The InCryptid series is one of my favorite urban fantasy series. As soon as Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire dropped into my Audible App, I began listening. Giant bugs, danger and mice await you in this addictive installment.

Backpacking Through Bedlam
by Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid #12
Narrator: Emily Bauer
Length: 12 hours and 54 minutes
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchase
Purchase*: Amazon | Audible *affiliate

Rating:
Narration: 5 cups Speed: 1.5x

Seanan McGuire’s New York Times-bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated urban fantasy InCryptid series continues with the twelfth book following the Price family, cryptozoologists who study and protect the creatures living in secret all around us.

Reunion, noun:
1. The state of being united again.

Reconciliation, noun:
1. An act of reconciling, as when former enemies agree to an amiable truce.
2. The process of making consistent or compatible.
3. See also “impossible.”

Alice Price-Healy gave up her life for fifty years to focus completely on the search for her missing husband. The danger of focus like that is that it leaves little room for thinking about what happens after…and now that she’s finally managed to find Thomas, she has no idea what she’s supposed to do next. The fact that he comes with a surrogate daughter who may or may not have some connection to Alice’s recently adopted grandson is just icing on the complicated cake.

So the three of them are heading for the most complicated place in the universe: they’re going home.

But things on Earth have changed while Alice, Thomas, and Sally have been away. The Covenant of St. George, antagonized by Verity’s declaration of war and Sarah’s temporary relocation of an entire college campus, is trying to retake North America from the cryptids and cryptozoologists who’ve been keeping the peace for the past hundred years. And they’re starting in New York.

Alice and company have barely been back for an hour before the Ocean Lady and the Queen of the Routewitches are sending them to New York to help, and they find themselves embroiled in the politics of dragons, kidnappings, and of course, the most dangerous people of all: family.

Getting “back to normal” may be the hardest task Alice has undertaken yet.

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First, I highly recommend that listeners start from the beginning of this series and listen to them in the order of their release. I also recommend listening to the Ghost Roads series before beginning Backpacking Through Bedlam. There are characters in those books that appear here, plus they are epic.

Alice, Thomas, and Sally are moving between worlds, finding a safe place for the refugees with them before heading home. But there is no rest for the weary because the Covenant of St. George has declared war.

The story has two parts. The travel home after the crossroads was destroyed and returning home to discover things have changed and that the Covenant is an issue that must be finally be dealt with. We see character growth, reunions and overall series arc development.

I love the idea that InCryptid live among us. Of course, when a group of humans discovered this; they made it their mission to destroy them and the Covenant was born. Now the Price family disagreed and became cryptozoologists. They study and protect these creatures, all while humans walk around oblivious to the fact that the butcher is a Hydra. Stories in our own history of dragons and giant bugs make it seem surreal.

The world-building was well done and carefully planned as McGuire took different storylines and threads to weave together Backpacking Through Bedlam. Despite feeling like two stories, I enjoyed the ride and cannot wait to see what happens next. I was excited to learn the next book is in edits.

I love the Price family and the entourage of characters they’ve claimed as family, not to mention the Aeslin Mice who record their history. I am happy Alice has found Thomas. Was it Kairos luck or one woman’s sheer grit and determination? I’ll let you decide.

Emily Bauer narrates and has become a favorite for me. From the voices she gives each character to her squeaky Aeslin Mice, she makes listening a pleasure. If you haven’t begun this series, I highly recommend going for the audiobooks.

Perfect for fans of urban fantasy, danger and adventure.

Amazon | Audible

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2023 Audiobook Challenge
• COYER 2023 Upside Down
• COYER Upside Down Chapter 1: It's a Cold Summer

Source

Original source: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2023/04/backpacking-through-bedlam-by-seanan-mcguire.html