If you follow my reviews, you'll already know that this is my favourite Urban Fantasy series of all time. It manages to walk the line between the action packed external journey and the emotional internal journey, between fraught family dynamics and found family warmth. The family itself is the main character but each book in the series is told from a different family member's perspective. It's original, unique and engaging.

This time, the family ghost/ babysitter Mary Dunlavey picks up the thread. What's especially interesting about her perspective is that she has known the entire family over the last 90 years, most of them from birth. She's not an outsider, but her attachment to each member of the family makes her as impartial as its possible to be within the complicated family dynamic. If anyone is qualified to be the family chronicler, it's Mary. All this means that we see characters in a way they don't see themselves. You don't get Antimony's bias against Verity for example, Alex seems less clinical, Sarah's actions and motivations make more sense (and the Sarah/ Artie situation is a complete mess). It makes sense that McGuire would pick Mary as the pov for a full family reunion. Mary knows and loves all of them, is unblinded as to their flaws, and understands the family secrets. Mary knows where the bodies are buried - literally.

There was a point where you could just pick a character in this series and start with their books, but that's not the case with this book. The real value of this volume is only going to be apparent after reading the other books. Don't mistake this just as a family reunion. history however. The Covenant brings the fight to North America and strikes with deadly accuracy. This made the book both exciting and frustrating (for reasons I'll explain). Long term fans have been waiting for a head to head clash between the Price-Healys and the Covenant of St George and it doesn't disappoint although the focus is always on the family, and the danger is wrapped up pretty quickly and fairly uneventfully.

Where my frustration comes in is over two instances. This is a very told story, which is perhaps not surprising because the authors has a lot of plates spinning at this point including the intersection of Rose Marshall's series. Mostly, it didn't bother me because it just felt like getting into a favourite conversation with a beloved friend. But there are instances where things get repeated within the same book. Maybe that'll all get sorted out on publication? It did bring down the pace of an already slower episode in the series. The other instance is hidden by a spoiler tag.

<spoiler>Two deaths happen in this book. One of them is for such a marginal character that I just didn't really care. Even given how it affected all the other characters, it just felt like it held things up rather than serving the plot. The other death was a character who had played a major part in the beginning books of the series and I did very much care. Almost no attention was given to this in comparison - perhaps that's in the next book? But it just made me angry. Now authors, especially authors with the writing chops of Seanan McGuire, have reasons for killing off characters. It might be that the reason only becomes apparent later in the series and I'll be eating my words. But at this point in time I feel somewhat betrayed and genuinely baffled because surely this character could have served the plot better by staying alive? Guess we'll see what happens next.</spoiler>

Overall though, this was a great episode in a much loved series. I was actually reading Angel of the Overpass when this ARC came through, which obviously meant I abandoned that book to read this one. The only thing that can make me cheat on a Seanan McGuire book apparently is another Seanan McGuire book. Also shout out to my series favourites - the Aeslin mice. Hail!
Recommend the whole series.

Longtime reader of this author and her incryptid books are my favorite. This book follows the unlife/existence of Mary Dunlavy, the family babysitter of the price family and well at this point very extended family. It's great to finally learn more about her existence, her death and what the afterlife is like. That said this book is also about the burgeoning war between the Covenant and the Price-Healy family. After years of being rediscovered and targeted finally the Covenant is coming at them and all they love full force. I will not lie to you this book has some serious feels in it. It is hard to read at times but that is one of the things that makes Seanan McGuire such a great author, she doesn't pull punches and she draws you in and makes you feel everything her characters are feeling, worry about their worries and everything that goes with that. This is a well written and beautiful book that takes us into a character who has been on the sidelines for most of the others. Excellent read.

This was my first book in this series of 13. You will need to read previous books to really put all the characters into perspective. You follow the Price family who protect creatures/monsters living amongst humans. This story is from the POV of Mary a ghost who has looked after 4 generations of the Price family.
I really enjoyed many of the characters and especially enjoyed a novella Dreaming of you in freefall at the end of the main story. This is definitely a series to start enjoying from the start.
Thank you NetGalley and (publisher, DAW) for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This is the 13th book in this stellar series, and is not a standalone book. I recommend reading at least a few of the other books before reading this one. I also recommend reading the Field Guide to the Cryptids of North America, included in the book. It's delightful.

