Category: Seanan McGuire Page 1 of 7

PUB DAY REPOST: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire: One of McGuire’s Best (no matter what series). A Magical Novella

Is it cheating to call a Fantasy Novella “Magical”? Isn’t that part of the definition?


Mislaid in Parts Half-KnownMislaid in Parts Half-Known

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: Wayward Children, #9
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication Date: January 9, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 160 pg.
Read Date: December 13-14, 2023 
Buy from Bookshop.org Support Indie Bookstores

Continuity Counts

By and large, the Wayward Children books can be read in any order—sure, things will mean more if you read them in order of publication (so far, anyway). It’s easier that way to catch allusions, understand the depth of relationships, come close to tracking what Sumi is talking about, etc. But you can get away with skipping around.

But you really need to read this one after Lost in the Moment and Found. It’s the closest thing to a direct sequel that we’ve had in this series. It’s also kind of a follow-up to Where the Drowned Girls Go (and, as always, touches on several others).

This is largely Part II of Antsy’s story—the story is shared by a group of the students (my favorites in the series) on one of those quests they’re not supposed to undertake—and whoops, I’ve started writing the next section.

What’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known About?

Antsy is having a hard time adjusting to life at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, almost as much trouble as she’d be having adjusting to anywhere else on Earth. Part of that comes from not being as honest about her circumstances as she could’ve been—understandably so, I think—which just made everything worse.

Still, there are signs that things may get better, helped a little by Antsy being able to find anything for people. Then Seraphina (who can get anyone—with one or two exceptions—to do what she wants) decides to use her abilities on Antsy to get her to find her Door.

Ansty, Sumi, and some others (I’m not going to name them to keep your interest piqued) manage to slip away using Antsy’s ability to find things and her knowledge of how Doors work, eventually getting back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. Which wasn’t exactly where Antsy wanted to be—and she learns that things there hadn’t gone as expected when she left and a whole new quest develops.

Not About Jim Morrison’s Band

When I wrote about Lost in the Moment and Found earlier this year, I said:

This entry would be a worthwhile read for fans if only for this one thing—we learn more about the Doors and how they work. I’m not going to go into it, obviously, nor am I going to promise that every question you had about the Doors will be answered—actually you’ll likely end up with new questions, but they’ll be informed questions.

That’s true here, too. In fact, we learn so much about them that I almost don’t want to learn anything more about Doors for another 8+ books so they don’t get too demystified. McGuire being McGuire, I know that if she reveals a whole lot more in the next book, I’ll end up repeating everything I said prior to this sentence—and I’ll be happy and equipped with more questions.

Regardless—what we do learn here is fantastic. It both makes utter sense—in the way that maybe we all should’ve guessed it already (maybe some did)—in terms of storytelling, worldbuilding, and more. I wonder what (some of) the students understanding this is going to do to things going forward. If anything.

Future Continuity

Speaking of things going forward, something major is on the way for Eleanor West. It’s been hinted at before, but so many things in this book point to it happening soon (but in Wayward Children-time, it could take 3-4 novellas for us to get to “soon”). I’m eager to see it, as much as I’m dreading what it might mean.

One Quick Character Note

Every protagonist of these novellas—and a significant chunk of the supporting characters—has been wonderful. With the exception of Seraphina and her crew*, I like all the students we’ve met at the School and want to know more about them all.

* I’m waiting for McGuire to decide it’s time to humanize them so we readers will root for even them, and we’ll feel bad for not doing so earlier.

But…from the moment we met her, Sumi’s been a favorite of mine. I should probably use the definite article there, actually. So I’m not unbiased when I say that in Mislaid in Parts Half-Known she is glorious, but she really is. She’s funny, she’s loopy, she’s brave, and she’s wise. Hard as that last one might be to believe. She’s also rather clever and displays that at the end.

The main parts of the story belong to Antsy and a couple of other characters—but Sumi stole every scene she was in and I really just want a few in a row featuring her.

So, what did I think about Mislaid in Parts Half-Known?

This is not my favorite Wayward Children book, but it’s close. There aren’t one or two big emotional moments like there typically are in these (at least not that hit me…your results may vary). But there were a handful of small emotional moments that worked so well—in terms of what happened to someone, how it impacted the other characters, and the way that McGuire wrote them—that I don’t care. It might even be better this way.

The worlds we saw were wonderful—really, you could set an entire fantasy trilogy in them without reference to any other. The world hinted at on the cover, for example, could easily sustain a 1,500-page trilogy full of whimsy and danger.

There’s probably more humor and smile-inducing moments here than several of these books combined sport. Which was a nice bit of fresh air (in a series that really doesn’t need it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not welcome).

Naturally, there are characters we’re not likely to see again due to the nature of these books, and I’m going to miss them. Although the endings they got were well deserved and well executed.

I almost always walk away from a Wayward Children book feeling satisfied and a little in awe of McGuire—I think that feeling is larger this time just because of the number of emotional and story notes she managed to hit, the storylines she was able to incorporate and resolve, the ones she just moved forward, and…everything else in 160 pages. It shouldn’t be possible. This book (like most in the series) is bigger on the inside.

