InCryptid

About the InCryptid series

The Price family used to work for the Covenant of St. George, a secret society sworn to wipe out every cryptid -- every non-human, from talking mice to sapient sea monsters -- on Earth. Then they switched sides. Generations later, the Prices live off the grid, running a pest-control-adjacent double life: cataloguing and protecting the cryptid population of North America while dodging the Covenant that still wants them dead. Discount Armageddon opens the numbered sequence with Verity Price, a cryptozoologist by family trade and competitive ballroom dancer by passion, trying to keep both careers alive in New York City without either the Covenant or her family finding out about the other.

Each InCryptid novel centers a different member of the sprawling, chaotic Price family -- siblings, cousins, in-laws, and the odd talking mouse cult that worships them -- while building one continuous mythology of cryptid biology, family history, and the slow-boiling Covenant conflict. Seanan McGuire's trademark is here in full: meticulous, funny, deeply-considered world-building applied to monsters most urban fantasy treats as scenery, plus a genuine, low-drama commitment to found family and queer representation throughout the cast.

At fifteen novels and counting, InCryptid is one of McGuire's longest-running series and a favorite for readers who want urban fantasy that's funnier and warmer than most, without losing real stakes.

How to read this series

Read the numbered novels in publication order, starting with Discount Armageddon. The point-of-view character rotates between Price family members book to book, but the Covenant conflict and family history accumulate continuously, and McGuire's own guidance is that publication order avoids confusion and spoilers. There's no meaningful chronological alternative to consider.

Seanan McGuire has also written a substantial body of InCryptid short fiction and novellas (including stories centered on earlier generations of the family, like Jonathan and Frances Healy), largely available via her website and anthologies; none are required to follow the numbered novels' main plot, so this list covers the numbered sequence only. The related Ghost Roads trilogy, starring the ghost hitchhiker Rose Marshall, is set in the same wider McGuire multiverse and shares some background lore, but reads as a fully separate series.