Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid, #4)

by Seanan McGuire

Endangered, adjective: Threatended with extinction or immidiate harm.

Australia, noun: A good place to become endangered.

Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice.  

Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up, asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport.  From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.

Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges.  Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America.  And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex.

Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground.  Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.

Reviewed by kimbacaffeinate on

4 of 5 stars

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Alex has a history with lycanthropy and he seriously hates werewolves.  However, he refuses not to honor Shelby's request to help her family and the Thirty-Six Society. When they arrive, Alex receives a downright hostile reception. From the beginning tensions were high. Alex has brought a small colony of Aeslin mice with him.  He finds himself blindfolded before being taken to Shelby's home. Snark, Price digs, and distrust kept things interesting as did the outbreak. Leave it to McGuire to bring the unexpected.

Fascinating creatures, loss, danger, and family kept me listening. The story developed into quite the mystery as it soon appears Shelby's family is a target. Can I say, the Thirty-six Society is almost as bad as the Covenant of St. George?

Alex's experience with a lycanthropy outbreak is similar to those you might have read in Mira Grant's Newsflesh series as it deals with a virus outbreak. Any mammal large enough can be affected, and this includes some species of cryptids. Once bitten the victim if infected usually experience their first change in about twenty-eight days. Once changed they have only one goal and that is to kill. However, Alex quickly discovers something is VERY different about this outbreak.

A thread involving the Aeslin mice was intriguing, and we learned something new about these worshiping cryptids.  Despite Shelby's warm and loving family (insert snark) we do see relationship development between Alex and Shelby. 

Poor Alex. Shelby's family openly call him names and cannot see past his families ties to the Covenant not to mention how he and his family act towards monsters. Snark, name-calling, and faceoffs are plentiful. It brought a human aspect to the story. Here they are facing possible death, and they are bickering. Gotta love family.

If you haven't yet started the InCryptid series, I recommend starting from the beginning or at least jumping in at the beginning of a POV change. The next book takes us back to Verity Price's POV and this time she is on the West Coast.  The series has an incredible amount of novellas, which I have not attempted. Personally, I am holding out for an audio collection or at the very least an ebook collection.

The series is perfect for listening on audio, and thus far the narrators have been fantastic. Their voices capture the characters, creatures and intense plotline. Ray Porter narrates Alex's POV, and I think he helped enhance our science geek's personality.
This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 February, 2018: Finished reading
  • 3 February, 2018: Reviewed