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timinbc's review against another edition
2.0
Feh. Stephanie Plum with monsters. Only not as good.
Yet another Plucky Heroine, and her main distinction is that this book would have been a novella without the ballroom dancing, the I'm-such-a-roof-runner, and the ludicrous cartoon mice. And the constant reminders that she is roof-running with 15 knives, a gun, a machete and a flensing knife.
I was already skimming REALLY fast by the 3/4 point, because at least I had to know how it ended. Then I hit the battle in the bar, featuring an iPod in perhaps the most ridiculous fight scene that has ever been written.
Let's face it, Seanan McGuire isn't writing for me, and no one should be surprised if I don't like her work. I won't read any more of it.
Yet another Plucky Heroine, and her main distinction is that this book would have been a novella without the ballroom dancing, the I'm-such-a-roof-runner, and the ludicrous cartoon mice. And the constant reminders that she is roof-running with 15 knives, a gun, a machete and a flensing knife.
I was already skimming REALLY fast by the 3/4 point, because at least I had to know how it ended. Then I hit the battle in the bar, featuring an iPod in perhaps the most ridiculous fight scene that has ever been written.
Let's face it, Seanan McGuire isn't writing for me, and no one should be surprised if I don't like her work. I won't read any more of it.
jaji's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
First in the InCryptid urban fantasy series revolving around the dancing Verity Price, a human supernatural enforcement agent in New York City.
My Take
Oh, I do love Seanan McGuire. I adored her October Daye series and she is not disappointing me at all with this new one! You will crack up when you read this. I absolutely adore the Aeslin mice. I'm sitting here typing and laughing as I remember their antics...oh, hail… Verity has such a lovely acceptance of them and all their religious festivals...snicker, giggle, oh heck, guffaw… I want my own colony! Suicidal gummy bears...oh my... Then there's the dance routine with the saltine crackers that Verity reckons could make Disney sit up and take notice.
Oh, oh, oh, and there's the quotations at the start of every chapter. Don't skip those, really.
I hate that I have to wait until 2013 for Midnight Blue-Light Special!
Verity certainly had a unique childhood. Her version of hide-and-seek is certainly not ours… I do love her parkour approach as well. I have to keep reminding myself that she's merely human. Yup, suckered in completely by page five with comments like "made up for my shameful modesty with a blood-red velvet bustier...and...had steel corsetry boning...room for five strategically placed throwing knives." McGuire's description of Verity's shower-taking contortions…
Ya know, it's kinda scary when I started thinking that Verity's usual mode of transportation sounds normal… Okay, I don't get Sarah's life. On the one hand, McGuire explains how cuckoos operate and then there's Sarah living in a fancy hotel and I keep trying to relate the explanation with the life. It's just not meshing for me.
Oh, there is just something about the way McGuire talks about the tooth fairy...and the tooth fairy dust...that just creeps me out.
The Story
Unlike most of the human world that's aware of the supernaturals, the Price family believes live and let live whereas the Covenant is more interested in kill and kill again. So while Verity pursues her work as a cryptozoologist, she maintains order amongst the supes in New York City...with luck they'll evade the notice of the Covenant and live happily ever after.
Yeah. Sure. Especially when there's a dragon sleeping under New York City and some crazy cult is slaughtering cryptids right and left in an effort to wake him up and control him. AND, there's a member of the "shoot first, don't bother with questions until after Covenant" in town...oh, crap.
The Characters
Verity Price of the urban legendary Prices is pursuing her dancing career in New York City while she waits tables at a Dave's Fish and Strips, a supernatural strip club. Her parents are Evelyn and Kevin Price and she has one sister, Antimony, who is obsessed with trapping. Her brother Alex — the one who was so proud of his first concussion at age five — is an accountant.
Sarah Zellaby is a cuckoo. Telepathic, not human, and her blood can heal most anything. She's also Verity's cousin-by-adoption and her sometime partner when she's checking out the nightclubs. Oh, yeah, baby, Verity likes to dance. Sometimes on the dance floor and sometimes with weapons; sometimes with both at the same time. There's also Aunt Jane married to Uncle Ted. Cousin Artie is secretly in love with Sarah. And vice versa. Only they won't tell. Grandpa Thomas somehow ended up in Hell and Grandma Thomas spends most of her time trying to get him out.
Her strip club coworkers include Kitty who's off playing stage candy for her boyfriend's band; Carol is a gorgon and, man, it is a bitch to get that wig on over all the snakes; Marcy is an Oread; Candice, a dragon princess; Istas is a waheela and you do not want to piss her off!; and, Ryan, a therianthrope, is one of the bouncers. Their boss, Dave, is a bogeyman. Never go into a dark room with a bogeyman. Piyusha is a Madhura and I so love the sound of their shop...and the lovely aromas. I gotta try that trick with the honey and the candles. Sunil and Rochak are her brothers. Betty Smith is the queen of the dragon princesses with her very own agenda. William is the dragon.