This book focuses on Mary, who has been the babysitter for children in the Price family for generations. Mary is a ghost, who has no desire to move on. What would the family do without her? She is truly needed in the events of this book, more than ever. We see a lot of the events through Mary's perspective.

The Covenant of St. George is an institution that specializes in training operatives to eliminate cryptids of any and every kind, sentient or non-sentient, as well as any humans who aid them. Without warning, they are attacking cryptids in two locations, and are again actively hunting the Prices, a (mostly) human family who have studied cryptids for generations and work to protect them. Worse, the Price family discovers that their method for exchanging information has been hacked. Mary plays a huge role in conveying messages, although it is not easy for the dead to travel.

This is one of the best and most original fantasy series I've ever read. I received an e-ARC of this book from the publisher DAW, and voluntarily read and reviewed it.

For context, I picked up this title without realizing it was the 13th book in a series. Did that make it unenjoyable? Not in the slightest! This was a delightful read that filled you in on relevant characters and events as you go and was just as fun as a stand alone read. Does it make me want to read earlier books in the series? Absolutely!

This book is about a ghost named Mary on her quest to help the Price family that she is a caretaker for. She quickly proves herself to be far more than a caretaker, while negotiating complicated family dynamics, she sets her mind to protecting her family against unpredictable attacks from their foes. Would highly recommend and wish that it wasn't attached to an "urban fantasy" classification because it is probably not picked up by many likely readers who might have a narrow idea of what that means.

This review will necessarily have spoilers for the rest of the InCryptid series, because this is well into lives and disasters of the Healy/Price clan. I don't think readers would read this one on a whim, without the others, and it really wouldn't work. I think you can pick up the Verity books, and the Alex books, in pretty much either order - I mean you're spoiled for Verity's romance but that's no surprise. Once you get to Annie, though, and then Sarah's stories, you're well into the issues of the Covenant and the tangle that is the Prince/Healy set, and so... you really need the backstory.

I never thought we'd get a Mary story, and yet here we are, with McGuire surprising me (and if you look a little closely as you read this one, it's pretty clear that McGuire has another rather surprising protagonist in an upcoming story... and I'm intrigued). It absolutely works - I thoroughly enjoyed getting Mary's perspective on this family that she's looked after for so many decades. This story picks up in the immediate aftermath of Backpacking through Bedlam, with Alice and Thomas safely (heh... safely... yeh right) back in their own world, and with their family. Things go sideways very rapidly, though, because it turns out that the Covenant is in no way done with their family, or with the cryptids of North America. And when I say 'sideways' I mean 'go boom in very bad ways'.

If you've read the other InCryptid stories - and surely you're not reading this if you haven't - you know what to expect. Fast-paced action, some banter, some wrenching emotional moments. Tricksy plans that mostly work but not always, Aeslin mice popping up to give useful information, and a lot of violence.

It's a credit to McGuire's talent for writing in general, and for writing compelling characters in particular, that 13 novels and countless short stories in, this is still a wonderful series where I can't wait for the next one and am wailing internally that I've already read this one when it's officially out til March which means the next one is even further away. Because there has to be a next one.

This was another delightful installment in Ms. McGuire's InCryptid series! Several ongoing plot points are moved along significantly here and we get to learn more about Mary now that the Crossroads are no longer her master. Do be aware, no character is safe.

Oh boy, is there a lot to unpack here! First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review "Aftermarket Afterlife", the 13th (plus a bunch of Novellas) in the InCryptid series from Seanan McGuire, who returns with a brilliant, if somewhat frightening addition to the tales of the Price family.
In the words of the Babysitter, "As you have almost certainly gathered by now, my name is Mary Grace Dunlavy, and I am really quite sincerely dead." This thirteenth book is told from the POV of Mary Dunlavy, Babysitter to the Price family, extended family, adoptees, spouses, etc. As a babysitting ghost, she's been caring for the Price family for four generations, and she's planning to keep doing the job for the better part of forever. We get her backstory and a little history before delving into the events of the present day - and what events those are!
At one point, Mary remarks, "The mice cheered and descended, and everything was peaceful and normal and chaotic, just like it was supposed to be. Just like it could never be for very long."
Ever since Verity publicly 'outed' the family on national television, the family and the Cryptid community as a whole have been holding their collective breaths, and waiting the the Covenant to strike. And strike they do!
In the middle of the family reunion of Thomas and Alice Price-Harrington (and a rather contentious reunion at that) comes news that a first strike has occurred - the Aboveground Nest of the New York dragons was hit; following close upon that is a strike on the Campbell Family Carnival as well as other enclaves.
So, the family is instantly thrown into crisis-recovery mode. Verity and Dominic are in New York, working with the dragons to shore up their defences; a number of the family head out to the Campbell Family Carnival to aid them - with disastrous results.
There's so much going on in this one that I'm afraid of giving anything away, so I'm just going to end this review here and say that, if you've been following the exploits of the family and their various communities, you have to read this book - but be ready, it's not all 'happy families'. I wept for the Aeslin mice.
Would certainly not recommend this as a standalone read - there's just too much backstory. And I cannot wait for the next installment.

