So good! It's hard not to be biased for Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series, because it hits all my favorite things: great world building, fun characters, and just great one-liners and inventive ways of thinking about fantasy and the tropes we're used to. I love that there is always some take on things that I wouldn't expect. This doesn't disappoint!

Spelunking Through Hell is the eleventh book in the InCryptid series, in which Alice Price-Healy may finally be able to finish her endless quest. Searching for her missing husband for more than fifty years, Alice has given up everything else in her life in her zeal to find him. Is she being led on a fool's mission, or will Alice get the answers she has been seeking?

Spelunking Through Hell is supposed to be the culmination of Alice's quest, but is very disappointing for the reader. Alice is not a very likable character and has very little depth despite her backstory. It feels almost like the author has gotten so many requests to give Alice's story a go that this is the result. Overall, Spelunking Through Hell is not one I would recommend to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

Such a great read. Alice is such a badass, how can you not love her? One of my favourite series. Looking forward to many more.

I have enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s “Incryptid” series since I discovered it. Earlier volumes felt like related, spin-off stand-alones set in the same world with characters who were loosely related to one another. I was particularly delighted to discover that Rose Marshall, from The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, a series I loved, is a distant, although usually off-scene character. The last couple of volumes were a bit of a disappointment, but on the strength of the earlier ones, I decided to give Spelunking Through Hell a try. It was richly worth it.

The crossroads—as in the place you go to make deals with the devil that never, ever turn out well for you—are sentient entities who make an appearance from time to time in McGuire’s related novels. To say they are nasty is an understatement. One of those bargains involved the magician, Thomas Price. He’s been confined to the premises of his (haunted, see Rose, above, and Mary Dunlevy, a ghost who occasionally doubles as a babysitter) house, but it’s part of the price he pays (to the crossroads, see above) for getting to be with his adored wife, Alice Healy. But when the crossroads eventually come to collect their debt, not even Mary can forestall them. Then he vanishes in the middle of the night and everyone is convinced he’s dead…except Alice, who waits only long enough to give birth to their second child and then embarks upon a five decades-long cross-dimensional search for her husband.

Along the way, she acquires friends and allies, including Ithacan satyrs, Helen and Phoebe, and Naga, the giant snake-man who is a professor of extra-dimensional studies. She also survives dimensions that are dying because their world-souls have been stripped, world inhabited by maniacal cannibals, and worse yet. Her kids won’t talk to the mom who abandoned them. Yet she refuses to give up.

This book is about her happy ending and what it cost her. It’s a brilliant, touching page-turner.

Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire is the 11th book in following the Price family. While not quite a standalone it was still an easy book to read without having read all the other books in the series. I have read maybe 3 other books in the series and was able to follow along but knowing the other family members did help. Alice is a one person kind of person. Even at the expense of her children. Alice's person is her husband, Thomas and he was taken away from her. She spent years, even abandoning her children, trying to locate her husband. Thanks to her family's actions Alice is now able to find her husband. Will she be able to truly save him?

As usual I read this months ago. I mostly wrote the synopsis from memory (after checking to make sure I was talking about the right book). It was a memorable book with interesting characters and plot. Do I particularly like Alice or find her relatable? No but I still enjoyed this book. It was fast paced, fun, a little dark but still has a predictable ending that I want. I would recommend this series and this author but would not recommend this as the first one to read in the series. I do not find it that strong of a book in the series.

I liked the book but found Alice a less than pleasant protagonist so I would put this at 3.5 stars. I will round it up to 4 stars because it is still memorable almost year later. Thank you to NetGalley, DAW and Seanan McGuire for a free copy this was an honest review.

I so loved this book! The storyline was well done, with great characters!! I will definitely be reading more from this author!! I would highly recommend this book to everyone!

How is this already the ELEVENTH InCryptid book?! I was so excited to finally get to Alice's book, as she's a side character that's intrigued me for a long time now. I want to shout about SO MANY THING in this book, but basically everything I want to say would be a spoiler. And if you've read the other 10 books in the series (and maybe some of the short stories and novellas as well), then you've built up the wait for THIS LONG, so I'm sure you want to experience EVERYTHING for the first time for yourself. So just go read this! And if you haven't read any of the other book in this series... Don't start with this one, haha. Start at the beginning!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Alice Healy has been searching for Thomas Price for 50 years now. She has been going to all different dimensions. Has she finally found him? Or has she caught herself in a dead world with no escaping. This was another great episode in the Incryptid series.

