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It's been a stellar week in urban fantasy with both series releasing books within a week of one another! If pressed to choose a favorite between the two, I honestly don't think I could. But let me tell you about Toby. McGuire's October Daye books are a series that looks at marginalized races changelings, mixed bloods, shapeshifter fae, humans , mental health issues, and families and their secrets.
The series is largely set in the San Francisco Bay area, in a fae kingdom call the Mists. Toby Daye holds onto her last traces of humanity proudly and is undoubtedly one of the most productive and useful changelings in the Mists. She's not alone, though. We've also met a slew of changelings with remarkable talents, including the powerful portal-punching Chelsea, sisters with rare gifts of sight, Karen and Cassandra, and in theory brave Marcia, who manages to make herself indispensable wherever she serves.
So many people suspect Marcia is more than she seems. All in all, while most pureblooded fae have looked down on the changelings, it seems that the present crop can possess rare skills. Overlooking them and trying to marginalize them has proven foolish, especially for one False Queen, and her collaborator in a neighboring kingdom, King Rhys. Also, we've recently seen in one of McGuire's best-deal-on-the-internet Patreon stories, some pretty important changelings have been changed, via hope chests, into pureblooded fae.
Who knows how many people in this 'verse were initially part human in origin? Certainly not Toby Daye. After all, when we first met her, Toby knew very little about her own family and those that surround her. She was too traumatized by her upbringing and some searing life events. Part of the reason that Toby was in the dark about goings-on in her own family was due to having lost fourteen years of her life after being turned into a fish by the man that turned out to be her stepfather, Simon Torquill.
Some significant relationship information withheld from her by her liege, Sylvester. Toby went through a serious depression after recovering her original form and finding her daughter Gillian and Gilly's father Cliff had moved on with their lives and wanted nothing to do with her. Cliff married a woman named Miranda, who has embraced Gillian, a toddler when Toby disappeared, as her own daughter.
Toby's depression and risk-taking behavior made those around her careful with what they have told her. But the truth will out, eventually. Over the course of eleven books we've come to see Toby's mother as cruel and mentally unstable, learn that Toby had a missing older sister, August, that her stepfather Simon might have been trying to spare her a worse fate than being a fish, and that Toby's mother and two of her fearsome aunts are Firstborn among the fae- direct descendants of Oberon.
While Toby's growing friendship with the Luidaeg, her aunt Antigone, has become surrogate mother-like in some respects, her relationship to her other aunt, Evening Winterrose, has become one of overt enmity. Toby has come a long way since we first met her. She's been something of a wrecking ball, taking down a False Queen and installing a real one, and doing the same in a neighboring kingdom.
All while solving mysteries, murders, and championing changeling rights. Though she represents hope, in multiple respects, Toby herself hasn't been able to catch much of a breather. We can assume that there are times where she and her chosen family Tybalt, May, Quentin, Raj, and Jazz can just chill. Of course, chilling doesn't make for a dramatic plot, so usually when we see Toby she's literally bleeding all over everything and running on fumes. One of the plot devices that McGuire has used in this series, several times now, is the idea of "look again.
Impressive plot planning by McGuire here. The idea of looking deeper and realizing that you don't really know what you're looking at until you need to know, is an interesting one. It's also one that an author has to be careful not to overuse. We waited for safety to come back. We were going to be waiting for a very long time. Her relationship with Tybalt feels like it is hanging by a thread and Toby is in despair about how to fix things. Toby's friend Danny ineptly tries to encourage Toby to rectify a relationship she fears is irretrievably damaged by talking to Tybalt, who doesn't want to talk to her at all because he has such terrible PTSD.
Ironically, Toby's never been the sort of person to feel very hopeful. Also ironically, when you look a lot like your cruel mother, your mistreated loved one may have issues with you. May, Toby's Fetch sister, is also trying to hold things together for Jazz, who has recovered a bit better than has Tybalt, but remains deeply shaken. Raj, Tybalt's nephew and heir, treads lightly and often furtively, to avoid too many questions from Toby. Quentin, Toby's squire, ponders whether there is anything he can do other than just be there for all of them.
It is into this messy well of sadness that a new crisis falls- Toby's now-human daughter Gillian is, once again, kidnapped. This time it clearly isn't Sylvester's mentally unhinged daughter Rayseline, since Raysel was elf shot several books back and is still deep in her now full Daoine Sidhe one hundred years' slumber.
