Monday, May 3, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire

 




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on May 11, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Angel of the Overpass is the third book in Seanan McGuire's "Ghost Roads" series, featuring the adventures of Hitchhiking Ghost and urban legend Rose Marshall, set within the InCryptid Universe.  The first book, Sparrow Hill Road (Reviewed Here) was essentially a collection in order of a set of short stories published originally elsewhere, and while I enjoyed some of those stories a lot - particularly McGuire's imagination as she describes Rose's adventures dealing with the various types of ghosts and other beings that inhabit the Twilight/Other Ghostly Planes - they didn't quite form a fully cohesive whole.  The second book, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown (Reviewed Here), was a more cohesive novel but one that took Rose out of the Twilight and back into the living for most of it, which kind of ruined a lot of my enjoyment in the series.  So while I enjoy McGuire in general, and very much love InCryptid, which this kind of spun-off of, I wasn't that excited for book 3 of this series.  

Angel of the Overpass however delivers on pretty much what I was hoping to find in this series after book 1.  This novel, which might or might not end the series, features both a cohesive whole story that still finds time for smaller adventures where Rose Marshall - now back to being a hitchhiking ghost - has to deal with other beings and interactions with the non-mortal planes, and they're an absolute blast to read.  And the overall story is nice and conclusive and follows cleanly from what came before, for the most part.  If this is the end of this series, it's a really strong one, and if it's not, well now for the first time I'm really excited to read more.  

Note:  More so than the other two books in the series, events in this book are very much influenced by the 8th InCryptid book, 2019's "That Ain't Witchcraft."  You don't need to read that book to enjoy this one - enough is explained I think that you'll be okay without it - but it probably helps.  


------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------
Rose Marshall is back to being dead....and back to being chased by her killer, the evil Bobby Cross, and his sinister car that sucks up souls to feed his own immortality.  But something has changed in the Twilight, as well as the other ghostly planes like the Midnight and the Starlight - the evil Crossroads that used to power Bobby Cross' bargain are dead.  And so the ghostly plains are out of sorts, trying to figure out what comes next....and for Rose Marshall, the opportunity presents itself for her to possibly fight back - and to get rid of Bobby Cross once and for all, before he kills other girls like her.  

But Rose isn't just a simple Hitchhiking Ghost anymore - her journey has covered miles of distance and put her on the radar of powerful beings - goddesses, no less.  And so to take such a radical action, if it's even possible, will require her to stay on these allies' good sides....and not get taken out by some other ghostly being in the meantime.  It's a near impossible task, and Rose would much rather get back to hitchhiking, to the being she was made to be.  But Rose's and Bobby Cross' paths have crossed for too many times for her to ignore this quest for justice and vengeance, and the opportunity .to take back her freedom and her "life" once and for all.........
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Angel of the Overpass is not only the concluding book in this three book arc, but also is kind of a sequel to the 8th InCryptid novel, That Ain't Witchcraft.  You probably don't need to read that novel to enjoy this book, as this book explains the general essentials - but at the same time, for story (and presumably for spoiler-related) reasons, Rose doesn't go into too much depth with her narrative (Rose again tells the story in first person) and so readers who have skipped out on TAW might still be a little confused when those parts - the Crossroads and their death and the Anima Mundi - come into play.  

That said, if you can clear that hurdle, Angel of the Overpass is really really enjoyable, owing to both the creative imagination of McGuire and the strong character voice of Rose Marshall.  Rose isn't quite as sardonic or irreverent as some of the InCryptid protagonists*, but her voice is really fun to read and her character journey here, as she's forced to come to terms with what the death of the Crossroads means and how that impacts people she cares for and the idea of conquering her fear and getting rid of Bobby once and for all...it all just works really really well.  It was that voice that kept me coming back even though I didn't quite love the last of these books, and It's still great here.

*Oddly, in her cameos in InCryptid, she's a LOT more vulgar and sardonic than she ever is in her own series.

But it's the imaginative aspects of this world that really take this one a step above its predecessor - we again see Rose interacting with various ghostly beings, as well as the various ghostly planes of existence, like the Starlight and Midnight which exist for beings that may never have been alive, or were non-human when alive, or whatever, and carry their own crazy dangers.  We see one non-human type ghost who shows up in a fun seemingly irrelevant side adventure only to come back later (not revealing what type because it's a really fun spoiler) and Rose keeps winding up on these mini adventures in between her longer story arc that involve her interactions with all sorts of beings who are part of the ghostly world, and they're a lot of fun.  Not all those stories always feel naturally placed in the narrative, but they're fun enough that I never really minded. 

And the plot twists in this book all make sense and never really annoyed me like in the last book (which featured a number of really obvious and obnoxious betrayals that were just more annoying than anything).  The plot also features an interesting and well done theme of showing how the ghostly world is affected by modernity, as various old types of ghosts begin to reform in more modern counterparts, which is a nice plus.  It all adds up to an ending that works really well as both a conclusion to this series and perhaps as a starting point for a new arc for Rose Marshall, which I'd be excited to read. 

If I have a complaint about this one, it's that one of the internal conflicts Rose has on the side is whether she really loves Gary (her high school boyfriend who made sure to die in a way that would have him come back as a car for her in one of the book 1 stories), and whether he really loves her, or just do they love the ideas of each other (especially Gary, who wound up having a full life without her).  It's a really interesting idea, but it never came up previously I don't think, and just feels out of nowhere as a consideration for Rose in the back of her mind, even as it makes entirely good sense and deserves exploration.  But it's a really minor complaint honestly.  

In short, if you were like me and merely found okay or merely liked the first two Rose Marshall books, but did love the Incryptid books, I would strongly recommend giving Angel of the Overpass a try.  And if you were waiting to jump into the series to see how book 3 was first, I'd say it's earned your faith that it's well worth beginning.  I know I no longer regret it.  

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