Alice Healey-Price spent 50 years searching for her husband in the last book, Spelunking Through Hell, to get her happy ending. Now that she has found him, the daughter he adopted, and the people that he had been protecting, she has conflicting feelings about him and their life together. Plus the fact their own children have grown up and no longer need their parents. When they return to their dimension once their mission is accomplished, they find troubling things like the Covenant of St. George trying to retake America, starting with New York.

If you like cryptids, Price-worshipping mice, complicated family relationships, true love, snappy dialogue, worldbuilding, and action, this story will give you happy ending in another adventure of the Price family. Ms. McGuire keeps packing in stories that grow better and better with each book.

Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series just gets better and better with each book. The Price Family were once part of the Covenant of St. George, monster hunters, who first set about to rid the world of dragons and who then began to remove anything they deemed “unnatural” even non human, sentient beings, who are harmless. Now the Price family are at odds with their old allies and parts of their own family tree, working as cryptozoologists trying to preserve the creatures their family once hunted.

Different books in the series follow various family members. Backpacking Through Bedlam follows Alice as does the previous book in the series Spelunking Through Hell; I would definitely recommend reading that book prior to this one. Alice became a bounty hunter in order to get access to the magic she would need to find her husband who was taken and hidden by the Crossroads in another dimension. The previous novel deals with her quest and this one takes a peak at what comes after the happily ever after in a moving and poignant way, beyond what you might expect from a series with Gothic Lolita Shapeshifters and ghostly babysitters.
Though there is humor and fun in the books, the deep family relationships including those by birth and found family are the heart of the novels.

Included, as have been in previous books, is a bonus novella dealing with other members of the Price family, in this case “The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went” which gives more insight into the lives of the Aeslin Mice, who co-habitat with the Price family and worship them as deities.

I was provided with an advanced copy of the novel through NetGalley and the Publishers in order to provide an honest review for readers.

The twelfth book in the InCrypid series has us follow Grandma Alice Price-Healy and her long-long, now-found husband Thomas, as they readjust to being married. It's been a very long time coming for readers and for characters, but it's well worth the wait. They have had fifty years of trauma and separation, and they need some time to fit their edges back together, but the world doesn't stop and neither do their problems. From those outstanding at the end of book eleven Spelunking Through Hell to threads from granddaughter Verity's adventures in book one Discount Armageddon, everything is coming together. It's extremely satisfying.

As I was reading, I was acutely aware of the intricate way the Incrypid universe fits together. The events of multiple previous books and five generations of short stories (many free on the author's website or available on Patreon) play into this story, these characters, and their interactions. To make things more complicated, time moves oddly when interdimensional travel is involved so not everything is as we - or Alice - left it. It takes a brilliant mind to fit these stories into such a cohesive whole and I love how this continuity grows and builds upon itself more and more. It's definitely best having read the rest of canon.

Backpacking Through Bedlam, the 12th installment in Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series, wraps up one of the series’ long-running subplots: Grandma Alice’s decades-long interdimensional search for her missing husband Thomas. At the same time, the book begins in earnest the Price-Healy clan’s efforts to prevent the Covenant of St. George from invading North America and “cleansing it” of its Cryptid population. Throughout the book, McGuire has a lot to say about the lengths family (biological and found) will go to protect each other and how hard it is for family to forgive each other.

Alice was also the narrator of the previous volume, Spelunking Through Hell, in which (spoilers, sorry, but necessary here) she found Thomas trapped in a bottle dimension (the kind you can be thrown into by sketchy double-crossing cosmic entities, but from which escape is darn near impossible), alongside a whole passel of others in the same position. Backpacking picks up with Alice and Thomas’ efforts to find a safe new dimension for these cosmically-displaced refugees before they (and Thomas’ adopted daughter Sally) can return home. I honestly expected this part of the story to take up more of the book and was surprised it wrapped up so quickly. Not without some life-threatening action one expects from the early pages of an InCryptid book, and still totally satisfactorily in a way that ties back to previous books in the series. It’s a solid start, re-establishing the Alice/Thomas/Sally dynamic, which is not the smoothest. Some of their interactions are hard to read, but they’re also raw and honest dissections of how the images we build of the people we love but haven’t seen in a while can be unrealistic and how hard it is to reconcile who someone has become with who we thought they were. Alice and Thomas have a lot of lost years to navigate through, and I have faith they’ll get there, but it’s not going to be an easy road. Likewise, Sally and Alice’s road to understanding each other and their roles in Thomas’ life is fraught with defensiveness and, dare I say, possessiveness that these women will have to find common ground on.