And Toby is pretty sure that it isn't even a once-again ensorcelled Simon, lost somewhere in deeper Faerie after the events of The Brightest Fell, a failure of Toby's that has her on edge yet again with Sylvester, her uncle, and liege.
Sylvester has asked Toby to keep her distance because his wife Luna is so upset over Simon's being on the loose again. So who is it and what do they want? In the process of solving the kidnapping and rescuing Gillian, a question long held by readers of the series will be answered and lives will be forever changed.
It's obvious that the events of this novel have been long-planned by McGuire, over the arc of twelve novels. The payoff is huge. In some ways even bigger than in The Winter Long. I was caught off-guard by the events of the book, which were so very different from what I had expected. On the one hand, the revelations, the outcomes, were rather stunning.
On the other hand, part of me was uneasy with Gillian being kidnapped again she was first kidnapped back in One Salt Sea , and the fact that yet again, we have the revelation that someone wasn't who they seemed to be. Plus, another round of demands we've heard before. How many times can you viably do this, dear author? Yet there are major developments built upon this platform. Even the revelations come with their own revelations in this book.
Night and Silence left me with so many new questions.
One of the most stunning outcomes was disquieting to me because of the looming settlement of Toby's debt with the Luidaeg, who called in the debt of the Selkies a year ago. What's going to happen? Readers will see what I mean when they read the novella Suffer a Sea Change included at the end of the book and think about the Selkies and the Roane. While things with Tybalt are better resolved by the novel's end, the means by which this is achieved still seemed precarious to me.
Is that truly safe, given the way the Cait Sidhe work? One thing I was glad of is that Toby finally realizes the changelings of the Mists need more attention. And hey, the seneschal of Goldengreen could use a changeling hero's help with her present project. Finally, the other thing, that big reveal Seriously, what is wrong with some of these fae and human people?
The level of their racist hypocrisy is simply stunning. What does it all mean? Decide for yourself, Reader. This is one installment that will leave you thinking until The Unkindest Tide rolls in. The world wasn't changing back. View all 6 comments. Sep 20, Darcy rated it really liked it Shelves: At the start of this one Toby is very unsettled.
The events of the last book caused distance with Tybalt, who has, among other things, become her touchstone. That along with the oddness at home due to things being weird with Jazz seems to be wearying on heavily on Toby. Things go from bad to worse when she is woken up by pounding on her door, her ex accusing Toby of taking their daughter.
Understandably Toby is heartbroken to know the daughter she loves with all her heart, but had to walk away f At the start of this one Toby is very unsettled. Understandably Toby is heartbroken to know the daughter she loves with all her heart, but had to walk away from for Gillian's sake is missing. Toby being Toby jumps in to find her girl! During the search Toby learns a lot, some good, some not so good, some will have to be pondered for a while. Along the way Toby talks to her allies, gets help and at the end of the day things are sort of better. They have changed, a lot and it remains to be seen who everyone will react, but Toby is in a much better mindset at the end of the book than the beginning, maybe even almost happy again.
Jul 04, Bea Charmed added it Shelves: As usual, twisty and surprising. Not sure how I feel about some of the changes. Excellent job with the aftereffects of trauma. More complete review to come. I read the first two installments in and the remaining nine this year so I could finally be caught up in time for the new release of Night and Silence.
I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Sep 07, Becky rated it it was amazing. This past summer, Jasmine, Fiona, and I were listening to Rosemary and Rue on audiobook as we drove to and from drama club. Fiona has never read any of these and trying to keep spoilers to myself and not wriggle with pleasure whenever my favourite people were mentioned was hard.
Keeping myself from snarling when Devon showed up was actually impossible. Anyway, after we would drop off Fiona, Jas and I would comment, "gee, I didn't catch this the first time around, I wonder if that's This past summer, Jasmine, Fiona, and I were listening to Rosemary and Rue on audiobook as we drove to and from drama club. Anyway, after we would drop off Fiona, Jas and I would comment, "gee, I didn't catch this the first time around, I wonder if that's a mistake or if Seanan's going to do something with that? Sep 14, Jeffe Kennedy rated it really liked it. I enjoyed this book, as I have the entire series, but it wasn't my favorite by any stretch - and not for the reasons I expected.
