Half-Off Ragnarok

Official cover

**Half-Off Ragnarok** is the third novel in the InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire. It features Alexander Price.

## Synopsis

**Cryptid, noun:** Any creature whose existence has not yet been proven by science. See also "monster."

**Cryptozoologist, noun:** Any person who thinks hunting for cryptids is a good idea. See also "idiot."

What do gorgons, basilisks, and frogs with feathers all have in common? They're all considered mythological by modern science, and some people are working very hard to keep them that way.

Alexander Price is a member of a cryptozoological lineage that spans generations, and it's his job to act as a buffer between the human and cryptid worlds—not an easy task when you're dealing with women who has snakes in place of hair, little girls who may actually be cobras, and brilliant, beautiful Australian zookeepers. And then there's the matter of the murders...

Alex thought he was choosing the easier career when he decided to specialize in non-urban cryptids, leaving the cities to his little sister, Verity. He had no idea what he was letting himself in for. It's a family affair, and everyone—from his reanimated grandfather to his slightly broken telepathic cousin—is going to find themselves drawn in before things get any better.

## Plot

**Prologue:** As a child, Alex loses his pet coatl in his room. His mother helps him find it.

**Chapter 1:** Alex, Dee, and Crow collect fricken specimens in a swamp outside Columbus when they are attacked by a lindworm. They kill it.

**Chapter 2:** Back at the zoo, Dee reminds Alex to catch Shelby's big cat show. Afterward, Shelby complains about all their cancelled dates. That evening, he has dinner with Angela, Martin, and Sarah.

**Chapter 3:** The Aeslin High Priestess expresses concern over Sarah's continued condition. Alex recruits some of the mice to help catalog the fricken samples. Sarah negotiates to sleep in Alex's bed.

**Chapter 4:** Chandi sneaks into the zoo before it opens to see her cobra-formed fiance Shandi. Alex recruits her to help feed the venomous snakes since his intern Andrew is missing. Later, he meets Shelby for lunch in a secluded corner of the zoo and they find a partially petrified Andrew.

**Chapter 5:** Alex and Shelby talk with the police, who eventually let them go. Alex delicately asks Dee if she knows anything about Andrew's death, and she denies it. He also confirms his breeding basilisks are still hibernating.

**Chapter 6:** The zoo closes due to the death, and Alex brushes off Shelby's request to spend their newfound free time together.

**Chapter 7:** He goes home and catches his grandparents up, then settles in to babysit Sarah while they go on a date. Shelby calls, still not wanting to be alone, and Alex reluctantly invites her over. While they are drinking hot cocoa, Alex catches the gaze of a cockatrice in the backyard.

**Chapter 8:** Alex directs Shelby and Sarah to create a counter-agent for the petrifaction, though Shelby protests in confusion. Once Alex is okay, Shelby produces a gun and turns it on Sarah.

**Chapter 9:** Shelby believes Sarah to be a cuckoo threat and Alex only barely gets her to stand down. They reveal their true identities: Alex is a Price, and Shelby belongs to the Thirty-Six Society.

**Chapter 10:** The grandparents get home and it's Angela's turn to threaten Shelby. Alex talks them all down. Alex escorts Sarah to her room and makes a call to Dominic and Verity to confirm that there are no Australian Covenant agents. They all finally talk to each other and realize the cockatrice must have a sapient handler.

**Chapter 11:** While searching the back yard, Shelby and Alex discover the neighbor has been petrified.

**Chapter 12:** Alex performs an autopsy of the neighbor on the kitchen table. After confirming the details of petrifiction, they sneak into the zoo and feed the body to an alligator snapping turtle named Crunchy.

**Chapter 13:** Alex catches Dee up on events the next day. Chami arrives and they realize the zoo's security guard is dead. The police make the rounds again. Alex convinces Dee to come home with him, and he introduces her and Shelby to the mice. Dee reluctantly agrees to take Alex and Shelby to the local gorgon community.

**Chapter 14:** They meet Dee's husband Frank and Hannah, the matriarch of the community.

**Chapter 15:** On the way to meet the fringe community of gorgons, they are attacked by a lindworm. Shelby manages to ride it like a bronco, and they kill it. Alex slips out a "marry me" in his awe.

**Chapter 16:** They are introduced to Walter, leader of the fringe community. After talking a bit, Alex realizes someone has been swindling them for their cockatrices and that's probably where the rogue one came from.

**Chapter 17:** They eat dinner with the gorgons. Dee is surprised when Alex invites her back to work the next day. Alex and Shelby go back to her place to have shower sex, and Alex realizes he's in love.

**Chapter 18:** Alex wakes to realize that the apartment is on fire, and he and Shelby are barricaded into her unit. They leap out of the window, giving Shelby a minor injury, but are safe. They head back to the Baker place and Angela uses her cuckoo blood to patch Shelby up.

**Chapter 19:** Shelby is delighted to meet Crow. Angela insists that Shelby stay with them, both because her apartment is damaged and for safety in numbers. Then Shelby and Alex visit Chandi's family to ask for help identifying the arsonist.

**Chapter 20:** Alex and Shelby return to the zoo to hunt. They split up, Alex finds a petrified duck, and he realizes the cockatrice and its handler are still in the zoo.

**Chapter 21:** Alex finds Shelby hiding in the big cat house, where she had been attacked. He carries her out of the zoo and goes to retrieve his car, but when he returns for her she is missing.

**Chapter 22:** Alex recruits his grandparents and Crow to search for Shelby. Crow leads them to the gorgon community. Alex realizes that Lloyd is a gorgon, a hybrid, and Hannah's son.

