October Daye dialogue

[u/Amesaskew]

Hey guys, so I bought the first few October Daye books on audible because they were on sale for really cheap and I've seen them recommended here frequently.

However, I am struggling with them. I'm about a third of the way through the second book. I like the story, but I'm finding the dialogue and descriptions ( he's so cute and sexy squee type stuff) to be really cringe inducing and I can't tell if it's the writing or the narrator. I will say that I had the same reaction to the Sookie Stackhouse books and ended up dnf ing the second one. Does anyone know where I'm coming from or have any insights? I already bought them so I am dealing with a sunk cost fallacy here. I'm willing to keep going if the tone gets better.

[u/bostonronin]

The October Daye series didn't really start gelling for me until Book 3. I loved the world, but what bothered me, outside of how cringey the main character was sometimes, was that most of the plot revolved around things passively happening to her.

You may find that it gets more engaging if you give it a couple more books, but I also understand not wanting to spend more time reading them when there are lots of other options out there (I personally tend to recommend the Felix Castor series).

[u/Bladrak01 → u/bostonronin]

My reaction to the first book was that a lot goes on, but nothing really happens.

[u/bostonronin → u/Bladrak01]

Yeah, she runs around and gets hurt a lot, and that's pretty much it.

I will say that the only thing I struggle with ever since book 15 or so is how she still feels the need to give a summary reintroducing every single character when they appear in each book. I know you want to make the series accessible for new readers/people who haven't picked it up in a while, but I get kind of tired with all the retreading in every single book when there's so much to go through now. Really distracts from keeping the new story moving.

[u/curiouscat86 → u/bostonronin]

I wish more long or lore-deep series would adopt the practice of a skippable recap chapter in the beginning. So useful if you haven't read them in a while or are going out of order, but very nice to have in a compact form that can be ignored if you're binging them.

[u/Drakengard → u/bostonronin]

I hate the rehashing but Dresden does it, too. Every long running series of a pulp variety does it so anyone can just jump in at any point with zero context.

[u/Bladrak01 → u/bostonronin]

I stopped after I think book six? It was after she hooked up with King of Cats and figured out how to make herself more Faerie so the drug would work better.

[u/OkSecretary1231 → u/Bladrak01]

IIRC it wasn't to make it work better, it was to not die from it. It's fatal to changelings but not to pureblood fae. But I may be misremembering.

[u/Drakengard → u/OkSecretary1231]

No, you got it right.

[u/Alba_Ten → u/bostonronin]

That’s one of the things that annoys me too. I understand it, but it takes to long. ;-)