The nitty-gritty: More portals, more angst, and more adventures (and dinosaurs!) await readers in the ninth Wayward Children book. “We ask, again and again, why the doors take kids, and I think it’s a combination of things—kids are more flexible, they adjust better to things like ‘Oh hey, I’m a mermaid now’ or ‘Oh hey, […]
The nitty-gritty: Everything has a price: that’s what one young girl learns in McGuire’s latest Wayward Children story. “Elodina is gone…The great tale of her being shall be extended no more; she is gone to the Library where all of us must one day be Returned, and she will pay no overdue fines on her […]
The nitty-gritty: With familiar characters and a new setting, the seventh book in McGuire’s portal fantasy series shows us a different side of what happens to some children when they return. Since the Moors, her dreams were still full of water and waves, but the sea she swam in while she slept was no longer […]
The nitty-gritty: A low-key entry into McGuire’s popular series, Across the Green Grass Fields introduces a new character and sets the stage for more adventures. I’m always excited when a new Wayward Children book comes out, but unfortunately, this latest installment didn’t quite work for me. It wasn’t a bad book, per se, but it […]
The nitty-gritty: Fans of Down Among the Sticks and Bones will love this follow-up, as we get to go back “home” to the Moors, a world where death and murder are everyday occurrences. “This is terrible,” said Sumi brightly. “I mean, we knew it was going to be terrible when we followed a mad scientist […]
The nitty-gritty: Another weird and wonderful entry in one of my favorite series. I should have expected that Seanan McGuire would once again draw me into her strange little world, a world where children who are different find doorways to other, magical places, and have adventures, both thrilling and terrible. In the fourth book in […]
The nitty-gritty: This story had some wonderfully magical elements and compelling characters, but as a whole it didn’t quite work for me. “You were a mermaid, weren’t you? That’s what Nadya said.” “I still am,” said Cora. “I just have my scales under my skin for now.” It pains me to admit that I didn’t […]
The nitty-gritty: Like all the best fairy tales, this story is both magical and foreboding, a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of gender stereotyping, told as only Seanan McGuire can. Just as she did in Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire captures a mood of nostalgia and sadness in her follow-up, Down Among the Sticks […]