Dominic De Luca is an orphan. And Covenant. A bigoted, kill'em-all, religious monster hunter. New York City is his first mission for the organization. The Covenant has branded the Healys, Prices, and Bakers traitors with essentially a shoot-to-kill order on any Price. Too bad Verity is a descendant of all three.
The Cover and Title
The cover is practically a schoolgirl-themed porn shot of Verity posed with a gun in hand, a sword sheathed at her back, and a knife sheath strapped to her thigh high atop the buildings in New York City. Her tiny pink and black plaid miniskirt and her pink cropped top tied under her breasts, black bra showing at her cleavage with her pink dancing pumps. I can't quite figure out the pink stocking on one leg while the other is bare, though.
The title is pretty funny and, yeah, it is a Discount Armageddon what with the threat of a dragon waking and two human adversaries undecided as to his fate.
My Take
Oh, I do love Seanan McGuire. I adored her October Daye series and she is not disappointing me at all with this new one! You will crack up when you read this. I absolutely adore the Aeslin mice. I'm sitting here typing and laughing as I remember their antics...oh, hail… Verity has such a lovely acceptance of them and all their religious festivals...snicker, giggle, oh heck, guffaw… I want my own colony! Suicidal gummy bears...oh my... Then there's the dance routine with the saltine crackers that Verity reckons could make Disney sit up and take notice.
Oh, oh, oh, and there's the quotations at the start of every chapter. Don't skip those, really.
I hate that I have to wait until 2013 for Midnight Blue-Light Special!
Verity certainly had a unique childhood. Her version of hide-and-seek is certainly not ours… I do love her parkour approach as well. I have to keep reminding myself that she's merely human. Yup, suckered in completely by page five with comments like "made up for my shameful modesty with a blood-red velvet bustier...and...had steel corsetry boning...room for five strategically placed throwing knives." McGuire's description of Verity's shower-taking contortions…
Ya know, it's kinda scary when I started thinking that Verity's usual mode of transportation sounds normal… Okay, I don't get Sarah's life. On the one hand, McGuire explains how cuckoos operate and then there's Sarah living in a fancy hotel and I keep trying to relate the explanation with the life. It's just not meshing for me.
Oh, there is just something about the way McGuire talks about the tooth fairy...and the tooth fairy dust...that just creeps me out.
The Story
Unlike most of the human world that's aware of the supernaturals, the Price family believes live and let live whereas the Covenant is more interested in kill and kill again. So while Verity pursues her work as a cryptozoologist, she maintains order amongst the supes in New York City...with luck they'll evade the notice of the Covenant and live happily ever after.
Yeah. Sure. Especially when there's a dragon sleeping under New York City and some crazy cult is slaughtering cryptids right and left in an effort to wake him up and control him. AND, there's a member of the "shoot first, don't bother with questions until after Covenant" in town...oh, crap.
The Characters
Verity Price of the urban legendary Prices is pursuing her dancing career in New York City while she waits tables at a Dave's Fish and Strips, a supernatural strip club. Her parents are Evelyn and Kevin Price and she has one sister, Antimony, who is obsessed with trapping. Her brother Alex — the one who was so proud of his first concussion at age five — is an accountant.
Sarah Zellaby is a cuckoo. Telepathic, not human, and her blood can heal most anything. She's also Verity's cousin-by-adoption and her sometime partner when she's checking out the nightclubs. Oh, yeah, baby, Verity likes to dance. Sometimes on the dance floor and sometimes with weapons; sometimes with both at the same time. There's also Aunt Jane married to Uncle Ted. Cousin Artie is secretly in love with Sarah. And vice versa. Only they won't tell. Grandpa Thomas somehow ended up in Hell and Grandma Thomas spends most of her time trying to get him out.
Her strip club coworkers include Kitty who's off playing stage candy for her boyfriend's band; Carol is a gorgon and, man, it is a bitch to get that wig on over all the snakes; Marcy is an Oread; Candice, a dragon princess; Istas is a waheela and you do not want to piss her off!; and, Ryan, a therianthrope, is one of the bouncers. Their boss, Dave, is a bogeyman. Never go into a dark room with a bogeyman. Piyusha is a Madhura and I so love the sound of their shop...and the lovely aromas. I gotta try that trick with the honey and the candles. Sunil and Rochak are her brothers. Betty Smith is the queen of the dragon princesses with her very own agenda. William is the dragon.
Dominic De Luca is an orphan. And Covenant. A bigoted, kill'em-all, religious monster hunter. New York City is his first mission for the organization. The Covenant has branded the Healys, Prices, and Bakers traitors with essentially a shoot-to-kill order on any Price. Too bad Verity is a descendant of all three.