I worried about the darkness of this book and was braced for an emotional ride, but it ended up being I didn't love that previous villains returned and it felt like there wasn't much movement in the overall arc. But I'm also not a huge fan of Toby's daughter, Gillian, so that likely played in. How is it possible that this series grows stronger with every book? In a genre that tends to suffer from story lag over time, October Daye seems to be getting even more interesting.
Clearly, the author has some sort of J. Rowling-level of long-game going on. Having just survived the abduction of her fiance, October's world is again shaken when her estranged human daughter, Gillian, goes missing. All evidence points to Faerie's involvement, and Gillian's human father and stepmother are having d How is it possible that this series grows stronger with every book? All evidence points to Faerie's involvement, and Gillian's human father and stepmother are having difficulty setting aside their hatred of October to help.
I loved the ending, but it's not possible to discuss it without spoiling it completely.
There's also a fascinating novella at the end that recounts the end of the book from the viewpoint of another character, This is a series to keep reading. ARC received from the publisher. Sep 11, Suz rated it it was amazing Shelves: There were a lot of revelations and changes in this book. I don't much like Gillian yet. I'm sure I will eventually but right now I think she's just a petulant, spoiled brat.
And yeah, I did like the novella about her, I just didn't like her. Given who raised her I suppose some of that is to be expected. Jun 25, Jen Davis rated it really liked it. But now, Gillie has been kidnapped again, and human or not, she will never be someone who Toby could turn her back on.
Right away, we know this kidnapping has a connection to the Fae. The story follows her efforts to figure out who snatched her daughter and bring the girl home, all while mending the relationship with Tybalt so badly damaged by his kidnapping in the last book. All that being said, I still enjoyed the ride, because the writing is great, the world building is immersive, and these characters are ones I have grown to care about over the course of the series.
This felt like a very insular chapter, rather than part of a bigger picture, even if some old snakes do come back to bite the good guys. Overall, I think fans of the series will enjoy this, and the end will have some repercussions. PS — There is also a bonus novella included: The way she has behaved toward Toby has been… less than stellar. But the novella made me hate her a little less. This was such an emotional read! Once again, things get personal for October Daye though I guess aren't most of these books?
I was very happy with the progression of everything in this book, even if it wasn't easy, and there were even MORE things revealed in this book about October's history and family that was another neat layer to this world-building. I absolutely love this series!!! Sep 25, Monical rated it it was ok.
I really enjoy Seanan McGuire's books. The last thing on my mind was taking aim at her with a weapon, and she knew it. Chiasa, my second wife, is a badass, a flawless-skinned, pretty-faced, thick-haired, doe-eyed, ballerina-bodied, ninjutsu-trained warrior. Pretty and precise, she is disciplined to the extreme, same as me. Yet, she is the only one alive who could move me off point, cause me to temporarily lose my balance and have to check myself. It had gotten to the point where she sometimes had me questioning things and matters I had never questioned myself about before.
Boldly, she had become a Muslim woman at age sixteen. She accepted Islam on her own, without me asking her to do it or having to recite her any truths from the Holy Quran. She reads the Quran for herself, loves each sura she studies and each ayat she learns. She uses every word in the book to challenge herself to become more beautiful in her wisdom and her deeds.
For her to love the faith like any Muslim born on Islamic land and raised with the Muslim example and lifestyle surrounding her made her irresistible to me. No man can treat two, three, four women equally, so that means he can really only have one wife. We each enjoy our man in our own way. We each have our own thoughts, likes, dislikes, and hobbies. Why would I want that? I just want him to love me how I, Chiasa, want to be loved. Us sharing the things that are unique to what we feel when we are together.
I want us to enjoy and make each other feel good, because we believe the same things. I want us to learn, earn, and fight together, to be safe, secure, and happy. This is more than enough for me. And, I know she meant it. When we first settled into our new home in Queens, the house that Umma and I purchased with the money that we both earned through our company, Umma Designs, Chiasa chose the smallest bedroom for herself. She set her bedding on the floor, the way she was most comfortable.
Come whenever you want to see me. I am an expert at waiting. I was always one hundred that I could protect and provide for and love her. I never wavered on that. But she made me certain that although we have a teenage marriage and she is my second wife, who left behind her parents, her country, and her action-packed life of excitement, she had no regrets and that I made her happy.
