Seasonal Fears
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4.3 • 42 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire, Seasonal Fears is the extraordinary companion novel to Middlegame.
The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!
Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul.
Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.
So, when a new road is laid out in front of them—a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together—walking down it seems to be the only option.
But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts.
It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all….
"One must maintain a little bit of summer even in the middle of winter." —Thoreau
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McGuire's intricate, dense companion to 2020's Middlegame delves ever deeper into the hidden alchemical history of her world, populating it with incarnate concepts and sinister agendas. Teen Harry March has been madly devoted to his girlfriend, Melanie Cosgrove, for as long as he can remember, though her heart condition means she likely won't live long enough to have a future with him. Indeed, she dies during a high school football game—and promptly reanimates, her death just the start of a strange new adventure. A young woman named Jack Frost explains that Melanie and Harry are now candidates for the thrones of Winter and Summer respectively, the concept of seasons incarnated. To claim their mantles, they must travel cross-country to prove their worthiness in a magical trial, while battling their rival candidates, often to the death, along the way. Succeed and they stay together; fail and they both perish. As they master their seasonal affinities, they uncover secrets that have shaped their lives and influenced their destinies. However complicated the premise and worldbuilding may be, it's all held together by Harry and Melanie's unwavering partnership, and the strength of family, both blood and found. The result is a worthy, highly intelligent, wholly satisfying expansion of the Middlegame mythos that will leave readers wanting more.
Customer Reviews
Good, but repetitive
I enjoyed the idea of the book and the world itself. It concept was creative and original, and the characters well drawn. The problem was that the same plot points rehashed over and over again by different characters, and the repetitive exposition dragged the book down when it should have been focusing on events that drove the narrative. More effective editing would have reduced the book’s length by a third and made it a more pleasurable read.