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InCryptid #15
Butterfly Effects
Not yet published
Expected 10 Mar 26Seanan McGuire’s New York Times-bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated InCryptid series continues with the fifteenth book following the Price family, cryptozoologists who study and protect the creatures living in secret all around us.
Chaos, noun:
1. The inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system.
Chaos theory, noun:
1. A branch of mathematical and physical theory that deals with the nature and consequences of chaos and chaotic systems.
2. The study of unpredictable systems.
3. See also “impossible math.”
Sarah Zellaby is a Johrlac, a member of a species of psychic ambush predators colloquially referred to as “cuckoos.” Eight years ago, she survived the difficult, painful process of becoming a cuckoo queen…although not without costs. In the wake of her transformation, the man she loved was entirely erased from his own mind, forcing her to reconstruct him from the memories of the people who knew and loved him.
Sarah has been struggling to come to terms with her actions ever since. But there's no one else on the planet with the power to hold her accountable―until the Johrlac authorities show up. It’s time for her to stand trial for what she's done, something which can only happen on Johrlar, home world of her species, where the population is controlled by a system of unyielding hiveminds and crime is punishable by erasure.
With Sarah’s life on the line, her family will need to find a way to cross dimensional borders and survive a hostile, telepathic world in order to get her back―before the Sarah they know ceases to exist.
But no matter what happens, actions have consequences... and Sarah Zellaby is about to learn that lesson the hard way.
Chaos, noun:
1. The inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system.
Chaos theory, noun:
1. A branch of mathematical and physical theory that deals with the nature and consequences of chaos and chaotic systems.
2. The study of unpredictable systems.
3. See also “impossible math.”
Sarah Zellaby is a Johrlac, a member of a species of psychic ambush predators colloquially referred to as “cuckoos.” Eight years ago, she survived the difficult, painful process of becoming a cuckoo queen…although not without costs. In the wake of her transformation, the man she loved was entirely erased from his own mind, forcing her to reconstruct him from the memories of the people who knew and loved him.
Sarah has been struggling to come to terms with her actions ever since. But there's no one else on the planet with the power to hold her accountable―until the Johrlac authorities show up. It’s time for her to stand trial for what she's done, something which can only happen on Johrlar, home world of her species, where the population is controlled by a system of unyielding hiveminds and crime is punishable by erasure.
With Sarah’s life on the line, her family will need to find a way to cross dimensional borders and survive a hostile, telepathic world in order to get her back―before the Sarah they know ceases to exist.
But no matter what happens, actions have consequences... and Sarah Zellaby is about to learn that lesson the hard way.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication March 10, 2026
2 people are currently reading
414 people want to read
About the author
Seanan McGuire
508 books17.1k followersHi! I'm Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I'm also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.
Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).
I do not check this inbox. Please don't send me messages through Goodreads; they won't be answered. I don't want to have to delete this account. :(
Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).
I do not check this inbox. Please don't send me messages through Goodreads; they won't be answered. I don't want to have to delete this account. :(
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 29, 2025
A new direction for the Incryptid series
Butterfly Effects is the fifteenth full novel in Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series. The Incryptid series tells the story of the Price family in North America. The Prices make habits and maybe careers of succoring cryptids, which in this world are very real, and include many intelligent and often human-like species like dragons and were-bears. Just for fun, there are also ghosts and various types of magic-users. The Price family spend a lot of their time combatting the Covenant of Saint George, a kind of anti-cryptid Ku Klux Klan.
The Price family is large and keeps growing, since they have an endearing tendency to pick up strays. Each novel (until now) has focused on one particular Price Family member. Thus the point-of-view character in the first two novels was Verity Price, one of what was, at that time, the youngest generation of Prices. That was followed by two novels about her brother Alex then another Verity novel, then three about their sister Antimony, and then two about their cousin Sarah, etc. As a general rule each of the chosen gets to be the POV character of two or three novels, then the focus moves on. (In addition, there is an astonishingly large number of short stories and bonus novellas about the Price family and their friends. Many but not all are listed on the Goodreads Incryptid page. )
The plot, as often as not, is a battle of some sort between the Price family and the Covenant. The Covenant is the typical incompetent villain of many a long series. They lose and lose and lose, but they always seem to rise to annoy readers yet again. I would be happy to see them vanish entirely from the stage.