It felt good that even over time she had zero doubt. Now she was touching my nine-millimeter. I had laid it on the kitchen counter away from both of us, and towards the wall. So of course I kept it close. Her clear-polished, clipped, and curved nails and pretty fingers on the black steel aroused me.
Chiasa is a bow-and- arrow kind of girl, not to be taken lightly.
She could fire something into you, to rock you into a temporary sleep or send you all the way to heaven. Perfect vision, when she fires, she met her mark whether it was your brain, your heart, or your family jewels. Her target would be coughing up blood, his own veins exploding then choking him. But I could tell she really wanted to know. She wanted to know and feel everything about me. And her inquiries were always subtle and sweet.
She mixed her curiosity and intellect with her seductions, and it was a powerful potion.
I knew what she was really asking me, because I know her and her mind. She was thinking, to a ninjutsu warrior, a gun is a weakness, a type of excuse not to use your hands and mind to the furthest degree, to confront any enemy and solve the problem. I plucked her from a pretty place, a popular park in Tokyo that was filled with green fields, flowers, and an alluring forest. In that forest there was only one house. Chiasa lived there with only her grandfather, the park ranger. These people will easily give a reasonable man a reason to use his trigger finger.
Yet I also know that men and women are different. Chiasa, the woman, is friendly, loving, emotion filled, and hopeful.
Buy In the Silence of the Night (Notes at Midnight): Read Kindle Store Reviews - www.farmersmarketmusic.com Night and Silence has ratings and reviews. If I was to look for and report on the negative I'd note something I noticed in the beginning that was.
She and I are married, similar in some ways and in deep love. But I am a man born and trained to observe, detect, and perceive all potential threats. Chiasa has competed in sword fighting and martial arts and won. She has fought, poisoned, injured, and intercepted some enemies in real-life conflict, but she has never killed. If you get snagged with it, you do seven extra years—separate from gun possession charges. Then her eyes shifted from the gloom of that thought. I was listening carefully now. I wanted to know all of her wants, everything she wanted right now and even in the future. I would be the one who was getting it for her, eliminating her need to need another human beside me, even her father.
Now she held her pretty arms in position as though she was firing her crossbow. My tongue moving over her tongue, our heads tilted, and there was only our breathing, sucking, and sincerity mixing with our silence. Her black silk yukata dress was easily released. She knew when she put it on this morning, as we trekked and trained over here to Brooklyn, what we came to do. My place in the projects was more of a hut than a palace. I knew her soul still craved all of that adventure we had shared, but I also knew that my hut in the projects was where I am right now, and as long as I am anywhere she would willingly and voluntarily choose to be right beside me.
Bare backs and bare butts, we were both in the living room now on the warm hard floor, sitting in the spotlight from the powerful sun. Our sauna was natural. The living room windows were shut tight. Chiasa began gently rocking her pretty thighs from side to side, releasing her subtle scent. I watched, wanted to make her wait, while observing her dark brown nipples swelling on her golden breasts. She started kicking me playfully. Only our feet fought. I cheated, grabbing hold of her right ankle and dragging her.
She began laughing but still tried to leap up with her left. I broke her fall and now our bodies were entangled. I reached back and snatched from off the floor the cloth belt from her yukata. Her hands were now tied behind her back. I flipped her, then licked her left nipple, then her right.
I knew her nipples were super sensitive. I began sucking one nipple and not the other. I moved my hand down her curves and rested it on her waist. I moved my hand between her thighs and she moaned. I pushed my thickest finger inside and her pussy walls locked around it tightly and thumped rhythmically. When I began kissing her she was breathing hard but still tried to launch a sneak attack and flip me with her feet. As she is leaving, one of the prisoners flicks semen at her.
Lecter, who considers this act "unspeakably ugly", calls Starling back and tells her to seek out an old patient of his. This leads her to a storage shed, where she discovers a man's severed head with a sphinx moth lodged in its throat. She returns to Lecter, who tells her that the man is linked to Buffalo Bill. He offers to profile Buffalo Bill on the condition that he may be transferred away from Chilton, whom he detests.
