TITLE: Angel of the Overpass (Ghost Roads Book 3)
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
320 pages, DAW, ISBN 9780756416898 (paperback, e-book, audiobook)
DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): The third book of the Ghost Roads series returns to the highways of America, where hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall continues her battle with her killer—the immortal Bobby Cross.
Lady of shadows, keeper of changes, plant the seeds of faith within me, that I might grow and flourish, that I might find my way through danger and uncertainty to the safety of your garden. Let my roots grow strong and my skin grow thick, that I might stand fast against all who would destroy me. Grant to me your favor, grant to me your grace, and when my time is done, grant to me the wisdom to lay my burdens down and rest beside you, one more flower in a sea of blooms, where nothing shall ever trouble me again.
Rose Marshall died when she was sixteen years old and on her way to her high school prom. She hasn’t been resting easy since then—Bobby Cross, the man who killed her, got away clean after running her off the road, and she’s not the kind of girl who can let something like that slide. She’s been looking for a way to stop him since before they put her body in the ground.
But things have changed in the twilight world where the spirits of the restless dead continue their “lives.” The crossroads have been destroyed, and Bobby’s protections are gone. For the first time, it might be possible for Rose to defeat him.
Not alone, though. She’ll need every friend she’s managed to make and every favor she’s managed to add to her account if she wants to stand a chance…and this may be her last chance to be avenged, since what is Bobby Cross without the crossroads?
Everything Rose knows is about to change.
MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5
MY THOUGHTS: It’s pretty much a given at this point that when a Seanan McGuire series reaches the third book, change is in the wind. The changes may be somewhat subtle, the changes may be massive, the changes may upend everything you thought you knew about the characters – but there will be changes. McGuire doesn’t write static worlds where every episode ends with the status quo maintained. So yeah – go into Angel of the Overpass, the third Ghost Roads book, expecting Rose Marshall’s world to be different at the end than it was at the beginning. There’s a reason “Everything Rose knows is about to change” is the tagline for the book’s description, after all. And Seanan is not one to fail to deliver what the cover copy promises.
But here’s the thing about change: it tends to sneak up on us. Rose Marshall, like most of us, only sees the steps that lead her to a major life change in retrospect. In the moment, those small steps are just something to be dealt with – another narrow escape from Bobby Cross’s clutches, another awkward conversation with her boyfriend the ghost-car, another mission from powers greater than she is. Rose is too “in the moment” to see where each of these moments is leading her. (I can relate. Rose may not age, but I’m really wondering how I’m going to be 55 in a few months, when I was just 25 last week.)
It’s a credit to McGuire’s skill with the little moments that they’re all important enough in their own right to keep Rose’s attention, and this reader’s, from looking too far ahead. So when the big change to Rose’s status quo does happen, it’s a surprise to the character and hopefully to the reader – but a surprise with a logical lead-up as opposed to one that comes with no connection to what came before.
“Life (or in Rose’s case, Afterlife) is what happens while you’re making other plans” is a pretty solid theme throughout Angel of the Overpass. It’s exemplified not just by what Rose thinks she’s headed towards (life without the threat of Bobby Cross) as compared to where she ends up, but also by the way events outside of Rose’s usual sphere of control affect her. Things are different in the Twilight now that the Crossroads have been destroyed. This major upheaval is not Rose’s doing at all – for the details, you’ll have to see McGuire’s InCryptid series which stars various members of Rose’s adopted mortal family the Prices. Again, it’s a credit to McGuire’s deft hand that readers of The Ghost Roads series don’t need to have read InCryptid to understand the enormity of what’s happened: a cosmic force has been killed, and the various levels of reality (Daylight, Twilight, Starlight, and perhaps even the Midnight) are reeling from it. And like everyone else, Rose has to find ways to exist in this new strangeness. Gee, I bet most of us can relate to that.
Of course, there’s the usual amount of fight scenes and mayhem in line with the previous books in the series (Sparrow Hill Road and The Girl in the Green Silk Gown). Some minor fights before the boss level conclusion, because Rose wouldn’t be Rose if she didn’t get into more than one jam per book. And there are a number of sweet moments with various characters as well. No, I won’t give you details about the fights or the sweet moments. I try very hard to avoid major spoilers in my reviews. Even if I do really want to make giddy exultations about that one new ghost Rose encounters… But no! I shall not. (Insert evil laughter here.)
Some online vendors are advertising Angel of the Overpass as Ghost Roads Book Three of Three. It may be the end of the first trilogy, because again: major life changes for our favorite hitchhiking ghost by the end, but I know Seanan would like to write more Rose Marshall books. And when she does, I’ll be here to read them, because I really can’t wait to see what Rose does next.
Note: I received an advanced reading copy via NetGalley.