Butterfly Effects breaks precedent in two (to me) welcome ways. First, we have two point-of-view characters, Sarah and Antimony, even though both of them have had their chance in the barrel already. Second we have an entirely new plot, which has nothing to do with the Covenant.
Sarah is the focus of this novel. Antimony is mostly supporting cast. Sarah is an adopted member of the Price family and is herself a cryptid, a member of a telepathic parasitic species called "cuckoos." (Apparently the idea came from The Midwich Cuckoos, a novel that I will get around to reading one of these days.) As a consequence of events in novels 9 and 10, Sarah became an immensely powerful telepath and mathematician, a Queen of her species. She broke a lot people and things in the process, and the consequences catch up to her in Butterfly Effects. Turns out her home planet is not happy with her antics and drags her back to stand trial.
Overall, I liked the new directions in Butterfly Effects. It was a good plot. The story-telling, though, is surprisingly clunky. McGuire is a prolific and successful author who knows how to get the mechanics of story-telling right. But you would not guess that from Butterfly Effects. Her most recent novels have been damaged by overexplaining, and this one is no exception. I will continue to read the series, but I found this one a bit disappointing.
WE SING IT, ANYWAY
As usual, the novel is followed by a bonus novella, We Sing It, Anyway. It is told by Elsie-Price-Harrington, another young Price. Elsie mother Jane and her brother Artie were killed or destroyed in previous novels, and Elsie and her father are grieving hard. I can't say much more about this novella without spoiling, since it's about Elsie dealing with the consequences of Butterfly Effects.
Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for an advance Reader Copy. Release date 10-Mar-2026.
Blog review.
Butterfly Effects is the fifteenth full novel in Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series. The Incryptid series tells the story of the Price family in North America. The Prices make habits and maybe careers of succoring cryptids, which in this world are very real, and include many intelligent and often human-like species like dragons and were-bears. Just for fun, there are also ghosts and various types of magic-users. The Price family spend a lot of their time combatting the Covenant of Saint George, a kind of anti-cryptid Ku Klux Klan.
The Price family is large and keeps growing, since they have an endearing tendency to pick up strays. Each novel (until now) has focused on one particular Price Family member. Thus the point-of-view character in the first two novels was Verity Price, one of what was, at that time, the youngest generation of Prices. That was followed by two novels about her brother Alex then another Verity novel, then three about their sister Antimony, and then two about their cousin Sarah, etc. As a general rule each of the chosen gets to be the POV character of two or three novels, then the focus moves on. (In addition, there is an astonishingly large number of short stories and bonus novellas about the Price family and their friends. Many but not all are listed on the Goodreads Incryptid page. )
The plot, as often as not, is a battle of some sort between the Price family and the Covenant. The Covenant is the typical incompetent villain of many a long series. They lose and lose and lose, but they always seem to rise to annoy readers yet again. I would be happy to see them vanish entirely from the stage.
Butterfly Effects breaks precedent in two (to me) welcome ways. First, we have two point-of-view characters, Sarah and Antimony, even though both of them have had their chance in the barrel already. Second we have an entirely new plot, which has nothing to do with the Covenant.
Sarah is the focus of this novel. Antimony is mostly supporting cast. Sarah is an adopted member of the Price family and is herself a cryptid, a member of a telepathic parasitic species called "cuckoos." (Apparently the idea came from The Midwich Cuckoos, a novel that I will get around to reading one of these days.) As a consequence of events in novels 9 and 10, Sarah became an immensely powerful telepath and mathematician, a Queen of her species. She broke a lot people and things in the process, and the consequences catch up to her in Butterfly Effects. Turns out her home planet is not happy with her antics and drags her back to stand trial.
Overall, I liked the new directions in Butterfly Effects. It was a good plot. The story-telling, though, is surprisingly clunky. McGuire is a prolific and successful author who knows how to get the mechanics of story-telling right. But you would not guess that from Butterfly Effects. Her most recent novels have been damaged by overexplaining, and this one is no exception. I will continue to read the series, but I found this one a bit disappointing.