If you've read McGuire's other InCryptid books, you'll remember Mary Dunlavy--the family babysitter who happens to be a ghost. Here we get a story from Mary's pov, one focused on the escalation of war between the Price-Healy-et al family and the Covenant. There's a lot of death, and there's a lot of violence, and there's a lot of trying to remember who is related to whom and how, but in the end, it's an interesting way of telling an InCryptid story. Mary stretches her powers to their limit, takes up tasks no living family member can do, and finds herself dealing with the anima mundi. It's clear that this is Mary's Big Adventure in death, and while it has a slow beginning that introduces everyone, once things get going it's a non-stop ride to a big finish.

I have loved the Incryptid series since I discovered the books 5+ years ago. What makes this series (in my opinion) stronger than many urban fantasy series where you have the protagonist against the world/giant shady secret organization/evil of some kind, is that here we're not dealing with a single protagonist somehow able to throw off the 6 or 8 or 10 books worth of trauma and damage. By creating an entire family and connecting characters and lives and stories, Seanan McGuire is able to tell a wider variety of disparate stories and I have loved every opportunity to fall more and more in love with this world.

At first glance, this newest addition is similar in form to the others. Our narrative character, Mary Dunlavy is the ghost babysitter for the Price-Harrington family, and has been caring for all of our individuals for a long, long time. The war with the Covenant (the giant shady evil secret organization hell-bent on eradicating the world of cryptids) is heating up and things are getting bad. As the Prices go to war, Mary is also caught figuring out her role in the new afterlife post-Crossroads, and how she can continue her "life" while adapting to fit the new world.

As usual, I absolutely sped through this novel and loved reading it. At this point in the series, McGuire really has a strong grasp of the world and her characters, the relationships and conflicts between them, and many of the family characters have had their own narratives (which adds more depth to their backgrounds). The only complaint (and it's not even really a complaint) is how SAD this damn book is! After 10+ books where there have been challenges and trials and sadness, I have fallen into the trap of thinking the Prices were and are immortal. THIS IS NOT TRUE. BE WARNED - THERE IS SADNESS IN THESE PAGES AND IF YOU ARE A CRIER YOU WILL CRY. It was unexpected, and somewhat beautiful but still heartbreaking knowing that now, some of our people are going to have to keep going. You've been warned.

Thanks to DAW, I have been able to discover a Seanan McGuire series, ‘InCrypid’, and to follow up on her ‘October Daye’ series, which only had the two first volumes translated to French a few years ago. And I must admit, I just cannot seem to grasp why, especially for ‘InCryptid’, no publisher in France has bought the rights, especially when ‘Wayward Children’ is such a beloved series among Fantasy lovers. I do believe she has a tremendous sales potential here, given that new prolific authors do not often come up on the shelves.
Anyways, I must admit I did not realize when I downloaded ‘Aftermaket Afterlife’ that it was the thirteenth novel in a series, which necessarily limited my understanding of quite a few background elements.

However, I can say that Seanan McGuire is a great author, because this very fact did not diminish my liking of the book, on the contrary it made me want to dive into the other volumes (so that I can be even more devastated by some deaths that happen in this entry). Luckily, it is told from the point of view of the family’s babysitter, it is the first time she takes on the first person narrative and it allowed me to follow the story quite easily. The narration really is the main asset of the text, since Mary can teleport she literally has omniscience, which cleverly binds all characters together.

Urban Fantasy can be quite abrupt to read, and I must say that the family dynamics in this story are worth any great contemporary family saga, everyone is fleshed out and unique, the generations are well thought-out and well explained by the narrator. Even so, the fascinating magical aspects are at the center of this story, and the Covenant of St George is particularly gripping. The stakes seem real, a war of races which appear distressingly inevitable, given the mixing of both gothic and fantastic creatures whom cannot seem to cohabit.