A big thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is book 11 in as series, and let me say it does NOT read well as a stand alone. I have not read the others and I find this confusing on so many levels. Ok Thomas is the love of her life and she leaves her children with a babysitter and hunts for him for 50 years??? What the heck?? Sorry folks but I skimmed this book so I could finish. Honestly, I will probably not try to read this series. Apparently this wasn't for me. This is not to say that others won't absolutely adore it. I give it a 2.5.

Alice Price-Healy once fell in love with a man named Thomas Price. Thomas was a member of the Covenant (and organization that wants to get rid of Cryptids). But love is strange and Thomas and Alice fell in love and Thomas made a bargain with this ... what...? 'being?' 'thing?' 'entity?' ... known as the Crossroads (oh ... those Crossroads books are good, too!). But part of that bargain was that Thomas couldn't ever leave his house and that they (the powers that be) could come and take him at any time.

Alice and Thomas have a child together and they are expecting their second child when Thomas is taken away without any warning. Once she has the baby, Alice then goes looking for Thomas.

For fifty years.

This is the story of that search, through other worlds and other dimensions, Alice will stop at nothing and let nothing stand in her way so that she can be reunited with her only true love.

This is a wild adventure. This is sort of like going through all of McGuire's Crossroads series, InCryptid series, and October Daye series books in one sitting. We get so much here it's almost hard to digest. And on top of it all, there's a love story that works.

I also appreciate that underneath everything we read, there's some angst and some energy ready to burst. There could, and should, be another Alice story in the InCryptid series.

In some ways, those who've been reading the series for awhile already know the basic Alice story, but being there to see her in action bring her story to another level. We also know the kind of trouble Alice is likely to get into, and we know the fierceness to which she'll fight anything that attempts to hold her back.

Like all the books in the series, this book contains a novella or novelette at the back of the book. It is very possible that I liked this story ("And Sweep Up the Wood...") even more than the novel. This is a story of a very young Alice with her father and an InCryptid encounter that .... well, I don't want to give anything away. This is a must read.

Looking for a good book? Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire is the book we've been waiting for (even if we didn't know it) in the InCryptid series. Read it; tell your friends about it; read it again.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of, Thomas Price, formerly of the Covenant of St. George in England, and Alice Healey, whose grandfather had left the Covenant, long ago and settled in the Buckley Township, Michigan.

Alice and Thomas married and lived their one child, with another on the way, along with the Aeslin mice. Thomas made a crossroads deal to save the love of his life. The day came to pay the Crossroads and he vanished. Once Alice gave birth to their second child, she took off across dimensions, searching for him for fifty years.

Once again, Ms, McGuire delves into the InCryptid series, this time with the beginning of the Price family and why Alice Healy-Price was never there and what happened to Thomas, all of this resolved. This series has never failed to keep me entertained. This story delivers all the excitement and also the promise of a happy ever after.

I gave the book 4 1/2 stars.

I am always excited when a new InCryptid book drops and McGuire knocked it out of the park with this one. It seems like the whole series has been leading up to this, introducing a completely new realm for the characters to explore. I can't wait to see what comes next.

This was a great installment in the Incryptid series, where we finally get Alice's story. We've heard over the series how she's been searching for her husband, one of the patriarchs of this whole clan. Alice has found a way to essentially keep her youth, and and Thomas is her sole focus at at this point. She loves her family, but she needs Thomas, she has decided that this is her last shot to get him back. She will stop at nothing to do so.

Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld (InCryptid) by Seanan McGuire
Cover Artist: Alastair Fell
Review by Sam Lubell
DAW Trade Paperback / eBook ISBN/ITEM#: 9780756411831
Date: 01 March 2022

Spelunking through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld is the 11th book in McGuire's InCryptid novels about a family of cryptozoologists who study, protect, and hunt (when necessary) supernatural creatures. While most of the novels (as opposed to the short stories and novellas) have focused on the current generation--Alex, Verity, and Antimony Price plus an adopted cousin Sarah Zellaby--Spelunking through Hell tells the story of their grandmother, Alice Enid Healy. But drop all assumptions of elderly grandmothers, Alice barely looks twenty, is armed and dangerous, and stubborn and obsessed beyond sanity.