WE SING IT, ANYWAY
As usual, the novel is followed by a bonus novella, We Sing It, Anyway. It is told by Elsie-Price-Harrington, another young Price. Elsie mother Jane and her brother Artie were killed or destroyed in previous novels, and Elsie and her father are grieving hard. I can't say much more about this novella without spoiling, since it's about Elsie dealing with the consequences of Butterfly Effects.
Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for an advance Reader Copy. Release date 10-Mar-2026.
Blog review.
December 11, 2025
Review to come upon release
August 19, 2025
Aaaaaahhh, finally back to the main storyline (I know, they are all main storylines, but I've been waiting for Sarah's to move along for ages). So satisfying to see these plotlines move through into actual adventures, and to learn more about the Jhorlac. So pleasing to see how relationships are playing out -- Antimony and Sam, Thomas and Alice. Looking forward, as always, to seeing where the family goes from here -- lots of interesting developments.
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
August 26, 2025
Electronic ARC provided by Edelweiss.
Sarah's story has been building for a long long time, ever since we first met her back in the early days of this series. Butterfly Effects is the climax of all of the years of build up, and finally delivers some answers and some resolution for Sarah. Seanan McGuire's long running series tend to have a sort of ebb and swell pacing to them where some books are build up, some are cool down, some are questions, some are answers. This is an answers book.
It's been eight years (!) since Sarah became a Cuckoo Queen, destroyed most of the other earth Cuckoos, and accidentally rewrote Artie's identity (and removed the memories of herself from Annie and Sam as well). It's been two years since the Covenant incursion that cost the Price's two beloved family members. Just as things are settling down and Mark (the cuckoo who became an ally) is finally ready to wake up, a group of unknown Johrlac arrive to sweep Sarah away to face "justice" for her crimes against the Cuckoos. Arthur is also snatched, to provide evidence of Sarah's wrongdoing. Of course the rest of the family isn't going to take this sitting down, and so Annie, Sam, Alice, and Thomas embark on an extra-dimensional quest to retrieve their kidnapped relatives.
Over the course of this quest we learn a lot more about Johrlac society and how it is generally meant to work. We also finally get some answers about Sarah, Mark, and the whole Artie/Arthur issue. I was surprised by the sheer amount of time that has passed since this whole storyline started, but reminded myself that InCryptid has always been a multi-generational story.
I enjoyed reading this book, and was especially pleased to see some resolution to a few of the more egregious dangling plot threads. The extra story this time is told by Elsie and follows her reactions to the end of Butterfly Effects. I feel like the series is getting every closer to letting Elsie take center stage, as she's basically the cousin we've seen the least so far. It would also be nice to check in on Verity at some point. And James and Sally. Honestly, there are so many characters now that it's hard to keep up with how all of them are doing!
I'm always glad to spend some time with the sprawling Price clan, and this was no exception. Butterfly Effects is another great installment in the ongoing InCryptid universe.
Sarah's story has been building for a long long time, ever since we first met her back in the early days of this series. Butterfly Effects is the climax of all of the years of build up, and finally delivers some answers and some resolution for Sarah. Seanan McGuire's long running series tend to have a sort of ebb and swell pacing to them where some books are build up, some are cool down, some are questions, some are answers. This is an answers book.
It's been eight years (!) since Sarah became a Cuckoo Queen, destroyed most of the other earth Cuckoos, and accidentally rewrote Artie's identity (and removed the memories of herself from Annie and Sam as well). It's been two years since the Covenant incursion that cost the Price's two beloved family members. Just as things are settling down and Mark (the cuckoo who became an ally) is finally ready to wake up, a group of unknown Johrlac arrive to sweep Sarah away to face "justice" for her crimes against the Cuckoos. Arthur is also snatched, to provide evidence of Sarah's wrongdoing. Of course the rest of the family isn't going to take this sitting down, and so Annie, Sam, Alice, and Thomas embark on an extra-dimensional quest to retrieve their kidnapped relatives.