A few paragraphs back, I said that this wasn’t my favorite in the series—but at the moment, I’m having trouble understanding why (but I’m going to trust my earlier impulse). But it is so, so, so good. I’m having trouble coming up with adequate adjectives at this point.

Go get this in January. Order it now (and/or request it from your library). If you haven’t read these books yet, go. At a bare minimum, get the first, Every Heart a Doorway, and then Lost in the Moment and Found, so you can be ready for this one when it’s released. You can catch up on the others later.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Tor Publishing Group via NetGalley—thanks to both for this opportunity. The opinions are all mine.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire: One of McGuire’s Best (no matter what series). A Magical Novella

Is it cheating to call a Fantasy Novella “Magical”? Isn’t that part of the definition?


Mislaid in Parts Half-KnownMislaid in Parts Half-Known

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: Wayward Children, #9
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication Date: January 9, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 160 pg.
Read Date: December 13-14, 2023 
Buy from Bookshop.org Support Indie Bookstores

Continuity Counts

By and large, the Wayward Children books can be read in any order—sure, things will mean more if you read them in order of publication (so far, anyway). It’s easier that way to catch allusions, understand the depth of relationships, come close to tracking what Sumi is talking about, etc. But you can get away with skipping around.

But you really need to read this one after Lost in the Moment and Found. It’s the closest thing to a direct sequel that we’ve had in this series. It’s also kind of a follow-up to Where the Drowned Girls Go (and, as always, touches on several others).

This is largely Part II of Antsy’s story—the story is shared by a group of the students (my favorites in the series) on one of those quests they’re not supposed to undertake—and whoops, I’ve started writing the next section.

What’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known About?

Antsy is having a hard time adjusting to life at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, almost as much trouble as she’d be having adjusting to anywhere else on Earth. Part of that comes from not being as honest about her circumstances as she could’ve been—understandably so, I think—which just made everything worse.

Still, there are signs that things may get better, helped a little by Antsy being able to find anything for people. Then Seraphina (who can get anyone—with one or two exceptions—to do what she wants) decides to use her abilities on Antsy to get her to find her Door.

Ansty, Sumi, and some others (I’m not going to name them to keep your interest piqued) manage to slip away using Antsy’s ability to find things and her knowledge of how Doors work, eventually getting back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. Which wasn’t exactly where Antsy wanted to be—and she learns that things there hadn’t gone as expected when she left and a whole new quest develops.

Not About Jim Morrison’s Band

When I wrote about Lost in the Moment and Found earlier this year, I said:

This entry would be a worthwhile read for fans if only for this one thing—we learn more about the Doors and how they work. I’m not going to go into it, obviously, nor am I going to promise that every question you had about the Doors will be answered—actually you’ll likely end up with new questions, but they’ll be informed questions.

That’s true here, too. In fact, we learn so much about them that I almost don’t want to learn anything more about Doors for another 8+ books so they don’t get too demystified. McGuire being McGuire, I know that if she reveals a whole lot more in the next book, I’ll end up repeating everything I said prior to this sentence—and I’ll be happy and equipped with more questions.

Regardless—what we do learn here is fantastic. It both makes utter sense—in the way that maybe we all should’ve guessed it already (maybe some did)—in terms of storytelling, worldbuilding, and more. I wonder what (some of) the students understanding this is going to do to things going forward. If anything.

Future Continuity

Speaking of things going forward, something major is on the way for Eleanor West. It’s been hinted at before, but so many things in this book point to it happening soon (but in Wayward Children-time, it could take 3-4 novellas for us to get to “soon”). I’m eager to see it, as much as I’m dreading what it might mean.

One Quick Character Note

Every protagonist of these novellas—and a significant chunk of the supporting characters—has been wonderful. With the exception of Seraphina and her crew*, I like all the students we’ve met at the School and want to know more about them all.

* I’m waiting for McGuire to decide it’s time to humanize them so we readers will root for even them, and we’ll feel bad for not doing so earlier.

But…from the moment we met her, Sumi’s been a favorite of mine. I should probably use the definite article there, actually. So I’m not unbiased when I say that in Mislaid in Parts Half-Known she is glorious, but she really is. She’s funny, she’s loopy, she’s brave, and she’s wise. Hard as that last one might be to believe. She’s also rather clever and displays that at the end.

The main parts of the story belong to Antsy and a couple of other characters—but Sumi stole every scene she was in and I really just want a few in a row featuring her.

So, what did I think about Mislaid in Parts Half-Known?

This is not my favorite Wayward Children book, but it’s close. There aren’t one or two big emotional moments like there typically are in these (at least not that hit me…your results may vary). But there were a handful of small emotional moments that worked so well—in terms of what happened to someone, how it impacted the other characters, and the way that McGuire wrote them—that I don’t care. It might even be better this way.

The worlds we saw were wonderful—really, you could set an entire fantasy trilogy in them without reference to any other. The world hinted at on the cover, for example, could easily sustain a 1,500-page trilogy full of whimsy and danger.

There’s probably more humor and smile-inducing moments here than several of these books combined sport. Which was a nice bit of fresh air (in a series that really doesn’t need it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not welcome).

Naturally, there are characters we’re not likely to see again due to the nature of these books, and I’m going to miss them. Although the endings they got were well deserved and well executed.

