Book Review: Half-Off Ragnarok (InCryptid #3)

Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was brave of the author to change protagonists just three books into a series, but as it turns out, it was a fine choice. So, we leave Verity Price in NYC, and travel to Columbus Ohio to have an adventure with her brother, Alex Price, a cryptobiologist who works at the Columbus zoo.

I enjoyed getting to know Alex. Since the story is told from his point of view, we learn a lot about what makes him tick. I also enjoyed getting to know his grandparents. Verity mentioned them in earlier books, but they weren’t a big part of her daily life. Alex, however, lives with them, so we get nicely satisfying scenes of the family at home. And his cousin Sarah also lives there, who you might remember as the cuckoo cousin. “Cuckoo” is her species, not her mental state, though at the moment… yeah, it applies to both.

There’s plenty of action, lots of cryptids to grapple with, nail-biting medical emergencies, romance, snark, religious mice, and a hidden village in the woods. What’s not to love?

I did nick one star off the rating for the Columbus Zoo being a rather weak setting. Even though we spend a lot of time there, it never felt fully realized. I couldn’t mentally picture the zoo, or get a solid grip on how it was laid out. I wish there had been more thought given to that bit of worldbuilding.

But otherwise! Loved it a lot and will be diving into book #4 in the not too distant future.