I enjoyed the perspective from Sarah and the greater depth in her background. It was interesting how the memory loss impacted the different characters and how they responded.

However I thought the fix for Artie was a little too convenient and effective. I am glad it worked out because the alternative, with/or without ‘Artie’ being erased would have been quite a mess for future books but... I just didn’t care for it.

Also Greg-the-spider being suddenly declared an emotional support animal rubbed me the wrong way. It was sudden, there hadn’t been reference to her needing one, and that wasn’t the way they were operating. (Really, someone from that family saying ‘why yes this giant spider is my dear friend who is greatly concerned for me’ is probably going to be believed)

I liked the story well enough. It was an interesting scenario. And up until near the end I thought it was very tightly written. Glad I bought it and glad I read it. It probably won’t be on my frequent reread list though. ( )

This is a direct sequel to Imaginary Numbers and is not the best book to jump into the series with. Due to Sarah having to erase herself from everyone one with her to use that part of their brain to make the math work on the jump to the other universe there is quite a bit of backstory given about how the characters backstory. Now she has to figure out how to get herself, her cousins that don’t remember her, and several other cuckoos including children that had nothing to do with her kidnapping and get them back without a working copy of the math that got them there and not melt everyone’s brain doing it. They find a few surprises along the way about the dimension they are currently in along with having to fight off the zombie cuckoos that got Sarah in this mess before they were brainwiped during the travel.
There is a novella after the end of this that has Sarah, Artie, and Antimony that is set way before this book that shows just how close the three of them were and how much Sarah lost when she had to remove herself from their memories. What I like about the novella is that is set at a Comic Con and after a year of no conventions I was really nostalgic for them.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley
( )

Fantastic. Some of the choices made in the previous book come back to bite Sarah and her kin (sometimes literally). Slightly convenient ending - a lot closer to happy ever after than it looked like it was going to be - but it works. ( )

I've been waiting with bated breath for the chance to read this book, and it did not disappoint -- story picks up where Imaginary Numbers left off (with a handy recap to remind us where we are) and wanders off to several unexpected places. I don't want to spoiler anything, but I am very excited about the Cuckoo children and looking forward to shenanigans with Greg in the future. Also, in good news for devoted readers, it didn't feel in any way like the last book in the series. I suppose McGuire might decide to flesh things out with novellas, but I really hope we continue to explore the Prices' wild and wonderful adventures. There should be a third Zellaby book, right? If the pattern continues? And there are several other crucial loose ends...

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

I knew, after finishing the last book, Imaginary Numbers, that I probably wouldn't rate this one highly in my personal ranking of InCryptid books, and I wasn't wrong. Math, multiple dimensions, alien planets - none of these are guaranteed to make me giddy with anticipation, but Sarah has always been one of my favorite characters, so I counted on my investment in the characters to see me through.

They almost didn't. So. much. explication. The first half of the book was crushed under the weight of repetition about what a cuckoo is, what it means to be a cuckoo, the inherent amorality of cuckoos. What little survived was further smothered by Sarah's guilt and constant mea culpas. Which were contradictory, by the way, as on one page she's explaining that the equation at the end of the first book was sentient enough to fight against its own destruction, and malevolent enough to exact its revenge on her by – SPOILER ALERT! – excising Antimony's and Arnie's memories of just her, and on the next page she's saying she did it, that she chose to do it so they wouldn't miss her when she was dead. Either way, the constant self-flagellation was way over-played.

Like most of the InCryptid books, once you get past the half-way mark, things start to get interesting. Just by sheer virtue of the fact that there was less wailing and more action, more progress being made in the plot. But the introduction of Greg really livened things up, and the speed of plot progression made even an other-dimension, alien planet sound interesting to me. Sarah's angst over the capacity problem irked me, because she was back to the whole woe-is-me schtick when the solution to the problem was painfully obvious - but at least it lasted only a few pages before the lightbulb clicked on, and then it was all action as the end was neigh. And it turned out the end was much neigh'er than I'd thought - a short story at the end of the book had the actual story ending much sooner than I expected, making it feel like an abrupt, albeit happy, ending.

I still enjoy the series and I've learned to just put up with the first half of each book to get 'to the good stuff', so I'll likely pick up the next one. Or maybe, after having braved alien planets, I'll go back and read Antimony's story, carnival settings and all. Maybe. ( )