In my recent travels to help satiate this nostalgic need to read urban fantasy books–per my discovery of the genre in 2007–I have finally read Seanan McGuire's Rosemary and Rue. This is the first book in her October Daye series. Ms. Daye is a half-human half-fae P.I. residing in San Francisco. Nonetheless, being born a mixture of the two, October lives between both the human world and the fae world. P.I. profession aside, there was a time she was a check-out clerk at a local grocery store, alongside a time when she could travel through gateways into fae dwellings. Cool stuff. Right? Well, indeed it was–though I had some problems.
As far as plot/story, the
prologue gives readers a moment into October's role as a P.I. She's on a
tracking mission, which ultimately finds her cursed into the body of a koi fish
for fourteen years. In the meantime, she's lost her family, which consists of
her human husband and child. Essentially, it is believed she ran away from her
family or was killed. Anyway, fourteen years later the curse has lifted and
she's back in the world anew. And while her family has moved on, October has to
start completely over without them. With the help of one duchess-like fae woman
named Evening, October slowly gets back on her feet. And it's here that the
same woman who helped October finds herself hunted down and assassinated. But
not before cursing October to solve her murder and bring her killer(s) to fae
justice. Or, heck, justice in general.
So, what were my aforementioned problems?
·
There was a big deal about how October was a
private investigator who did pretty dang well for herself. Well, having taken
on this new mission to solve a fellow fae's murder, October seemed rather
sloppy as a detective to me. Blame it on her being in the body of a koi fish
for fourteen years. Blame it on her readjustment to not being so. Blame it on
something. Sure. But, otherwise, she wasn't so great at it. To me, she couldn't
seem to infer much. Was constantly caught off guard. Suffered multiple bullet
wounds and continued to fight her way through bleeding set piece moments. No
discernment. No intuition. But there is a reason for that: the actual
investigation and plot lacked much for her to even work with. Even so, I wasn't
being sold on October's detective abilities. It came across as a vanity title
stitched along like many urban fantasy protagonists.
·
The detective work was simply a loop with many
connecting points where, instead of gathering new information to further deduce
October's friend's killer, a lot of the points October hit were just places
where the author could fae-drop. There was a cat-like fae in the alley. Cool.
Visited him two and a half times. The water-fae? About three times in the
cycle. The half-fae kingpin guy; three times. As a matter of fact, October went
to him to ask for help and all he really did was give her a cell phone (which
made for a poor clue). October even went to the actual QUEEN of the fae, only
to have the woman yell at her and throw her out of the dwelling. The scene was
drilled as a potential connection between the queen and the murder, but not a thing else came about it later in the book. Which was unfortunate because I
knew for sure we were about to get into some deep fae intrigue and politics.
·
At each point, October hardly came away with any
new information to move the investigation forward, nor bring shape to the
mystery/premise. She even went to the fae dwellings of the victim only to run
across an old (married now) flame for a moment of them running out of the place
to flee assassins. Meanwhile, October got nothing out of that place but said
titillating moment. But think about it investigative-wise. This was the
dwellings of the victim. So not only did it happen extraordinarily late in the
book but, as readers, we got nothing out of the trip. There were even
several opportunities for October to get information out of one of the
assassins of her friend himself. But each reasonable opportunity to gather a
clue was deduced into an action piece instead. Nevertheless, October's
investigation bumbled along in a circle. Visit here. Have a moment to share a
fae creature's history. Visit there. Have another moment. Even the supposed big
badass creepy fae everyone feared was…. Well, basically a conveniently late plot
point that left me curious as to what was the point of visiting. Other than
having a moment to talk about said fae's history and do ominous setups. The
book did a lot of the whole obscure and ominous thing.
·
Another thing that was weird to me was how
October was so totally conflicted with the shattering of her previous life with
her husband and daughter. I kind of got the sense that there was some grief and
work that needed to be done to heal her from that separation. Yet, we found her
drawn to an ex-lover who once was also her abuser. She was also drawn to an
individual who she once had a brief flame with as a youth. Though now he's
married, the chemistry between him and October remains. So, apparently, she's
open to her abuser and a married ex-lover. Looks like she has fallen into a
well. Nevertheless, the real kicker to me was when a creature appeared to
October in the disguise of one of her family members. Post the discovery and dispatching
of the creature, October hardly felt anything emotionally from the experience.
A creature disguised itself as a member of the family you once had who moved on
from you. I don't know about you, but dealing with that grief and then such a
sense of betrayal of oneself to have invited a creature into my home with the
face of someone I love… well… I would be feeling traumatized, distraught,
disturbed, and angry. October's response was anything but. The emotional
investment and grief just didn't add up to me. Then again, the whole scene was
put there just to acknowledge what the creature was. And, of course, to create
another unnessary action moment to hide how there wasn't any actual investigating going on.
Final thoughts. Will I read the follow up book? Maybe. One day. One of those days where the spirit of reading is pushing me moreso in that direction. But not any time soon will I go for it. As they say, the math wasn't mathing with Rosemary and Rue.
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