I flippin' loved this book!
Spoiler-free plot summary of the awesomeness:
It is hard to do a plot summary of such awesomeness, because it will not do justice to McGuire's voice and cleverness. Essentially, the heroine, Verity Price, is a ballroom dancer slash cryptozoologist in modern New York City. The Price family is notorious amongst cryptozoologists (McGuire speak for monster hunter) because they abandoned The Covenant of St. George generations earlier, leaving behind their monster killing roots in favor of a more, shall we say, nuanced approach. The Price family doesn't kill on sight. They wait until the cryptid demonstrates that it is actively dangerous to humans before they exercise extreme prejudice in dealing with the threat.
Verity is living in New York City, under cover, in an effort to further her secret career in ballroom dancing. At the same time that a member of The Covenant, Dominic de Luca, appears in "her" city, and seems bent upon extinguishing as much sentient cryptid life as possible, female cryptids begin disappearing. And no one knows why. This central mystery requires Verity and Dominick to set aside their historic animosity to piece it all together.
Review:
I loved this book. I give very few five-star reviews -- the last one was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green -- but dang it, I loved this book. It is lighter than a lot of urban fantasy, and has certain qualities that feel almost manga-esque. When it comes out as a graphic novel, I will buy it. Please, Daw, release it as a graphic novel. Please.
The characters are great. Verity is smart, sassy and well-armed. She also has fantastic one liners, like:
"My name is Verity Price. I'm a cryptozoologist. And this is why I never get a goddamn date on a Saturday night."
and
"[m]y mother raised me never to contradict anyone who regularly carries grenades."
The voice is breezy, articulate and fun. There are lots of fun allusions to work out, and little pop culture references, like wikipedia and The Land of the Lost, that are a delight. It is well-written and well-edited. I laughed out loud reading this book, and cannot wait, absolutely cannot wait for the next book featuring Verity. This is the urban fantasy version of the Gilmore Girls. To me, that is high praise. I read a lot, and I am seldom this enthusiastic about a book. There was nothing I didn't love.
P.S.: I want to mack on Dominic. Seriously. He's hot.
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