I almost always walk away from a Wayward Children book feeling satisfied and a little in awe of McGuire—I think that feeling is larger this time just because of the number of emotional and story notes she managed to hit, the storylines she was able to incorporate and resolve, the ones she just moved forward, and…everything else in 160 pages. It shouldn’t be possible. This book (like most in the series) is bigger on the inside.

A few paragraphs back, I said that this wasn’t my favorite in the series—but at the moment, I’m having trouble understanding why (but I’m going to trust my earlier impulse). But it is so, so, so good. I’m having trouble coming up with adequate adjectives at this point.

Go get this in January. Order it now (and/or request it from your library). If you haven’t read these books yet, go. At a bare minimum, get the first, Every Heart a Doorway, and then Lost in the Moment and Found, so you can be ready for this one when it’s released. You can catch up on the others later.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Tor Publishing Group via NetGalley—thanks to both for this opportunity. The opinions are all mine.

4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Backpacking Through Bedlam by Seanan McGuire: Now, Where Were We? Oh, Right…

Backpacking Through BedlamBackpacking Through Bedlam

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: InCryptid, #12
Publisher: Daw Books
Publication Date: March 07, 2023
Format: Trade Paperback
Length: 285 pg.
Read Date: March 30-April 3, 2023


Back to the Covenant Story

The first few books of this series featured an ongoing arc concerning the looming threat of an invasion of the Americas by The Covenant of St. George. In the fifth book, Chaos Choreography, Verity basically invited that invasion. In the next book, Antimony went undercover to infiltrate them in order to gather intel on the coming invasion—and we largely abandoned that storyline for the rest of the Antimony-trilogy (the Covenant was around, obviously, but other things seemed far more important most of the time). Then with the next three books, that storyline took a giant backseat and most of the action focused on non-Earthbound species and/or didn’t take place on Earth.

Now that Alice, Thomas, and Sally are back on Earth, we can rejoin the Covenant story, already in progress.

What’s Backpacking Through Bedlam About?

This is precisely what this novel is about—Alice trying to reintroduce Thomas and Sally to Earth (the latter will be far easier since she hasn’t been gone quite as long) while coming to fight alongside Verity’s ragtag “army” in New York to protect the dragon.

Thomas doesn’t have to just remember what Earth is like and catch up on a few decades worth of technological advances, political and cultural changes, etc.—he also has to get used to his wife again. They’ve both grown and changed—yes, still deeply in love and committed to each other. But…they’re not the same people they were when he left.

Meanwhile, Alice has to learn to accept Sally as the not-quite-adult-daughter she’s never met. And Sally has to figure out her place in her new family. All while Verity and the rest of the Prices are going to have to adjust to Thomas actually being alive.

And, yeah, they have to fight a war and protect as many cryptids as they can from the Covenant. Should be a walk in the park, right? Or maybe that’s where the titular Bedlam comes in.

So, what did I think about Backpacking Through Bedlam?

When Verity declared war, I remember being taken aback by it—but also thinking, “all right, now things will get really interesting!” Just for that to be pushed to the background—or not even discussed—for quite some time. After getting over my initial disappointment, I settled in and didn’t have a problem with it, because what we got was plenty entertaining and intriguing on its own—who needed them to be the focus of the antagonism when you had all this other stuff going on?

But, I tell you what, it felt good to get back to this story. I really appreciate that we came back to it as we did, with Alice and the others having to jump in and catch up. This made it easy for the reader to get backstory thrown at us and we didn’t have to go back to the time of Magic for Nothing or thereabouts to see watch the invasion.

This was a solid novel in the series, and I think will serve as a really good way for the next arc to launch—letting us see all the Prices (in one way or another) fighting the Covenant. I don’t have much to say beyond that—InCryptid books bring a lot of snark, a dash of romance, a good amount of action, and some interesting musings on life, family, and what makes a decent person (human or not). That’s what you get in Backpacking through Bedlam.

I have no idea what’s coming next—or who our primary character will be in the next book—and I don’t care. I’m just eager to see it.

This wouldn’t be a bad place to jump on—there’s enough recapping of various and sundry storylines going on that it’s probably the best one since the fifth book (books 1, 3, 5, and now, 12 I think are the optimal jumping-on points). Just know that if you try it, you’re going to want to go back to the beginning.


3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire: Nothing Comes Free

Lost in the Moment and FoundLost in the Moment and Found

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: Wayward Children, #8
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication Date: January 10, 2023
Format: Hardcover
Length:  146 pg.
Read Date: January 12-13, 2023
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org


This ended up being one of those books that I could say almost nothing about or could just as easily have said far too much about. It took me a week and a half just to figure out—I hope—the way to strike the balance.

What’s Lost in the Moment and Found About?

Antoinette (known as Antsy) is a little girl whose life is shattered when her father dies unexpectedly. Her mother quickly remarries for security and her stepfather is the stuff of nightmares. He dismantles her idyllic-sounding childhood, almost removing her from the family. When darker (much darker) things loom, Antsy runs away.

Naturally—well, supernaturally—as this is a Wayward Children book, she’s soon presented with a Door. She steps through it, as sure as someone who isn’t even ten can be. And enters a shop. Unusually for this series, she’s not in a new world—but a shop. The Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be precise.

