Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire

Well this was fun. I somehow skipped Aftermarket Afterlife and didn't realize until after I'd written my review of Installment Immortality... which means I had some of the bones of Aftermarket Afterlife already in my head as I was reading. I knew about Jane and the Covenant plan and essentially how things worked out, I just didn't have the details. Getting those details was, as usual with McGuire's writing, quite the ride.

Aftermarket Afterlife captures the chaos around reunions, death, and danger among a family that's part biological and part found and very much spread out. Mary's the perfect vehicle for that. I cannot imagine how she managed to do some of that stuff and serve the Crossroads at the same time before Annie put the anima mundi back in charge. Just the insanity of bouncing between family members... whew. I could never.

I definitely cried during part of this book, though it wasn't exactly a part that should probably have had tears involved... I dunno. I'm a sucker for community coming together and honestly, the big family Zoom-call did it. Just at the beginning of the main plot, go figure. Aftermarket Afterlife is truly an ensemble piece that kind of felt like a finale (though obviously I knew it wasn't). I loved getting to see the disparate groups of Price family members just doing their thing, for the most part.

I only have a couple more notes. Leonard Cunningham was giving me big Gaston (Disney's Beauty and the Beast ) vibes. I could definitely hear Annie rolling her eyes at him. The further world-building of the Twilight and ghost-y stuff was kind of fun. Love me some world-building. But yeah. Aftermarket Afterlife was definitely solid and a good read.

Favorite Lines

"Torturing racists is a moral obligation," - Sally Price

 

"Yeah, no. Forgiveness isn't an obligation. It doesn't get to be. You forgive someone when you want to, or when the anger gets too heavy yo carry around anymore. No one gets to tell you it's time. Time may never come." - Rose Marshall

 

"Saying 'sorry' isn't like casting a magic spell. Even if you do it with all the sincerity in the world, it doesn't fix the things you broke. It doesn't undo what you did." - Jane Harrington-Price

 

"No one chooses who their parents are going to be, or what species they're going to be born as. People are just people. It's what they do that matters, not how they're born." - Mary Dunlavy

 

    "What have I told you about throwing knives at everything that startles you?" I asked.

     "That it's antisocial and doesn't make me a very good neighbor," she replied.

     "And what did you just do?"

     "Threw a knife at my babysitter." - Mary Dunlavy & Antimony "Annie" Price

"Dreaming of You in Freefall"

Honestly a very fun novella, despite Verity's grieving. Well... also because of it. The image of a dragon offering a hug and getting covered in snot is funny. Lots of dragon stuff plus Verity being a badass, definitely worth the read.