Pocket Apocalypse

Official cover

**Pocket Apocalypse** is the fourth novel in the InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire. It features Alex Price.

## Synopsis

**Endangered, adjective:** Threatened with extinction or immediate harm.

**Australia, noun:** A good place to become endangered.

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.

## Characters

### Major

Alex Price: Herpetologist specializing in reptilian cryptids. Currently working at the West Columbus Zoo, secretly running a basilisk breeding program and cataloging the local cryptid populations.Shelby Tanner: Visiting big cat expert at the zoo. Shelby is secretly part of the Thirty-Six Society, an Australia cryptozoological conservation group. She starts dating Alex as a fling during her time in the states, but they get more serious once they learn each others' true professions.
* Raina Tanner: Shelby's youngest sister, skilled at tactical schematics and technologies.
* Gabrielle Tanner: Shelby's younger sister, currently in school to become a professional opera singer. Gabby does not wish to go into the family business of cryptozoology.
* Riley Tanner: Shelby's dad and the leader of the Thirty-Six Society. He is a proper asshole his daughter's fiance, and she is quick to call him out on it.
* Charlotte Tanner: Shelby's mom. Charlotte's strategy to settle any dispute is to distract with a the promise of a good meal. She is more accepting of Alex, though still wary of his family history.

**Minor**

* Deanna Taylor de Rodriguez
* Sarah Zellaby
* Angela Baker
* Martin Baker
* Crow
* Crunchy
* Kim and Nelson
* Helen Jalai
* Basil
* *Werewolf Thirty-Sixers:* Cooper, Blithe, Chloe Bryant, Mick, Trigby, Donny, Albert, Deb
* *Other Thirty-Sixers:* Angeldo Magdael, Patrick Hester, North
* Jett, Cooper's dog

**Mentioned**

* Arthur Harrington
* Elsinore Harrington
* Evelyn Price
* Jane Harrington-Price
* Kevin Price
* Mike Gucciard
* Mary Dunlavy
* Verity Price
* Frank Rodriguez
* Jack Tanner
* William
* *Thirty-Sixer werewolf victims:* Trevor McConnell, Isaac Wall, Pamela Cornish and Jeffrey Cornish, Tim

## Field Guide

Church GriffinCuckooWadjetWerewolfGarrinna\*Yowie\*Gorgon

* Wagyl\*
* Leopard-spotted kangaroo\*

\*Australian native

**Mentioned**

* Bogeyman
* Cockatrice
* Dragon
* Faoladh - therianthrope theorized as the origin point for lycanthropy
* Fricken
* Harpy
* Huldra
* Lindworm
* Manticore - imported into Australia by big game hunters
* quarry golem -do not have ears. Mostly function through lip reading and sign language. Ten feet tall. (Ch. 10)
* Rock demon - Grandma (unspecified which) killed one once
* Siren
* Stone spider
* Vegetable lamb
* Waheela
* Wendigo
* Wulver - therianthrope theorized as the origin point for lycanthropy
* Bunyip\*
* Drop bear\*
* Queensland Tiger\*
* Coatl\* - called something different by Thomas in his field guide

\*Australian native

**Non-Cryptid Australian animals**

* Funnelweb spider
* Fairy penguin

## Locations

* Vancouver, Canada
	+ A privately owned family farm
* Columbus, Ohio
	+ Marshes
	+ West Columbus Zoo
* Manhattan, New York City
	+ JFK International Airport
* Queensland, Australia
	+ Brisbane Airport
	+ Thirty-Sixer safe house

**Mentioned**

* Buckley Township, Michigan

## Organizations

* Thirty-Six Society
* Covenant of St. George

## Continuity

* Seven years ago, Verity was sixteen and Alex nineteen, putting the prologue in 2006 and the main story in 2013.
	+ "We hadn't fed anyone to the alligator turtle in nearly a year." -- referencing Half-Off Ragnarok
* Alex's basilisks have successfully bred and had chicks (Ch. 2)
* The Prices hate not knowing the lay of the land.
* The Aeslin are good at following the "quiet in the bag" command.
	+ The mice say the command echoes instructions by Jonathan Healy, though Alice added the instructions, "You May Leave the Bag, Just Don't Get Caught."
* Thomas visited and wrote a guide on the cryptids of Australia before meeting Alice. This also happens to be the research that put him in hot water with the Covenant.
* Mentions of Sarah's injury in New York and using telepathy charms while Sarah recovered.
* Cuckoos are not native to this earth.

## Trivia

* 9/11 has made it significantly harder to smuggle firepower through the airport
* Alex describes Thomas's journals as dry and slightly amused (Ch. 3)
* Most ghosts can't cross saltwater (Ch. 4)
* Neither gorgons nor cockatrice are found in Australia (Ch. 4)
* The family keeps an eye on the ammunition when Mike, Lea, or Mary are visiting. (Ch. 11)
* There are fewer than 300 wadjet in Australia (ch. 13)
	+ Lycanthropy has shown up with a few nasty strains in India, but they presumably got it under control. (Ch. 13)
	+ Wadjet venom rivals taipan for strength
* A group of sirens live on the west coast, and the Price family has gone to visit them. (Ch. 15)
* Alex/McGuire make a distinction between the index and pointer finger, which are usually considered one and the same. (Ch. 16)

## Quotes

* **Alex, regarding Raina and Shelby:** "There are two of them. My body will never be found."
	+ **Mrs. Tanner:** "There are three of them. And what makes you think there's going to be a body? I raised my girls well." (Ch. 4)
* **Alex:** "Eucalyptus trees are only good for feeding koalas and setting the state on fire." (Ch. 4)
* **Alex:** "It was easy for me to say all that, because at the end of the day, I was human: I was a member of the current dominant species, king of the trash heap, and apex predator to the stars. We'd killed off everything that might threaten our supremacy, and now we had the freedom to sit around saying that everybody was equal." (Ch. 7)

### Epigraphs

**Main Article: Epigraphs**

Includes quotes from Thomas Price, Alexander Healy, Jonathan Healy, Kevin Price, and Martin Baker.

### Aeslin

* Leave Some Cheese
* The Aeslin intend to celebrate Crossing the Sea, and Arriving in Australia, and Killing a Very Large Snake. (Ch. 6)
* The Patient Priestess did come to the God of Uncommon Sense and say Dear, Something Is In the Sheep Flock, and We Should Investigate. Then did the God of Uncommon Sense call upon the Sitter of Babies..." (Ch. 8)
* Per the Noisy Priestess, Always should popcorn be eaten when people fight over foolish things. (Ch. 9)

## Pop Culture

* Shelby has an iPod. Raina has a 3DS, though she doesn't seem to play Pokemon. Raina references Furbys.
	+ Alex alternatively refers to Raina's 3DS and her Gameboy, suggesting he doesn't know much about current video games.
* The sun rising on Botany Bay, St. Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland
* Jedi, Knights of the Round Table, Toastmasters, Godzilla, Sleeping Beauty, American Werewolf in London, IKEA, Batman, Tim Tams, Dr. Who

## Playlist

Spotify

YouTube

(both missing "You Tell Me" by Thea Gilmore)