The shop is managed by an old woman named Vineta and a very large (and talking) magpie named Hudson. In addition to the Shop being the place that Lost Things go—those that are needed by their owners can come be retrieved. There is a Door in the Shop that Antsy can open to other worlds (Antsy’s door, and that of those coming to Find something, appears in a different location)—there’s never any telling what world will be on the other side of the Door. If it looks appealing, Vineta and Antsy will go through and purchase some things to sell in the Shop (and feed themselves), otherwise Antsy will close the door and try again.

At some point, Antsy begins finding ominous notes trying to tell her something—will she figure out what the notes are trying to tell her in time?

Worldbuilding

One of the more entertaining things—for me, anyway—about this series is hearing about worlds that we don’t get to spend time in (or more than a quick glimpse, anyway). Just a brief mention along the way to some other point, and you get to fuel your imagination for a bit. Given this setting—and the way the Shop flits between worlds for Antsy and Vineta to go pick up stock, Lost in the Moment and Found is rife in these glimpses, hints of what else is out there. I had so much fun with that—McGuire’s really created a universe for these stories where she can indulge any whim she has for storytelling and it’d work.

But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about.

This entry would be a worthwhile read for fans if only for this one thing—we learn more about the Doors and how they work. I’m not going to go into it, obviously, nor am I going to promise that every question you had about the Doors will be answered—actually you’ll likely end up with new questions, but they’ll be informed questions.

Depth of Darkness

On the whole, this series hasn’t featured “bad guys”—largely, the antagonists have been people with competing visions for the way things ought to be. People who were trying their best, but who couldn’t understand their children (before and/or after their door)—and so on. A lot of people you don’t want to be around and you don’t want to see have much success as they are, but typically it’s possible to see where they’re coming from and why they do what they do (as much as you might object to it).

But in this book? There are a minimum of two evil characters. People that need to be stopped, and you sort of wish Toby Daye would make a cameo and do what she does best.

McGuire’s painted some bleak circumstances for her Wayward Children—but this seems bleaker (I haven’t spent a lot of time reviewing the older books, so I’m prepared to be corrected) and darker than we’re used to. There’s a period where you can forget that, where it almost feels like Antsy is out for a very long lark and everything will be a fun adventure.

I don’t know if this is a turning point and that we’ll see more books like this in the years to come. I doubt it—I think this is a story that needed to be told, but we’ll be back on more familiar ground—with a more familiar tone—soon.

So, what did I think about Lost in the Moment and Found?

This is clearly a personal story of McGuire (just read the Author’s note that precedes the text) and there’s a rawness to the writing that isn’t typical for this series (or McGuire, period). But it’s oh, so fitting.

I find myself slipping into misconceptions about this series—I enjoy the characters (so many of our protagonists are just loveable), the concept behind the series and West’s school, and so on—it’s easy to remember the nonsense worlds, the joy that characters frequently experience in finding a Door, going home, or leaving home that you forget that almost everyone goes through a Door from our world to get away from something. When I pause to write something like this or describe the series/a particular novella to someone—all of that comes rushing back. Only to be forgotten again until I start reading the next book.* Antsy’s situation is perhaps the most disturbing we’ve seen—and what she ultimately finds in the shop is equally (but in a very different way) unsettling.

* I hope I’m not alone in that, but I have to assume the rest of you are more careful in your reading/remembering.

The novella is not all dire and troubling—there’s a lot of fun to be had as we follow Antsy. The quick excursion to the lost animal department could’ve filled a novella or two. The reader might see some old friends out of the corner of their eye, too. Most importantly, there is hope. That last line is earned (as we’re told time and time again, nothing comes free), and is so reassuring.

Unsurprisingly, I recommend this book—unlike most in the series, I don’t think this would serve as a good entry point. It’s a good number 8 (these are all novellas, so reading eight of them isn’t that big of an investment). It’s raw, it’s unsettling (at the very least), it’s emotional, and it’s full of some of McGuire’s best prose. I’m sure those who’ve read 1-2 (or all seven) others don’t need me to say this, you’ve probably already read them. But for everyone else, it’s time to start reading these books.


4 1/2 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

The Friday 56 for 1/13/23: Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
The Friday 56 Find a snippet, short and sweet.
The Friday 56 Post it.

from Page 56 of:
Lost in the Moment and Found

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

On the other side of the door, where the shop should have been, a jungle stretched all the way to the horizon, fat, round-trunked trees dripping with vines and flowers, their twisting branches reaching for the sky like the spread fingers of enormous hands. Something moved in the deep foliage, and brightly colored birds perched on the vines, clacking their beaks and calling to each other at the sight of her.

It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.

Antsy stepped through the door. Only one foot; she was at least clever enough to leave her other foot solidly on the wooden floor of the thrift store. One of the vast, bright-petaled flowers was close enough for her to lean over and pluck it before retreating back through the door and closing it behind her. The flower didn’t disintegrate when pulled into the thrift store. It remained in her hand, bright and blooming, petals almost the same color as a good, ripe watermelon.

She stared at it, trying to understand how this could be happening.

Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire: It’s Always the Last Place You Look, Right?

