All of Seanan's books are fun, and I and my staff at The Portal Bookshop regularly get someone new hooked on the series

I received a copy of this book as part of the 2017 Hugo Awards voter's packet and therefore won't be reviewing it on NetGalley.

I read this series for the 2020 Hugo (Best Series) awards and felt it was the best of the nominated series, although I enjoyed the earlier short stories more than the 'modern times' stories.

Copy of book received as part of this year's Hugo packet, therefore will not be reviewing at this time.

received as part of the Hugo packet when the series was nominated for Best Series. I had never read the books and read every novel and every short story available in under a month. Wickedly funny banter, delightful characters, intriguing cryptozoology. They continue to be books I buy pretty much immediately.

Listen, I long ago joined the church of Seanan McGuire, when I read Rosemary and Rue for the first time with Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy book club. From that moment on, I was completely hooked. Seanan has never failed me. So when this series was nominated for a Hugo and I received the first eight books in the series as part of my Hugo voter packet, I was beyond pleased. This series gives me the same warm and fuzzy feelings that I get when reading Toby Daye books, but just ever so slightly lighter and I love the kind of monster-of-the-week feeling. One of my favourite parts about this series is that we get to follow different characters, which I honestly was skeptical about when I first got to a book not from Verity's point of view. But it really widens the possibilities of the series. The Aeslin mice are my favourite. As always, the balance of character building and world building is pretty close to perfection.

When we get to the later books in the series, I think she straddles the line perfectly of reviewing what has happened previously in the series (a kind of "previously on" but for books) while also moving on with the series. If I wasn't reading them all in a row, I'm sure I would appreciate that even more, as so often I feel like I have to completely re-read a series in order to remind myself of what's happened before I read the newest installment, which tends to mean that i put off that reading.

Overall, really pleased to have finally started this new-to-me series from McGuire and equally pleased to look forward to future books to come.

The second book in the InCryptid series delivers very well. Verity Price is back to defending her family and friends from the Covenant. And her family and friends do a great job of returning the favor. This book is wonderfully laden with sentient non-humans with magical abilities, adventure, suspense, action, humor, and romance. It was really hard to put this book down... Thank you Seanan!

And we're back for another instalment of Verity Price against the world, or at least Verity Price against The Covenant which is near enough the same thing. Having brought her new boyfriend on side and saved Manhattan from a group of snake cultists with a thing for virgins, Verity has a new problem at hand. The Covenant are checking up on their recruit and a team has been brought in to discover whether Dominic is doing his job... and possibly whether there is a Price in the city. Dominic's loyalties will be tested and Verity has to try to combine keeping her hide in one piece with keeping the cryptids of the city safe.

As with all of McGuire's urban fantasy novels, this is fast paced and laced with a biting wit that will keep you coming back for more. She builds on what was introduced in the first novel brilliantly, giving personality and flair not just to Verity and her possibly ex-Covenant boyfriend, but also to all of the varied and imaginative side characters within the novel. I love the way each species has their own quirks, not just in personality but also in biology and culture and McGuire layers that through the novel beautifully without ever feeling like an info-dump. Many of the previous forms of cryptid we have seen are back, many of them with far larger roles to play in events which could become disastrous remarkably quickly. A few new species crop their heads up and of course we herald the return of the adorable Aeslin Mice; HAIL! I really do love those mice.

I also really enjoyed how so many of the non-human species got real page time and the novel explored them in far more detail. Sarah, one the only non-evil cuckoos the planet has to offer, is a prime example of this. Seeing things from her perspective gave the novel far more depth than solely focussing on Verity would have. This is rich, imaginative and has a fantastically fast-paced plot that twists and turns in unexpected ways. It still doesn't quite rival my affections for McGuire's fae based urban fantasy, but it's coming dangerously close.

Second book in the series and continues about six months after the first book ends. I don't do spoilers, so I will say Verity does grow in this one. She comes to a few resolutions in her personal life and how it affects others as well. Main subject of this book is that the Consortium is coming to New York and needing to help the cryptid community, while avoiding them at the same time. Of course the mice are there to hail and celebrate as events unfold. Fun, interesting characters, all told with a little snark and humor.

The second book of the Incryptid series continues the tale of Verity Price, a complicated young woman in an even more complicated New York. It's not easy to balance her love of ballroom dance with protecting the Big Apple's non human species from the Covenant of St George. Will the mysterious Dominic De Luca be friend or foe? More than simply an interesting adventure story, Seanen McGuire sets the stakes high in a way I wasn't expecting. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Thank you for the chance to review prior to Hugo voting. It was very helpful to get the full series on NetGalley!

