Title: Target Practice
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.22
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 5th October 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: It was a rare moment of absolute calm – at least until the blonde blur broke through the blueberry bushes, running hell-bent for the border.

Buckley Township is starting to grow on Thomas Price, rather like a particularly aggressive strain of moss. He still has a lot to learn about his new environs, and about the people they bring him into contact with. People like Alice Healy, whose talent for getting herself into trouble is only exceeded by her inexplicable ability to get out of it again. Luck is not a dependable survival mechanism. And hers is running out.

When Alice stumbles over something that even the ecologically unusual Buckley woods shouldn’t be able to sustain, it’s anyone’s guess whether she’ll be able to handle it on her own–and if she can’t, whether she’ll be able to find the help she needs to stop an invasive species from damaging the town and people she cares about. Thomas, meanwhile, just wants to avoid being shot by her father.

Tensions are high and stakes are higher as Alice and Thomas both begin taking aim on what they want, and where they want to be when they get it.

The first dot point that I wrote in my notes on this short story sums it up perfectly:

• Naw. Alice finally broke Jonathan!

That’s pretty much it. There was something that became steadily more irritating about Jonathan as these short stories unfolded. Don’t get me wrong, it’s understandable. But it was still dang annoying. So when Alice finally manages to “break” him… it left me feeling happy. Nothing like a rebellious teen having a point to make me love a story.

As with the other short stories so far in this collection, now all I want is to get the next books in this series and stick my nose into them! But I’m trying so hard not to buy anymore until I finish some from my teetering TBR… I may actually get buried under an avalanche soon.

But I digress… this was a fun story and showed how well Alice’s grandmother knows her, and how the scars of the past and worries for the future can have the exact opposite effect to what you desire. Luckily, things will steadily get more interesting (I’m sure) as the rest of the series about Alice’s children unfolds…

Image source: Goodreads

Title: The Way Home
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.20
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 30th September 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: And about that time, pigs would fly.

Alice Healy is sixteen years old and chafing at the yoke of her father’s regard. His overprotective streak has blossomed in the absence of his wife, leaving his teenage daughter sneaking out at every opportunity, trying to find herself and her place in the world without any parental support. But she knows the woods, and she knows what she wants to do with her life; it’s just a question of whether she can keep herself alive long enough to actually accomplish her planned future.

Thomas Price is a man still paying for his past. He’s smart enough to understand that his assignment is essentially an exile, and has enough of a sense of self-preservation not to argue. Those who vex the Covenant of St. George rarely live long enough to explain themselves. At least in Buckley Township, he’ll be far away from danger…unless you’re counting Alice Healy.

Worlds will collide and a new story will begin as Thomas Price arrives in his new home, and Alice Healy does her best to stay alive long enough to say hello for the first time.

Oh, HELL YES!!! A story of Alice as a teenager, man I’ve been hanging for this ever since Snakes and Ladders. And it was everything that I expected – Alice is sassy, accident prone and wonderfully independent, just like her mother. The fact that she also seems to like knives a little… wow.

This story is not only Alice’s first appearance as a teenager, but it also has Thomas and Alice’s first meeting. Which, again, I fell completely in love with. I can now completely understand how they had Verity as a daughter, and I can’t wait to meet the rest of their children and get to know the family even more (when I have the money to buy the books anyway…).

I was intrigued to see how Thomas truly left the Convent. You get to understand the rationale for the Healys throughout the rest of the short stories, but I wanted something at least slightly different for the next deserter. And I got it. It was great, fun and I can’t wait to keep sticking my nose into this fantastic series!

Image source: Goodreads

Title: The Star of New Mexico
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.14
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 25th September 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan Mcguire
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: “We’re not set up for long term storage,” the funeral home director had said.