Over the course of this quest we learn a lot more about Johrlac society and how it is generally meant to work. We also finally get some answers about Sarah, Mark, and the whole Artie/Arthur issue. I was surprised by the sheer amount of time that has passed since this whole storyline started, but reminded myself that InCryptid has always been a multi-generational story.
I enjoyed reading this book, and was especially pleased to see some resolution to a few of the more egregious dangling plot threads. The extra story this time is told by Elsie and follows her reactions to the end of Butterfly Effects. I feel like the series is getting every closer to letting Elsie take center stage, as she's basically the cousin we've seen the least so far. It would also be nice to check in on Verity at some point. And James and Sally. Honestly, there are so many characters now that it's hard to keep up with how all of them are doing!
I'm always glad to spend some time with the sprawling Price clan, and this was no exception. Butterfly Effects is another great installment in the ongoing InCryptid universe.
September 10, 2025
One upside to being catastrophically behind on my ARC reading is that I had a copy of this waiting for me as soon as I finished my very-overdue advance copy of the previous book in the series, INSTALLMENT IMMORTALITY. (thanks for your faith in me, Tor ARC approvers ... I promise I'm reading everything, eventually!) So, of course, I picked this up as soon as I finished that one, and it was an excellent choice!
This episode in the InCryptid canon tied up a lot of loose ends from previous books in a way which is very satisfying without being forced, and, as usual, was just a straight-up fun time, featuring interdimensional adventures and excellent characters both old and new. Unusually, this story had multiple narrators, which I enjoyed, though I wished there was a bit more tonal differentiation between the two character voices. But as always, it was very engaging and plotty, and I was very hooked once I started reading.
Highly recommend this series if you want a classic sort-of-pulpy monster-of-the-week modern fantasy feel mixed with sprawling family drama, and I can't wait to see what comes next already. (Elsie as our narrator? Elsie as our narrator, PLEASE???)
Thanks so much to Tor and Netgalley for the digital advance copy!
This episode in the InCryptid canon tied up a lot of loose ends from previous books in a way which is very satisfying without being forced, and, as usual, was just a straight-up fun time, featuring interdimensional adventures and excellent characters both old and new. Unusually, this story had multiple narrators, which I enjoyed, though I wished there was a bit more tonal differentiation between the two character voices. But as always, it was very engaging and plotty, and I was very hooked once I started reading.
Highly recommend this series if you want a classic sort-of-pulpy monster-of-the-week modern fantasy feel mixed with sprawling family drama, and I can't wait to see what comes next already. (Elsie as our narrator? Elsie as our narrator, PLEASE???)
Thanks so much to Tor and Netgalley for the digital advance copy!
October 2, 2025
Butterfly Effects by Seanan McGuire is a great addition to the ongoing saga of the Price family and all it's additions. This one takes place in the Johrlac society, when Sarah is kidnapped by them to stand trial on their planet for her actions in transforming into a Queen. Of course her family comes to the rescue and we learn a lot more about the Johrlac's and their planet, and have a lot of action and intrigue ensues. Another good addition to the lexicon of the oddball family Sarah has been adopted by. As always, a very readable and interesting book!
September 6, 2025
In which we meet the Johrlacs, and they might be even bigger assholes than the cuckoos they exiled. This is Sarah's book; the Johrlacs don't like cuckoo queens, and they want her--and Arthur--to pay for her crimes. Lots of twists and turns ensue. An interesting entry in the long-running series.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
August 28, 2025
Sarah is back! Meeting the Johrlac and seeing Johrlar was fascinating. I always love seeing the new worlds McGuire comes up with. And after getting to know Arthur more in the last inCryptid book, it was nice to have more of him.
October 16, 2025
Oh, I loved reading this book, getting back to Sarah, and we learned so much, and so much changed, it was so good!
*Review of We Sing It Anyway*
Loved this story, that we got to see this time after the events of Butterfly Effects, and it was so good!
*Review of We Sing It Anyway*
Loved this story, that we got to see this time after the events of Butterfly Effects, and it was so good!
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August 31, 2025** THE VERSION OF THIS BOOK THAT I READ WAS AN ARC **
October 11, 2025
Nice wrap up of some events, wonder what's next? :)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews