Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

What if the snarky scientists studied them?   Well, then you'd have this.   It's actually a lot more complicated: Seanan McGuire creates a nice blend of monsters that you know, and her own species.   The boogeymen are a known quantity to us, but what McGuire does with them is place them in a known framework and then make them sympathetic; she does not tow the line when it comes to cryptozoological species.   She makes them her own, makes us sympathize with most of them, and then places them in a very real New York City that has a for the most part unseen side filled with boogeymen, dragon princesses, medusa, Aeslin mice, and the list goes on and on.   

She also creates the Covenant of St. George, which is determined to see the extinction of everything that isn't human.   Except that cryptozoological creatures have a place in the ecosystem, giving some reason to keep them alive and thriving.   Which is where Verity Price's family comes in: they've left the Covenant a couple generations ago, and are considered traitors to be executed.   Or they would be if the Covenant didn't believe that they were all dead.   

So Verity is a cryptozoologist who needs to to keep these distinct species alive, without attracting the attention of the world which isn't ready to accept them yet while dodging the unwanted attention of the Covenant.   (She's also working as a waitress at a strip joint that employees the species she studies, and is trying to launch a ballroom dancing career.)

Very is clever, snarky, and just made this novel for me.   I really just love her as a character.   I also love the Aeslin mice and Istas.   But on top of the fantastic world building and amazing characters, McGuire brings a kick-ass plot.   Literally most of the time.   

With Covenant agent Dominic DeLuca in town getting ready for a purge - like it sounds, it purges cryptozoological creatures from a city, Very has to try to stop Dom from killing her friends and investigate the disappearances of cryptozoological creatures - and then maybe she can think about the purge.