All in all, a very imaginative lore and vivid characters make for a great book, and I guess an even better series overall. I am extremely thankful to the publisher for allowing me to read such an established female writer.

The Incryptid series gets another new narrator: Mary, the ghostly babysitter for four generations of the Price-Healy extended family. Mary is fiercely protective of her family, young and old, and she will need to be as the Covenant steps up their attacks now that they now the Prices still exist in North America. Mary's powers are great, but will they be enough? And can ghosts die?

Recommended, but not the place to start with the series.

Mary Dunleavy gets her turn as narrator of the latest installment of the Incryptid series. The longtime babysitter for the Price-Healy family has outlived (or as close to it as a ghost can) the Crossroads that first claimed her afterlife, and is on the fourth generation of charges in a family that keeps bringing in members. Despite having responsibilities in three cities and two coasts, Mary finally has the time to consider what she wants from her afterlife - until the conflict with the Covenant of Saint George kicks into an actual war, with casualties mounting and hitting the Price family directly. Conflicts are brewing within the family as well, and Mary discovers just how much she has to lose. Action-packed as ever, Mary's story keeps up the frenetic pace of the series, with a growing body count of secondary characters. Some of McGuire's writing tics become difficult to ignore (why does everyone get married so fast? Are we ever going to get a romance for any of the queer characters? WTF is with the hate for Jane and Verity?) but fans of the series won't want to miss this volume, especially with the world-building going on for the twilight and the Aeslin mice.

This latest Incryptid book, narrated by the babysitting ghost Mary is…not going to be people’s favourite book in the series. This is the book that breaks everything apart so that it can be put back together, and it hurts!

Added to that, there has been an expectation with these books that love is strong enough to win through anything, and each of the many narrators has had their own romance as something central to their stories. Poor Mary never got to fall in love, her long afterlife has been filled with her love for all of her chargers, her babies, even if they’re now grown up with grandbabies of their own. This shift in focus may be enough to put some readers off just a little, but I have enough faith in Seanan that early 2025 will bring us something to ease the hurt a little. And hey, if she wasn’t such a good writer, I wouldn’t be so invested.

Oh man, these were amazing reads. But I almost wish that I hadn't read them. Because they are game-changers, and most of those changes are pretty devastating. It was great to have all these characters that we've been getting to know coming together, I mean, they're related, but each book had a select number of characters, and so that was a high!

Aftermarket really gave us a look at what Mary's babysitting ghost job defines as family, and when you factor in that time has been running alongside when these books have been published, well, there's a member or two that we hadn't really met, which was really great!

That ending, though? I need to know what is going to happen next! I wonder if we're going to get a 2nd book narrated by Mary, since we usually get 2, and sometimes 3 through the course of the series. But that ending is a pretty big change and I need to know what is going to result from that!

Dreaming of You in Freefall, if you know anything about these characters, that one world should help you figure out who this is about. And after what happened in Aftermarket Aftermath, it was rough. That last line, I just wanted to give a hug!

Absolutely loved reading these books even when they hurt, and I need to know what's going to happen next!

Aftermarket Afterlife is the thirteenth installment of the Incryptid series. As such I recommend reading the previous books first. That being said I am quiet behind on them but was able to follow along and figure things out. Mary Dunlavy has been the Prices nanny for 3 generations now. Alice returning now with her long-lost husband an extra child in tow rocks the boat bit. To make matters worse The Covenant has returned to North America hellbent on drawing out the Prices.
I experienced a full rollercoaster of emotion. Seanan has been known to say that she doesn’t do happy endings, at best they are happy for now and she dances along that line. It was really great seeing things from Mary’s view point and it really filled in some gaps for me with in the series’ universe. Fans of the series will really enjoy this book and if you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for? Go pick up Discount Armageddon and hop on this train!
I received an arc of this and am leaving this review of my own volition.

I've really enjoyed the last few InCryptid books, but I've also felt like they've been splitting the family up a bit too much and kind of treading water on the issue of what the Covenant was up to. Well, after this installment I can't complain about either of those things anymore. On a related note, Seanan how dare you??

Aftermarket Afterlife is the first book narrated by Mary Dunlavy, the family's resident ghost babysitter. Mary has been around for longer then any other family member at this point, and her ghostly status means that she can teleport between family members in different locations, making her the ideal viewpoint character for the first book in a long time to feature the entire family. The Covenant is finally making their move, with simultaneous attacks on several family and cryptid locations. It's up to Mary to keep everyone connected, help when she can, and just maybe come up with a plan to kick the Covenant out of North America for awhile longer.

