Installment Immortality is the 14th mainline* novel in Seanan McGuire's InCryptid urban fantasy series: which follows the Price/Healy family as they attempt to safeguard Cryptids (creatures not believed by science) from the monster hunting Covenant of St. George and other often inhuman threats. This is also the second novel to center around former Crossroads ghost Mary Dunlavy, as she figures out who she is after the death of the Crossroads and the explosive events of the last book. As people should know, I'm a rather big fan of this series, so I managed to grab this book to read despite being way way behind on my TBR, although I have mixed feelings about how dire events in the series have gotten the last few books.
*McGuire releases InCryptid short stories on her Patreon, and one of those short stories was itself a novel, hence me using the word "mainline" to not mess with the count.
And I really liked Installment Immortality for the most part as it took the characters' struggling with some pretty tragic events, trauma and grief, and managed to examine it at the same time it also managed to give us some of the better parts of InCryptid: the encounters with the different Cryptid communities (in this case also some of the ghost communities) and how they work and survive in a human dominant world. In some ways it felt like a Rose Marshall book at times with its focus on the various types of ghosts (not really a problem for me), and the attached novella dealing with a spoiler character's grief over last book also worked really well. InCryptid fans will enjoy this one and people who haven't tried out the series will only have more reason to (although do NOT start here).
Spoilers for book 13 - Aftermarket Afterlife - and earlier books are below, so if you haven't read those books, be FOREWARNED. Also, this is not a good place to start this series, which has a few earlier jumping on points (Books 1, 3, and 6 work well in particular, plus online short stories).
Plot Summary:
It took six months for Mary Dunlavy - former Crossroads Ghost, now a Caretaker Ghost with limits and duties she doesn't quite understand yet - to reconstitute herself after being blown up in the family's attempt to blow up the Covenant's prime training base in England. In that time her family thought she was dead - well, for good this time - and she is slowly trying to figure out what happened while she was gone and how the family is coping after the tragic losses of Dominic and Jane (plus Artie/Arthur's continued struggles to exist). But she won't quite get the peace she was hoping for, as the Anima Mundi calls her in to give her a new assignment on its behalf, one Mary cannot turn down.
For the Covenant knows that a ghost was aiding the Price family in destroying their home, and is eager for revenge...and is taking out that revenge on the ghosts of New England. And their method of doing so is causing havoc in the ghostly world, havoc the Anima Mundi needs Mary to stop. And so Mary, aided only by the grieving Elsie and struggling Arthur, finds herself on her way to Boston to try to find out what the Covenant is doing...and to stop them. But it'll be even more dangerous than usual for her, as this time, the Covenant is looking for ghosts like her....
If you're this far in the InCryptid series, you really don't need me to explain to much about it - although this book comes with a chapter recap of events in the series and events related to Mary that is so long it kind of drags and gets ridiculous (McGuire includes such recaps into all of her books in this and the October Daye series, and tries to make them feel natural, but this one just sticks out for what it's worth). As with the last book we're back into Mary's voice, as Mary struggles with her new limitations set upon her by the Anima Mundi, her role as just a caretaker ghost and not a crossroads ghost, and her still need to protect and care for her family. And we're dealing this time with a Price family that's still dealing heavily with the grief over their losses - of Jane, of Dominic, and well they thought they were losing Mary too for the last six months. And it's a Price family that is also dealing with what happened to Arthur (formerly Artie), whose personality is wholly different after Sarah attempted to fix him up.
The result is a book that absolutely can be sad and tragic at times...as the characters - particularly Elsie and Arthur - grieve over who and what they lost and finally seem to have a chance to breathe after the battle with the Covenant last book, but also one that carries some of the fun interesting parts of InCryptid nonetheless. Even with the Aeslin Mice relegated to a small portion of the book again (boooo), you still have some of my favorite parts of the InCryptid universe: seeing a Price Family lead (Mary) deal with new and old species of Cryptids in their natural habitats as they struggle to survive. In this case, like one of the Rose Marshall books, that involves the various types of Ghosts who exist in Boston/Worcester as well as a group of cryptids that the cast finds in a boarding house there as well (who aren't delved into super deep, but the two we meet are enjoyable). And so we still have drama and struggle as Mary (and Elsie and Arthur, but really just Mary) tries to deal with Covenant ghost hunters but also have another look at how the Cryptid community tries to live and survive, especially amongst the angry Covenant interlopers.
I have a few complaints still. Elsie and Arthur are just kinda there, and while they contribute well to this book's themes, I kind of expected them to do more here (although Elsie getting over her grief is a big deal). Mary also goes sort of solo act for most of the book and that results in her being insanely reckless to the point of ridiculousness on multiple occasions and it's like "Cmon!" But overall, I really liked this latest InCryptid installment, and appreciated how it seems to be moving the plot forward in a way that promises either an ending or a new shift in the series' story arc, with the long running battle with the Covenant incursions seeming to promise a soon end.
Oh and as usual, this book comes with another InCryptid novella attached at the end - in this case, one focusing on Verity as she deals with both being pregnant and grieving for the loss of Dominic, all alone in New York. It's done very well, as a cryptid danger situation occurs, with a solid take on what Verity is going through and how she needs support - which she gets from a few old friends - to get through it all. A quality piece of work.
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