Buffalo Bill abducts a Senator's daughter, Catherine Martin. Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal, promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps them find Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine. Instead, Lecter demands a quid pro quo from Starling, offering clues about Buffalo Bill in exchange for personal information. Starling tells Lecter about the murder of her father when she was ten years old. Chilton secretly records the conversation and reveals Starling's deceit before offering Lecter a deal of Chilton's own making.
Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis, where he verbally torments Senator Ruth Martin, and gives her misleading information on Buffalo Bill, including the name "Louis Friend". Starling notices that "Louis Friend" is an anagram of " iron sulfide "— fool's gold.
She visits Lecter, who is now being held in a cage-like cell in a Tennessee courthouse, and asks for the truth. Lecter tells her that all the information she needs is contained in the case file. Rather than give her the real name, he insists that they continue their quid pro quo and she recounts a traumatic childhood incident where she was awakened by the sound of spring lambs being slaughtered on a relative's farm in Montana.
Starling admits that she still sometimes wakes thinking she can hear lambs screaming, and Lecter speculates that she is motivated to save Catherine in the hope that it will end the nightmares. Lecter gives her back the case files on Buffalo Bill after their conversation is interrupted by Chilton and the police, who escort her from the building.
Later that evening, Lecter kills his guards, escapes from his cell, and disappears. Starling analyzes Lecter's annotations to the case files and realizes that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim personally. Starling travels to the victim's hometown and discovers that Buffalo Bill was a tailor, with dresses and dress patterns identical to the patches of skin removed from each of his victims. She telephones Crawford to inform him that Buffalo Bill is trying to form a "woman suit" out of real skin, but Crawford is already en route to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with hospital archives and finding a transsexual woman named Jame Gumb, who once applied unsuccessfully for a sex-change operation.
The house in Illinois is empty, and Starling is led to the house of "Jack Gordon", who she realizes is actually Jame Gumb, again by finding a sphinx moth. She pursues him into his multi-room basement, where she discovers that Catherine is still alive, but trapped in a dry well.
After turning off the basement lights, Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night-vision goggles , but gives his position away when he cocks his revolver. Starling reacts just in time and fires all of her rounds at Gumb, killing him.
I loved the ending, but it's not possible to discuss it without spoiling it completely. We both knew she meant it. Cliff married a woman named Miranda, who has embraced Gillian, a toddler when Toby disappeared, as her own daughter. She licked my lips and her tongue fucking delighted me. Chiasa leapt up a fourth of a second after me and began collecting her clothes from the living room floor. She needs a distraction.
He assures her that he does not plan to pursue her and asks her to return the favor, which she says she cannot do. Lecter then hangs up the phone, saying that he is "having an old friend for dinner", and starts following a newly arrived Chilton before disappearing into the crowd. The Silence of the Lambs is based on Thomas Harris ' novel of the same name and is the second film to feature the character Hannibal Lecter following the film Manhunter.
Prior to the novel's release, Orion Pictures partnered with Gene Hackman to bring the novel to the big screen. Owing to the financial failure of the earlier film, De Laurentiis lent the character rights to Orion Pictures for free. In November , Ted Tally was brought on to write the adaptation; [10] Tally had previously crossed paths with Harris many times, with his interest in adapting The Silence of the Lambs originating from receiving an advance copy of the book from Harris himself.
However, Orion Pictures co-founder Mike Medavoy assured Tally to keep writing as the studio itself took care of financing and searched for a replacement director. With the screenplay not yet completed, Demme signed on after reading the novel. We met in May and were shooting in November.
I don't remember any big revisions. Jodie Foster was interested in playing the role of Clarice Starling immediately after reading the novel. However, in spite of the fact that Foster had just won an Academy Award for her performance in the film The Accused , Demme was not convinced that she was right for the part. For the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter , Demme originally approached Sean Connery. After the actor turned it down, Anthony Hopkins was then offered the part based on his performance in The Elephant Man.
To prepare for the role, Glenn met with John E. Douglas , after whom the character is modeled. Douglas gave Glenn a tour of the Quantico facility and also played for him an audio tape containing various recordings that serial killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris had made of themselves raping and torturing a year-old girl.
Principal photography for The Silence of the Lambs began on November 15, and concluded on March 1, The musical score for The Silence of the Lambs was composed by Howard Shore , who would also go on to collaborate with Demme on Philadelphia. Recorded in Munich during the latter half of the summer of , the score was performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra. When you watch the movie you are not aware of the music.