And all of this is before the three return to Earth and get shuffled off to New York City to help granddaughters Verity and Sarah and their friends fight off the latest incursion by the Covenant of St. George, the evil, self-righteous Cryptid-killing organization that Alice’s grandparents and Thomas himself defected from. Thanks to Verity’s actions in a previous book, the Covenant has decided to take the long-thought-dead Price-Healy family “off the map” for good. (Which is going to be much harder than the Covenant thinks, because, well, Price-Healys, man.) In between several fantastic fight scenes, we get to watch Alice introduce Thomas to some of the grandkids (and great-grandkids) he only just found out exist. And that does not go well at first. Verity and her siblings and cousins have always known about Grandma Alice’s quest, but none of them really thought she’d succeed. And that quest came at the price of strained relationships even with the grandkid who most understands her. The years of absence, even with the quest successful, weigh on every scene between Alice and Verity and Alice and Sarah. The pain, the mistrust, the slow lowering of guards, is palpable. Moreso because there is no sudden “oh, okay, we forgive you and we accept this stranger you say is our grandfather and this girl who is now our adopted aunt even though she’s younger than us” moment. But even with all the discomfort and pain, the book is a celebration of the family we build around ourselves from biology and adoption. Alice has a lot of rebuilding to do, and Thomas and Sally have a lot of learning-how-they-fit-in to do. But the door, at least, is open. I for one am looking forward to learning where that door leads, as well as what the Covenant’s next move is going to be. I’m also looking forward to learning, eventually, who will be narrating the next installment since McGuire changes narrators frequently in this series.

The book also contains a novella, “The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went!” which focuses on the Price family compound in the immediate aftermath of Alice, Thomas, and Sally’s brief visit at the end of Spelunking Through Hell. Some family members are happy Alice has found Thomas and will be returning to the fold. Some are still very angry at Alice. But the focus is on the newest adopted Price sibling, James, and his reaction to learning that his childhood friend Sally, thought lost to the Crossroads, is alive and coming home. I loved this close look at how James has been adapting to being a member of the family and being worshipped by the family’s colony of Aeslin mice, at how it has not necessarily been an easy road for James to follow (but still much better than the horrible life he left behind). The Aeslin mice are fan favorites, and we get a really solid look at how new clergy and new rituals develop in their belief system (where every male in the Price-Healy family is a God and every female a Priestess) through the eyes of James’ first Aeslin priest. Both James and the two mice featured are unsure of their footing, of their place, of what their futures will hold. I look forward to seeing where their paths take them as the InCryptid series progresses. I’m also not ashamed to say that James has become my favorite character in the series.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Series Info/Source: This is the 12th book in the Incryptid series. I got a copy of this as an ebook through Netgalley to review.

Thoughts: I ended up really loving this, I am thoroughly enjoying reading these stories from Alice's POV.

In this book Alice and Thomas are reunited but they have a commitment to find worlds for all of Thomas's people to live in. After that, they return home and are hoping to try to start a normal life when they get news that the trouble that Verity started with the Covenant has some to a head...war is imminent.

I loved all the craziness and world-hopping at the beginning of the book. The book switches tone about a third of the way in as Alice and Thomas end up in New York dealing with all the craziness that the Covenant is causing there. I enjoyed this part of the book a lot too. There is a lot of action and it was fun to watch Sally (Alice and Thomas's adopted daughter of sorts) interact with all these types of cryptids for the first time.

I did feel like the battle was a bit anti-climatic at the end. I assume this is just the start of the war with the Covenant but the end of the book kind of feels like the Covenant was maybe driven off for good, I was a bit confused about where everything was going by the end.

I also struggled a bit with the novella because I kept getting family members mixed up. The novella that is included deals with Sally's old friend (James I think?) and alternates between his POV and that of the Aeslin mice that have decided to worship him. It was a cute novella and does give some insight into how the Aeslin mice live, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the full length story.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. McGuire's Incryptid series is one of my favorite series that she writes. I have really been enjoying Alice's POV and all the crazy worlds and species we get to meet. I hope we get another book from Alice's POV in the future. I would like to shift from this type of parallel world hopping to more focus back on the cryptids in the future, but we will see where things go.

