Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #2
Published by DAW
Published on: March 5 2013
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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1. Any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proven scientifically. Term officially coined by cryptozoologist John E. Wall in 1983.
2. That thing that's getting ready to eat your head.
3. See also: "monster."
The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity--and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and when her work with the cryptid community took her to Manhattan, she thought she would finally be free to pursue competition-level dance in earnest. It didn't quite work out that way...
But now, with the snake cult that was killing virgins all over Manhattan finally taken care of, Verity is ready to settle down for some serious ballroom dancing—until her on-again, off-again, semi-boyfriend Dominic De Luca, a member of the monster-hunting Covenant of St. George, informs her that the Covenant is on their way to assess the city's readiness for a cryptid purge. With everything and everyone she loves on the line, there's no way Verity can take that lying down.
Alliances will be tested, allies will be questioned, lives will be lost, and the talking mice in Verity's apartment will immortalize everything as holy writ--assuming there's anyone left standing when all is said and done. It's a midnight blue-light special, and the sale of the day is on betrayal, deceit...and carnage.
Second installments are so frequently disappointing that without realizing I’m doing it, I go into reading them with lowered expectations. Is that the reason MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL rocked my socks off? *shrugs* Could be . . . But I doubt it.
Hoo boy, where to start . . . INCRYPID #2 begins several months after we last saw Verity Price and her NYC cryptids. Dave’s Fish and Strips, a nightclub for discerning gentlemen has (in the jackhole’s absence) been transformed into The Freakshow, a highly specialized nightclub:
“—and now, my beloved guests, if you would put your hands together for our sweet sugarplums, our cancan belles, our Freakshow dancers, the Scarionettes!” Kitty finished our introduction with a flourish, her heels hitting the floor with gunshot precision as she walked off the main stage half a step ahead of the opening curtain. Floodlights splashed down from the rafters, revealing eleven dancers in corsets and short ruffled skirts, all frozen in perfect clockwork doll poses as we waited for the music to begin.
Umm . . . How cool is that?
It’s like a goth burlesque club with enough steampunk to keep it more fun and less darrrrrrrrk.
But beyond the superficial awesomeness of Verity’s new and improved place of employment, there’s meat in this second chapter of part-ballroom dancer, part-monster wrangler’s story.
TWO major decisions are made in this book:
1. Which part will reign supreme—the dancer or the wrangler?
2. Who will Dominic choose—the Covenant or Verity?
B/c choose he must, when three senior operatives of the Covenant come to town to check on his progress.
*edvard munch face*
And if you think that’s bad, wait until you find out who those operatives are.
SO. Just in case it isn’t already obvious, MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL did not disappoint. I’m one step closer to permanently adding INCRYPTID to my Top Five UF Series of ALL Time list, and it looks like the fun’s just getting started. *whispers* Given all the fear and hatred spouted at the cuckoos in this installment, I’m
hoping thinking more info on Sarah and her people is coming our way.
I’ll definitely let you now, but in the meantime, highly recommended.