Review: Aftermarket Afterlife

Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As much as I've been a fan of Seanan McGuire for many years, and of this series in particular, I'm sorry to say that McGuire has been slowly losing me with this series, and it's never been more apparent than with this latest novel. The unlucky thirteenth in the series, it shifts gears to yet another POV protagonist, the sixth one so far by my count. Props to McGuire for seeking to keep things fresh with another perspective, especially one who would have known all the Price sibs (by blood or by adoption) as long as they've been alive. But Mary just isn't as engaging as Verity or Antimony or even Alex, which is a shame because all their adventures and personalities were the main draw for me in the first place. She may have been a constant figure in the lives of the Price family, but somehow her narrative comes off extremely detached and makes it hard for me to get into this book.

And looking back, I think the real point where McGuire started to lose me was when she introduced the cuckoos. It's been slowly dawning on me for years, ever since Sarah became a POV character back in Imaginary Numbers or so, but the cuckoos come off to me like a grab bag of negative stereotypes of autistic people. Their obsession with math, their true selves being described in insectile terms, the way the narrative presents them as inherently psychotic and murderous but also childlike at the same time...it's off putting to me on so many layers. And I know McGuire is autistic herself, but she's not the only autistic writer to really lean into these stereotypes in ways that crawl under my skin. Sunyi Dean did the same thing in The Book Eaters, and I still think about that a lot even almost a year after reading it.

Oh well. Don't go by me, I'm the one autistic person who still watches every episode of The Good Doctor even when the writers totally go overboard making Shaun into a massive jerk.

I don't think I'll quit this series just yet, but I really hope to see McGuire bring us back into the heads of Verity or Antimony again soon. Those were some of her best work.

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