Nerija's Reviews > One Salt Sea

Just finished this one a few minutes ago. I'm stunned and a bit shell-shocked, so the following reflections might not be entirely coherent. I honestly did not expect (view spoiler)[Connor to die…and it's especially sad because I feel like I just met the guy...which I kinda did, having started with this book instead of with the first, like normal people would (well, actually, I started with In Sea-Salt Tears, so I had met him before, but still) -- I didn't wanna go through four other books before I got to see the Undersea! ^_^; I'd really gotten to like him, and then BAM he's gone. And not for a hundred years, and no loopholes for October to figure out to wake him up sooner. Nope. Dead. (hide spoiler)]

And that leads to the one case where McGuire's repetition didn't feel annoying (I get it, I get it - Toby's addicted to coffee. She'll probably give herself caffeine poisoning one day. I get it) -- (view spoiler)[when Toby kept repeating, "And Connor was still dead." It made sense and felt natural, and she was echoing my own feelings. (hide spoiler)]

I LOVE the version of Faerie that McGuire has created, even though it's disconcerting to have to see Selkies as (view spoiler)[descendants of murderers and forever tainted by their ancestors' crimes and ultimately the Selkies shouldn't have come about at all… when all the other stories I've read have portrayed Selkies as good beings (hide spoiler)]. They're one of my favorite kinds of mythical creature. Oh well. That's what makes McGuire's world so unique and interesting. It was especially interesting to see how she (view spoiler)[used the stolen skin motif (hide spoiler)].

I kind of wish (view spoiler)[Gillian had chosen to be Fae. It would've been a really interesting development for the future books if, in addition to whatever mystery Toby has to solve, we'd get to see Gillian's initiation and growth in Faerie (hide spoiler)]. Again -- Oh well. The way things did end made sense. Besides, (view spoiler)[if Gilly had chosen to join her mom, they'd either have to figure out how to let Cliff know she's safe and happy (yeah, like he'd just accept that Gilly's suddenly forgiven her mom and wants to live with her now), or -- the more likely scenario -- add one more inexplicable loss to his life. And that would just be unnecessarily cruel (hide spoiler)].

I am interested in seeing how the story develops further. I've requested Book 1 from my local library, so I can finally understand the basics of this world, and how the different kinds of Fae relate to one another. I do wish McGuire included a Fae dictionary in addition to the pronunciation guide.

I may or may not continue on to Ashes of Honor.

More at Postcards .

. . . . .
My reviews of the other Toby books:

Rosemary and Rue
A Local Habitation
An Artificial Night
Late Eclipses
Ashes of Honor
Chimes at Midnight
The Winter Long
A Red-Rose Chain
Once Broken Faith
The Brightest Fell
Night and Silence

Novellas/short stories:
In Sea-Salt Tears
Rat-Catcher
Forbid the Sea