Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire

Chaos Choreography (InCryptid, #5)

by Seanan McGuire

The fifth book in New York Times-bestselling Seanan McGuire's witty urban fantasy InCryptid series about a family of cryptozoologists who act as a buffer between humans and the magical creatures living in secret around us.

"The only thing more fun than an October Daye book is an InCryptid book." —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Sookie Stackhouse series

Destiny, Noun:

   1. The inevitable or irresistible course of events.
   2. The inescapable future.
   3. See also “Screwed.”

Verity Price is back on the West Coast and getting back into the swing of the family business: cryptozoology. She's rescuing cryptids from bad situations, protecting them from monster-hunters, and generally risking life and limb for the greater good, with her ex-Covenant partner/husband, Dominic, by her side. Her ballroom dance career is behind her...or so she thinks.

When Verity gets the call from the producers of Dance or Die, the reality show she almost won several years before, she finds the lure of a comeback impossible to resist, and she and Dominic are off to L.A. for one last shot at the big time.
 
Of course, nothing is that simple. When two of her fellow contestants turn up dead, Verity will need every ally she can find—and a couple she wasn't looking for—in order to navigate the complicated steps of both the tango and a murder investigation without blowing her cover. It doesn't help that her official family backup is her grandmother, Alice Price-Healy, who thinks "subtle" is something that happens to other people.

Winning this competition may have just become a matter of life and death.

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on

4 of 5 stars

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Chaos Choreography is the fifth novel in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series, and it looks like we're heading back to Verity's perspective! At this point, we all know that putting chaos in the title is going to be highly accurate for this character.

Verity Price thought she was content with her decision to give up dancing to focus on cryptozoology. Aka, the family business. That is, until she got an offer to pop back on Dance or Die, a reality show focused entirely on skill and dancing.

She couldn't turn it down. Ultimately though, it might just be a good thing that she was there. While there's no doubt that she's going to cause a lot of mayhem, odds are good that it will be less than what the snake cultists would do, if they had their way with it.

“Love what you do. Even if it’s not what you thought you’d be doing when you were a kid, love what you do. Eventually, it’s going to kill you, and it would be a real pity if you died doing something you hate.”

Is this really happening? Are we really heading back to Verity's perspective!? That was not something I expected. But I'm certainly not going to complain! Chaos Choreography is entertaining chaos, obviously, but it is still a delight.

Verity's passion for dance has really made her character stand out in a crowd (the crowd being in my mind, and full of protagonists that I adore). It's one of the many reasons I got sucked into this series so hard.

Naturally, visiting both her character, and her passion was exciting, to say the least. I don't normally dig the whole reality show vibe, but it worked well here. Partially because the characters genuinely seemed to care about one another, unlike what one would typically expect/see in a reality show.

“Maybe that was always the secret to a simple life. Reality was the complicating factor.”

There are a few side characters introduced over the course of Chaos Choreography, and I sincerely hope that we're not done seeing them! I know, it might be a long shot. But they were really well written characters, and I want to see what is happening in their lives, especially considering all the changes coming their way.

Up next is Magic for Nothing, another novel that is going to bring about major change. I say that because it's Antimony Price's turn to take the leading role, and I really have no idea what to expect from her character. Other than a lot of snark, that much I've already gathered.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 12 February, 2021: Finished reading
  • 12 February, 2021: Reviewed