Sixty-five years before the book's main plotline, Alice's future husband and then-current romantic interest, Thomas, sold his soul to the malign spirit of the crossroads in return for its help saving her life. The prologue shows how, after they had been married for just five years, the crossroads collected on the bargain, taking Thomas away shortly before Alice birthed their second child. Since then, Alice has traveled the dimensions, with the help of sorcerers, route witches, trainspotters, and others, trying to find Thomas even while everyone else in the family was convinced he was long since dead. This obsession has hurt her relationship with her children (and grandchildren) who think her fixation has made her dangerously crazy.

But the consequences of events in previous books in this series have given Alice new hope. One of her grandchildren has killed the crossroads spirit and told her that the crossroads do not kill those they take, but hide them far away. So she resolves to go back to dimensions she had previously rejected and use them to go further into other realities using magical tattoos she receives from a giant snake professor, who may be an ally helping her in return for her work as a pan-dimensional bounty hunter or who may have a more sinister agenda.

Although Alice lacks magic or preternatural powers, she does possess a high tolerance for pain and the Healy family's luck, "which is sometimes good and sometimes bad, but is never, ever boring". She's a little more selfish than the other members of her family, deserting her children to quest after her missing husband, but still basically good. One minor problem with her characterization is that, although she was born in 1938 and lived on Earth through 1965 before starting her dimension-hopping, McGuire writes her as if she were a contemporary of her grandchildren.

Even though this is the 11th book in the series, McGuire still takes care to provide enough information for new readers to follow the plot, even though they may not get all the nuances. Since most of the books in the series are episodic, there are only a few spoilers for the earlier books (mainly involving the crossroads). As with many of the other books in this series, DAW has added a bonus novella, in this case, the story of how Alice lost her father and what happened after that.

I had been a little disappointed with the previous two volumes in the series, which felt like one story puffed out to be two volumes. So, I am pleased to report this book has returned to the earlier volumes' high level of quality. There may be a bit less humor (the Aeslin mice make only brief appearances) but there is plenty of action and world-building.

Anyone who enjoys light fantasy adventure with interesting characters (most of them women) will enjoy Spelunking through Hell. There is a reason why McGuire almost always has one of her series up for best series Hugo.

Content warning: parasites, gore, misplaced trust
Possible triggers for victims of gaslighting and/or psychological abuse

Seanan McGuire has done it again. Another fabulous book with well-rounded characters and an exceedingly well-planned universe. If you haven't already read the short stories set in this world that are available for free on her website (see link at end), I highly recommend doing so before picking this one up. While it might not be totally necessary, I think it gives important background on Alice, her family, and her relationship with Thomas. And if reading things in chronological order is important to you, the short story at the end of this book, Sweep Up the Wood, takes place after Target Practice, before Spelunking Through Hell.

In Spelunking Through Hell, we finally focus on Alice, the mysterious Price-Healy grandmother who has popped in and out of other books in the series. She's on a quest to find her long lost husband, and along the way, we finally get many of our questions answered, like, "why does Alice look younger than her grandchildren?" (Answer: not sure I was prepared for that).

Spelunking Through Hell is currently out in trade paperback, rather than mass market like the previous books in the series. Coupled with paper shortages and other supply chain issues in the publishing world, that means the price is $17.99, a full $10 more than the previous book in the series. The ebook is $11.99, which is $4 more than the previous book. I'd be willing to say that the previous books may also have been underpriced for the quality of the writing, but that is a huge jump. I'm concerned that fans may be scared off by the increase, and sales may suffer as a result. That would be a huge shame, as I love this series, and want it to be economically viable for more of them to be written. If you are unable to purchase this book due to the cost, I highly recommend asking your local library to get a copy.

seananmcguire.com/icshorts.php

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoy Seanan McGuire's writing having read the whole Wayward Children series. This was my first foray into some of their other writing and it looks like I have some catching up to do as this book was amazing!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Remarkable Love Story

Love, noun:

An intense feeling of deep affection; may be romantic, filial, or platonic.

