Imaginary Numbersby Seanan McGuire
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 0756413788
Series: InCryptid #9
Publication Date: February 18, 2020
Pages: 431
Publisher: DAW Books
The InCryptid series is an outlier for me; it’s the only series I’ve ever read where I feel comfortable picking and choosing which books to read, and have no problem skipping those that don’t appeal to me. My favourites are the Verity novels, and in those novels one of the best characters in my opinion, was Sarah. So when this book came out, I was excited about seeing where the author would take this character when given her own space.
I went in with few expectations, but still, even though it was a good book I read in almost one sitting (I fell asleep with 10 pages to go), I was disappointed. It started off great but went pear shaped once Sarah was forced to work with the other cuckoos. Because at this point the story became more science fiction than urban fantasy, and I don’t like science fiction.
Still, I could have coped, but there were two biggies for me: 1. The all-or-nothing we have to save the world from annihilation trope drives me insane. Like nobody would notice this apocalyptic occurrence? It’s totally unreasonable and gets more unreasonable as the book comes to an end. 2. The end. It’s a damn cliffhanger. I hate cliffhangers. Especially when the cliffhanger is in a book that’s just been released and how long am I going to have to wait until the resolution? Will I care by that point?
In spite of all this complaining, you’ll notice I still gave the book 4 stars. Because McGuire can write. She made me devour a story that was irritating me more and more from the mid-way point because her characters are awesome, and the dialog, oh, the dialog is a joy to read. So much sass and wit that’s perfectly balanced and never over-played. Also, the Aeslin mice – they’re always good for at least a 1/2 star bump.
I had planned to use this book for a Spell Pack card in Halloween Bingo, I think. But after reading it I realise it fits perfectly for the In the Dark, Dark Woods square, as most of the story takes place on the Price compound in the middle of the Oregon woods and Sarah is very descriptive about the drive through those woods to get to the compound. Also, 2 significant events to the plot take place in those woods.