Review: That Ain’t Witchcraft

That Ain’t Witchcraft by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you've been digging deeper and deeper into Seanan McGuire's InCryptid world, both with this series and her Rose Marshall/Ghostroads series, you've probably begun to have a lot of questions about the Crossroads, both as a place and an entity. Well, do we have a book for you. You may not have all your questions answered in this outing- you won't be getting Thomas Price back for Alice Healy-Price- but you're going to find some satisfying answers in this eighth book in the InCryptid world.

When we last left Antimony Price in Tricks for Free she was on the run from the Covenant of St. George. She escaped with her life and that of her boyfriend Sam (a fûri), and friends Cylia (a jink) and Fern (personal density changing sylph), after making a dicey bargain with the Crossroads, with the help of her ghost babysitter Mary Dunlavy. Knowing the Price family as we do, it should seem only natural that Antimony should follow the gradient to more danger rather than less. And that's how the four of them end up in a nice small town in Maine called New Gravesend (you read that right), meeting a nice ice sorcerer named James, an all-too-familiar ghost named Bethany, and that eldritch terror called the Crossroads. If that isn't stressful enough, what will the quartet (quintet? sextet?) do when when none other than Leonard Cunningham, heir apparent of the Covenant, shows up, crossbow in hand, thanks to that awesome tracking spell he has for tracking Antimony? Over the past two books we've seen that Annie is at her best when the chips are down. Or, well, maybe she's just at her craziest. Whatever it takes, she's going to get her team through the evolving disaster that is a Crossroads bargain. If the Crossroads have any sense at all, they'll pack up and go back to whatever dimension they belong to. You know what? Maybe Leonard should go home, too. Antimony Price is just done with them.

This was a wonderful conclusion to Antimony's story arc. I'm hoping Mindy and also Mork will get an accurate accounting of the events, which were delightful fun if you don't mind a bit of mad terror. I continue to enjoy Annie and have grown very fond of Sam. James is a fine addition to the madcap world.

This novel is also bound with a novella titled The Measure of a Monster featuring Alex and Shelby, and Alex's cousin Sarah, a cuckoo, who will be the main character of book nine in the series.


I received a Digital Review Copy from DAW in exchange for an honest review.

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