This is a book I am accessing via Netgalley for the Hugo nomination packet. Due to this, I will not be reviewing this book via Netgalley at this time.

Thank you so much for providing this book as part of the Hugo voting packet. When I have read this book my review will be posted to my blog, Goodreads and retail websites.

I enjoyed this instalment more than the first one, which is a good thing with so many books in the series left for me to read! I'm looking forward to getting to read them.
I liked the way we got to see more of Verity's interactions with the cryptids of New York, and how they had to deal with Dominic more as well. The resolution was really cool and I'm looking forward to learning what comes next for this gang of intrepid cryptozoologists. The world they're operating in is more established now, so it's exciting to see them do amazing things and know they're amazing because I know the normal limits of the world now. Also, I love Istas and was so glad she was in this book more.

Seanan McGuire is a treasure! I love the Incryptid series - I prefer it to October Daye (which is not to say I dislike Toby). I voted for this series for best series Hugo and I will vote for it again in two years.

Midnight Blue-Light Special is the second Novel (though not story) in Seanan McGuire's inCryptid series, following the first novel, Discount Armageddon, which I previously reviewed for this blog.

For those new to the series, inCryptid is an urban fantasy series focusing upon the Healy/Price family, a family of cryptozoologists who attempt to preserve and help Cryptids in North America - Cryptids being the name for beings that are unknown/unexplainable by modern science (think Monsters/Mythological creatures like Gorgons, Bogeymen, Dragons, and Talking Mice). The family also tries to help save the Cryptids from their former organization, the Covenant of Saint George, which has a strictly "kill-on-sight" policy toward Cryptids, no matter how harmless, or how helpful, they might be to ordinary humans. Despite the seriousness of the conflict, members of the Healy/Price family tend to be sarcastic/deadpan-snarkers, and so the series has a lot of humor in its tone.

Midnight Blue-Light Special is the second book following Verity Price, one of the youngest generation of the Family who tries to juggle her Cryptozoologist work with her love of Ballroom Dancing, all the while living in one of the biggest Cryptid communities you can find: New York City. It is very much a direct sequel to Discount Armageddon, and while McGuire spends part of the early narrative rehashing what a new reader might need to know that was explained in the first novel, you probably shouldn't start the series here with this book.


----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------

Things have been going well for Verity Price since the discovery of William at the end of Discount Armageddon. Sure her ballroom dancing career hasn't gone anywhere, but she's still doing a fine job as Manhattan's local cryptozoologist, not to mention engaging in a fun relationship with her kinda-boyfriend Dominic De Luca. Of course Dominic is still a member of the Covenant of Saint George, but he hasn't seemed to have been hunting sentient Cryptids lately, so everything's okay right?

Or well, it was, until Dominic gives Verity a warning: the Covenant has dispatched three agents to New York to assess his progress and begin a purge of Manhattan's cryptid community. Even worse - one of the three agents is a distant cousin whose hatred of her family is even more intense than usual for Covenant agents, and who might be able to recognize her family features. And Dominic can't guaranty which side he'll take in the oncoming war.....

To survive, and attempt to save the local Cryptid Community, Verity will need to call in her allies - her Cuckoo cousin Sarah Zellamy, her cryptozoologist Uncle, and several other Cryptid allies. But even if they stop this band of covenant agents, the Covenant will only send more in their place....how can they both survive AND save the local Cryptid community from terrifying destruction? And can Verity survive the efforts of her evil cousin? Yeah that might even be the bigger problem.

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Like the first book, Midnight Blue-Light Special is told from the first person perspective of Verity, who's a very sarcastic and witty woman which helps give the book a pretty amusing tone. The book actually does take a few chapters in the middle to switch the narration to the perspective of that of Sarah, who isn't quite as irreverent, but it still works even in those chapters. The flippant tone of the book extends once again to both the family quotes at starts of chapters as well as the location descriptors at the start of the chapters. This tone works extremely well and makes this book a quick and enjoyable read- I began and finished this book within a day, as I never really wanted to stop reading.



The book improves upon its predecessor IMO in the character development department - the first book featured a minor character becoming an important ally sort of out of nowhere near the end, whereas this book introduces all of the minor characters much earlier so they don't feel like they come out of nowhere, and they're developed fairly well. We meet Verity's "Uncle Mike," an older ally of the family and he's a solid addition, and the other side characters are amusingly developed further.

