Book Review: Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor’s Guide to the Underworld, InCryptid Book 11, Seanan McGuire
Fantasy Series: Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor’s Guide to the Underworld, InCryptid Book 11, Seanan McGuire
Alice Healy lost her husband decades ago. Not to death, nor through divorce or carelessly misplacing him. Thomas Price made a deal with the Crossroads, those magical in-between places that will make deals that give you your heart’s desire at the cost of, well, pretty much everything. Alice was going to die. Thomas offered his life to the Crossroads in exchange for hers. They took that deal, and a few years after Alice recovered and she married Thomas, after they had a child and were expecting their second, the Crossroads took their payment.
Alice never believed that Thomas was dead. She believed the Crossroads had stashed him somewhere in another dimension. So she set out to find him, working with a scholar from another dimension who helped her transport between dimensions, helped her stay young and fit, and helped her earn the money to pay for these excursions.
Still, after about 50 years, she was starting to lose hope. Until her granddaughter “killed” the Crossroads and discovered that they did indeed stash the people they took in another dimension. Alice immediately sets out for that dimension, but quickly learns that it is not only dangerous and difficult to find, only one person has ever escaped from it alive.
Which simply means that Alice will have to increase that number by at least two: herself and her husband.
The entire InCryptid series is an absolute romp and Seanan McGuire is incredibly creative and imaginative. Her stories take elements of traditional cryptid folklore, bigfoot and vampire-like creatures and sentient snakes. Most of her characters, though, are nothing like I’ve seen anywhere else. Human-looking insects that can control minds. Shape-shifting men who turn into monkeys…or is it shape-shifting monkeys who can look and talk like humans. And my personal favorites, the Aeslin mice who are not only intelligent. They are worshipful. They have created an entire theology around the worship of the Price family, priests dedicated to telling the tales and proclaiming the wonders of each member of the family. As new members are born or marry in to the family, new priests are assigned to make sure that all of the marvelous deeds are remembered and celebrated appropriately with prayers, feast days, celebrations, and lengthy recitations of the events.
Alice Healy is grumpy, violent, and difficult. Her children do not get along with her. Her grandchildren barely know her. She has obsessively searched for Thomas for many more decades than any normal person would keep going, paid a higher cost for her efforts than most people could possibly imagine, and is quite willing to be violent and abrasive toward anyone who would interrupt her mission. In literature there is a lot to like about a character like Alice Healy.
I’m not sure such a single-minded person would be likable in real life.
Book Review: Spelunking Through Hell: A Visitor’s Guide to the Underworld, InCryptid Book 11, Seanan McGuire