Spelunking Through HellSpelunking Through Hell:
A Visitor’s Guide to the Underworld

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: InCryptid, #11
Publisher: DAW
Publication Date: February 28, 2022
Format: Trade Paperback
Length: 267
Read Date: March 14, 2022
Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org

If Thomas is there, if he’s still alive and waiting for me to find him, I can’t make him wait because I’m finally stopping to worry about my own neck. My neck doesn’t matter. My neck made a lot of choices, and none of them said ‘hey, it would be fun to survive a long, long time.’

What’s Spelunking Through Hell About?

Alice Price—grandmother to the primary protagonists of this series—has spent the last fifty years jumping from one dimensional reality to another, seeking her husband who has been taken from her as part of the deal he made with the crossroads. Alice has sacrificed just about everything—her health, almost every waking moment, her children’s childhoods, and her relationship with them, for starters.

Now, given some information Annie was given as she defeated the crossroads recently, Alice knows that the clock is running out, she’s going to have to take some risky and dramatic moves in a last-ditch effort to bring her husband home. Assuming she can find him, that he’s still alive, and interested in coming home, that is.

Alice calls in markers, gets help from several allies, and takes some big—possibly fatal—risks to follow her last theory about where to look.

Hopefully, it’s worth it.

Quo Vadimus

The first five books in the series, while interconnected, felt very stand-aloneish. Then we got Annie trilogy—which started out as something in the same vein, but then shifted into something else, something else that ended up informing this book—and then we had the pretty intense duology about Sarah. Now we have this one, which feels stand-aloneish again, but is also the consummation of things that go back to the beginning.

That’s how the series struck me as I read it, anyway—although between what McGuire has said and a little bit of thinking I’ve done in the last day or so, maybe it’s not the best way to think of things—easier to say from this vantage point. At any rate, this book sure feels like a turning point in the InCryptid series.

So where does the series go from here? Well, it can go back to the whole Covenant of St. George vs. the Prices (and all Cryptids in North America) conflict. Maybe touching base with things in Australia, along the way? It’d be nice if we saw Alex and Shelby again. Maybe there’s more fallout from Annie’s Crossroads takedown or Sarah’s adventures to deal with, too. Or something that seems out-of-nowhere but that McGuire’s been planting seeds for since at least the second book—I put nothing past her.

I realize it’s silly to speculate, but when a book is where a series has been heading for a while, it invites theories about where the series might be going next. Knowing McGuire, the answers are somewhere online already, but I’m going to wait until Book 12 to see.

So, what did I think about Spelunking Through Hell?

The last couple of books just didn’t do as much for me as the earlier books in the series did, I was so glad to get back to the previous levels here (sorry, Sarah!). There’s just so much to commend about this book, and so little to complain about. There was at least one point in the book that was a “Eureka!” moment for me—I couldn’t believe McGuire had tied X into this book. Thirty seconds or so after I got that surprise, I realized I should’ve been expecting it. I’m glad I hadn’t taken the time to think about things so that I would expect it, it’s more fun to get the Eureka.

Alice shares the same quippy attitude as her grandchildren, the same stubborn streak and aptitude for violence—which isn’t that surprising, really, where did I think the kids got it? Still, as has been the case for the other four narrators in the series, while there’s a family resemblance, there are individual distinctives so that you don’t confuse her with the previous narrators.

Inside the crunchy candy shell of quips, magic, trans-dimensional travel, and people fighting for their survival, there’s a chewy center of a very sweet love story. I have no problem with the crunch shell, but like with a Tootsie Pop, the center is what makes it all worth it. The dénouement may be better, however—I know I didn’t get through it with dry eyes.

This is not the book to jump into this series with. Yeah, I’ve said it feels like a stand-alone, which seems like it’d serve as a jumping-on point, but it’s really not. Go back at least to Magic for Nothing, but you’d be best served going back to Discount Armageddon. Just know that when you start (and you really should if you haven’t yet) at one of those points, you’re in for a heckuva ride when you get to this book.


4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Friday 56 for 1/14/21: Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

The Friday 56This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
The Friday 56 Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
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from Page 56 (and a little bit of 57) of:
Where the Drowned Girls Go

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

The matron narrowed her eyes. “Can scarecrows talk?” she repeated, tone clearly implying that there was only one right answer, and it wasn’t the one she expected from Emily.

…Silence and blending into the background were Cora’s forte. She was good at it. But she was also a hero, and heroes didn’t stand idly by while someone smaller was victimized.

“Scarecrows don’t talk,” she scoffed, loudly enough and clearly enough to guarantee she would be overheard. The matron stiffened. Cora acted like she hadn’t noticed, continuing blithely, “They’re just straw stuffed into old potato sacks. If scarecrows could talk, that would mean straw could talk, and if straw could talk, grass would be able to talk, and no one could mow their lawns.”

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire: A Mermaid Saves Herself

Where the Drowned Girls GoWhere the Drowned Girls Go

by Seanan McGuire

DETAILS:
Series: Wayward Children, #7
Publisher: Tor 
Publication Year: 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 150
Read Date: January 10-11, 2022
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And everyone knew that things from the other side of the door could absolutely leak through into this reality. Her hair had been brown, not aquamarine, before she found her fins. Christopher would die without his flute—literally die. Seraphina was the kind of beautiful that stopped hearts, and everyone who’d seen pictures of her from before her travels said that she hadn’t always been like that. She’d been attractive, not impossible. The doors made changes. The doors stayed with you.