Almost twenty years ago, Jonathan Healy rode a train across the country to investigate reports that something was killing people in the wake of a small family circus. Almost twenty years ago, he brought home the woman who would be his wife, the mother of his children, and his partner in the endless quest to protect the cryptids of the world. The time has come for Fabulous Fran, the Flower of Arizona, the Star of New Mexico, to take the stage for the final time, and take her final bow.

Fran touched a lot of lives in her time in Buckley, and the people who loved her are coming to say goodbye. It’s not going to be easy. The things that are most important so very rarely are.

They say she never missed a shot; she was the darling of the west. But now she’s gone, and the ones she’s left behind must figure out what this means for them.

After reading Broken Paper Hearts, I thought McGuire was done with breaking my heart. Boy was I wrong. Oh, so damn wrong. Evil woman managed to do it again. I finished this short story with that same horrid feeling of sadness and confusion that the previous short story left. But, it was somehow even worse because this was actually saying goodbye and dashing all hopes that Fran would be coming back…

This short story most definitely asks the question – how do you say goodbye to the ones that you love? And, more importantly… what would you do if you had to say goodbye? Would you come back from the dead? Or would you stay gone and let your family move on? How do you move on? So many questions and thoughts running through my head right now!

One of the things I love about this is that Alice is obviously a little butt-kicker and I can’t wait to see how she’s going to kick butt into the future. I think the next few InCryptid short stories are all about her… so I look forward to finding out just how tough a woman she is going to become!

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Broken Paper Hearts
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.13
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 10th September 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: We have to take her home now.

Valentine’s Day has come to Buckley Township. For Alice, that means cupcakes and paper hearts. For Jonathan, it means sleepless nights and fear, because Fran hasn’t come home.

Everything ends eventually. No matter how much you hope that it won’t.

Everything ends.

This is. My heart. My heart. My heart.

That’s pretty much the entirety of this review – this tiny little, short as, almost non existent short story just completely tore my heart out and then stomped on it. Just for a bit of good measure.

I’ve actually never had a short story make me cry. That was a very new experience… I think this was about seven pages – and they made me weep. Again. My heart.

I get that everything ends, and this had to too. But, without giving anything away. Seriously McGuire! WHY? Did THIS have to end now?

My heart.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Snakes and Ladders
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #0.12
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 7th September 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Free online short story
Publisher: Seanan McGuire
Year: 2014
5th sentence, 74th page: “Damn mice.”

There’s nothing that little girls love more on Halloween than going trick or treating with their mother, a sackful of talking pantheistic mice, and their dead babysitter. All right, maybe there are a lot of things that little girls love more, but for Alice Healy, a nice out with her beloved mama and her favorite ghost is just about perfect.

Right up until someone snatches her off of a porch, that is.

For Alice, this is the most terrifying thing that has ever happened. For Fran, this is the end of the world, and something she may not survive; if she doesn’t get her little girl back, she may be joining Mary in the grave. And for the snake cult that grabbed Alice, this may be the chance that they’ve been waiting for…

It’s tricks and treats on a Buckley Halloween, and this time, there are more than just the usual masked monsters roaming the streets.

Alice is just the cutest character I’ve read in a long time. Alright, she’s going to grow up into a pretty kick ass woman by the time the full-length novels roll around. But in this short story? Yeah. She’s damn cute. And adorable. And just so funny. I love how she pretty much takes everything in her stride and just rolls with all of the insanity which is happening in her life.

Being an Aussie, I’ve never been too involved in the whole Trick or Treating thing… but this short story definitely gave me a whole new dimension of understanding. Alright, I get that this isn’t what is normally meant by trick or treating. But I still loved that the Halloween spirit was bought into this story in the typical, slightly insane InCryptid manner.

In Discount Armageddon, snake cults are mentioned a few times. This was a much better introduction to the cults – so it might have been useful to read this before actually reading the novel. I love how McGuire has been able to construct a world in which each of the short stories are introducing a new cryptid and drawing you further and further into her fantastic world building.

Image source: Goodreads