Tricks for Free (InCryptid Series #7)
4.5
17
5
1
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780756410407 |
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| Publisher: | DAW |
| Publication date: | 03/06/2018 |
| Series: | InCryptid Series , #7 |
| Pages: | 432 |
| Sales rank: | 80,439 |
| Product dimensions: | 4.10(w) x 6.60(h) x 1.50(d) |
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Tricks for Free (InCryptid Series #7)
4.5 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
17 reviews.
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The Incryptid books are always a romping good time, but this one in particular is a high-octane blend of glee and suspense. Watching Annie build a family is a sweet, satisfying lowline to the fast-paced plot and fascinating worldbuilding of both the mythological and theme-park kind.
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The story is a cliffhanger as always. Don't plan to sleep once you start this book
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Thats it
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This series Rocks! The characters are funny and irresistible. I especially cant wait for Sam to 'meet the family', lol. I can't put down this book. It's like chocolate. Can't wait for next one.
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It was a great next book for the the series. Annie gets to come in to her own. Plus it leaves it open for more.
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I've enjoyed the rest of the books in this series, but this one just didn't 'click'. It probably wasn't helped by the random SJW virtue signalling the writer felt the need to throw in during the story.
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Really enjoyable, as are all things Seaman McGuire. Keep this series going!
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This was great fun, with an impressively adorable cast of characters. Also, I have to confess to having completely forgotten the previous book (to the point where my mental timeline jumped straight from Chaos Choreography to this one), but did such a good job of introducing and moving the plot along that I had a great 'a-ha!' moment six chapters in as it all started to come back to me. I really enjoyed the through-line of groups of women supporting each other in positive ways for the main characters, and in the contrast with the various destructive outcomes for the various antagonists that weren't able to form supportive, inclusive groups. This has always been a theme of the series, that everyone is better for working together and helping each other, but it seemed especially elegantly handled in this book. Plus there's an awesome Florida theme park to discover! So while I wouldn't recommend starting with this book (although apparently you could :) I'd call it one more great recommendation for the series as a whole.
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Tricks For Free Book Review
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Antimony Price is on the run. With the Covenant on her tail and her family still in danger, she needs to get far, far away from anyone who might recognize her including her own mice. For the first time in a long time, a Price is flying without a safety net. Where do you go when you need to disappear into a crowd without worrying about attracting attention? An amusement park, of course.Some people would call Lowryland the amusement park. It’s one of the largest in Florida, the keystone of the Lowry entertainment empire…but for Annie, it’s a place to hide. She’s just trying to keep her head down long enough to come up with a plan that will get her home without getting anyone killed. No small order when she’s rooming with gorgons and sylphs, trying to placate frustrated ghosts, and rushing to get to work on time. Then the accidents begin. The discovery of a dead man brings Annie to the attention of the secret cabal of magic users running Lowryland from behind the scenes. They want the fire that sleeps in her fingers. They want her on their side. They want to help her—although their help, like everything else, comes with a price. No plan. Minimal backup. No way out. Annie’s about to get a crash course in the reality behind the pretty facade. If she’s lucky, she’ll survive the experience.
This was the first book I read, the seventh in the series, and I never once felt lost. It is definitely a stand alone novel, and the refresher course on past events never felt heavy handed.The world building was great, and the main characters were well fleshed out. Lowryland felt like a real place, and all of Antimony’s relationships were developed. I believed the characters would risk life and limb for each other.
However, I wish more time was spent with Antimony learning to control her magic. A teacher was introduced and there was one scene, but that was it. Considering learning and getting control of her powers was important to her it seems like there should’ve been more time spent with her learning and less bored at her job. The villains could’ve used some work too. I realize people do just want “more” but actual motivations would’ve been nice. The big reveal of who the bad guys were fell flat. Those characters were an afterthought, so finding out what they were up to also felt that way. Also everyone is hiding from the Covenant, so it seemed like the villains should’ve been a little more stealth with their deeds and concerned with exposure. If a gang of misfits could figure out what was up, it seems like a multinational organization bent on destroying the supernatural would’ve had alarm bells go off. That being said I really like Antimony and I will definitely be reading the next book in the series.
