Yet another Incryptid book that has be in tears at the end. Spelunking Through Hell was a bit of an emotional roller coaster culminating in some very happy tears. I made the mistake of reading the fist few lines of the blurb for Backpacking Through Bedlam when it arrived at my apartment and, well, that made parts of this plot ridiculously easy to telegraph. Kind of akin to rereading, where you know who the mysterious, largely unnamed characters are going to be. Also made Sally not a surprise. This is why I don’t read blurbs after the first book if I can help it.
Spelunking Through Hell is a weirdly technical book, for all that dimension hopping is usually not met with technical descriptions in most of the fantasy I’ve encountered. It doesn’t exactly stray into the hard science-fiction aspects, but it is close. That, and the description we get of flensing… well, let’s just say I’m glad my brain’s been shielding me from the gorier mental images that could conjure up. Aside from the technical bits, I enjoyed getting to visit other worlds with other “cryptids,” the designs of which I’m also in love with. Ithaca is definitely my favorite of these worlds. So sue me, I love my Greek mythology and stuff based on it.
Interesting that the luck thing has to be explained again. I mean, not completely, since Alice (and the rest of the Price-Healy-Harrington-etc clan) have no idea that Frances Brown was the daughter of a Luck cryptid. But yay for the refresher as to luck being able to be stripped. Basically incorporating that into the pneuma stripping thing was a good call, I think. Made all that easier to digest.
The demise of Naga was hardcore. I won’t say more than that, but wow. I really find everything Naga did utterly despicable and the conversations around consent really important. After all, I really don’t think consent given under as much distress as Alice was clearly under in the first place should be taken as consent at all.
We haven’t really gotten a lot of Thomas Price as a character up until now. He did appear in a couple of the short stories available on Seanan McGuire’s website, so I did kind of have an idea of how we was as a person. I am glad to see his time in the dying dimension didn’t strip him of his ideals and such. Alice deserved to not have to go through that kind of heartbreak. Sally, to finally get back to her, was mostly delightful. I like her badass-ness and her protectiveness of Thomas. That last bit makes a lot of sense given how she was apparently the same way with James when they were kids. I’m looking forward to getting to know her more in Backpacking Through Bedlam.
I mentioned in the beginning that Spelunking Through Hell had me crying happy tears. This paragraph will contain spoilers because it was the epilogue that did it. The Aeslin Mice and Kevin having their little reunions was really what did it. I love the Mice and really missed them in the last couple of books. They weren’t super around for Sarah and since Alice didn’t have them this time… anyway, they were missed. Thomas’ reaction to them was basically mine, especially as soon as one of his clergy showed up. I hope the unaffiliated novice basically starts Sally’s clergy, since she’s definitely sticking around. And man, who wouldn’t be in tears watching a father and son reunite? I’m tearing up just writing about it. Just… ah! I was half expecting Spelunking Through Hell to end on a cliffhanger and boy am I glad it didn’t. So satisfying.
And Sweep Up the Wood: Uh, so… that was maudlin. And I guess it’s great to “see” Alice and Thomas’ first foray into their relationship. I uhm… have no other words.
Favorite Lines
"I like my torso. It's where I keep my lungs." - Alice Price-Healy
"We're basically swamps that decided to go for a walk one day and haven't figured out yet that it's ridiculous thing for a swamp to do." - Alice Price-Healy
"Sure, it had failed when Thomas tried to shoot me, but the first rule of gun safety is that no gun is unloaded unless you verify it for yourself. The second rule of gun safety is that it still isn't unloaded, because invisible bullets can happen to the best of us." - Alice Price-Healy
"Raising your daughter to think that her only value is in sitting pretty and pristine on a shelf somewhere doesn't get you a functional person, it gets you a monster in waiting." - Laura Campbell
"That's another way trauma works. For every bruise you can see, there's another spot where it's just all about the internal bleeding." - Alice Price-Healy
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