Alice and Thomas are reunited at last, and making their way back home to Buckley. Their absence has shaped the lives of their descendants, and now that they're back, exactly what they plan to do is an open question. Luckily, life for the Price family is never boring, and they are needed in New York to fight the Covenant. Much of the book sets up the pieces for the next one, but series fans will enjoy the process.

Another exciting, action-packed adventure in the world of InCryptids, and another fascinating (and even emotional) look at the Price family dynamics. This installment focuses on married couple Alice and Thomas, reunited after an involuntary separation of 50 years (still miraculously maintaining the health and looks of people in their 20s), who have to reestablish their relationship, in between yet more dangerous missions and quests. This series is great, and I hope it continues for many, many more books!

Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alice is back, ya'll. That should be enough to capture the interest of most of you grenade-toting freaks, but if it isn't, then you haven't been reading the rest of the Price family novels.

IF you have, though, it means you know that grandma has a bit of some emotion sorting to do with her husband, and if that isn't enough, then we also need to reintroduce ourselves with the already-familiar grandchildren.

This was very fun.

While that would also have been fine all by itself, we DID get an actual novel that included the OTHER side of the family. Yes. Those people. Craziness ensues. And then there is also a long stretch of the novel that has a certain kind of mouse PoV.

For those who know, you know. It's so good.

I love coming back to this world! Just like all the other books in this series I was sucked in from page one and flew through it, reading it in one sitting. I love all of Seanan McGuire's worlds she has built, and I think the Incryptid universe is one of my favorites. I would love to be adopted by the Prices and meet the mice, and just live in this world alongside all the Cryptids. The humor is top-notch, I laughed out loud many times, it's action-packed and the stakes kept me on the edge of my seat.
I would definitely recommend starting at the beginning of this series to get the most out of it.

Alice and Thomas have finally found each other, and are on their way home to Buckley. We think they might have a bit of downtime to reacclimate themselves to.. well... Earth. and also with finally being with each other. Alice has spent the last 50 years searching every world she can access, and doing it alone, throwing herself into the most dangerous situations. Thomas has spent all that time taking care of a whole planet's worth of people, trying to keep them alive.

But of course, things couldn't be that easy.. Almost as soon as they arrive home they have to deal with the Covenant and everything that's been happening while Alice has been hoping worlds. I love that we get to see so many of the family members I've come to love! Rose, Verity, Dominic and all the others! I especially loved the short story at the end where we get to see James again and get to see how he's getting along, I love how the Prices just suck people into their lives. Once they decide your family you're stuck with them forever.. I can't wait to see how everything is going to play out in the next book when we get to see Alice and Thomas with their kids, and how they all come to give the Covenant the spanking they deserve!!

Backpacking Through Bedlam, by author Seanan McGuire, is the 12th installment in the authors Incryptid series. One would hope that you have read Spelunking Through Hell before starting this book as the story picks up right were the previous book left off. The InCryptid series is a witty urban fantasy saga featuring an eccentric family of cryptozoologists who act as a buffer between the humans and the magical creatures living in secret around us.This story is narrated by Alice Healy Price who spent 50 years searching for her husband Thomas Price.

Now that they have been reunited, and now that they have escaped from the bottle dimension where both Thomas, and his adopted daughter Sally Henderson were sent by the Crossroads (which was destroyed by Antimony), it is time to go back home to Buckley Township, Michigan and Galway Woods, where both Alice's mother and grandmother died. It is fair to say that every book before this point was a build up to the next phase in what is to come next. We've know for awhile now, or ever since Verity declared war on the The Covenant of St. George, that they would not go quietly into that good night. Nope, they are out for vengeance.

Without spoiling anything, we now know that Sarah Zellaby, Antimony, and her friends have made it back home after their adventurers. It has been around 3-5 years since Alice disappeared. It is further learned that the Covenant has somehow found out that there is a male Dragon in Manhattan that should have been wiped out a very long time ago. They are now going after other Cryptids hoping to wipe them out and lure out the Dragon not knowing that the Price's are still alive.

So, it is not a shock or surprise to see both Mary Dunlavy and Rose Marshall quickly make an appearance when they learn that Alice, Thomas, and Sally have returned. Rose tells Alice that there is no time for relaxation. The Queen of the Roads is asking Alice to get rid of the Covenant as soon as possible since it was her family who created the problems. Things get interesting when Alice reunites with Verity, and her husband Dominic DeLuca as well as a cute surprise. Sarah Zellaby also makes an unusual appearance which should not surprise anyone.

