Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire

This review is gonna be a little different than my usual. Basically random notes I made while reading, following this paragraph. Backpacking Through Bedlam is basically Alice’s homecoming book. She and Thomas and Sally get home and immediately have to go help Verity is New York. It was a lot of fun, but I don’t really have much to say other than my notes so… on to those.

I really do love the Aeslin mice. Probably because all the Prices love them, but still. I think they’re a weird critter — with the religion thing — but also very cute. They’re often the ones moving me to tears, all truth be told.

Aaand of course we’ve landed in that universe Sarah and Annie ended up in in Calculated Risks. Should be fun. And amusing that Alice thinks it’s super improbable before finding out that, yes, it was Sarah and Annie who landed the “masonry” there.

Don’t know if it’s my mood lately or just that I’m ridiculously attached tho these characters, but I’ve been tearing up every time something happily touching happens. Something as simple as Sally introducing herself as a Price, for example. Tears. Blegh. Love it and hate it. Sally has grown on me a lot like she’s grown on Alice. I was genuinely almost crying at the end of the book… which I will not spoil.

I’m so happy to have Istas back. I love her so, so much. Having her interact with Alice and Sally is just… chef’s kiss. Love it.

I am very pleased with how the Covenant stuff worked out, at least for now. I'm definitely anticipating blow-back, as this is, in fact, a war. But yeah... hope Sarah's not too messed up about what she had to do. Lord knows she didn't share all her thoughts on the matter with Alice.

The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went

I was not expecting a deeper look at the Aeslin, but I liked it, I think. Also, James is growing on me, given he’s not background here. I feel like Jane needs to get over herself and realize that her feelings are just hers, valid as those feelings are. I feel like she hasn’t really tried to understand Alice and probably never will. Aaand I love the Price family. They’re so accepting of the members they’ve adopted to the point it just brings me to happy tears… again. I'm also happy for a look, albeit a tiny one, of what Artie's like now he's been rebuilt by Sarah. Kind of hoping we get more on that and that it's not, like, super debilitating.

Favorite Lines

"Nothing gets better if you don't open your damn mouth. Okay?" - Mary Dunlavy

"We make monsters whenever we disagree about how a limited resource should be spent. It's so much easier to kill a person whose personhood you've stolen away." - Thomas Price

"People who have sense to recognize me for what I am aren't scared of me," she said. "They're terrified, as well they should be. I am nature's perfect killing machine."

     "Here I thought that was cats," said Ryan, in a tone that indicated a frequest joke, something with the edges of it worn smooth between them.

     Istas looked at him with polite blankness. "It is also cats. More than one thing can be perfect, it's not a competition."

In Other News

 

I have decided, given the length of the InCryptid series, I will not be doing a Series Overview... unless I change my mind sometime between now and... if I ever Do The Thing. Anyway, I'll be moving on to rereading/finishing the Mercy Thompson series by Particia Briggs.