What’s Where the Drowned Girls Go About?

Things have gone poorly for Cora since her return from the Moors, and things are getting worse for her. She’s now afraid of getting a door—because it might not lead to the world she wants. So now that “other school” starts to sound appealing to her. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to feel at home in this world—it’s certainly better than one of the alternatives. There’s no way that she’ll get those tools at this school (as much as she likes/loves her friends).

So she talks West into transferring her—and regrets the decision before the ink is dried. Still, she sets out to make the best of a bad situation—it’s still going to get her the results she’s been desiring, just not in a pleasant way.

Cora tackles the situation in a “no pain, no gain” manner. West’s school wasn’t helping (at least not the way she wanted), the Whitethorn Institute isn’t going to save her, it’s up to Cora to save herself.

Whitethorn Institute

“You’ve always said that there was a second school.”

Eleanor pulled her hands away. “The Whitethorn Institute. Cora, you can’t intend—”

“You said they steal your students sometimes. That when you’re not fast enough, or when the children are having a harder time adapting to life in this reality, that sometimes Whitethorn gets there first.” She sat up straight, giving Eleanor a challenging look. “You said it was where students go when they want to believe that everything that happened on the other side of the door was just a dream, or a delusion, and not a real thing at all.”

We’ve known about “the other school” for children who come back through their doors into our world—one for those who didn’t want to see their doors again, one for those who want to feel at home in this world. But this is the first time we’ve seen it.

It is not a nice place to be.

That’s about all I feel comfortable about saying—you’ll need to read the book to see how it’s not a nice place to be. I get that (especially as the series takes a pro-Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children stance) it’s not going to seem as nice, welcoming, and affirming as the school we’re used to. I expected that this school would come across as wanting, not just in contrast, but objectively,

But I think McGuire approached that idea in a lazy manner. It’s too obviously a bad environment. She had the chance to go subtle, and she didn’t take it. I kept thinking, “Oh, she’s making a commentary about X or Y” in the real world—but she was doing so with too broad a brush, and it’d end up applying to things she didn’t mean to attack.

Still, if you’re looking to make an establishment a villain, she did an effective job. I think it’d have been more interesting—and more fitting with the series—if there’d been more nuance to it. Give the readers a second school that has differing goals from the Home for Wayward Children, but let us respect them while disagreeing—then you’ve got something. Instead, we get an institution that might as well be twirling its mustache.

Regan

It’s not just Cora that we see here, Regan’s also came to this school after returning from the Hooflands. I appreciated that. I didn’t think we had enough of Regan—but it didn’t feel like the character would be showing up at West’s.

So, what did I think about Where the Drowned Girls Go?

McGuire is simply one of the best around—and this world she’s created in this series is just wonderful and I really enjoy all the time I spend in it. But this book seemed to be missing something. The previous books in the series all left the possibility open to revisiting the world on the other side of the door, the POV character, and so on—while telling a complete story.

This novel is also a complete story—but it feels (at least to me) too much like a Part One of at least a two-parter (if not three). And I think the book suffered from it. When we get to that second part, I might change my mind about this book, but now it just feels incomplete. Add in my problems with the presentation of Whitethorn and it makes for a less-satisfying read than I’m used to for this series.

I still recommend it as a read—you’re instantly sucked into this world, it’s fantastic to get a look at Whitethorn (if nothing else); the story of Cora, Regan, and the others is well-worth telling and reading; and McGuire’s language and imagination in this series are always fascinating. I just wanted more of this good thing.


3.5 Stars

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My Favorite Non-Crime Fiction of 2021

2021 Favorite Non-Crime
Back when I started this site, I knew the content would be largely “genre”-oriented. I’d have wagered the content would be roughly 1/3 Mystery/Detective fiction, 1/3 Urban Fantasy, and slightly less than 1/3 SFF, with “non-genre” fiction, humor, and non-fiction being enough to make my one-thirds just an approximation (honestly, if you asked me what I read regularly, that’s pretty much how I’d describe it today). Actual numbers show that’s wrong—it’s almost 40% Crime/Thriller Fiction, and Urban Fantasy has only topped 20% once in the last decade—it was 16% the last two years, SFF combined for about 14% in 2021.

Which is just a long-winded way to get to these two points: because Crime Fiction takes such a big chunk of my reading, it gets its own “Favorite” list, but none of the others really garner enough numbers for their own.

As always, re-reads don’t count—only the works that were new to me.

(in alphabetical order by author)

We Could Be Heroes

by Mike Chen

My original post
A super-hero and a super-villain become friends after meeting (as civilians) at a support group meeting and delve into their shared past to figure out how they got their powers and who they used to be. That old story. 🙂 In typical Chen fashion, the SF/super-hero elements are just an excuse to tell a story about friendship, memory, and identity. It’s a story about people, who just happen to be super-powered.

