Review: Imaginary Numbers (InCryptid #9)

Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars bumped to 5 Stars because Math and Xenobiology are just my jam and both have starring roles in this one.

Sarah Zellaby is a Cuckoo, or more correctly a Johrlac psychidolos. Johrlacs are similar to parasitic wasps and got called cuckoos for their habit of leaving their young for others (humans) to raise. How do humans get fooled by these baby Johrlacs? With their big blue eyes, soft, pale skin, and human-appearing features, Johrlacs are mammals but are literally heartless. All males look similar and all females look similar, i.e. there is no real physical variation in the species. Did I mention their psychic powers or the insectoid instar phases of development on the way to becoming a lovely imago who can blow a hole into another dimension? Yeah, about that... There's a reason Angela Baker says cuckoos should be killed on sight, people. She should know, she is one. But still, she rescued Sarah when she was little, raised her up with a bunch of rowdy Price cousins, some of whom are human, some of whom aren't, and the thing that is really cool is that since the Prices all have Alice Healy Price genes, they don't get slammed by a Johrlac's psychic games (no one knows why), so Sarah had to grow up... not like a Jorhlac. She was raised with please and thank you and friends, real, actual friends. When she reached adolescence she didn't slaughter her family and turn to the life of a relentless grifter. Nope, she studied her beloved math, spent time hanging out with her best friend (her cousin Artie), and for a time in NYC with her cousin Verity, where she pretty much imploded her brain after rescuing Verity and her then beau (now hubby) Dominic from a Covenant of St. George disaster. Sarah has been a very, very bad Johrlac. After five long years of healing in the safety of her parents' home in Ohio, she's ready to venture back to the Price compound, to reconnect with her aunts and uncles and cousins. Sadly, the greater Johrlac community has been waiting for her.

I was so excited to finally have a story about mathematics-loving Sarah! And I wasn't disappointed. Sarah makes her way to Oregon and is happy to reconnect with Artie, Elsie, Antimony and her beau Sam, and meet the nice ice sorcerer Antimony adopted, James. (Wisely, Annie didn't give James much of a choice on the adoption thing because really the Prices are kind of extra, if you know what I mean.) About the best thing I can say is that she's really lucky she has the Price younger generation on hand for what all awaits her there. And that they've been paying really, really close attention to Sarah all her life. Because when one Jorhlac looks like another....

I do want to give readers a heads up. This book ends on a sort of cliffhanger. But let's face it, it's a Seanan cliffhanger. Everyone is probably safe. And you know things will work out. It's just that Sarah's got some more work to do. Okay, maybe a lot. But it's all going to be fine. And hey, I keep hoping now that Alice will show up or something. Or maybe even Thomas. So hang in there, readers. Was any story with a Price in it ever anything other than a bumpy ride?

I also want to point out that since the InCryptid books have been mini-serials about each Price sibling (beginning with books 1-3, about Verity; books 4-5 about Alex; books 6-8 about Antimony), Imaginary Numbers is a suitable entry point in what is already a longer series. A reader could start here and then go back and read the other books for backstory.


I was fortunate to have borrowed a paper Advanced Review Copy of this book offered by the author to the Facebook fan group.

Want to buy a copy of Imaginary Numbers from your local independent bookstore? Click HERE.

Want to buy the audiobook copy of Imaginary Numbers? This audiobook is only available from Audible. You can buy it HERE.

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