Item: Backpacking through Bedlam
Rating: 5.00
Author: quirkycat

by Seanan McGuire

Seanan McGuire's New York Times-bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated urban fantasy InCryptid series continues with the twelfth book following the Price family, cryptozoologists who study and protect the creatures living in secret all around us.

Reunion, noun:
1. The state of being united again.

Reconciliation, noun:
1. An act of reconciling, as when former enemies agree to an amiable truce.
2. The process of making consistent or compatible.
3. See also “impossible.”

Alice Price-Healy gave up her life for fifty years to focus completely on the search for her missing husband. The danger of focus like that is that it leaves little room for thinking about what happens after…and now that she’s finally managed to find Thomas, she has no idea what she’s supposed to do next. The fact that he comes with a surrogate daughter who may or may not have some connection to Alice’s recently adopted grandson is just icing on the complicated cake.

So the three of them are heading for the most complicated place in the universe: they’re going home.

But things on Earth have changed while Alice, Thomas, and Sally have been away. The Covenant of St. George, antagonized by Verity’s declaration of war and Sarah’s temporary relocation of an entire college campus, is trying to retake North America from the cryptids and cryptozoologists who’ve been keeping the peace for the past hundred years. And they’re starting in New York.

Alice and company have barely been back for an hour before the Ocean Lady and the Queen of the Routewitches are sending them to New York to help, and they find themselves embroiled in the politics of dragons, kidnappings, and of course, the most dangerous people of all: family.

Getting “back to normal” may be the hardest task Alice has undertaken yet.

Book Summary:

Alice Price-Healy has finally found her husband. It only took her fifty years of searching. Now it's time to figure out what her (well, their) new normal is. But Price-Healy's version of normal is not, well, normal.

In this case, it means helping a bunch of realm refugees find a home and then coming home to war against the Covenant of St. George. We all knew this war was brewing, but those that have spent time outside of the dimension may have been less aware of how bad things had gotten...

Backpacking Through Bedlam also includes a new InCryptid novella, The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went.

My Review:

Yes! Seanan McGuire has done it again. The InCryptid series is delightfully complex, fascinating, and ever-growing. This latest installment, Backpacking Through Bedlam, follows Alice Price-Healy (the series has covered multiple family members at this point).

In a way, Alice is the most unique perspective of the family thus far. She's the oldest and also the most set in her ways. Despite this, she has a lot to learn, and this novel did a great job of driving that point home. I loved it.

I feel like we got a two-for-one deal in Backpacking Through Bedlam. We have a realm/portal adventure (with a side of family drama) for the first part and then a war against a great enemy for the second half (also with a side of family drama). Both were fascinating additions to the lore!

In addition, this novel has a new novella, The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went. The novella has multiple perspectives, predominantly James (said Stolen God) and Acadia, one of the Aeslin Mice. In other words, it's pure perfection! Read this novella if you love the Aeslin Mice.

Highlights:
Urban Fantasy
Part of a Series
Family Drama
Dragons & Mythical Creatures
Portal Adventures

Trigger Warnings:
Giant insects
“Monster” hunting sentient creatures

Thanks to DAW Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Backpacking through Bedlam (InCryptid, #12)

by Seanan McGuire

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Apr 8, 2023

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