Mary Dunlavy didn’t intend to become a professional babysitter.  Of course, she didn’t intend to die, either, or to become a crossroads ghost. As a babysitting ghost, she’s been caring for the Price family for four generations, and she’s planning to keep doing the job for the better part of forever.

With her first charge finally back from her decades-long cross-dimensional field trip, with a long-lost husband and adopted daughter in tow, it’s time for Mary to oversee the world’s most chaotic family reunion. And that’s before the Covenant of St. George launches a full scale strike against the cryptids of Manhattan, followed quickly by an attack on the Campbell Family Carnival.   

It’s going to take every advantage and every ally they have for the Prices to survive what’s coming—and for Mary, to avoid finding out the answer to a question she’s never wanted to know: what happens to a babysitting ghost if she loses the people she’s promised to protect?

Aftermarket Afterlife (InCryptid book 13) by Seanan McGuire is complex and emotional, as Seanan brings in consequences from previous books to fruition as the Covenant of St. George finally launches a full scale strike on the Price family. While Mary is not the viewpoint I was expecting for the next novel, it is particularly important to the resolution of the novel and poignant to have her voice be the narrative for this book. Mary, as the one entity that has known the family the longest, is particularly insightful as the Price family is attacked and as we get the after effects of those attacks. 

While I won’t spoil those consequences for you, I will tell you this story is both heartbreaking and beautiful as Seanan McGuire as usual gives us complex, complicated and brilliant writing, an emotional story as the Price family attempts to get the Covenant to leave North America. The resolution is seemingly simple but in truth, only can happen due to the circumstances from previous novels, as Seanan McGuire has built to this moment, this book. Mary as a character is insightful and poignant as she attempts to save her family. And while I can’t tell you the ultimate fate of the Prices, I can tell you the book kept me on the edge of my seat as Mary dove from danger to danger to find a solution to the Covenant problem.

If you loved the other novels in the InCryptid series, you will want to read this one. It ties up some loose ends but leaves a few questions for more novels and yet, it is a deeply engaging, complex and emotional story that will make you want to throw the book a few times as you fall more in love with the Price family and Mary Dunlavy. 

5 out of 5 wards