Passion, noun:

A strong or barely controllable emotion.
Enthusiasm, interest, desire.
See also “obsession.”

It’s been fifty years since the crossroads caused the disappearance of Thomas Price, and his wife, Alice, has been trying to find him and bring him home ever since, despite the increasing probability that he’s no longer alive for her to find.  Now that the crossroads have been destroyed, she’s redoubling her efforts.  It’s time to bring him home, dead or alive.

Preferably alive, of course, but she’s tired, and at this point, she’s not that picky.  It’s a pan-dimensional crash course in chaos, as Alice tries to find the rabbit hole she’s been missing for all these decades—the one that will take her to the man she loves.

Who are her allies?  Who are her enemies?  And if she manages to find him, will he even remember her at this point?

It’s a lot for one cryptozoologist to handle.

With book 11 of the Incryptid series, there are only so many ways to share how much I love Seanan McGuire and her work. Each series she writes has a unique tone and voice. Each series I love but one of the reasons I love this series is because it is fast paced, funny, and yet, has heart. I also appreciate the viewpoint that the monsters may not be the villain. These novels are truly a love story to the strange and the unusual and no one does that better than Seanan McGuire. 

For fans of the Incryptid series, including myself, we’ve been waiting for this story for a long time, the story of Alice and Thomas. What makes it truly remarkable and brilliant writing is that Seanan takes the plot that we’ve all been waiting for with baited breath and makes it accessible for those who might not have read all of the other Incryptid novels and short stories. I caught up with the short stories before I read this novel and it made it infinitely more pleasurable so I do recommend reading the other books first but if you haven’t, I can see where there is enough information and details so first time readers can have a solid understanding of the world and the relationship between Alice and Thomas. Will you enjoy it as much or fall in love with the characters as deeply? I don’t know but I like to believe my love of the other novels makes a difference. 

Regardless, the story is tightly woven, fast paced, and full of action, emotion, and great characters, both main and secondary. Seanan McGuire builds a relatable character in Alice, one in which others can sympathize, even while it appears Alice has gotten in deeper than she expects and is far more willing to risk life and limb more than anyone sane should. But her cause is believable and the emotional payout in the story is incredibly satisfying, even with twists and turns you won’t be able to anticipate. This novel is a love story at its core but I don’t want to tell you the end result. While Alice is unrelenting in her search, the truth is she might not be successful. And that concept, that writing of her story, is what makes Seanan so compelling and a joy to read. 

If you love the series, I highly recommend this book but if you haven’t, find time to find the others, read them and then immerse yourself in this incredible love story. 

Rating : 5 out of 5 skins

Seanan McGuire sends Thomas away from his wife to pay his debt to the crossroads. Wife Alice takes care of the children then follows his path. Unfortunately she gets lost along the way. As she gets back on track she realizes her allies have been using her. Alice finds Thomas in a dead world. How do they get out? What happens to Alice's betrayers.? Another In Cryptid novel of the strange and unexpected. Enjoy.

Seanan McGuire never disappoints. Her inventive storytelling, interesting and unusual plots, and singular characters continue to attract my attention. This particular plot centers on characters and storylines which have only have been peripheral to previous books in the Incryptid series. Her main character is passionate, single minded, violent, and freely admits to it. She not only knows her mind, but is honest enough to cop to her faults. Yet has seemingly few regrets.

Yet, I have to admit that my liking for the series is stronger than this entry. The main character of Alice Price is a difficult one to like. But I will give her another visit if she appears in another story.

An fun, if slightly flat, addition to the series, I liked Spelunking Through Hell, but still found myself wishing for something a little more. It was cool to finally get a novel from Alice's perspective, a character who has largely existed in the edges of the previous books. But I was a little disappointed that for all her tragic backstory, there didn't seem to be a lot of depth there. Lots of quips as she punches bad guys, but not much else. There was one fascinating bit where she mentions that she didn't allow herself to fall in love with her daughter when Jane was born because then she wouldn't have been able to leave her, but it lacked the exploration and punch that such a revelation should have had. It was a nice change of pace to see a woman whose life doesn't completely revolve around her children not just be dismissed as some heartless monster, but at the same time, it brushed over a lot of things that should have been fleshed out more completely and let me connect with her as an actual person, not just a punch/quip machine.