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Wow just wow
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Theme park shenanigans and Derby girl antics, plus a helping of insight into the different magical systems of the series.
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Enjoyable read. Works we
ll with the rest of the series.
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If you’ve asked me to recommend a book to you before, you have probably had to live through me squeeing and fangirling over Seanan McGuire before. So, I was initially acquainted with her when Rosemary and Rue, the first October Daye book, came out, uh, a very long time ago, and while I’ve kept up with that series religiously (at this point, my husband knows that I will be utterly useless the Tuesday in September the books annually come out on), I’m not as up to date on her others. And I’ll admit – when I first read Discount Armageddon a very long time ago, I was disappointed because I was expecting another October Daye-style series. But, Ms. McGuire is an enormously talented writer, and the InCryptid series is more of a tongue-in-cheek send-up of urban fantasy while at the same time being the one of the best entries in that genre. So, yeah, all that to say is that this is the seventh in the InCryptid series, and it absolutely can’t be read as a standalone. If you’re interested in urban fantasy starring a ballroom dancer and a bunch of highly religious mice, do yourself a favor and go start at the beginning. Mild spoilers ahead for the first six books, though I’m trying to keep it general, and, uh, lots of happy squeeing.
When I realized this would be another Annie book, and that it would be set at a “Florida theme park,” I honestly thought I was going to die of anticipation. I’m a bit of a Disney freak, and I know Ms. McGuire is as well, and seeing her take on Disney World was perhaps my favorite thing about this book. I was initially unsure of Annie, partly because she’s still quite young and figuring out who she is when she gets her first book, while the other main characters already know who they are and are just trying to navigate the world they find themselves in. In this book, though, she’s learning to control her magic and is much more sure of herself and less the whiny bratty little sister.
As always, Ms. McGuire has written an amazingly strong, well-paced plot, full of unbelievable creativity. I did think some of the twists were predictable, and I was mildly annoyed at how oblivious Annie seemed to the mayhem going on around her, but it feels more like nitpicking, honestly, when the book is this good. While I missed the Aeslin mice (“HAIL!”), there were plenty of other secondary characters, including a gorgon, that made it easier. I haven’t read the Ghost Road novels (seriously Ms. McGuire, do you not sleep???), so I have the feeling I was missing things there. While I feel like there was a lot of character development for Annie, there’s pretty much nothing in the book that advances the greater Prices vs Covenant storyline. This isn’t necessarily a critique – more a warning for anyone going into this looking for more Covenant-ness, so they won’t be disappointed.
In some ways, Ms. McGuire’s novels are like following a new baking recipe. It takes a bit of time and work to get into them, and sometimes it feels like there’s a lot of disparate elements being thrown together, but, with patience, you’re always rewarded with something absolutely delicious at the end. Highly recommended!
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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If you've read her other books, you already know how good they are. If you haven't, you should.
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Antimony, Annie, Price is on the run hiding from her enemies and her family. If she went to her family the Covenant could use her magical signature to find them. Her only chance. Find a massively populated area and hope it masks her magic. What better place then one of the happiest places on earth…a Florida amusement park.
Little did she know that the amusement park is ran but a magic using cabal, just waiting to use Annie for their own means. To top it off, horrific accidents have begun to happen and Annie can’t help but think they are all centering around her because she is at the scene each accident has taken place.
Annie must do what she does best, jump right in head first without a plan in sight and let the chips end where they may…
McGuire imagination is amazing. We are now 7 into the InCryptid series and its still as original, fresh, exciting and new as the when we finished DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON back in 2012. Strong characters, heartfelt friendships and a plot with back bone.
I received this ARC copy of Tricks for Free from Berkley Publishing Group. This is my honest and voluntary review.
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Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors. Seriously, she's on my auto-buy list. I love the worlds and characters she creates.
