*This title will be released on March 5, 2013*
Midnight Blue-Light Special
by Seanan McGuire
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Excerpt: Yes | Book Trailer: No
Reviewed by: Julia | Source: Publisher
Near Perfect – Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.
References to sex, a non graphic sex scene.
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.
MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL is one of those rare sequels that outshines even its predecessor, offering non-stop cryptid comedy as Verity prepares to thwart the Covenant in her own backyard. Well paced action in parallel with laugh out loud moments had me giggling, snorting, and reading excerpts to everyone within earshot.
Rather than being the type of series that continually leaves the reader hanging, it is clear that McGuire is building something here. The foundation from DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON gave context to Verity’s love life, but even readers new to the InCryptid series won’t have a hard time getting up to speed in this richly described supernatural world. Dominic and Verity both have some dramatic life choices to make, but those weighty issues pop up organically in a plot that mainly focuses on Verity’s hilarious inner monologue regarding cryptid species’ idiosyncrasies and family history. The imminent Covenant threat had all the characters out of their comfort zone, which meant introducing a carnivorous waheela to the Aeslin mice, bargaining with pregnant Dragon princesses, and strategizing on how to hide a preternatural titty bar where gorgons dance the cancan from a religious organization who has vowed to wipe all monsters from the earth. In short, awesomeness from start to finish.
In a book that lavishes attention on the characteristics of cryptids, it’s clear that the Prices and Healys are their own special breed. The distinct talents of this family caused a twist I didn’t expect and the Covenant conflict culminated in some significant character changes that I can’t wait to follow into book three. A comprehensive field guild to the preternatural ecosystem of New York City, anyone with a taste for the weird and the clever is going to love MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL.
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