in Every Heart a Doorway, the first book of that series. And the most egregious example of this strategy occurs in the Newflesh series (published under her Mira Grant nom de plume). Book four, Feedback, recounts the exact same events as the previous three books, but from the point of view of a different team of reporters.

Of course, McGuire is not the first or most famous of the story-tellers who have used this approach. The idea that a story is different depending on who tells it is valid and often leads to interesting results.

This, in my opinion, is not such a case. Any long-time reader of the October Daye series knows Tybalt quite well and can predict fairly accurately how he will react to the events of Sleep No More. There is a little bit of story that he knows and Toby doesn't, but for the most part the story as told by Tybalt is as a fan of the series would predict. And of course any suspense about outcomes is vitiated by the reader already knowing all the important ones in advance.

Strictly edited, Tybalt's point of view during the events of Sleep No More would have made an excellent bonus novella for that novel. As an entire novel in its own right, it is padded and predictable.

DOUBTLESS AND SECURE

Like all McGuire's novels, The Innocent Sleep is followed by a bonus novella, Doubtless and Secure. Doubtless and Secure is another twice-told tale, but a better one than The Innocent Sleep. It is told from the point of view of Helmi, a Cephali (that's a type of fae that looks like a cephalopod/human chimera). We have long known Helmi as the chief retainer of the Merrow Dianda, the Duchess (i.e., ruling monarch) of the Duchy of Saltmist, an undersea kingdom off the coast of California. We have never heard directly from Helmi before. Also, the story she tells spans centuries and puts together a long list of stories about Dianda, and how she came to be Duchess of Saltmist, and her husbands Patrick and Simon and their children. There is little here that hasn't been told elsewhere, but since much of the tale was scattered in short stories that a reader would have had to seek out, since we've never heard direct from Helmi before, and above all since this is just a novella, and no attempt has been made to stretch it out to a full-length novel, Doubtless and Secure skates clear of the worst problems of The Innocent Sleep.

Such a stunning 18th novel in the October Daye series. Tybalt is finally going to get everything... his wife, his child and happiness finally. But Titania is replacing his world.... He'll have to make his wife remember him all over again....

I have always enjoyed Tybalt and it's nice to see so much of him here! I love the plot and all the little details... A terrific addition to the series!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.