Incryptid is one of those worlds, and I struggle with deciding if it is my favorite or if October Daye is. Every time I read one of the books in either series, I decide that one is my favorite Seanan series. Then I read one in the other, and change my mind.
Tricks for Free picks up with Antimony's story, following the crazy events of Magic for Nothing. There is a shorty included that takes place in between the two novels, but I read that last year when it was a Patreon story, and I highly recommend reading that one first, since it takes up the story immediately while Tricks for Free's narrative starts a few months later.
Antimony has been on the run, and found her way to a theme park (of course!), hoping to hide from the Covenant in the crowds. But of course, Seanan never lets her protagonists' plans work out like they expect, so hijinks ensue. We did see some returning characters, both expected and unexpected, and made a few new friends along the way.
I'd like to say I was satisfied with this one. I loved it, but it wasn't, and doesn't ever seem to be, enough. I'm already ready for the next book -- supposedly "That Ain't Witchcraft" starring Antimony again!* -- and can only hope that the next October Daye book's release (usually a fall thing) can tide [Luidaeg joke!] me over until I can get my next Seanan fix.
*After this, Seanan has mentioned the next two will be Sarah (Imaginary Numbers, Calculated Risks) and then ALICE (Spelunking through Hell: A Visitor's Guide to the Underworld)!!!!
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The thing I really like about Seanan McGuire is - she is different. I might not always be completely into everything she is writing, but as an author I think she takes chances and delves into topics other authors shy away from. For instance, in this book alone, there are Ghosts of various shapes and sizes, Witches, Humanoid Creatures that are definitely not human, A Non-Disney Theme Park and just to top it all off Roller Derby Girls.
Antimony Price is a Cryptozoologist from a long like of Cryptozoologists. What that means is she hunts monsters and things that go bump in the night. Not to kill them; some of them are really nice, but mostly to study them. The killing comes only if necessary. She is currently in hiding and laying low at an Amusement Park from the Covenant, a band of fanatics that kills all the things Antimony is trying to study, and the rest of her family, since they defected a few generations back.
This is book seven of the Incryptid series and there is no way you can go into it without reading the others and know what is going on. I think this is a series that even though the main characters change each story builds into the next.
Antimony is actually one of my least favorites characters of the Price family (even though I really like the first book with her as the MC) and I really enjoyed both Verity and Alex’s books although the book I’m totally waiting for is Alice’s since she has been looking for her true love Thomas for 60+ years. The one issue I have with this entire book is that this felt like a filler book. Honestly it just killed some time and one really ‘big thing’ happens at the end but I kinda got the feeling this book was just to facilitate that ‘big thing’ happening so other stories could move on from there.
This is my least favorite book of the series so far but that is mostly because Antimony is pretty isolated and on her own, no Aeslin Mice with her either. Some of the magic of the other books is the Price family and all the shenanigans that go along with them. While Mary, a Crossroads ghost, can be a bit fun she isn’t the rest of the quirky Price family and I found myself really wanting some time with Verity, Alex, Grandma Alice, Sarah or the Aeslin Mice even.
I was happy to see Sam and a few other characters that were in Antimony’s short stories like Fern, a sylph criptid, but this book suffered a little from info dumping in a few sections and had a few pacing issues throughout.
Still McGuire did come through on the unusual and interesting in trying out a few new things in her story including luck manipulation, fighting on roller skates and a monkey man boyfriend. I look forward to the next book in this series and what new and interesting plot lines it will bring.
Notable Quotables:
“Ain’t no party like a pity party, because a pity party only ends when you bury the bastards who made you feel sorry for yourself.”
–Frances Brown
“Huh,” said Fern. She paused before asking, more delicately, “Has he actually met you when you were being you, or did he only ever meet you when you were pretending to be somebody else? Because you can be really sweet when you’re pretending to be somebody else.”
I threw a biscuit at her. Fern laughed as she dodged.
“You’re only angry because it’s true.”
--Fern and Antimony Price
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