**Chapter 23:** They find the abandoned barn where Lloyd is hiding. Alex is the only one to enter, and Lloyd attacks.

**Chapter 24:** Alex fights Lloyd in self-defense and to protect Shelby, who Lloyd wants to keep as a girlfriend-slave. A lindworm breaks into the building, distracting Lloyd long enough for Alex to take Shelby to safety. He returns to see Lloyd attacking Dee and he shoots Lloyd dead.

**Epilogue**: Alex's basilisks are finally attempting to breed, and he is hopelessly besotted with Shelby. All is well.

## 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.Sarah Zellaby: Alex's cuckoo cousin. Sarah is living at home with her parents while she recovers from the brain trauma of rewriting the memories of several Covenant agents last year. The family all wears telepathy blockers to to protect themselves from any errant influences, and Sarah has trouble recognizing them without name tags.Deanna Rodriguez: Alex's assistant at the zoo and a Pliny's gorgon. Dee is Alex's liaison to the local gorgon community.
### Minor

* Martin Baker
* Lloyd
* Hannah
* Crow
* Kevin Price (phone call only)
* Kim and Nelson, reptile zookeepers
* Chandi Sarpa
* Dr. Kumari Sarpa
* Daksha Sarpa
* Crunchy, a snapping turtle
* Verity Price (phone call only)
* Dominic DeLuca (phone call only)
* Andrew, reptile house assistant (deceased)
* Bill O'Malley (neighbor, deceased)
* Frank Rodriguez
* Walter
* Marian, a Pliny's gorgon
* Paul, a gorgon

### Mentioned

* Antimony Price
* Drew Baker
* Nicole, big cat assistant
* Jane Harrington-Price
* Ted Harrington
* Mary Dunlavy
* Jack Tanner (unnamed)
* Rose Marshall
* Megan Rodriguez
* Jonathan Healy
* Frances Healy
* Flora
* Lloyd's father, a Pliny's gorgon, founder of the fringe

## Field Guide

BasiliskBloodwormChurch GriffinCoatlCockatriceFrickenLindwormCuckooPliny's GorgonRevenantWadjetGreater Gorgon
* Subspecies of fricken:
	+ Common swamp fricken
	+ Greater swamp fricken
	+ Midwestern spotted fricken
	+ Poison dart fricken
	+ \*\*15-19 distinct variations have been found in Ohio

### Mentioned

* Unicorn
* Dragon
* Incubus
* Tasmanian wolf / thylacine
* Manticore
* Tailypo
* Chupacabra
* Bigfoot
* Garrinna
* Vegetable lamb
* Barnacle Geese
* Apraxis Wasp

## Locations

* Columbus, Ohio
	+ Swamp in mid-Ohio
	+ West Columbus Zoo
	+ Bexley, Ohio
		- Baker Home
	+ Dublin, Ohio
	+ Downtown
		- Alex's former apartment
	+ Pliny's gorgon community
	+ Shelby's apartment

**Mentioned**

* Sydney, Australia
	+ Great Ocean Highway
* Buckley Township, Michigan
* New Orleans, Louisiana
* San Francisco, California
	+ San Francisco Zoo, reptile house run by a dragon princess
* Portland, Oregon

## Organizations

* Covenant of St. George
* Thirty-Six Society

## Objects

* Anti-telepathy charm
* Anti-hex charm
* Cockatrice antivenin

## Continuity

* Recap of Sarah's injury, Verity and Dominic's adventures
* The other side of Alex's call to Verity takes place in The Ghosts of Bourbon Street
* Antimony doesn't look like the rest of the Healy women.
* Megan is away at school.
* Artie calls daily to see if Sarah will talk to him.
* Jonathan died before Kevin was born.

## Trivia

* Alice "burned a lot of [Jonathan's] things after he died." Alex believes she had good reason to do so.
	+ **Note:** Alex refers to "Great-Grandpa Healy" and his daughter, Alex's "maternal grandmother," in this passage. Likely an error, as Alex is related to the Healys via his father Kevin.
* Alice and Angela didn't get along at first, and it's still a little tenuous.

## Quotes

* **Aeslin High Priestess:** "There is Faith, and then there is Common Sense. Sometimes the one must take precedence over the other."
* **Alex:** "Growing up with two sisters has given me a highly-advanced ability to know when I'm beaten."
* **Angela, to Alex:** "You've been bred to take idiotic risks in the name of science."
	+ Likely referencing the chain of researchers in Alex's paternal family tree: Kevin, Thomas, Jonathan, and Alexander are all devoted to their research.
* **Alex:** "Let's go commit some senseless acts of science."
* **Shelby:** "Don't be silly, Alex. I never let you talk dirty to me if I can help it. You're a great kisser, and you're better in bed, but your idea of romance has always been way too centered around reptiles."
* **Gorgon child:** "I've never seen humans before. Can we keep them?"
* **Alex:** "Australia. The only continent designed with the difficulty rating of 'ha ha fuck you no.'"
* **Shelby:** "Forgive [Alex]. His mother was a dictionary, and he feels like he's dishonoring her if he uses simple words."
	+ Not knowing the Prices, Shelby doesn't realize that it would be more accurate to call Kevin the dictionary.

### Epigraphs

**Main Article: Epigraphs**

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

### Pop Culture

* Sarah likes watching mathematical television shows like Numb3rs and [[Wikipedia:Square\_One\_Television|SquareOne].
* When discussing her scrambled brain, Sarah references classic children's stories through the Queen of Hearts and Humpty Dumpty.
* Chandi is a fan of Lazy Town, while a gorgon child likes Pokémon. Many children visitors to the zoo must be convinced that Slytherin doesn't make all snakes evil.
* Alex makes multiple Disney references.
* Alex calls what Verity and Sarah did to the Covenant agents "convincing [them] that the denizens of New York were not the droids they were looking for".

## Playlist

Spotify

YouTube