Early Review – Calculated Risks (InCryptid, Book 10) by Seanan McGuire (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: February 23, 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-0756411817
Stand Alone or Series: 10th book in the Incryptid series
Source: eGalley from Edelweiss
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Just when Sarah Zellaby, adopted Price cousin and telepathic ambush predator, thought that things couldn’t get worse, she’s had to go and prove herself wrong. After being kidnapped and manipulated by her birth family, she has undergone a transformation called an instar, reaching back to her Apocritic origins to metamorphize. While externally the same, she is internally much more powerful, and much more difficult to control.

Even by herself. After years of denial, the fact that she will always be a cuckoo has become impossible to deny.

Now stranded in another dimension with a handful of allies who seem to have no idea who she is–including her cousin Annie and her maybe-boyfriend Artie, both of whom have forgotten their relationship–and a bunch of cuckoos with good reason to want her dead, Sarah must figure out not only how to contend with her situation, but with the new realities of her future. What is she now? Who is she now? Is that person someone she can live with?

And when all is said and done, will she be able to get the people she loves, whether or not they’ve forgotten her, safely home?”

Series Info/Source: This is the 10th book in the InCryptid series. I got an eGalley of this from Edelweiss to review.

Story (3/5): This was an odd story and mainly follows Sarah and crew as they struggle to get back to their own dimension. It was interesting and unique but also a bit out there. It didn’t really fit with the rest of the series well. I enjoyed it and thought it was intriguing but it also wasn’t at all what I had been expecting and hoping for.

Characters (3/5): The characters that were at the end of the last book were all here. There are a bunch of random characters thrown in that traveled to this dimension with the University and other characters that live in this dimension. All of those new characters mainly seemed to be filler…and are pretty forgettable. We don’t get to see a lot of deep interactions between Sarah and her friends/family because none of them remember her. Additionally, Antimony is in the story a lot and I just don’t like her character.

Setting (4/5): This is set in a different world/dimension. It was a unique setting but seemed odd considering the rest of the series. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either.

Writing Style (3/5): This is decently written but I had some issues with McGuire’s writing this time around. There is an absolute ton of recapping here and a lot of the story is wwaaaayyy over explained. This is one of those books where you can literally skip pages of material and not miss much. Sarah spends sooo much time in her own head worrying and rehashing stuff. I normally love this series because it is fun and action-packed. This book felt long and drawn out and the pace was slow.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was disappointing for me. I read this series because it is fun and action-packed and has some great humor in it. I also love the cryptids. This story didn’t fit well with the rest of the series and was full of way too much over-explaining and rehashing. In addition to that we don’t get any of the fun characters interactions because the other characters literally do not know who Sarah is. I loved the last Sarah book but this one was kind of a dud. I didn’t even want to read the short story at the end, I just wanted to be done with this and move on.