By the way, McGuire has posted that Sarah Zellaby and Alice Healy-Price were the key characters around whom she built the Incryptid series. Alice has substantial resistance to telepathy, and she has Kairos luck. Kairos luck means that improbable coincidences happen to her reliably. Kairos coincidences can be good luck or bad luck. Alice, who is almost always armed, also never missed once she pulls the trigger. But she have barked off more than she can chew, especially with Margaret Healy, who is out for vengeance on the Price family who is supposed to be dead.

If you have read this series from the start, you know a whole lot about the Aeslin mice who never forget anything and have kept the Price Healy family history. Slight spoilers: At the end of Spelunking, Alice brought Sally to Kevin Price's compound in Oregon. If you know anything about this series, you now that Alice's children, mostly her daugher Jane, hate Alice. Sally stole James' waffles and told the folks there (folks including Aeslin Mice) to tell James that Sally stole his waffles. As you have no doubt guessed from the title, that communication is the subject of the novella. We see more deeply into the civilization and religion of the Aeslin in this story than we ever have before.

I honestly do not know how authors like McGuire are able to churn book after book out without having stories fail spectacularly. I am looking forward to who will be the narrator of the next book in this series as well as finding out how much longer the family is expected to be at war with the Covenant.

Squee! This is one where even though I got to read an ARC I’m going to buy myself a paper copy so I’ve got a complete set. The series is a light one with cheerfully violent over the top humor. If you’re a fan of the series you’ll love this one too. If you like fun fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously this is a book 12, it’s not where you want to start the series. Go get Discount Armageddon to get started. They’re the kind of books you can devour in a weekend afternoon just to unwind and have a good time,.

I never am disappointed in a novel by Seanan McGuire. And Backpacking Through Bedlam continues that tradition as a fantastic continuation of the series. The Incryptid books have been among my favorites for years but I must admit to a soft spot once we reached Alice and Thomas. I had been waiting for their story for years and I love the story that we’ve gotten so far. 

One of the best aspects is that the characters struggle. Alice isn’t used to having back up. Thomas is used to being in charge. And they have Sally along as well who’s getting used to being back on Earth. All of them have issues to work out as they learn about the current state of the world and their family. Even though the story is fairly straightforward, it is the complexity fo the relationships and the characters that drive this complex and interesting novel. 

To be frank, I couldn’t put this book down and can’t wait for the next one. The continuous drama and crisis for the characters keeps the story fast paced and enjoyable. If you love the series, you will love this book. If you haven’t read the other books, I do suggest picking up the first one in the Incryptid books but if you do, you’ll fall in love with the characters and the world. It is a fantastic continuation of the series.

I just reread the whole series, pretty much, which made reading this one even more satisfying.

While not a strictly relaxing read because the book has a) a plot b) an action-y plot, it was a relaxing read because I had a great time. Things made sense! Things were fun! Mysteries were solved! More mysteries were teased! It was pretty much exactly what I wanted as the next instalment in this series. The only problem is now going to be waiting for the next one to come out. It's just so NICE to sit down and read a good long series where everything stays on the rails and the author thinks all kinds of people are people. Including monsters. A+.

Another solid entry in Seanan McGuire's extremely entertaining InCryptid series! Existing fans of the series will enjoy it (I know I did!), though I’d recommend that a new reader start all the way at the beginning, because the worldbuilding and character interaction which happen in the earlier books really is important, and without it, the story this book tells won’t feel as impactful as it is.

This book picks up where the previous one left off, continuing Alice's story as she finishes up her journeys and gets back into the swing of her long-lost "ordinary" life – though, of course, it doesn’t stay ordinary for long. It was as engaging and funny and thoughtful as ever, but I felt like the pacing was a little lopsided: the first half was a little slow in terms of plot, but the last half accelerates very quickly and packs a lot of action into a short time. I wish that action had been distributed just a little more evenly over the course of the book; I felt engaged through the first half, but the speed of the second half felt like it gave me a little whiplash.

All in all, a good installment of a great series; recommended! Thanks so much to DAW Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

The preceding novel in Seanan McGuire’s Incryptid series, Spelunking Through Hell, paid off a lot of small references to Alice Price-Healy throughout the previous ten books. Having read every one of McGuire’s numerous short stories dealing with the Healy family in Buckley I’ve lived with this world and these characters longer than the novel-only readers. Spelunking Through Hell pays off *everything*, but it many ways it doesn’t feel quite as much like an Incyptid novel because, well, Alice is hopping between dimensions to find Thomas. Calculated Risks was similar in that regard as the first book to actively take place not in our world. This will all make more sense if you read in the series in order, which I heartily encourage.

The first third of Backpacking Through Bedlam suffers (which is not quite the right word) that same issue. Alice found Thomas in Spelunking Through Hell. She gets him home in this book. Once she does, I felt my tension as a reader dissolve (much as that of Alice and Thomas does as well). We’re back in Buckley, back in familiar environs, and there is just enough time for Alice to info-dump some knowledge onto another character before McGuire circles back on everything else that has been going on while Alice has been hopping between dimensions and Sarah and Antimony were destroying an existential parasite and then finding their way back to this dimension.

Remember way back in Book 5 (Chaos Choreography) when Verity exposed her family on national television and threatened the Covenant of Saint George and then in the next book (Magic for Nothing) her younger sister Antimony went undercover in a Covenant training school? Well - all of that (*waves hands at story*) is coming home to roost.

In a number of ways, a book review is not and perhaps should not be a discussion of what the story is about or, gasp, “the plot”. That idea works, I think, for just about everything except the twelfth novel in a long running genre series, almost regardless of genre.

Now, in certain series you know exactly what you are going to get - in some cases beat by beat, and other than acknowledging that the author delivers the expected experience that’s really all that needs to said.

Seanan McGuire has been playing around with that a bit in her Incryptid series by shifting protagonists every two to three books, which has allowed a recalibration of a character’s personal stakes in a story following a previous book. Verity is not Alex who is not Antimony who is sure as heck not Sarah - they each have their own perspectives, despite being siblings (Sarah not withstanding) - so the common experience has been the particular world and how the Price family interacts with the supernatural around them and, ultimately, in conflict with The Covenant of Saint George, the misguidedly evil organization of self-righteous murder.

There is a certain amount of comfort in reading the Incryptid series. The expectation is not so much that we can color in the numbers of the plot or the revelation ourselves, but the tone and the acceptance and belonging that is felt within a very small and tight knit tribe fighting against increasingly large and impossible odds.

That’s where Backing Through Bedlam takes its place - with a world-shattering conclusion to the last Antimony novel, a trip through inhuman dimensions with Sarah Zellaby, and Alice Price bringing her almost mythological husband home after fifty years - Backpacking Through Bedlam brings a whole lot of story together and begins to restitch what seemed like multiple books running on tracks that started parallel but continued to diverge and diverge back into one larger fight. It’s impressive.

Spoilers but not spoilers for a long running series that has not advertised an “explosive conclusion” but Backing Through Bedlam continues to set up that one larger fight. I wouldn’t expect readers who have followed along this deep into a series to anticipate a true ending - though there have certainly been multiple stops along the way where we could reasonably have been satisfied if that’s where McGuire chose to bring this to a close - but the Alice story has been too important to Seanan McGuire to not get to this point and beyond. For those readers who have been delighted with the Incryptid series for years, you will continue to be delighted by Backpacking Through Bedlam. Readers who may have felt that Spelunking Through Hell was a bit of a diversion will be satisfied once Alice and company return to Earth (that’s a sentence I wrote).

Backpacking Through Bedlam is an absolute delight.

As always, a thrilling chapter in one of my favorite series. I love how each entry builds and fleshes out the overall story of the family while delving into the perspective of each narrator(s). Amazing!

The entire Incryptid series is enthralling, and Backpacking through Bedlam is no exception. I love the relationship between Alice and Thomas. McGuire doesn't make everything perfect; the characters honestly deal with their issues and grow stronger through the trials they face.

Thank you for the opportunity to advance read this book.

I've been invested in this series and was happy to see how the InCrypid / Price family continues. As you'd expect the writing is wonderful and the story well told.

It's interesting to see the world through Alice and Thomas (and Sally). because things have changed and they kind of seem like time travelers to me, oddly enough.

I would say that this book is not a standalone and would require reading at least the book prior (Backpacking through Bedlam).

another great addition to the series.

I just couldn't finish this one. I've re-started it five times now and haven't made it past the first few chapters. I don't know why. I should like it, but I just can't get into this one.

I won't post to my socials since I was unable to finish and will come back to update my thoughts if I circle back.

I felt like alice and thomas really start to hit their groove in this entry. Lots of action, and check ins with the other family members. I have enjoyed this world and look forward to seeing where it goes next.