I don't think I've ever seen a pink budgie. I'm sure I've never actually called a budgerigar anything other than a budgie. I think what Alex saw on page 63 was probably a flock of galahs. They're sometimes known as rose-breasted cockies (cockatoos), so I can see how that is a term Seanan would avoid.

What no I'm not avoiding talking about the serious stuff, like how readily Seanan CRUSHES MY HEART ON A REGULAR BASIS.

Spoilers: there was stuff that made me cry. A lot. ( )

I enjoyed seeing this look into Shelby's family and how she was raised in the Thirty-Six Society in Australia. I also appreciated seeing her stand with Alex even against her family when called for. And I still really like Alex's POV a lot; he's a fun character to have narrate these books.

However, there's a lot I disliked about some of the other characters. The whole Thirty-Six society is bigoted against non-humans in a way that is very, VERY similar to the way colonizers treated the indigenous populations they found living on the land they wanted to inhabit. I'm sure this was intentional, but it didn't make it any easier to read. I also didn't like the way that Shelby's dad treated Alex. I know this is realistic, that there are some fathers who will treat any man who dates their daughters like The Enemy, but I really couldn't stand that attitude or treatment, and I was pleasantly surprised when I went from actively hating Shelby's dad to merely disliking him.

None of the things I disliked made me consider DNFing the book; I did still like the rest of it enough to keep going. Even though Alex is my favorite InCryptid narrator so far, though, this is probably my least favorite of the 4 books I've read in the series to date. ( )

So much love for Alex and Shelby ( )

the best one so far, even though it had many irritating parts

So, I've been reading this series for some time now, disliking every book and giving each a one-star rating. I think they are hastily written, full of predictable plot-twists, romance that just doesn't feel real, with uninteresting and unlikable protagonists that are pretty much interchangeable, since no-one has a unique voice or personality. All in all I think they are a waste of a wonderful idea for a very interesting world.
Still I keep reading them, and here's why.

Because they are comfortable cheap fiction. Thrilling, cheesy and repetitive at the exact moment you expect them to be. You know what you get. And McGuire is consistent. Each book is exactly as bad as the first one. The storylines are similar, you get the same amount of new creatures and mysteries. The same amount of new characters, of opening quotes in each chapter, of flashbacks of the protagonists childhood training, of betrayal, of danger, of action, of romance. She sticks to her recipe, even when that includes bad dialog or cheesy-evil dead 3 action-type heroics. You don't expect more and after a while the familiarity of it all makes you feel at ease, like visiting an old tale.

Because the author is feminist-friendly, and so the storytelling feels safe, even when horrible things happen. Consent is important in all things and is always underlined. When sexist characters appear, someone always makes a comment pointing that out, even if it's in a very toned-down manner. There are a lot of women, with different character traits, personalities, and... likeability levels. Queer people are present or at least mentioned. There's a social aspect to most things, especially concerning prejudices.

Because of all that, the audiobooks are PERFECT to lull you into sleep. ESPECIALLY when you have trouble falling asleep because of anxiety or panic attacks. Since I started this series I sleep like a baby. I can truly say that these novels changed my life.

So I will keep reading each new addition, and rating it as low as I think it deserves, but I think I'll cherish the whole series for a long time.


[Plus, I keep holding out for Antimony. She's my kinda gal.]


---------------------------------------------

So, a spoilerific recap so I'll remember what happened.

Alex and Shelby go to Australia to hunt werewolfs. Shelby has an annoying family of 2 sisters and 2 parents. All of them hate on Alex in a way that stops making sense very early on, just so there's drama. It's justified as "the covenant boy", "the american", "the one that thinks he's above us", "the one whose fault is our daughter was away for so long". They keep threatening to shoot him, kill him, feed his body to animals or whatever, and for some reason he constantly treats this as a semi-valid thread. It never feels real or logical and gets old very fast. Somewhere mid-book Shelby says they're engaged because in the previous book lover-boy-Alex had muttered "marry me" while watching her do something awesome. Apparently this is a thing now and they decide to get married. Enter family drama.
The australian cryptozoologists are still racist against humanoid cryptids and do not treat them as persons. This is a major plot-point, since it ties in with wadget and werewolves. We learn werewolves are sapient. Many of the 36ers are werewolves and hide it because they are afraid they will be treated as monsters from their peers. Big reveal that alpha werewolf is the dude that died first in the book.
Shelby's father and sister are bitten, and so is Alex. All of them turn out ok with various people's help (dad and alex with medicine alex makes, and the sister with some cryptid's help). The werewolves want Alex to be one of them and kidnap him, and later Shelby too. The good-guys kill all the bad werewolves - only 2 remain in quarantine that didn'te even know they were infected. Helen, the wadget doctor, helps them out along with the rest of the humans.
Aislin mice are the best part of the book, again. Turns out they can sniff out the werewolf disease (which is pretty much like rabies and can affect all mammals), and one of them is murdered while helping out. ( )

In theory, I really should have loved this book. I love this series and love world-building. I just had so many issues with this book it was hard to sit back and enjoy the admittedly spectacular world-building. First, apologies to Alex, I just find him a bit dull compared to his more flamboyant sisters. Second, Shelby's family. I mean, WTF, Shelby's family?!?

So Alex's girlfriend, Shelby, is from a family who are Thirty-Sixers, the Australian version of the Price-Healy clan... only not. They are focused on conservation of the island continent's unique cryptid flora and fauna, and less so on peaceful cohabitation with the non-human sentient cryptids. But her family asks her to come home to help with a werewolf problem, and Alex, having actually dealt with werewolves, tags along.

And that's where everything falls apart. Because every word out of any Tanner mouth was about how much they didn't need Alex's help, how much they hated him, and how easily they could make his body disappear. Which, for a group of people who are supposedly professional crytidzoologists and are dealing with something they have zero experience is, is pretty damn stupid. Also, as a reader, it got really old really quickly.

But! the world building was everything I had hoped for. And the werewolf plot actually was interesting once it stopped being taken over by the Tanner family not-so-subtly threatening Alex. There was also a pretty cool swamp monster friendly and Aeslin mice, so that's cool. ( )