Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire

I don’t know if this is just my mood right now, but I’m really not sure how to feel about Imaginary Numbers. Like, I appreciate the cuckoo/Johrlac lore dumps we got because, ya know, world-building is fun. I liked most of the Price family being around, even if they were “off screen” for most of the book. And I still really like Sarah and I’m glad she’s more-or-less back to herself. However, I was actually really surprised when I opened my book and saw “Epilogue” at the top of the page. That might partially be because of the novella that’s tacked onto the end, but the end also didn’t really feel like an end. It felt like Sarah was continuing to ramp up to get to her end goal. Much shrugging.

The Aeslin Mice are forever bringing tears to my eyes. Sarah’s getting her own branch of faith! It’s so sweet.

I would cheer for Sarah and Artie finally getting together, but I also don’t really care enough. Probably because it feels very Fitz-Simmons. The pair of nerds are getting together. Joy and happiness for everyone. Except I’m also not as into Sarah/Artie as I was into Fitz-Simmons so… much shrugging.

I loved getting more Annie and Sam. I love Annie so much. James is still mostly a non-entity, though I did like how he was used by Heloise, like tactically. Artie was, I dunno, pretty much how I pictured him being. Non-combatant but a smart non-combatant.

But yeah… still not sure exactly how I feel about this one. On to the novella, I guess.

Follow the Lady

I guess it was a nice little update on what happened between where That Ain’t Witchcraft left off and Annie back in roller derby in this one. Glad Alice got her info about Thomas and the Crossroads. And it would have been nice to get a Huldra entry in the field-guide because boy am I confused and intrigued. A good chunk of this novella was recapping Annie's adventures and Alice's history, all stuff I would hope we'd know by this point in the series.

Favorite Lines

"There's no such thing as doing absolutely no harm. Human, cuckoo, it doesn't matter. Everybody hurts and is hurt, in a grand cycle of being alive. But minimizing the damage... that matters." - Sarah Zellaby

"People in airports are allowed to be weird. They're liminal spaces. They don't count the way the real world does." - Sarah Zellaby

"Most of them are telekinetic and have gravity-defying boobs," said Antimony as she rattled around behind me. "My boobs aren't gravity-defying. My boobs are very, very aware of gravity, and they don't like it. They want to be protected from it whenever possible, especially if I'm about to go up against a cuckoo. Why was the door unlocked?" - Antimony Price

"We've never been chill," she continued, still filing. "Chill doesn't save anybody. We like saving people. The ones who can be saved, anyway. Some of them were always beyond salvation." She blew on her nails. "Those ones, we bury in the woods." - Elsinore Harrington