I would like to be adopted into the Price family immediately. They’re awesome and I love to read the latest. Glad we’re looping back to see how it all started.

Backpacking Through Bedlam is the 12th main-series novel in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series, her urban fantasy series following a family, the Price/Healy family who tries to protect cryptids - sentient and non-sentient species whose existence isn't believe by science and who are hunted by human-centric killers. This is also the second novel to feature as its protagonist Alice Price-Healy, grandmother of some of the first few protagonists, after last year's Spelunking Through Hell.* I'm a huge fan of this series, and am a big fan of Alice as a character from earlier short stories and features, so I basically read this book in one day the moment I got it through NetGalley, despite having older stuff on my TBR that I needed to read first.

*I'd noted in my review of that book that Alice's present-day story appeared to be a one-book arc - this was apparently incorrect, so here we are with book 2.*

And well Backpacking Through Bedlam is still enjoyable InCryptid, as it combines the fight against the Cryptid-hunting Covenant of St. George with Alice's difficulty reuniting with Thomas and figuring out how to act after 50 years apart. The character beats between Alice, Thomas, and Sally are very good, and the bonus story at the end does the same with James Price as it deals with the impact of last book's epilogue. Still, this doesn't quite reach the heights of the series as it trods some well-traveled ground in its plotting, as the book again features Alice joining Verity in New York City to hunt the Covenant, and while I enjoy the return of some of Verity's supporting cast, this series is always best when we meet new Cryptids and their communities, which isn't really the case here. But that familiar setting works to ground the character development, which is topnotch, and Alice is delightfully violent and fun, and it all mainly works.

----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
After fifty years, Alice has done it - she has found Thomas, her one true love, and rescued him from a bottle dimension with seemingly no exit. It cost her almost everything - the friend in Uncle Naga she thought she really had but who was really just exploiting her, her relationship with her two children - especially Jane, who hates her for abandonment - and a normal life in time, aging along with the rest of the Earth. But finding Thomas should have made it worth it, right?

But to Alice and Thomas' discomfort, in the fifty years of their separation, the two of them both have habits, tendencies and bits of their character that are unfamiliar to one another, with Thomas being seemingly more understood by his essentialy adopted daughter Sally. Alice can't help but feel pangs of jealousy about all this, and is desperate to find the time the two of them can stay together in peace to reconnect in the ways they once had.

Yet even after Alice, Thomas, and Sally rehome their refugees from the bottle dimension and return to Buckley, the three of them barely have time to get any rest - for the Covenant is waging almost open war on North America thanks to their family, and both the Cryptids and Gods of North America demand that Alice and Thomas do something about it. And so they find themselves heading to New York City, where 3, maybe 4 Covenant Strike Teams are hunting the Cryptids protected and looked after by Verity, and who would do anything to hunt down and kill members of the Price Family.

To survive and win, Alice, Thomas and Sally will need to find a way to work together, and to understand one another in the ways Alice and Thomas once thought they did prior to their separation....or else their return to our world alive will be cut deadly short......
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Backpacking through Bedlam continues the story of Alice from the last book, which seemingly ended on a happy conclusive ending - Alice having rescued Thomas, with them bringing back Sally as well and planning on staying home once they returned the refugees to their various worlds, with them able now to reunite with the family Thomas was separated from and Alice estranged herself from essentially in her mad quest for Thomas. I certainly thought it was a one and done novel (although prior story arcs like Verity's and Alex's had first novels that were also self contained with happy endings, so I probably should've expected this).

But McGuire does something smart here, and recognizes that the relationship between Alice and Thomas can't simply resume as it was after their 50 years. During that time Alice drove herself mad in searching for Thomas, Recklessly throwing her body at enemy threats; meanwhile Thomas found himself the leader of refugees and essentially a surrogate father to Sally, who knows Thomas as he is now honestly better than Alice does. The two of them still love each other, but they aren't the same people anymore and their connections will take time to rebuild, something that Alice struggles with...especially as she both sees the connection that Sally has with Thomas that Alice doesn't have anymore and is a little jealous and Thomas makes errors in speaking to her by asking her to be careful, words he should know she absolutely hates, even if they're well meaning. And of course, even though we never see Thomas' perspective here, we can see how Thomas is fearful and afraid of how Alice will throw herself still recklessly into things and not recognize that she needs to protect herself and possibly others now that she has things once more to protect.

And so Backpacking through Bedlam works really well as it explores these issues through a plot that throws Alice, Sally, and Thomas back into the meat of things in the series - the family's struggle against the Covenant as it wages war on the Cryptids of North America. The story returns us to Manhattan eventually, where we see a bunch of Verity's side characters, and the resulting war - think book 2 but on a much higher level as there are now 20 Covenant agents instead of 3 - is a lot more dangerous and threatening. And McGuire makes this plot compelling as she weaves in the old characters with Alice's crew of her Thomas and Sally, deals with Sally and Thomas' return to the modern world (its own issue, which Alice is not the right person to help them deal with), and of course has some new fun with the Mice. This is a very series myth-arc intensive plot, and it works to that extent.

That said, Backpacking through Bedlam also feels in many ways like kind of a retread in where the plot winds up going. As I've stated in prior InCryptid reviews before, the best books in these series feature new side characters, new Cryptids with new quirks of biology, and new interactions. Here, the first third takes a quick detour to a dimension last seen in Sarah's arc before the final half of the book takes place in Verity's old hauntings in New York City, with Verity's supporting cast in tow. I like that supporting cast, but it's nothing new, and them dealing with covenant hunters is also something very done before, so it does kind of feel like we're replaying greatest hits a bit, even as Alice's character arc is still really good alongside those greatest hits to prevent this book from ever being a disappointment. I WILL add that this book does a FAR better job than Verity's books at actually making its portrayal of New York City feel like it is New York City - Verity's books felt like they almost could just be a generic city, whereas here we actually have the subways and aspects of the City that are unique to New York and I really appreciated that.

All in all the main story of Backpacking through Bedlam is really well done as it shows Alice & Thomas' character arcs continuing in ways that really work. And I should add that the novel's bonus novella, "The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went" is really great, with similar character development for both James Price (in light of Sally's return in last book's epilogue) and a few Aeslin Mice characters, who are just a lot of fun and are really interesting in their society. Definitely value added there and highly recommended for fans of this series.

How are we already at Incryptid #12???
Backpacking through Bedlam follows Alice Healy-Price (again), now that she has found and been reunited with her lost husband and escaped the pocket dimension that the Crossroads sent him to. [It helps, of course, that the crossroads were destroyed by Antimony a few books ago]. Alice and Thomas are searching for a place where the people Thomas was protecting can find homes and be safe before they return home to our dimension and the ongoing fight with the Covenant.

While I did enjoy this book (and I have yet to find something written by Seanan McGuire that I don't enjoy), this book felt a little bit like a middle book. So much about this novel is predicated on knowing what has happened prior; McGuire does an incredible job of reminding us of what happened and providing context, but 12 books in and a LOT has happened. I loved getting more information about the family dynamic, and the bonus short story focused on James was such a great read. I also enjoyed getting a little more context and development of where we are, narratively speaking, in terms of the war with the Covenant, especially now that Antimony is back, Sarah is back (although what's going on with Artie???) and there is a new generation starting. This book definitely feels like a set up for a BIG showdown, so I am 100% waiting to see what happens next. 3.5/5 stars (rounded up because I love the series overall!)

All I can say of Seanan McGuire's Cryptid series is keep them coming! Each one telling more of the Price family history is better than the last and Backpacking Through Bedlam is no exception.

Backpacking through Bedlam hands down is an excellent addition to the Incryptids series. The world building is so vivid and real and the characters are so well defined. You literally feel transported into the story. I am so incredibly excited to see Alice she Thomas finally reunite in this book. I love that it realistically displays both the joys and issues of such a long separation and how that will affect not only their relationship as a couple but affect everyone in their life and entire family as they have to adjust to this new altered c state of dynamics with someone that most either never knew, were tiny children or mistrust his identity m. So well done and the book itself while exploring this still brings all the high jinx and action we love and expect in the Incryptid series. I highly recommend reading it!

