This was not the first Seanan McGuire book that I’d read. I had previously tried her October Daye series but hadn’t really clicked with it (I would later go back, read a few more books and enjoy it.) But that meant that I didn’t come into this with the best of opinions.

I was completely wrong. This might be one of the strongest starts to a long running series I’ve ever read.

It’s such a great idea as well. While a lot of Urban Fantasy protagonists are Private Detectives, here Verity Price follows a different kind of investigation. For she is a Cryptozoologist and she’s in New York to investigate the local Cryptid population. Well, that and try out for dance competitions.

It’s a fun rollercoaster of a book. You meet lots of cool creatures, nicely developed characters and there’s plenty of good action scenes. It’s also well formatted, which might seem an odd thing to mention. But every chapter has a little quote by a member of Verity’s family at the beginning of it, which really adds to the overall tone of the book. It’s very well crafted.

Interestingly enough it also holds together surprisingly well on the reread. I went back after reading the ten other books in the series and found myself enjoying it just as much. There is a lot of character development in the series and it was fun rereading it with that different perspective in mind.

I had a great time reading this book and I had equally as good a time rereading it. It’s a strong start for a strong series and I can’t recommend it enough.