This is not to say this is an altogether surprising book - you could see Dominic's eventual decision coming from the very beginning (although the doubt that the other characters have about it is rational, you'd have to be genre blind to think Dominic is going to go in the other direction) and I (and thus some readers) will see the eventual solution to the crisis coming in advance. That said, the impact of the solution is not something I could've predicted, and things do take a swerve around 60% of the way through the book which I did not expect.

Moreover, the ending is pretty satisfying - this is not a book with a cliffhanger ending, and the ending would seem to wrap of the end of Verity's arc (the next book instead is centered around her brother) in Manhattan. In short, like pretty much all of McGuire's urban fantasy works, this is a pretty fun story with solid enjoyable characters and is definitely worth a read if that's the type of book you like.

A fast-paced, twisty, and enjoyable adventure that makes a great follow-up to the first book in the series. The intriguing worldbuilding of supernatural creatures (incryptids) is a great canvas for ongoing stories.

I read the first book in this series when Seanan McGuire was the author guest of honor at BayCon quite a few years back, but reading in paper is hard for me so I never read the others my husband and sons collected. This is important because, thanks to the 2018 Hugos, I received eBook copies of the whole series. I didn’t have time to read them before the ceremony, but I’m starting to now. The amazing part is how easy it was to drop back into that world. I recognized the characters, their relationships, and the alternate view of our world.

Seanan McGuire is a talented storyteller, able to bring a world to life. Verity is brash, foolhardy, and abrasive, but at the same time, she makes the hard decisions out of a fanatical belief in personhood. If you’re a person, and don’t endanger the lives of others, she’ll defend you to her last breath. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a dragon, a gorgon, a cuckoo…or a human. She judges people based on their actions, even making room for a disciple of the Covenant of St. George when he shows the ability to recognize people who have little in common with him.

Take a moment to think about that. It shouldn’t be amazing, but it is.

I was looking for a quick, fun read, and I got it. The book took little time to focus on the messages underlying it, leaving them for readers to find. Instead, Midnight Blue-Light Special shares the narrative between Verity, defender of all persons, and Sarah, her cuckoo adopted cousin, for reasons I cannot reveal. They have similar, but different perspectives on events, adding to the layers in the narrative. These two take the reader on a fast-paced, knuckle-biting run through the streets (and rooftops) of New York City with the lives of every cryptid on the line. There are gut-wrenching moments of almost every kind; battles of will, mind, and body; and even a love story or two.

As much as I enjoyed the story, the characters are probably my favorite part. Verity and Sarah, of course, but also the Aeslin mice who can talk…and do…who are the natural documentarians of all things Verity. Then there’s Dominic, the aforementioned Covenant disciple, who is still a bit of a rough diamond, but he’s getting there on the personhood thing. It’s hard to overcome training from birth that anything non-human should be killed on sight. Oh, and Islas, a socialized waheela, who loves to put lace on her goth clothing and is eager for carnage…but only appropriate carnage.

These are but an introduction to the broad, and disparate, cast. How the author makes it work appeals to me. The book touches on cross-cultural communication issues in both spoken and body language cues. Each interaction teaches us something about the various people and shows them to be distinct rather than humans in cryptid clothing, even for those who can pass as human without trying.

It’s a complex world peopled with fascinating characters and a clear understanding of the line between dangerous fanatic and one who’s driven to help those in need. Layer a story on top of that already strong basis that has twists and turns, and a satisfying ending that doesn’t come without its costs. I was hooked enough to delay my review so I could finish this rather than let another book distract me.

Note: There’s a limited encyclopedia in the back along with a suggested playlist to enhance your reading experience. You can also visit the Field Guide to the Cryptids of North America on her website for detailed descriptions and fun illustrations. The Price family takes its job as cryptozoologists seriously.

An exciting follow-up to Discount Armageddon, this time with more dragons, more Sarah, and more Covenant.

I'm gradually working my way through this series and enjoying learning more about Verity's fascinating world.

Thank you for sharing this with the Hugo voters.

This is a fun fast fantasy read. I remember not liking the first book in the InCryptid series, but found this one much better. The main character Verity Price is a dancer but her family are experts on the Cryptids, creatures of fantasy. They broke off from the Covenant of St. George, devoted to exterminating the cyptids. In the first book, she convinced a member of the Covenant not to turn her in and become her boyfriend. Now, when a team from the Covenant comes to exterminate all the cryptids of New York, he has to make a choice. Similarly, Verity needs to choose between her desire for a normal life (as much as she can) and her family role as protector of the cyptids.