I've been following the October Daye series for ages. Buying new novels the moment they hit the shelves is a long-standing habit. Except several installments ago I started slacking on actually reading them: there was always something else on my TBR, and it would be cool to binge-read a few in a row eventually, right? Except now I'm a good few books behind, it's been a big break, and I'm realizing that I've forgotten more fine details than I'm comfortable constantly looking up on the fan wiki as I read. So here I am, doing something daunting: attempting a full re-read. 

It is kind of hard to write any sort of review when my perception of the book is colored so much by plenty of events that come before. This was such a nostalgia trip, I swear. When I think about a lot of the characters from the series, I think about a whole different status quo. But here in this first novel, so much is still unrevealed and so many people (or, well, fae) are still their different, pre-all-the-trauma-and-character-development selves. Witnessing Toby's early interactions with some of the prominent characters, especially Tybalt and Quentin, literally made me giggle. My, you've all come a long way, haven't you?

I've kind of forgotten just how *big* this world is, and how much we readers get pushed into it off the deep end. Even though this is very clearly book 1, Toby isn't starting out, she's re-entering her life after a break, and there's already so much past here. Basically the entire story is built on picking up loose ends from before the pond. I remember when I first read this novel, I got that vibe, like I was reading a fanfic for a canon that only existed in the author's head and there were like five seasons of backstory stored between the lines. This re-read only solidified the impression, and to be clear, I'm very much digging it. Like, SO MUCH.

The book is somewhat clunkier than I remember, or perhaps just clunkier compared to the far later installments in the series, which comes off as no surprise for sure. I fear to count how many books Seanan McGuire has produced since—naturally, she keeps evolving as an author! But also, this one is so refreshing in how much it doesn't follow what I've come to think of as the "typical Toby Daye format." You know, the one where a big bad thing happens, Toby realizes she needs to bring in the big guns, goes to Luidaeg, gets advice and help, goes to deal with the big bad thing, checks in with Luidaeg now and then. Don't get me wrong, as far as reliable plot devices go, Luidaeg is my absolute favorite. I love everything about her, from her abrasive personality to her cluttered home. But it was kind of refreshing to go back to the roots and see the protagonist meander along on her own. And a lot of Toby's actions and various plot points she stumbled across felt so much more poignant and interesting in the wider context of later books.

Just like the first time around, I got lots of emotions about the entire storyline with Devin and Home.

Somehow, over the course of the story, I almost forgot that Devin was a villain, while also very much remembering it—and the book also does an awesome job from the start spelling out that he's mostly the bad guy here and Toby's perception of him is in no way objective. But also, he's the bad guy *and* someone who was instrumental in shaping Ocrober as a person *and* he betrayed her *and* he cared for her in his own way *and* he deserved what he got *and* he left a void that can't be filled.

This is what I love so much about Seanan McGuire's books and this series in particular: no fictional person or relationship is just one thing. Everyone contains multitudes.

I also got a newfound appreciation for the portrayal of mental health here. While no one ever states outright that Toby is deeply depressed over the course of the story, she just... so clearly is, and all the signs are there, just like all the signs of her slowly getting on the way to getting better toward the end. When I first read this novel, I was deep in the throes of depression, as well, except I didn't really know it. I just assumed that I felt shitty because life was shitty and I was very definitely an adult already and had to just deal somehow. And it was so refreshing then to see a protagonist whose actions and feeling had the same vibe as I did. It wasn't fully obvious to me just how not all right Toby was, because my perception was so skewed. I simply found her extremely relatable. Now, looking back from the vantage point of a slightly more stable mental health situation and being much better in tune with how my mental health works, I can consciously appreciate all the tiny little details that went into showing Toby's state of mind and what she's been going through. 

I keep thinking of other small details to note, but I guess I'll stop here. Suffice it to say, this was a beautiful homecoming, and I can't wait to continue this walk through the familiar landscapes.

I'll be honest: it's a miracle I actually went on with the October Daye series past this book the first time around, because the first time I read A Local Habitation, I really disliked it. To the point that apparently I either evicted it from memory or maybe I was just skimming more than reading. Because early into this re-read I realized I've forgotten enormous chunks of the story. How the mystery gets resolved. Half the character cast. The entire night-haunt plotline (how on earth). The degree of Tybalt's involvement. Most of the story, really. 

I guess that's part of what made the book infinitely more exciting during a re-read. Some of the time, I recognized the characters (mostly from later books), some of the time, I had no idea what was going on, sometimes random details sprung up, sometimes I just had to guess at everything anew. That felt like solving a puzzle in a dark room, which can be a rather engrossing feeling. I also loved spotting all the random bits and pieces of foreshadowing, which are plentiful here. Some lines are downright hilarious in hindsight, knowing some of the future reveals. Some are way more ominous than I must have thought them to be originally. Some are foreshadowing for stuff I haven't caught up with yet, but armed with all my existing knowledge of the Tobyverse, I'm pretty damn sure they're foreshadowing. So that was fun.

What wasn't fun was the plot itself—I can sure tell why I struggled with it years ago. On the surface, it looks like a promising locked room mystery, but the problem is, no one is actually solving it. People don't do anything that would be sensible to do when you know one of you is the killer, such as sticking together and policing each other as a group. Toby just keeps meandering back and forth determined not to connect a single dot. Like, the entire (somewhat annoying) plotline with Alex, it was rather clear from the start and driven home when his sister chatted to Quentin, but it took Toby almost the entire damn book and Connor's on-page presence to realize something. The entire mystery and the road map to solving it was essentially spoiled/prophecied by Luidaeg before Toby even set out on the road to Tamed Lightning. Etc, etc. I mean, investigation has never been Toby's strength, she's more about confronting things head-on and getting stabbed a lot, but I feel like her detective skills were possibly at their all-time lowest here. 

This is an interesting book in the context of the entire series, because it does a lot of heavy lifting laying out the groundwork for Big Important Things down the line, introduces lots of characters and concepts, pushes forward personal arcs and the like. However, as a self-contained novel, it's quite possibly the weakest in the series. I did enjoy my time re-reading it, but only because of all the re-read-related factors.