4 Stars

LoveLove

by Roddy Doyle

My original post
This is about as close as you can get to a novel without a plot. You’ve got a pair of old friends, getting together for drinks (many, many drinks) and to catch up on each other’s lives. They end up revisiting their past (as you do), arguing about what really happened then, and seeing how it’s impacted where they are now. There’s more to it, but that’ll do for our purposes. The novel is primarily told through dialogue (although we do get memories and internal commentary from one of the men). As is to be expected from Doyle, that dialogue sings. You can practically hear it jump off of the page–I’m not sure I could conjure up a mental image of anyone in the book, but I know exactly what they’d sound like.

4 Stars

Tom Jones Original CoverThe History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

by Henry Fielding

My wrap-up post for the project
I read most of this in 2020, but didn’t finish it until 2021, so it goes on this list. Just for the (mostly rewarding) time spent on this book, it deserves a spot on this list. It’s not really the kind of book I thought it would be, but it’s so much more interesting. I’ve said enough about this book, I don’t really have it in me for more–it’s a classic, anyway, what can I say that hasn’t been said for hundreds of years?

5 Stars

All the Lonely PeopleAll the Lonely People

by Mike Gayle

My original post
This is nothing but an all-out attack on the cockles of your heart. I described it to a friend, “Imagine a book by Fredrick Backman–but instead of a crotchety old Swedish man, it’s about a lonely man who left Kingston for London in the 50s.” It’s so heartwarming, so Capra-esque, so…eh, you get the point.

5 Stars

Not AwkwardNot Awkward

by Matthew Hanover

My original post
Hanover’s third Wallflowers novel came out last year and shows real growth as a writer, while not losing any of the charm, heart, and likability of his previous novels. Just before his wedding, Scott goes to the funeral for his ex’s father, and somehow ends up spending a few days with the family. Not Awkward is a warm and heart-filled story about revisiting the past, finding healing (whether or not you thought you needed it), and embracing a future that doesn’t look like you expected it would (and is probably better). It’s the kind of book that’ll make you feel a little better about life for a while—and who doesn’t want to read something like that?

4 1/2 Stars

RisenRisen

by Benedict Jacka

My original post
The twelfth and final book in the Alex Verus series blew me away. It’s one of the best series finales I remember reading. It was hard to say good-bye to this world and these characters, but Jacka did such a satisfying job with this novel that it took some of the sting out of it.

5 Stars

When Sorrows ComeWhen Sorrows Come

by When Sorrows Come

by Seanan McGuire

My original post
If (and that feels like a big “if”) October Day is going to get a Happily Ever After, it’s going to be years down the road. Thankfully, she got a “Happy Right Now” by marrying Tybalt. That’s pretty much what this novel is–a big dollop of happiness (with Toby putting down a palace coup along the way). It was so nice seeing that.

5 Stars

Headphones and HeartachesHeadphones and Heartaches

by Wesley Parker

My original post
Percy’s a teen who gets put into Foster Care after his mother’s latest OD. While she’s in a treatment program, Percy comes to trust and love his foster mother–a woman with a huge heart, who takes in this boy and gives him a safe place to be for the first time in his life. This is a sweet book, a touching book—an occasionally hilarious book (with some truly cringe-worthy beats)—I guess it’s best summed up as a very human book. Parker got me to feel all sorts of things for these characters, to a degree I didn’t expect or was prepared for.

5 Stars

PurePure

by Jo Perry

My original post
(sure, you could make the case that this is Crime Fiction, but I don’t buy it) After Ascher gets quarantined in her late aunt’s retirement condo during the early days of COVID. She sneaks around volunteering for a Jewish Burial Society, and then becomes convinced that one of the women she helped with was the victim of foul play. So Ascher tries to figure out what happened and who is responsible–again, while sneaking around the retirement community’s quarantine. This is a mystery novel about something—it’s more than a whodunit (assuming there was something for a “who” to have “dun”). It, like pretty much everything Perry writes, is about death and how we deal with it as humans (and one neurotic and grieving Mini-Pinscher). THere’s more to chew on, too, but that’d be telling…

This is one that’s going to stay with me for a while.

4 Stars

In Ten YearsIn Ten Years

by Ian Shane

My original post
A contemporary When Harry Met Sally that makes me just as happy as the movie ever did. Tried and true plotlines that felt fresh thanks to Shane’s light touch and ear for dialogue. It contains what’s probably my favorite chapter of 2021–and more than a couple of my favorite lines. I wanted to race through it to see how it ended, and I wanted to slow down to savor it (the impulse control side lost–what do you expect from someone who tagged himself “Irresponsible”?).

5 Stars

My Favorite Audiobooks of 2021

My Favorite Audiobooks of 2021
Last year I kicked off my Year-End Retrospective with a look at my favorite audiobooks, I might as well repeat that this year. How do I keep this from being just a rehash of my other year-end lists? By focusing on the audiobook experience over the content. What was it like to listen to it? How engaging was it, how did the narrator do? Was it a good match in terms of tone, content, and performance? All of these books are/were good—but the audiobooks are a bit better because of the narrator and the rest of the people involved in the production.

