My thanks once again for the generosity of the publisher in making all eligible novels and short stories available for consideration to Hugo voters. I'm very grateful to have been able to experience this series and I definitely understand why it has been nominated for the Best Series award. Best of luck to Seanan McGuire in this and the other categories she is nominated in!

In theory, I really should have loved this book. I love this series and love world-building. I just had so many issues with this book it was hard to sit back and enjoy the admittedly spectacular world-building. First, apologies to Alex, I just find him a bit dull compared to his more flamboyant sisters. Second, Shelby's family. I mean, WTF, Shelby's family?!?

So Alex's girlfriend, Shelby, is from a family who are Thirty-Sixers, the Australian version of the Price-Healy clan... only not. They are focused on conservation of the island continent's unique cryptid flora and fauna, and less so on peaceful cohabitation with the non-human sentient cryptids. But her family asks her to come home to help with a werewolf problem, and Alex, having actually dealt with werewolves, tags along.

And that's where everything falls apart. Because every word out of any Tanner mouth was about how much they didn't need Alex's help, how much they hated him, and how easily they could make his body disappear. Which, for a group of people who are supposedly professional crytidzoologists and are dealing with something they have zero experience is, is pretty damn stupid. Also, as a reader, it got really old really quickly.

But! the world building was everything I had hoped for. And the werewolf plot actually was interesting once it stopped being taken over by the Tanner family not-so-subtly threatening Alex. There was also a pretty cool swamp monster friendly and Aeslin mice, so that's cool.

I love this series and appreciate the chance to revisit before the Hugo voting - I've been buying the earlier books slowly. I like this one for the biology and biogeography - the plot is a bit frustrating, but the thoughts about cryptids on an isolated continent make up for it.

I absolutely adored this book, which was both a bit of a delightful surprise and the first step in laying a foundation of affection for everything that comes after this!

Catching up on the InCryptid series, I fell behind and now I’m binging on the books to finally catch up. Book 4 has Alex going to Australia to help Shelby’s family with a werewolf breakout. Of course no one is happy to see Alex since he is a descendant of a former Covenant member and Australia actually managed to kick them out. The Thirty Six is a group of people dedicated to protecting the native cryptid monsters but the group doesn’t think to ever speak to the sentient ones. Most of this book deals with people butting heads on everything from does Alex have a cure for werewolf bites and why he shouldn’t be dating Shelby. The Aeslin mice get a bigger role in this book and that is just joyous. Book 5 will swing back to Verity as the main POV.