Seanan McGuire

Reflections

Didi Chanoch

If you read INDEXING, McGuire's first book about the US government agency charged with making sure fairy tales don't destroy the world, you probably bought this already. If you haven't, go read the it. These books are fun and smart and have a lot to say about the power of stories. 

And they have two classic Seanan McGuire character. Henry Marchen and Sloane Winters. Snow White and The Wicked Sister. REFLECTIONS has a lot more Sloane, and that's a very good thing. We get to find out more about how she became the angriest, most dangerous, most likely to poison a teammate government agent anywhere. 

This book was written because people asked McGuire "what comes next," and it certainly answers that question. However, it leaves me with a followup question: And now? What comes next now?

Maggie Gordon

Reflections is the follow-up to my much beloved Indexing. Though not quite as good as its predecessor, it's still a fun, frolic through this weird, yet delightful fairy tale world. 

The book picks up a few weeks/months after the first, during an evaluation of Henry's team. However, there's little time for bureaucratic nonsense as Elsie the Wicked Stepsister who turned herself into a Cinderella and Birdie Hubbard, the Mother Goose have escaped from Childe, the fairy tale prison. In an outstandingly stupid move, Henry decides she needs to get to the Whiteout Wood as soon as possible to learn more about what's going on, and rather than wait a few hours to see if she gets there naturally while asleep, she eats an apple. Then her body is stolen and things get messy!

So what makes this installment a bit weaker than the first? The Indexing series would make a fantastic TV series, and this second book is particularly suited to a more visual form. When Henry is in the Whiteout Wood, there's A LOT of imagery about the Snow White tale. In written form, it gets a bit grating to read about the white, black, and red colour combo over and over again. In a visual form, you'd just be seeing it, and it would be quite striking. 

I also think some of the characters other than Henry and Sloane are in desperate need of attention. Even though Jeff, Andy, and Demi are important parts of the team, I have a very shallow understanding of them as people. I love Henry and Sloane, but I find that their personalities need to be balanced out by the rest of the characters. Also, the team is really fascinating! I'd love to get a bit further into Demi's head since she's apparently scary powerful. And Andy's perspective as a person off the fairy tale spectrum would be really interesting to see more in depth.

Reflections also lacked a bit in regard to world building. With this sort of universe, I expect to see all sorts of fairy tales in interesting assortments, but our main villains were a Cinderella and another Snow White! Been there, done that, would like to see a focus on different fairy tales, particularly ones that might be a bit rarer. I think it's also hard to get a sense of what exactly the antagonists are trying to do. I feel that it must be a bit more nuanced than "power is awesome, let's do what we want and screw the narrative". We're constantly chasing bad guys, but I don't really know what is at stake. I really hope there's a third installment of this series as it would be very unsatisfying to have so many loose ends still flopping around (particularly with that speedy climax and denouement). 

Overall, if you're looking for more crime and fairy tale mash-ups, Reflections is quite fun. I enjoyed the breakneck ride through the piece, but I think it could have used some further editing, and I really hope that some of the foundational world building aspects start to come together in future installments (that I demand exist! Hear that, 47North?).

danielle bush

I loved it!!. I really hope at some point Seanna McGuire writes another book in this series..

Reflections

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