That Ain't Witchcraft

InCryptid 2018, #1

by Seanan McGuire

mass market paperback, 448 pages

Published March 5, 2019 by DAW.

ISBN:: 978-0-7564-1179-4

View on OpenLibrary

(9 reviews)

Crossroads, noun:

A place where two roads cross.
A place where bargains can be made.
See also “places to avoid.”

Antimony Price has never done well without a support system. As the youngest of her generation, she has always been able to depend on her parents, siblings, and cousins to help her out when she’s in a pinch—until now. After fleeing from the Covenant of St. George, she’s found herself in debt to the crossroads and running for her life. No family. No mice. No way out.

Lucky for her, she’s always been resourceful, and she’s been gathering allies as she travels: Sam, fūri trapeze artist turned boyfriend; Cylia, jink roller derby captain and designated driver; Fern, sylph friend, confidant, and maker of breakfasts; even Mary, ghost babysitter to the Price family. Annie’s actually starting to feel like they might be able to …

Crossroads, noun:

A place where two roads cross.
A place where bargains can be made.
See also “places to avoid.”

New Gravesend, Maine is a nice place to raise a family…or make a binding contract with the crossroads. For James Smith, whose best friend disappeared when she tried to do precisely that, it’s also an excellent place to plot revenge. Now the crossroads want him dead and they want Annie to do the dirty deed. She owes them, after all.

And that’s before Leonard Cunningham, aka, “the next leader of the Covenant,” shows up…

It’s going to take everything Annie has and a little bit more to get out of this one. If she succeeds, she gets to go home. If she fails, she becomes one more cautionary tale about the dangers of bargaining with the crossroads.

But no pressure.

1 edition

Geekess reviewed That Ain't Witchcraft by Seanan McGuire (InCryptid 2018, #1)

Review of "That Ain't Witchcraft" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Learning more about the Crossroads was cool.
James was... well, a poor-man's almost-but-not-quite-love-triangle.
The book was entertaining and great... until the end. Suspension of disbelief crashed beneath the weight of the dei ex machina.
I mean... time travel?? Really?? And adoption doesn't work like that. Really, it doesn't.

unsquare reviewed That Ain't Witchcraft by Seanan McGuire (InCryptid 2018, #1)

Review of "That Ain't Witchcraft" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

And now, after six InCryptid books in a row, I come to the end of the series so far. Book nine comes out in February of next year, and you can be sure that I’ll buy it day one. I enjoyed immersing myself in this world for the last two months.

I especially liked how Antimony’s books served as a trilogy within the larger series, building a story arc that resolved with a confrontation against the most significant and dangerous supernatural villain in the series so far, while also tying up one thread of the Price family’s fight against the Covenant, now personified in Leonard Cunningham.

My favorite part of this book comes during a climactic moment that I won’t spoil here, but let’s just say that it was the only moment in the series so far that made me get a little misty-eyed.