Fieldnotes:
The Highways, 2016
1 Hitchhiker Ghost and Urban Legend
1 Boyfriend Turned Car Ghost
1 Banshee (bean sidhe)
1 James Dean-style Predator
1 Elaborate Trap
1 Enemy Turned Tentative Ally

Queen of the Routewitches
The Grecian Underworld

The Short Version:
Rose Marshall - hitchhiking ghost and urban legend - is enjoying some time with her boyfriend/car ghost Gary when she is summoned into an elaborate trap by her nemesis Bobby Cross. He has been fixated on her since she escaped his soul-guzzling car when he killed her 60 years ago.

Rose has to participate in a terrifying Halloween ritual in an attempt to restore the protection placed on her by Apple, Queen of the Routewitches in the last book. She then finds herself forced to rely on Professor Laura Moorhead - who holds her responsible for the death of her boyfriend Tommy years ago and has dedicated her life to destroying Rose. They must journey to the Underworld to restore Rose to her place as a hitchhiking ghost.

The most fun bits are the re-imagination of the Grecian Underworld with the London Underground taking the place of the River Styx and tricking her way past Cerberus. I enjoyed this installment, though I preferred the more episodic out-of-order format of the first that worked to reinforce the idea of Rose as the urban legend. ( )

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting and engaging, and has memorable characters. The world building and magic systems are very cool and intriguing. I did prefer the more unusual structure of the first book, and I thought the ending was a bit underwhelming. There was also the Halloween scene, which repeated numerous passages and scenes from the first book which I found annoying and repetitive. I might not have noticed, had I not read them back to back though. Overall, I found this a very good sequel to the first book, and would recommend. ( )

You know what I think? I think that Seanan McGuire's books would be a helluva lot better if she wrote fewer of them. Apparently she can't quite keep track of what she's written, so she always needs to make sure. How else would you explain the fact that she keeps explaining and repeating the same things in EVERY.SINGLE.CHAPTER.

This is something that becomes prevalent in her series rather than her standalone books. It always annoys me in her InCryptid series, and it almost knocked me out while suffering through the goliath that was the Parasitology series. And I'm sad because I thought she'd found a way to work through it. In the first Ghost Roads book, that's essentially a short story collection -unlike this one that is one story- it wasn't much of a problem because that's how collections of gathered tales go. It was charming, added character to the stories and helped intensify the feeling that they were tales about an urban legend. Maybe that's why it's one of my favorite books of hers under the Seanan name (because nothing will ever compare to killer friggin mermaids, NOTHING!).

My minds scatters and I'd forgotten much of the details from the first installment, even though I've read it twice thus far and plan on reading it again. Even so, the repetition killed me. Not repetition of events, people and relationships. The repetition of the premise, the pointless description of how one walks, enters a plane, does the smallest of things.

Ah, yeah I wish she wrote a bit better or maybe that she had a more severe editor. In all honesty Seanan is an amazing creator and I think, were she not a woman, she would have the fame she deserves, at least under her Mira Grant pen-name. But she doesn't and because of that I always feel uncomfortable criticizing her. Her books, current one included, are the ultimate comfort for me, action, fun, with strong women, queer people, feminist politics, sometimes magic, sometimes gore. And truly, what more can a girl ask?

I outta write a spoilerific synopsis of what happened, so I can remember it later on, but I'm out of time. This will probably be rectified sometime in the near future.


*the spoiler edit*
Ok so, infodump time for future granny Anelis who forgets everything.

In this book Rose is chilling with her boy, maybe Gary is his name? He’s the one who loved her when they were teens, and somehow managed to become a ghost car just for her, after he died. So Rose and the Car are hanging out in a diner, er, don't remember the name, which is run by her friend who's a banshee, but we spell it the proper way, something like bean sidhe? She also has a name; maybe someday I'll remember it. Rose also has a friend who's a ghost rider, Tony or Tommy, maybe Tommy. Tommy was with Laura when alive. In the previous book Laura fixated on Rose thinking her the cause of Tony’s death. Bobby Cross is the James Dean-type actor who killed Rose. He's a forever not dead prick that has a car that instead of diesel runs on souls or ghosts or something and he is also fixated on Rose because plot reasons. There are also route witches, Apple is their Queen, and a highway called the Ocean Lady is like their goddess or something.

Rose has had a tattoo that's a seal that's Persephone’s' blessing and protects her from Bobby Cross. Bobby finds a way, through a ritual that requires the self-sacrifice of a young witch, and damages her seal, while also managing to lock her away from the twilight, for some time, the twilight being the place where she's safe from Bobby. So to set things straight she needs to do a thing on Halloween. Dammit future self, don't ask me what it was because hell if I understood.

Some ghost hunt in a farm. Ghosts are set lose and whoever kills them -for good- earns another year of life, and if the ghosts kill a human they become human again. The owners of the farm are being coerced by Bobby to resurrect her and so they do. When she wakes up she barely escapes, finding shelter in a diner. Not knowing anyone in the mortal world –apart from the Price family- she calls Laura for help, who for some reason comes. Rose promises Laura she will be her psychopomp when she dies so she can be reunited with Tommy. Laura agrees to help and pretends she is Roses’ aunt. Girl-bonding happens, but we know not to trust Seanan. Ensue hillaridink jokes about Rose pooping herself and forgetting how to pee because she was dead for way too long.

She and Laura walk the Ocean Lady to find Apple who tells them to go through Hades’ gates like Persephone did, so Rose can die again. Rose now, alive, is a powerful witch, it's handy. Important: Rose needs to die in a way that will ensure she’ll be the same kind of ghost as before, hence the trouble. So they go to London, to look at all the stoles greek marbles and such. They are accompanied by a creature. They meet Hades and Persephone and Cerberus. Once they are close to the finish line Laura reveals she betrayed her and cooperated with Bobby. WHY? IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE. WHY GO THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE? –Anelis, calme-toi, just state the facts dammit.-

Ahem, so, just before they exit the gates of the underworld Bobby comes, crashes Laura with his car, Rose is kinda trapped but at the last moment Laura looks at her, just before dying, so Rose not only dies again and becomes the same kind of ghost she was before, but she also has Persephone’s blessing intact again. She tells Bobby to fuck off and guides Laura’s spirit to Tommy and they unghost, or die-die, or go towards the light together. Kinda the end. ( )

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown
By Sean McGuire

This is actually book two in the series. I didn't know that so I read this first then the Sparrow Road. It didn't matter too much but I do wish I had read them in order. Needs a bigger notification on the book.
It continues the story of our ghost friends. There is much more suspense in here and it is not a bunch of short stories about ghosts Rose has encountered. There may be a few thrown in but this is a novel. There is a way to kill a ghost and a ghost and a human is after Rose! Pretty good! ( )

Loved the story, felt like the book sorely needed an editor -- it's possible that this is the result of listening to it as an audio book rather than reading the regular edition, but holy hell was there a lot of repetition. I mean _a lot_ of repetition. If the point of that was to emphasize how whiny Rose is when mortal, point made. Point made about 4 hours in, actually, and by hour 7, point was irritating. By hour 10, I just wanted the damn book to end. That makes me sad, because really, I'm quite enjoying Rose's adventures. I think the point of view of a psychopomp is rad. This seems likely to lead to a book 3, given the lack of resolution at the ending, and I'm torn between excitement over hearing more of Rose's story and dreading another speech on how she's exactly where she's meant to be -- riding the ghost roads, living in the cold and the twilight, after all she's the Phantom Prom Date, the Girl in the Diner, the Girl in the Green Silk Gown... etc, etc, etc....sigh. ( )