Jax Reviews Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Publisher: DAW
Format Read: paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 3,2015
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble
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Blurb from goodreads:

Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice. Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport. From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.

Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex.
Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground. Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.

Jax's Thoughts:


I like this series in general, but Alex has to be my favorite. Though it's possibly because Shelby is awesome, and they're sort of a package deal at this point. Don't get me wrong, the whole Price family brings all kinds of fun to the table, but something about the chemistry of these two just tickles my funny bone. Alex, for all his smarts and studies, still always seems to be flying by the seat of his pants. And that's when he's got the home town advantage. Watching him flounder his way to excellence in uncharted waters was beyond amusing.

Shelby's family are even more paranoid and insular than the Prices. The Tanners and their compatriots have an us versus them mentality when it comes to their jobs. Not just against the Prices' or Covenant, but with the cryptids they're supposed to be watching over. Whereas Alex and his family works with the sentient cryptids to solve problems, Shelby's family all but ignores them. It's a very different world than we see with Alex, but it also realistically handles the fact that Australia is a closed ecosystem.

I'm always impressed by this series, as well as McGuire's Toby Daye books. The worlds are well thought out, and the cast of personalities are wonderfully written. She's on my must read list.