Backpacking Through Bedlam

InCryptid, Book 12

By: Seanan McGuire

Narrated by: Emily Bauer

Seanan McGuire's New York Times best-selling and Hugo Award-nominated urban fantasy InCryptid series continues with the 12th book following the Price family, cryptozoologists who study and protect the creatures living in secret all around us.

Reunion, noun:

1. The state of being united again.

Reconciliation, noun:

1. An act of reconciling, as when former enemies agree to an amiable truce.
2. The process of making consistent or compatible.
3. See also “impossible”.

Alice Price-Healy gave up her life for 50 years to focus completely on the search for her missing husband. The danger of focus like that is that it leaves little room for thinking about what happens after...and now that she’s finally managed to find Thomas, she has no idea what she’s supposed to do next. The fact that he comes with a surrogate daughter who may or may not have some connection to Alice’s recently adopted grandson is just icing on the complicated cake.

So the three of them are heading for the most complicated place in the universe: they’re going home.

But things on Earth have changed while Alice, Thomas, and Sally have been away. The Covenant of St. George, antagonized by Verity’s declaration of war and Sarah’s temporary relocation of an entire college campus, is trying to retake North America from the cryptids and cryptozoologists who’ve been keeping the peace for the past hundred years. And they’re starting in New York.

Alice and company have barely been back for an hour before the Ocean Lady and the Queen of the Routewitches are sending them to New York to help, and they find themselves embroiled in the politics of dragons, kidnappings, and of course, the most dangerous people of all: family.

Getting “back to normal” may be the hardest task Alice has undertaken yet.

©2023 Seanan McGuire (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Another fantastic read!!!

I have yet to read anything by Seanan McGuire that I have not found totally engrossing and anxiously await each book with anticipation! The series (all of them) are engrossing and magical and lets ones imagination run rampant wishing her books were non-fiction instead!

Nice installment

Nice installment and follow up from the cliff hanger of the previous book. Slowish start but then settled down to a nice listen. Great performance.

Another fantastic InCryptid novel

Seanan McGuire has created another fantastic, engaging story in the InCryptid world. Continuing to follow Grandma Alice and Grandpa Thomas (with their adopted adult daughter, Sally) we find out how they make it back to Earth and what battles are waiting when they land.

I love the world of InCryptid and I'm enjoying watching new developments unfold in it with each new novel.

Alice and Thomas’ return to the real world does not go as planned

It is always fun to immerse myself in the stories of the Price-Healeys, the hidden world of magic and the Incryptids (non-humans) hiding in plain sight. This story is once again told from Grandma Alice’s perspective. Alice is in her 80s but looks barely 20. After spending 50 years traveling between dimensions and ultimately finding her husband Thomas, their homecoming and planned downtime is quickly changed to once again actively fighting the Covenant. Alice’s family believes Incryptids, who are not harmful to humans or other species, should be protected. The Covenant believes that they should be exterminated. After Alice’s granddaughter, Verity, confirmed that their family was alive and well in national tv, the Covenant is once again in America hunting their family along with the Incryptids and the Price-Healeys and their allies are in the way. The story includes what you’d expect from this genre - fighting, dangerous situations, paranormal creatures, evil actors, henchmen, loyal friends and family, tragic back stories, mystical coincidences, snark, and laughs. This book, like all the books in this series, made me laugh, cry, gasp, and grit my teeth. This is book 12 in the Incryptid series and while each book can be read as a standalone, to get the most enjoyment, the books are best read in order. I am happy to learn there will be more books in the series.

Emily Bauer Ponce again did a phenomenal job narrating and breathing life into the story and the characters with enough change of inflection, tone and cadence to voice multiple characters quite convincingly.

Good

I really enjoyed this one. The series keeps on going strong and I look forward to the next.