There are a few major developments in this book, and several things that made me remember that perhaps the biggest difference between InCryptid and October is that the characters in InCryptid are mortal and changeable in ways that the fae are not. I don't want to say too much so as not to give away plot, but this book did surprise me once or twice and there were a few hugely emotional moments. I also feel like we're finally seeing why the book series started out with Verity, despite her not always being the easiest character to sympathize with. Some of the exposition about different types of ghosts and the levels of the Twilight may seem repetitive if you've read all of Rose's books, but it may be necessary for those who aren't as familiar with all of the off shoots of this universe.

I was happy to see Alice and Thomas finally rejoin the family, as well as seeing the long awaited reunion between James and Sally (now both firmly members of the family). As always, it'll be interesting to see where the family goes from here and what their next moves are. Definitely an emotional and satisfying InCryptid story that furthers the main plot of the series and lets us visit with a huge part of the extended cast.

* The novella at the end serves as a sort of epilogue to Verity's part of the story and is told from her point of view. As always, it adds welcome depth to some of the story and character points that weren't able to be included in the main novel.

* I'm wondering if in the next book we might finally get to hear from Elsie. I feel like she's the family member who has gotten the least amount of screen time, and after this book especially there are a few different issues where I'd like to see her perspective.

Mary and metaphysics

The novels of the Incryptid series are told from the points of view of the members of the Price family in turn. Usually when your turn comes you get two novels, then the series moves on to someone else. We just finished two (Spelunking Through Hell and Backpacking Through Bedlam) about Grandma Alice. In Aftermarket Afterlife we move on to Mary Dunlavy (The Phantom Priestess, as the Aeslin know her). Mary is special in many ways. Most important for the reader is that she has seen more of the family's history than any living person. Notice that I did not say "than any other living person" -- that's because Mary is a ghost. Mary is the Price family babysitter, and has been for the many years of her death. She has responsibility for the children, or any member of the family who needs care, and she will come when they call with comfort and stern but kind discipline.

Mary is a splendid character, whom I have always loved. Mary's position in the Price family means that her novel is uniquely wide-ranging and intimate. They are all Mary's children. She knows and loves them all. Advice to readers: print out the Price/Baker family tree with which the book begins. Then scribble in the missing-because-recent family members: Verity's husband Dominic De Luca and their daughter Olivia, Alex's not-yet-wife Shelby Tanner and their daughter Charlotte, and Angela and Martin Baker's newest adopted child, Isaac*. Every person on that family tree (and even some more distant found family such as Uncle Mike) plays a role in this novel.

The plot, unfortunately, is the default Incryptid plot: a conflict with the Covenant of St George, a venerable villain that will be familiar to every reader of the previous novels of the series. But this one is bigger. The Covenant has decided that the time has come to sterilize North America of ungodly abominations and race traitors. And the stakes feel higher this time. One feels that it is not just one family member in danger this time, but the entire family. <spoiler>In fact, two family members are killed, really dead and gone. One of them has been with us since book 1 of the series, thus a major death.</spoiler>

Aftermarket Afterlife has one serious problem. Mary explains far too much. At any moment, even in the middle of a fast-moving action scene, Mary will throw in for the reader's benefit two paragraphs (if not pages) of not-really-necessary metaphysical explanations. I don't know what made Seanan McGuire lose faith in her readers' ability to suss things out. McGuire clearly understands the danger of explaining too much. She is a spectacularly good short-story artist, and you don't become that without knowing the importance of economy of expression.

So, in summary, great characters, good plot, flawed story-telling. I enjoyed Aftermarket Afterlife, but it could have been so much better.

DREAMING OF YOU IN FREEFALL

As usual, McGuire follows the novel with a novella, Dreaming of You in Freefall. I can't say much about it without major spoilers for Aftermarket Afterlife. But I can tell you that it's told from Verity's point of view, and is a kind of epilog for her part of the story. It's good, but also suffers somewhat from excess explanation.

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for an advance reader copy of Aftermarket Afterlife. This review expresses my honest opinions. Release date 5-Mar-2024.

*This review is based on an advance reader copy, and I hope the family tree will be updated before publication. I will correct the review as necessary on the release date.