Title: Sweet Poison Wine
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.06
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 12th August 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: The three men he’d brought along to assist in proving his point climbed out on his signal, following him inside.

Jonathan and Frances Healy are beginning their new lives together with that most traditional of celebrations: the honeymoon. Leaving their infant son with Jonathan’s parents, the Healys are leaving Buckley Township, Michigan for the cosmopolitan wonders of the city of Chicago, where they can properly celebrate the fact that they managed to have a wedding without anybody winding up dead.

Of course, these are the Healys we’re talking about, and nothing in Chicago is exactly fitting the description provided by the Bureau of Tourism. From the gorgon-run hotel where they’ll be staying to the swamp hags in the Chicago River, things are definitely business as usual, at least by the family definition of “usual.”

Bootlegger Arturo Gucciard has only just been introduced to the Healy definition of “usual,” but he’s going to need to get awfully familiar with it if he wants to live long enough to have a honeymoon of his own. And Jonathan, well. Jonathan just wants to have a normal honeymoon.

Good luck with that.

This is the longest Fran and Johnathan short story yet. Which, of course, pulled me in fairly quickly – I wanted to know what was going to happen after their wedding that would take longer than everything before. And I really wasn’t disappointed. This is exactly the kind of honeymoon that I would have imagined for these two. A perfect, fun and kind of quirky journey.

I love that this story features wine… of the supernatural variety. Each cryptid in this series has its own culture and needs (much like humans) and McGuire’s talent at seamlessly integrating this into her works is not only fun, but incredibly potent and powerful. Particularly when you think about the fact that part of culture is also food and wine. And in the case of this short story, it’s the wine that is an integral aspect of Gorgon culture.

One of the things I think I love the most about Fran is that she just gets bored seriously easy. Luckily for me, I mostly find my entertainment in books, rather than in fights. But there is still that same sense of adventure and need to try something new that I find completely relatable. The fact that in this case it leads to an adventure that delivers wine and justice… she’s definitely my kind of lady.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Married in Green
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.05
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 12th August 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: Turns out being a Healy brings a parcel of problems along for the ride.

After a rocky start and a lot of dangerous adventures, the day everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived: Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown are going to be married, and none too soon, since their first child is set to arrive at any moment. Alexander and Enid couldn’t be happier about their son gaining a wife and a child, while giving them a daughter-in-law. The mice have been celebrating for weeks. If only Jonathan and Fran were so sure…

Marriage is a big step, and Fran is terrified of what her future will bring. Is this her happily ever after, or just one more short-term home in a long string of the same? Help comes in the form of her old circus friends…but that just raises more questions. Will she ever be happy holding still? And what does it mean to be married in green?

You are cordially invited to join the Healys and the members of the Campbell Family Carnival on the joyous event of the marriage of Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown. Assuming they go through with it.

Everything changes today.

This short story opens with a bit of a quote. A saying about marriage that is full of superstition, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a unique and fun way to set the setting for this short story. The fact that it hints at some possible sadness in the future of Fran and Johnny’s lives doesn’t really make me feel super happy and lighthearted. But it was a good way to start a story about a marriage in the insane Healy clan.

Fran’s family in and her past with the Circus are established fairly early on in this series of short stories. But it isn’t until this tale that you actually get to meet all of the players. I’ve not had the pleasure of reading many stories which feature circus folk. But the few that I have made this one feel something like coming home. Or maybe, that was just because Fran’s emotions and this feeling seemed to just jump from the pages. It was such a beautiful reason for a delay in a wedding and a great way to introduce an extended family.

Even though this story is all about Fran and Johnny’s wedding, the Aeslin Mice still steal the show. There is just something wonderful, funny and completely adorable about these creatures that makes every single moment all about them. Which is, in my mind, exactly how it should be.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: No Place Like Home
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.03
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 11th August 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: eBook, Short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: This wasn’t where she belonged.

Road trips are wonderful things, filled with adventure, excitement, and questionable lodgings, but there comes a time in every man’s life where all he wants is the chance to sleep in his own bed, eat at his own table, and reunite his colony of talking pantheistic mice with their fellows, thus making sleep a little bit more likely. With Buckley Township in his sights, Jonathan Healy is finally going home.

The trouble is, home for him isn’t home for Fran, who grew up in the desert, never lived under a fixed roof for more than a week at a time, and has no idea what to expect. To make matters worse, Jonathan’s parents—Enid and Alexander Healy, late of the Covenant of St. George—are right on hand to make things more awkward for everyone.

With her future on the line, it’s time for Frances Brown to make one of the biggest decisions of her life. Does she stay in Buckley Township and try to make a life with the Healys? Or does she saddle up her horse and ride back into the sunset?

Returning home after a while is always difficult. But this story didn’t so much focus on Johnathon’s difficulties in returning home. It focused on Fran’s feelings of not quite belonging. And it also highlights the first indications of the relationship between Fran and Johnny and where that relationship is going to go…

This is the first of the InCryptid stories that actually enters the Healy household. And the madness and insanity that seem to be a part of the outlay for this family. It’s not anything like what I expected (and I had high expectations)… rather, it’s way, way, way more. A great, fun and incredibly unique household.

I love that this story starts out with the feeling that Enid doesn’t quite approve of Fran. But, throughout all of the testing and conversations, you begin to see that that isn’t really the case. And, at the end, you see a whole different light as the different generations find a way to accept one another and move forwards in life.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: One Hell of a Ride
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.02
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 11th August 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: eBook, Short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: “That’s that, then,” said Clark.

After a rather…eventful…visit to Tempe, Arizona, Jonathan Healy wants nothing more than to return to his home in Buckley Township, Michigan, where at least the threats are generally familiar ones. With the last of the blood mopped up and the locals none the wiser, it seems he’s just a train ride away from getting his wish.

Of course, there are a few small complications. Like the lovely and occasionally violent Miss Frances Brown, former star of the Campbell Family Circus, who seems to have become his new traveling companion. And then there’s the matter of the train having driven through a dimensional gateway into Hell…

Maybe Jonathan shouldn’t be quite so worried about getting back to Michigan. Maybe his time would be better spent in worrying about how to get off the train while he, and Fran, are still among the living.

Following The Flower of Arizona, and Fran and Johnathon’s meeting… it was nice to see how their relationship began and was likely to develop. Partly I loved the fact that this story involved a train ride and an adventure that had me giggling and smiling all the way through. Even if I now don’t necessarily want to ride a train…

I love that this story is literally what the title suggests – one hell of a ride. A train ride that passes through hell and all of the fun complications that that entails. The fact that it also highlights the evilness of corporate companies and capitalism… it just makes it all that much better.

Not only was this a fun adventure, but it showed a new aspect to the crypto world that I hadn’t expected. There was a mention of a Hell dimension in Discount Armageddon, but not really much beyond that. This provided that bit of extra information that helped make that much more sense…

Image source: Goodreads