Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire

InCryptid, Book 9

Synopsis: Sarah Zellaby has always been in an interesting position. Adopted into the Price family at a young age, she’s never been able to escape the biological reality of her origins: she’s a cuckoo, a telepathic ambush predator closer akin to a parasitic wasp than a human being. Friend, cousin, mathematician; it’s never been enough to dispel the fear that one day, nature will win out over nurture, and everything will change.

Maybe that time has finally come.

After spending the last several years recuperating in Ohio with her adoptive parents, Sarah is ready to return to the world–and most importantly, to her cousin Artie, with whom she has been head-over-heels in love since childhood. But there are cuckoos everywhere, and when the question of her own survival is weighed against the survival of her family, Sarah’s choices all add up to one inescapable conclusion.

This is war. Cuckoo vs. Price, human vs. cryptid…and not all of them are going to walk away.

Review: This is a series that I like very much and I must admit that I was intrigued by the character highlighted in this volume, a character who did not yet have her voice presented in the previous ones: the cuckoo Sarah Zellaby.

After all the events that happened with Verity, our telepath took a long time to recover, but a few years have passed and she finally feels ready to face the world. As she tries to travel and visit Artie, Antimony and the whole gang, our young heroine stumbles upon some cuckoos. And that, I can tell you, is the beginning of the end!

I really enjoyed being back with the characters, even if I would have liked to see Verity. We see her parents all the same, which is different from the other volumes and especially Artie, about whom we always hear a lot. And then of course, there’s Antimony, Sam and James. But when Sarah finds herself in trouble with other cuckoos, her family will do everything in their power to save her.

It was a nice novel, even though I found it a bit beneath the others. It seemed to me that it was more of a transitional tome. There’s no mention of the Covenant, and there’s another plot unfolding here. Besides, with this ending, I confess that I’m curious to find out what will happen next.

Seanan McGuire has once again carried me away with this series and I’m still waiting for more.