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.