Chaos Choreography
Incryptid Series, Book #5
By Seanan McGuire
ISBN # 978-0756408138
Author’s Website: http://www.seananmcguire.com/
SPOILERS!!!
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Review
Chaos Choreography starts with Verity Price and her husband Dominic investigating a strange sighting in a pond in Portland. After an encounter with a not so extinct plesiosaur, she and Dominic head home for an early breakfast. The next morning, Verity receives a phone call from Dance or Die, the TV show she had participated in three years ago, with news of another season of all stars they want her to come back for another season. While her parents think that it’s a good idea to let Verity dance as Valeri one more time before she has to terminate the persona, Antimony, Verity’s younger sister, is against it as she thinks it might be dangerous for everyone.
Verity accepts the offer, and she and Dominic fly to L.A., for the show. Everything is great at the beginning; she is dancing again, spending time with her dancing friends, and feeling the rush of the performance. All is great until someone starts to kill the dancers. Now, it seems that trouble finds Verity again, and this time it is not just the cryptid community that is in danger, but all of those in the dance business. Verity is not alone, she has Dominic, her cryptid friends, and even a family member, who makes her debut appearance as the new member of the Price family and to the readers.
Writing a review for this book of the Incryptid series is going to be hard. There are some many things that I would like to talk about, but I don’t want to totally spoil the book for everyone. I think I can say, that the decisions taking place in this book will change the family Price once again for the better and the worse.
While reading the series, it’s easy to notice that the characters make reference to events that happened to the old Healy family. For those who like the Incryptid series and have read the short stories that author Seanan McGuire has released, those events would feel familiar. This time, while reading the book I had the feeling that I was part of the Price family, as I knew what they were talking about, even when mentioning different family members and things that they had done.
The family Price has found odd her passion to dance, but after this book and the short stories of the Healy family, it gave me the idea that Verity resembles her Great Grandmother Fran. All of the Incryptid books have small quotes from different family members, and in Chaos Choreography the majority are from Fran. When reading about Verity on the show and those quotes, it made me see the resembles with Fran much more.
Like her other books, Seanan McGuire has blended the mystery of the unknown with creatures and monsters that live hidden to normal humans. Chaos Choreography is not an exception. Throughout the book, I had the same question that is old as mystery itself, “who is the bad guy?” and let me tell you, I was not expecting “that” person to be evil.
In the Incryptid series, McGuire has written books were the message is that even though it might look like the general idea of “monster” it doesn’t mean it’s evil and must be eradicated. Sometimes the most beautiful and delicate person, can be the most dangerous and evil. Chaos Choreography teaches the readers to not judge the creature for its sharp teeth. You never know when they might come in handy.
Seanan McGuire has mentioned that this is the last book in which Verity is the narrator, as the next installment Antimony takes the stage, and we will learn her adventure, and maybe a prophecy from a road-witch, but who knows, everything is possible in the Incryptid universe.
If you are a fan of the Incryptid series, or of the work of Seanan McGuire, I recommend you read Chaos Choreography. In this book, Verity Price has a second chance to change her life, but her morals and justice are stronger than ever. The need to protect is in her blood, and there is nothing that is stopping her, not even her dance shoes that can stab somebody in the eye.