If you’re like me and you read Seanan’s books because you love complex characters with complicated lives, this latest installment is going to thrill you! It’s a rollercoaster of love, anger, and living with the consequences of choices - your own and those whose lives touch yours.

Lots of backstory about Thomas and Alice, who I’ve ended up caring about far more than I thought I would. The magic of Seanan and her characters who demand your heart. Lots of excitement with the battles with the Covenant which feel like they’re building toward something enormous.

Definitely not an entry point but do yourself a favor, if you haven’t read an InCryptid book, start at the beginning - they’re amazing.

This is not the place to start with the Incryptid series. At the very least go back to the previous books Spelunking Through Hell. I recommend that you start at the beginning though, they are lots of fun with multiple characters as the protagonists.

Thanks to Netgalley and DAW publishing for gifting me an early copy of this book. My honest review follows.

Everybody... Incryptid is awesome. Are you reading it? You should be if you aren't. If you are, high five to you!

This one picks up where Spelunking through Hell left off, so at the VERY LEAST, you should have read that one before starting this one.

Backpacking through Bedlam starts by tying up some loose ends from Spelunking, then diving back into the "our dimension"/"rest of the family" storyline. Verity's behavior, coupled with Annie's, has sparked a war with the Covenant. Who better to help with that than Alice and the gang?

I don't want to spoil too much or give away a lot of the story, but I really enjoyed the new dynamic between Alice and everyone, now that her lifelong quest is completed and things are supposed to be getting back to "normal." I can't wait to see more of the family reunions, especially James and Sally, now that they've both been adopted by the Prices - the short novella at the end of the book hinted at this upcoming storyline.

And if having another awesome Incryptid novel wasn't enough, we get a novella at the end that has two POVs in it. James is one... and the other? AN AESLIN MOUSE. They are one of the best creations in all of Urban Fantasy, and I loved this POV.

Highly recommended series. It's one of my absolute favorites. Not the best place to start, but if you haven't read the rest and choose to pick this one up, I hope that it drives you to go back and read the rest of them.

This book broke my heart, but in a really good way. I'm excited for where the series can go after this. Seanan McGuire's writing style is one of my favorites out there and I'm incredibly attached to most of her series. Incryptid is one of my favorites and I didn't think I'd ever care about Alice, but here I am, caring. I was worried for a large part of the book about the relationships of the characters and I was shocked by some of the big changes. To be able to make her readers csre the way she does is an incredible skill and there are so many books I don't finish or series I walk away from, because I just don't care. That has never been a problem with McGuire's different series and this latest InCryptid novel continues to suck you in. I don't know how the timeline will play out now, but I'm so excited to see.

McGuire starts the book by saying she decided to not have the pandemic in the series and I'm so so so glad she made that decision. My mind immediately went to, would Cryptids be able to get the care they need during a pandemic when many struggle anyway? It would completely change the story line, and while it would no doubt be a good story line, I don't think it's the one McGuire wants to write and it would leave so many questions unanswered.

I think she did a lot of things really well with this book. My only complaint is it felt a little slower than some of the others in the series, but I think that had to happen. Alice is a hard character to defend given her history of abandoning her children and McGuire manages to make her someone the reader is sympathetic and compassionate about, with this book more than the previous one.

I've read the Mira Grant zombie books so I thought I would give this a try... not realizing that it was #12 in a whole series. That being said, even though being dropped into an ongoing story it was easy to catch my bearings and root for Alice and Thomas. If you are a fan of InCryptid you will enjoy this latest book!

Alice finally found her missing husband after fifty years. Now they are going home, but first they have to find a hospitable place to drop off several hundred refugees from the bottle dimension where Thomas was trapped. Once they make it back to Earth, all of their troubles should be over for a while, right? Um, no.

Fun, but not the place to start with this series. Best place: at the beginning. Second best place: the previous book, Spelunking Through Hell.

