Title: Half-Off Ragnarok
Author: Seanan McGuire
Format: Paperback
Year Published: 2014
The third book in Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series, Half-Off Ragnarok is the first of two books focusing on Alexander Price. I was very eager to get to his book, because I loved his interactions with Verity in her books. I didn’t enjoy the books quite as much as I expected. (Not to say that they were bad, but Alex didn’t grab me quite as much as Verity did. I think because he doesn’t present emotionally the way Verity does.)
In Half-Off Ragnarok, Alex and his maybe-yes-maybe-no girlfriend Shelby find themselves in the middle of a series of murders. But not regular murders – no, the murderer is definitely a cryptid. As Alex works to solve the murders, he discovers that Shelby isn’t as unaware of his world as he thought.
I figured out who the murderer was several scenes before Alex and Shelby did but I did not figure out his backstory. That was as much a surprise to me as it was to them.
I enjoyed the story. Alex thinks very differently than Verity does, and once I got used to that, it flowed very smoothly. I also liked that Sarah, Alex and Verity’s cousin, is still healing from what she had to do to save Verity in Midnight Blue-Light Special. There’s not a “magic fix” for this, even in a world with magic.
I also liked that Alex’s relationship with the crytid community is so differently than Verity’s. He’s still trying to protect them, but his focus is also on studying them scientifically, so rather than connecting to them emotionally at first, he connects to them via their physicality.
Equally, I enjoyed that the twists about the murderer kept coming, right up until the end. a good book, and enjoyable in the series. 3/5 stars.
Objects in Motion 