Book Review: Indexing by Seanan McGuire

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Indexing is another great urban fantasy novel from Seanan McGuire. It was initially released as a Kindle Serial in twelve parts, and is now available as a single volume.

The premise is this: while most people in the world go through life believing fairy tales are just stories, for an unlucky few they're very real, and there is rarely a happily in ever after. The narrative is a living thing, that wants to tear down what we call reality, and it's the job of the men and women of the ATI Management Bureau to keep that from happening. Fairy tales are codified by the Arne-Thompson Index (It's a real thing) and when one becomes active, a 'memetic incursion' takes place, usually with a bad end for the individuals who suddenly find themselves manifesting a fairy tale character, and anyone else in the immediate vicinity.

Like most of the agents at the ATI our heroine, Henrietta 'Henry' Marchen, is in the Index. She's a 709, a Snow White, complete with 'skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as coal.' In addition to stopping memetic incursions she has to put up with things like blue birds that suicide against her windows attempting to get to her, wild flowers that spontaneously sprout from her carpet, and the possibility that one day she'll encounter her very own Evil Queen just itching to give her a delicious poisoned apple. She also has to be on constant guard for her teammate Sloane; she's a Wicked Stepsister who is constantly fighting the urge to kill the nearest princess, which just happens to be Henry.

The characters are well developed, the dialogue sharp and witty, and the story fast paced and compelling. There is also a TG element in this novel, but I'm not going to spoil it. As with McGuire's October Daye series, I highly recommend this book. As I said, the first book is available complete and the second is about to kick off in August. (links below) The second book will again be released as a Kindle Serial to start with. The way the serial works is you buy the fist installment for $1.99, and the rest are automatically delivered to your computer or device at 2 week intervals for no additional cost. I've already got mine pre-ordered!

Indexing (Indexing Series Book 1)
 
Indexing: Reflections (Kindle Serials) (Indexing Series Book 2)