The Cover and Title
The cover is practically a schoolgirl-themed porn shot of Verity posed with a gun in hand, a sword sheathed at her back, and a knife sheath strapped to her thigh high atop the buildings in New York City. Her tiny pink and black plaid miniskirt and her pink cropped top tied under her breasts, black bra showing at her cleavage with her pink dancing pumps. I can't quite figure out the pink stocking on one leg while the other is bare, though.
The title is pretty funny and, yeah, it is a Discount Armageddon what with the threat of a dragon waking and two human adversaries undecided as to his fate.
crowsandprose's review against another edition
1.0
This is the first book from Seanan McGuire that I have not liked, not one little bit. I've loved works by both McGuire and Grant, but this has not lived up to the standards set by her other works. The only telltale McGuire trait is the worldbuilding being rich with beasties and monsters, with excellent details given, but after that... everything falls flat.
To begin, we are given a cast straight out of some of the worst parts of Urban Fantasy. Verity Price, who has nothing positive to say about much of anything, and Dominic De Luca, the trope-laden Catholic Italian swarthy love interest who is a stereotype from top to bottom. Things we hear about way too much: Verity's loathing of her job, Verity's desire to embrace her passion despite being a member of a hunted group of rogue cryptid hunters (putting herself and her family at risk to follow her dreams), how much she doesn't like her more-aggressive sister Antimony, and her weird family business when it doesn't relate to the plot. These characters are all paper thin and none of them get fleshed out beyond their barebones archetypes, and very few of them are even likable. The only one vaguely likable with a hint of an inner life is Sarah, and she feels like she's there because a telepath was needed for plotpoints.
The rest of the book is something straight out of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer script bible. If you are a long-time fan of the genre, you have read this book already. You have watched this show already. This brings nothing new to the table, and what it does bring to the table is stale bread and a glass of water. I am so deeply disappointed because it's candyfloss fluff, but it's not even good candyfloss. It's empty air where a much better book should have been. I know this, because I know Seanan can absolutely do better than this and right now I'm confused as to why she didn't.
Either way: 1/5, would probably .5 if I could give it, and that's only because it does have well thought out magical world and history... but if I wanted to read a book only to enjoy intricate worldbuilding, I would have picked up a Sanderson novel.
To begin, we are given a cast straight out of some of the worst parts of Urban Fantasy. Verity Price, who has nothing positive to say about much of anything, and Dominic De Luca, the trope-laden Catholic Italian swarthy love interest who is a stereotype from top to bottom. Things we hear about way too much: Verity's loathing of her job, Verity's desire to embrace her passion despite being a member of a hunted group of rogue cryptid hunters (putting herself and her family at risk to follow her dreams), how much she doesn't like her more-aggressive sister Antimony, and her weird family business when it doesn't relate to the plot. These characters are all paper thin and none of them get fleshed out beyond their barebones archetypes, and very few of them are even likable. The only one vaguely likable with a hint of an inner life is Sarah, and she feels like she's there because a telepath was needed for plotpoints.
The rest of the book is something straight out of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer script bible. If you are a long-time fan of the genre, you have read this book already. You have watched this show already. This brings nothing new to the table, and what it does bring to the table is stale bread and a glass of water. I am so deeply disappointed because it's candyfloss fluff, but it's not even good candyfloss. It's empty air where a much better book should have been. I know this, because I know Seanan can absolutely do better than this and right now I'm confused as to why she didn't.
Either way: 1/5, would probably .5 if I could give it, and that's only because it does have well thought out magical world and history... but if I wanted to read a book only to enjoy intricate worldbuilding, I would have picked up a Sanderson novel.
simonisafangirlie's review against another edition
3.0
This was a ver visual story!!! I loved all the cryptid lore!!!
analicia_simar's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I did not pick this book up for its cover. I wanted a fun urban fantasy, and that's exactly what I received. Bonus points for referencing Babylon 5.
jenhurst's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve had a mixed experience reading Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant. I loved the wayward children, middlegame and into the drowning deep but then found the newsfeed series and paresiteology relied on dumb protagonists to advance the plot. Then the first two October daye books were just a super weak start to an urban fantasy. This one exceeded my expectations of her urban fantasy and a first book in an urban fantasy series. The series is a lot more fun and not as serious as the October daye books. It involves cryptids and a variety of magical creatures and developed the start of an intriguing world. I really enjoyed it and am excited to read more of the series.
siu_rose's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
So much fun! So, this was a reread because I was sick and looking for something that was lighter, and I enjoyed it more on the reread than I remember doing the first time around. Maybe because I’m used with the setting and know to expect all the off-the-wall stuff. Anyway, I love Verity, and this was just what I needed.
gt_guest's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0