Title: We Both Go Down Together
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.09
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 22nd August 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: Minutes passed.

With their second child due to arrive any day, it would be reasonable for Jonathan and Frances Healy to stay safe at home. Unfortunately, the world has other ideas. A postcard from the mysterious coastal town of Gentling, Maine has Jonathan packing his bags and preparing for an adventure—and when did Fran ever pass up an adventure?

But the people of Gentling aren’t just ordinary fishermen and sailors: they’re the descendants of finfolk who fell in love with the humans who pulled them from the sea, and they have long since settled into a gentle rhythm of a life lived between the wet and the dry. Only now, someone or something is stealing their babies from the shore, endangering the next generation.

Old obligations and new obligations will collide, and the newest member of the Healy family will join the fight…or will she? Because it’s not just the babies of the finfolk who are in danger, and unless they’re careful, Johnny and Fran might find themselves losing another child…

I was kind of worried about how this story was going to go. After the events of The First Fall, I was expecting something equally tragic to happen to the next child born to Fran and Jonathan. It was a little bit tense and not so great. But I really didn’t have to worry as much as I thought I did.

As with many of the prequel short story stories that I’ve read in the InCryptid series thus far, We Both Go Down Together introduces a whole new group of cryptids. In the case of the Finfolk, I actually found their plight to be incredibly heart wrenching and sad. It was seriously tragic and made my heart hurt a little. It reminded me a lot of tales of the Selkies too…

Although the Finfolk have a bit of a tragic back story, there was something about this story that was really lovely. It provided a little hope for the future and left me wanting to know how Alice was likely to grow up after her auspicious welcome into the world.

<- Loch and Key

Oh Pretty Bird ->

Image source: Goodreads