This book was... okay. What it says on the star rating. It had potential, but... I've seen a lot of people talk about how different it is from most urban fantasy and if any of them are reading this review, I'd love to hear about how it comes across as different to you? 
 Plot-wise, it was pretty weak. The mystery antagonist was identifiable from his first description, (view spoiler)[ what with being described as an abusive pedophile before we even meet him (hide spoiler)] and while I could respect that our heroine had Issues that made it hard for her to see as clearly as we-the-readers, it still made for a kind of unpleasant read. It was mostly competently written, although I was really puzzled that so many plot threads were introduced in the prologue and then completely dropped in favor of the actual plot. I did find the (offscreen) reaction of October's family to the events of the prologue completely unbelievable and I couldn't even understand how the woman she was searching for in the prologue could have returned without anybody knowing what had happened to her and her daughter. 
 She really didn't come across as particularly competent. The only thing we saw about her that made her protagonist-worthy she only did rarely and with great fear. 
 Additionally, October spent too much time focusing on how hurt she was for me to really enjoy the read. It's funny; I skimmed some other reviews and I saw the same complaint and I was confused by it up until halfway through the book, where she shifted into bleed-all-over-everything mode. I guess it was realistic, but we're reading a book about faeries(view spoiler)[ where somebody can bleed all over a bus and nobody calls 911 (hide spoiler)]. 
 Our heroine had at least three men interested in her romantically(she may think Tybalt hates her but the author did a nice job of showing how wrong she was) and at least one more who I guess... loves her like a daughter? That was unclear and if he hadn't been happily married, I would have pegged him as a romantic interest too. 
 There were sympathetic and helpful female characters, which was nice. On the other hand, the only minor characters permitted to be helpful to the protagonist were other fae, which really annoyed me. (view spoiler)[It was especially bad in a bus scene where October was bleeding all over the place and nobody got involved, presumably because they were all human. (hide spoiler)] But that's a rant for another time and something I, er, explore on my own elsewhere. 
 I do plan on reading the next couple of books. I've seen a number of people claim this is the weakest of the series and since I've had good experiences with other authors for whom that is true, and I think Seanan McGuire is an awesome person, I'm ready to give it a go. She did do a _very_ good job with Tybalt.