Backpacking through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire. McGuire always seems to deliver and this book is starting to wrap up threads and tie things altogether. If you are a fan of the series, you won't want to miss this book!

I enjoyed the plot of this addition to the Cryptid series. I enjoyed getting to know more about Thomas. The battle with the Covenant was a high point and getting caught up on New York crowd was great. I liked that we got to hear about some family not present. Some of the novel seemed unnecessary, and I wish we could have had more of a family reunion for everybody. I do not know if that is building, but I am so ready for that.

I've been waiting for Alice's story for years, and so I was excited when the last book finally let her take the lead. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see her actually interact much with Thomas in that one, so I'm happy to say that this second Alice book definitely fixes that. It was so much fun to finally get to see Alice and Thomas interact as a married couple, and start to see some of the aftermath of their long separation. Backpacking Through Bedlam makes it clear that while they still obviously love each other, the fact that they've spent fifty years apart (and that their relationship wasn't exactly standard before that) means that they definitely have some work to do before they really establish a rhythm. There's also the added complication of Sally (basically adopted by Thomas while he was away), and the Covenant once again causing trouble in New York.

I loved seeing the various characters here as they tried to find their footing with one another. It was also really nice to get to check in with Verity and Dominic in New York, and get a real glimpse of what life has been like since her impulsive televised declaration of war. This series is at its best when multiple main characters get a chance to interact, and after several kind of separate adventures it looks like things are starting to join back up. This book also gave a few teasing looks at what's been going on with Sarah and Artie, at least enough to show us that there's more story to be told there. In the meantime, Alice and Thomas are finally back together, Sally makes a great new family addition, and the mice are, as always, flawless.

(The short story after the end of the book follows the recent pattern of filling in an empty space in the story. In this case, what happened with the rest of the family once Kevin spread the word that Alice and Thomas were finally on their way home. We also get to see James' reaction to finding out about Sally, and we get some wonderful content on the mice.)

HAIL! The mice are back!

/Backpacking Through Bedlam/ is the twelfth novel in Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series. More important, it is Grandma Alice's second major outing. McGuire has told us that Sarah Zellaby and Alice Healy-Price were the key characters around whom she built the Incryptid series. (McGuire plans her series many years in advance -- this is a pattern that she has shown in both the Incryptid and October Daye series.) Sarah's main outings were novels 9 and 10, /Imaginary Numbers/ and /Calculated Risks/. Alice took her big step in novel 11, /Spelunking Through Hell/. With novel 12, /Backpacking Through Bedlam/, we enter a new phase of the Incryptid series. Oversimplifying -- novels 1-11 were the world-building novels. (Eleven novels and ten years of world-building. Impressive!) In novels 9 and 10 Sarah graduated, so to speak -- she is now an immensely powerful telepath and can in addition manipulate space and time. Another key character was brought into the fold in novel 11 -- Alice's husband Thomas, the patriarch of the Price family. What all that means, I think, is The Gang's All Here. (Not to say that it won't expand more -- one of the more endearing characteristics of the Price family is their tendency to take in strays. But the core family is now all present and ready for action.)

Alice's background is important in understanding /Backpacking Through Bedlam/. Years ago there was a race of cryptids called Kairos. They were a type of cryptid who manipulated luck. They were also immune to telepathic manipulation, and were therefore the nemesis of Johrlacs (like Sarah). The Johrlacs and the Covenant wiped out the purebred Kairos. However, Alice's mother Fran Brown was the daughter of a Kairos father and a human mother. Thus Fran was half Kairos and Alice is a quarter Kairos. She 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. I think the simplest description of Kairos luck is, "Things fall into place." An even more pointed description is "Kairos luck causes those coincidences that are most convenient for a fiction author who doesn't want to come up with a plausible rationale to bring all her pieces into play."

Unlike most of the Price family, Alice is not a planner. She herself says, "Thinking about the future has never been my area of expertise. Hell, thinking beyond what I was going to do tomorrow has never been my strong suit. Reacting is my primary way of dealing with the world." This works for her because of her Kairos luck.

