Innistrad: Midnight Hunt - Side Story

The Dance of Undeath

Seanan McGuire has done it again. Now not only does her science fiction predict the future, her urban fantasy does as well. 

My partner started reading this article out loud to me and I was immediately screaming “DOES THE UPLOAD KILL PEOPLE!? BECAUSE THAT’S A SEANAN MCGUIRE BOOK!” Spoilers

Starting this one instead of listening to The London Seance Society, because it's due back to Hoopla in a few days. I check things out and then forget about them. Yay ADHD!

I love the plaque, "No solicitation, no visitors, no quests." I should post that at my house.

References I have caught so far:

Peter Pan

Alice in Wonderland

Jack and Jill

Let me begin by saying I had some pretty high hopes for this book. I had it heard it mentioned several times by quite a few people, and they all raved about it. Maybe my high hopes led to my feelings of disappointment, maybe not. Either way, this book left me feeling unsatisfied.

The premise was incredibly interesting, but the storyline didn't deliver. There was so much that felt left out, and so much that could have been expanded on, that the book itself almost felt like some sort of teaser for something bigger to come.

The characters were interesting, but there was not an especially large cast. That being said, the characters that were involved were diverse, with different interests and personalities. However they, like a lot of the story, could have been expanded upon more. There was not much time to get to know the characters very well, and it felt like we, the readers, were simply skimming the surface of who they were. It almost felt as if they became tropes of themselves. Where there was not enough time to expand on who they really were, they tended to stick to the basics of who they were. Nancy was the still, creepy girl who did not like movement. And that was about it. Sumi was the fast-moving, quick-tongued girl who never held still. And...that was it. Jack was the brusque scientist with no time for niceties and no patience for idiocy. And, again, that was it. There were a few instances where the characters opened up, where they almost seemed to become something more, and then the story moved on to something else.

While it certainly felt like there was much more potential to them, and as if McGuire had come up with more story for each of them, in some many cases the characters fell a little flat. It felt like being shown a photo of some elaborate sculpture, with the expectation of being brought to see the sculpture for yourself and inspect it from every side, only to be told that the trip has been canceled. The view in the photo is quite nice, but there is so much more your missing from the other angles, and you know it.

The plot itself was somewhat one-dimensional, as well. There was really only one plot thread, without the subplots that fill a story out and makes it come alive. What plot there was felt predictable and obvious, without any unexpected twists and thrills. Again, it felt like there was something lacking. Frankly, the whole story felt like it was only a prelude to a story, like it was the very first rough draft, though very well-written, of a story that was intended to be much larger. It was like everything was a placeholder, a reminder to add this or that or expand here, but none of that every got done.

A lot of the book felt like a tease. The reader was enticed with the mention of other worlds, and secret doors, but none of this was elaborated on in any depth. On a personal note, I would have loved to hear more mention of the kids’ other worlds or their doors, or even to have them visit one or more of these places. That was clearly not the point of this book, but I feel the kids could have talked about their worlds more. The vague idea of the cardinal directions of these worlds, and the minor directions, was very briefly touched on, but never explained in any satisfying sort of way. There was little to no explanation of what any of these directions really meant, or what other minor directions there were or how they fit into the grand scheme of things.