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kadtide's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and Kidnapping
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
HALF-OFF RAGNAROK properly introduces Alex Price in true Price/Healy fashion: with a bunch of winged frogs and a mysterious death to investigate. This keeps the fun tone established earlier in this death-stalked series, but filtered through a different narrator than before. Alex is a little calmer than Verity (or at least less inclined to jump off of rooftops), and switching to follow him gives the series an opportunity to show someone maintaining a deeper cover. I liked getting to meet Alex properly, as well as spending time with some of the other members of the family. The mystery was engaging, I ended up guessing who but the “why” surprised me and fit the story really well. It was twisty enough to be very interesting and handled in a way where the eventual solution had that really good mix of feeling a little bit inevitable but still innovative. I love the sheer number of reptilian and reptile-adjacent Cryptids which filled this book, those were an exciting treat.
On to the sequel check! I don’t think this really wraps up anything from the previous book. It does give a kind of status update to several things from the last one, but there was a rather dramatic event in the previous book that is too big to be concluded in a single volume. Almost all of the main story line starts in this book and was not present in the last one, except for that aforementioned follow-up, and features several things which are introduced and resolved here. It does leave a very major thing to be resolved later because the major development it inherited is not done yet. This is the first main character change in the series, and the voice is very distinct from the previous narrator. Most of the similarities they have are explained by being siblings, but they have entirely different ways of using all of that very deadly family knowledge, and that lets their individual personalities shine in their respective narrative styles. This story would definitely make sense if someone started here and didn’t already know about the series. I suspect that that will be true every time the narrator changes, as I understand that is a staple of the series. Either way it’s definitely true for this book that it would still make sense if read first.
This was a lot of fun and I'm excited for the next one. I like the change in narrators, it lets different parts of the cryptid and cryptid-adjacent world shine without making it strain credulity that any one character would involved in absolutely everything of interest.
On to the sequel check! I don’t think this really wraps up anything from the previous book. It does give a kind of status update to several things from the last one, but there was a rather dramatic event in the previous book that is too big to be concluded in a single volume. Almost all of the main story line starts in this book and was not present in the last one, except for that aforementioned follow-up, and features several things which are introduced and resolved here. It does leave a very major thing to be resolved later because the major development it inherited is not done yet. This is the first main character change in the series, and the voice is very distinct from the previous narrator. Most of the similarities they have are explained by being siblings, but they have entirely different ways of using all of that very deadly family knowledge, and that lets their individual personalities shine in their respective narrative styles. This story would definitely make sense if someone started here and didn’t already know about the series. I suspect that that will be true every time the narrator changes, as I understand that is a staple of the series. Either way it’s definitely true for this book that it would still make sense if read first.
This was a lot of fun and I'm excited for the next one. I like the change in narrators, it lets different parts of the cryptid and cryptid-adjacent world shine without making it strain credulity that any one character would involved in absolutely everything of interest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Blood, and Medical content
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Sexism, Kidnapping, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Ableism, Self harm, and Sexual content
CW for ableism (brief), sexism, mental illness, kidnapping, medical content, blood, violence, animal death, murder, death. TW for Harry Potter reference (page 44).bookwyrmknits's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
It was great to see cryptid life from a new POV. I mean, I love Verity, but the narrator change to Alex was refreshing. Both because his voice is a little different than hers (not completely alien; they are still siblings) and because they're in completely different settings. She's in New York City; his story starts out in the swamps of Ohio.
There were a lot fewer instances of the Aeslin mice showing up and hailing things, though. That made me sad. I'm curious to continue with the series and see what they decide to call Shelby.
(This might be a 4.5 star rating, but since I'm not positive, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and mark it as 5.)
2023 re-read review:
This installment of the InCryptid series is just as fun as I remember it being! (This is a re-read, but I remembered incredibly little about it from the first time I read it.) I enjoyed the change of narrators from Verity to Alexander for this book; honestly, I think I might like Alex as a narrator even better than Verity. Sarah, however, remains my favorite member of the Price-Healy clan so far.
There were a lot fewer instances of the Aeslin mice showing up and hailing things, though. That made me sad. I'm curious to continue with the series and see what they decide to call Shelby.
(This might be a 4.5 star rating, but since I'm not positive, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and mark it as 5.)
2023 re-read review:
This installment of the InCryptid series is just as fun as I remember it being! (This is a re-read, but I remembered incredibly little about it from the first time I read it.) I enjoyed the change of narrators from Verity to Alexander for this book; honestly, I think I might like Alex as a narrator even better than Verity. Sarah, however, remains my favorite member of the Price-Healy clan so far.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death and Blood