(in alphabetical order by author)

The Hum and the ShiverThe Hum and the Shiver

by Alex Bledsoe, Emily Janice Card(Narrator), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

This was my third or fourth trip through this book (maybe, fifth, but I don’t think so). I’m not sure if that means it was easy for me to be impressed—or maybe it was really hard because I had high expectations. Regardless, Rudnicki and Card took me to Cloud County and the land of the Tufa. I could believe that these people lived, breathed, and walked around in this world—and yet were otherworldly, as they ought to be. I knew Rudnicki could make me believe in a Fantasy world—it turns out that he can make me believe in this one, too. Card was right there with him.

4 Stars

Finlay Donovan Is Killing ItFinlay Donovan Is Killing It

by Elle Cosimano, Angela Dawe (Narration)

My original post
This is on the list because of Dawe’s narration. The text was entertaining enough, sure, but her narration is what made sure I remembered the book during the list-making time. The novel was a tricky balancing act between the various tones and characters, and Dawe makes you believe it. She captured the comedic sense of the novel along with the tension and emotional moments. There were a few accents involved and she did a believable job with them, too.

3.5 Stars

A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim CurryA Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry

by Charles Dickens, Tim Curry (Narrator)

My original post
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: all you need to know about this is: Tim Curry. This wasn’t the performance I expected—I figured I was in for something near to over-the-top, with Curry going to town with the text. Instead, we’re treated to a respectful, restrained performance giving Dickens’ classic just the right emotional weight, sentimentality, personality, and life.

5 Stars

This Bright FutureIn This Bright Future

by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator)

My original post
Grainger and Jackson together have made this one of my Top 3 audiobook series, period. So my only question was how many of the books would end up on this list. I ended up limiting myself to one, and therefore it had to be this one—we get so little of our typical characters and settings, but Jackson is able to make Belfast as warm and homey as King’s Lake. There are elevated dangers and emotions in this book that we don’t typically get with D.C. Smith, but Jackson doesn’t miss a beat. Grainger puts D.C. through his paces, too. Both are at the top of their game—making D.C. at the top of his, too.

4 Stars

Ink & SigilInk & Sigil

by Kevin Hearne, Luke Daniels (Narrator)

Even though a pro like Luke Daniels is constantly doing voices/accents for his characters and the narration is almost never his “natural” voice (assuming he even has one anymore), I have to think that maintaining a Glaswegian accent for as long as he did for this book (ten hours and change, I think) has to be an added level of difficulty. Not that you can tell from listening to this. I thought the novel was a rollicking good time and just the way you should introduce a new series. The audiobook version just cemented that.

4 1/2 Stars

The Unkindest TideThe Unkindest Tide

by Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal (Narrator)

This novel was the payoff (as far as we know so far, I wouldn’t put it past McGuire to turn it upside down later) to a storyline that had been lingering and building for years, I remember being stunned when reading it—just that aspect of The Unkindest Tide brought a great combination of anticipation, grief, suspense, and surprise. The story of the novel—the trip to the Duchy of Ships, the intrigue around Dianda, etc. was as solid as it gets, too. I remembered all this going in, so it was all teed up for Kowal—and she nailed it, it almost felt like I hadn’t read the book before and was discovering it fresh. A narrator who can do that is tops in my book.

4 1/2 Stars

We Had a Little Real Estate ProblemWe Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy

by Kliph Nesteroff

My original post
As I was trimming down the list of audiobooks I listened to last year for this list, I didn’t expect that this would stay on the list. A history of Native Americans in Comedy, really? But I kept not deleting it…so I started thinking of it—there’s a social history, an entertainment history, with individual profiles mixed it—it has it all. What’s more, despite a pretty dry (but never boring) narration, and not using clips of original performances, the comedy of these individuals comes through. In the midst of hardship, suffering, prejudice, and hard breaks, there are some solid laughs. It’s hard not to keep thinking about that.

4 Stars

Percy Jackson's Greek GodsPercy Jackson’s Greek Gods

by Rick Riordan, Jesse Bernstein (Narrator)

I started working on a post last year about contemporary myth retellings (and I intend on finishing it before my unconceived grandkids are ready to read it), and listened to this as part of that. In many ways, the book and the information didn’t fare well compared to things like Gaiman and Fry have recently produced. But this is here and they’re not—because as an audiobook this is a great experience. Bernstein is Percy Jackson here, and it felt like something ol’ Percy was sitting down and relating to future Camp Halfblood residents. It inspired me to listen to the original Percy Jackson series again just so I can listen to Bernstein perform this character.

3 Stars

You'll Never Believe What Happened to LaceyYou’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism

by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar

My original post
I’m still telling people about this audiobook/book nine months later. I can’t think of a book that made me angrier, sadder, or made me laugh as much in 2021 (or a few years before it, either). This did all three. Ruffin’s narration, Lamar’s stories, their hurt, and their optimism make this a must-listen.

4 1/2 Stars

The Salvage CrewThe Salvage Crew

by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Nathan Fillion (Narrator)

My original post
This is a very strange SF story about a sentient AI (based on the memories and personality of an engineer). I think I’d have enjoyed the story had I read the novel, but it’s Nathan Fillion that brought it to life. That same charm that makes you like Caleb, Mal, Castle, and Nolan shines forth and makes you believe in this malfunctioning (at least eccentrically-functioning) AI and get invested in the AI’s survival and that of his ragtag crew.

4 Stars

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