Ghost-Spider, Volume 1: Dog Days Are Over: 03/21/20

Ghost-Spider, Volume 1: Dog Days Are Over by Seanan McGuire is the start of Gwen's college career on the Earth where Peter Parker is alive and working as a T.A. She can travel to this world with a pendant and her blood.

So with two New Yorks, there's a Fringe vibe. It's fun to see how Gwen's Earth differs from Peter's. Peter's seems to be closer to ours, save for all the superheroes. Gwen repeated notes how odd she finds it that people there "don't look up" when she's swinging. New Yorkers there have gotten completely blasé in the presence of superheroes.

For this volume much of the plot is world building, or world comparing. Gwen has to learn how stabilize herself when she crosses into Peter's Earth. She has to figure out how to blend in and how to do her homework. She has to rely on a watch because she doesn't have a cross-demential cellphone plan (if one even exists).

There's of course a lot of backstory not included but hinted at. Seanan McGuire makes the current plot compelling and drops enough clues to fill in the most important blanks. The book also includes the list of volumes that come before (and their ISBNs) for anyone interested in a more thorough read.

Volume 2 released on August 4th, 2020.

Four stars

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