The plot of /Backpacking Through Bedlam/ appears weak to nonexistent. There is not really much of a conventional plot -- there is no one big issue we're trying to deal with throughout /Backpacking Through Bedlam/. A sort of plot does show up at about the 50% point and hang on through to the end, but it is the default plot of the entire Incryptid series <spoiler>Price Family/Convenant war</spoiler>, so, to my mind, hardly counts. Instead /Backpacking Through Bedlam/ feels like what McGuire has elsewhere called a stitch-up -- a novel-shaped object pieced together from a bunch of related stories.

I was less bothered by this than you might expect, because I suspect McGuire had a reason to do it that way. This, I think, is her way of showing us what the world looks like to Alice and her Kairos heritage. In fact, I really enjoyed reading /Backpacking Through Bedlam/. It was fun to see all these old friends together and to come to understand them better. I was disappointed by Alice in /Spelunking Through Hell/, which I rated only three stars. Alice is much more likeable in /Backpacking Through Bedlam/.

Another reason for liking /Backpacking Through Bedlam/ is the one I alluded to at the top: the Aeslin Mice, who were absent for most of /Spelunking Through Hell/, are back in /Backpacking Through Bedlam/.

So, summing up, /Backpacking Through Bedlam/ is a jumble of stuff, but it's fun stuff, lots of old friends bouncing off each other in entertaining ways, and there's a cognizable justification for the jumble. I waffled between three stars and four, but decided to give McGuire four for what I saw as a creative way of showing us Alice's character and world.

As usual, the book contains a bonus novella, /The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went/. In this novella point of view alternates between James Price and an Aeslin Mouse Acadia, who is one of his priestesses. James is The Stolen God (formerly James Baker, now calling himself James Price), whom Antimony more or less kidnapped (with his consent) from Maine where he grew up. In /Spelunking Through Hell/ we met Sally, who had been banished to the same Crossroads exile as Thomas and become his second-in-command and de facto adopted daughter there. Sally Henderson was James' best friend in Maine and had made her deal with the Crossroads to get him out of his hometown. At the end of /Spelunking/ Alice brought her to Kevin Price's compound in Oregon. She 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.

This was GREAT fun. If I were to rate the novella on its own, it would get five stars.

I thank NetGalley and DAW for an advance reader copy. This review expresses my honest opinions. Book release date 7-Mar-2023. Review publication 21-Feb 2023.

Well, I loved these reads! I love Seanan McGuire's writing so much, so when I got the chance to read this book, this is the first one that I picked up this month! This latest installment was so fantastic, and I can't wait to see what the future brings for this series.

In the author's note of the last book, it mentioned that that book was what she envisioned, for the stepping point for this series, of the stories beyond it, when she started this series. Which is a bit wild. And this is the first book after that, and all the pieces that were put into place, with the Covenant knowing about the Prices. And oh, was it a fun adventure!

There were many things I wanted from this book. To see Alice and Thomas to make it home, to have that time to relax. To see everyone's reactions to the fact that she did succeed after 50 years. We did get some of the reactions, in Backpacking, and in Mysteries of the Stolen God. I'm just so excited to see where things go from here!

The Mysteries of the Stolen God were really great, because along with Thomas, Sally is back-and James is the reason why she made that bargain in the first place. So there's all sorts of complicated emotions going on. And we got the perspective of Acadia, one of his new mouse priests. It was great to get their perspective in another story!

These were such great reads, and I can't wait for more in this series!

With any long series, it's hard to say whether you recommend a book - if you like the series, you should and will read it. If you haven't read this series, this is definitely not the place to start, as several plot threads are resolved from multiple books in the series, including the very first one, not to mention characters from other series that are tangentially related also make appearances. Overall, it's an engaging read, although it certainly feels like the real emotional work has not yet been done by any of the characters who are just trying to survive. Overall, I like Alice and Thomas but enjoyed the last book more, because this one is dealing with too many consequences from previous books to really dive into their story. I hope the next one really look at the ripple effects of their coming back to to their family .

Alice and Thomas make it back to their house only to be called to a battle with the Covenant. Plus a bonus story. ARC from NetGalley.