Reviews

Sweet Poison Wine by Seanan McGuire

nerdywerewolf's review

4.0

"Don't be silly, Fran, vampires don't exist."
"Says the man who had to search his luggage for talking mice."

Oh, I liked this one. A nice little mystery during Jonathan and Fran's honeymoon in Chicago. Someone has stolen the gorgons' (yep, folks with snakes for hair) special, which is to say poison, wine. It's up to the newly married Healys to put everything right.

jennybeastie's review

4.0

Honeymooning Fran and Jonathan, and more fascinating Gorgon customs.

quirkycatsfatstacks's review

5.0

Next up for Short Story Saturday, we have Sweet Poison Wine, written by Seanan McGuire. This would be number 0.06 in her InCryptid series as we continue to follow Johnny and Fran's adventures.

This time around, the duo have set off to deal to finally have their honeymoon. Naturally, that means they're about to find themselves in the middle of a mess – it's a talent. On the bright side, that means more entertainment for us readers!

I think this is one of my favorite short stories from this series – so far. I know I have a long way to go, so I shouldn't be talking so soon. Yet I really enjoyed this little adventure. Not only did we get to see more of how this couple works, but we got to see more of the world and more of the creatures that live in it—all while having the right balance of tension and humor. In other words, it was pretty perfect.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

booksthatburn's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Murder, Gore, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

lpcoolgirl's review

5.0

Great short story with their honeymoon, and learning more about gorgons and their culture, and meeting the ancestor from the guy in Midnight Blue-Light Special! Can't wait to read more!

princess_starr's review

4.0

I really had a lot of fun with this story. Bootleggers running supernatural poisonous wine to gorgons and being entangled with river hags; how do you not want to read that? This is a lot like One Hell of a Ride where it’s a nice little adventure story sandwiched between the breather moments. I don’t know why I preferred this over the other stories that I’ve read so far, but I think it’s because there’s more of mystery element here and trying to figure out who’s really behind the disappearance of the Medusa wine. Still, it’s a great story and I had a blast reading it.

arachan's review

dark funny tense fast-paced

jupitermond's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

myntop's review

5.0

I've really fallen in love with the characters from these shorts. I'm a little OCD and like to read books in their chronological order, so I've not read book 1 of this series yet, but the shorts have gotten me so hooked on this world. This time we get to see Fran and Jonathan have their honeymoon, but being who they are of course there is monsters to deal with. But as Fran pointed out, that made the honeymoon perfect. I'm so glad I picked up this series to read.

book_grinch's review

4.0

More pages, more fun...
In this story, Jonathan and Fran go on their honeymoon, but of course trouble follows them.
Doesn't it always?
Fran's scarier than ever, and Jonathan's well, he's definitely more interesting to read about..

Oh, and one last thing:
They're scary...when someone messes with the local ecosystem! O_O
I can't believe they did what they did...