Reviews with content warning for Grief - Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

I will read this series forever. Every entry continues to be wild and unique and riveting and I am glad this particular installment was a return to a group of already lover characters

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leanniefae's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This is one of my favorite series, with this installment no exception. We learn a little about all our beloved characters in this book, though as the author stated, this is the continuation of Antsy's story. I'm SO glad we got more about Antsy, and I feel good about her progress and where she was at the end of the story. Knowing what Seanan said online about the dinosaurs cover, I feel that we were given the perfect amount of dinosaurs, though I understand that some would want more.
My prediction is that we go to Mariposa next for Christopher. We shall see!

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kadtide's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I would say that a main theme of the book is finding closure, something that has always been at the core of the series. This is not the end of the series, but it is an ending for some of the characters and those endings are beautifully written, with the time and care they need to get to where they need to be.

I had a hard time with Antsy's story in Lost in the Moment and Found due to the specific themes of the story, but my main takeaway was "I like this character and I want to see where she goes from here." This book did not disappoint- I loved her too-young-too-old grown-up-too-fast childish righteousness, and I appreciated the way

she was able to confront her past and find certainty in her home. While I'll miss her in future stories, I think her story was very strong as is and I'm glad she ended up where she belongs.

Some thoughts on the other characters:

Seraphina:

Based on the book description I first saw I was honestly expecting her to be a more major part of the plot, not just the driving force. I'm not disappointed though, although I am a bit curious as to what (if any) role she'll take on in the future.

Kade:

I think it's very cool that we got to see Prism, however briefly. Kade's story is one I know is coming at the end, and I like how it's told in bits and pieces (and usually the same bits and pieces, just told in slightly different ways). I look forward to seeing how he reacts to Sumi's revelation that the goblins reportedly want him back as their prince.

Sumi:

She brings such a unique and special energy to these books and I love her for it. She's someone I would hate to know in real life, but she works so well within the story. I think her Nonsense provides a much-needed balance- she's both chaos incarnate, yet sometimes arguably the most rational in the moment.

Cora:

my beloved Cora! The epilogue hit me hard when I realized what it meant. I love the juxtaposition between her and Antsy, who both enter the narrative partway through and leave in the same story, but while Cora's journey is long and spans several books, Antsy's is much shorter. These two work so well as not a pair so much as briefly intersecting lines. Cora has had such a beautiful, wonderful journey over the course of this series, and I'm so happy for her that she's finally going home, even as I'm so sad to see her go. The timing was perfect for her.

The Whitethorn cast:

My absolute favorite character in the entire series is Marian, but I am neither surprised nor bothered that she doesn't make much of an appearance. Regan as well, I feel like the two of them have had their time and it makes sense for both of them to have the chance to step back from the narrative.

I am very glad we got to see more of both Emily and Stephanie- they didn't have the same sense of closure at the end of Where the Drowned Girls Go as Marian, and I am happy to see Emily's story continue as she joins the questers and to get a stronger sense of Stephanie's conclusion and what that means for her. Stephanie and her dinosaurs were only briefly in the story, but it felt true to her character. Meanwhile Emily is a wonderful addition to the core group of the series- I loved her interactions with Yulia and Antsy (being the only one to recognize her younger age, and relating it back to Rowena!!) She is gentle and passionate and fierce in her own way and I'm excited to see where her story leads.

Christopher:

I don't have much to say here, but that isn't really a bad thing. He takes a little bit of a back seat in this book, just because he's offscreen for a bit more of it than in the past, though it feels right for him. He has been a central enough part of the story so far that I'm sure he'll have a satisfying narrative in the end, and I'm willing to wait for it.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I do need to reread some of the earlier ones since I'm sure part of this is recency bias speaking, but I think this one is among my favorites so far.

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anni_swanilda's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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twoweeeeks's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.0

"The door wasn’t there because you have any obligations left to these people, or this world. It was there because sometimes people can’t let go of who they thought we were, and so they keep trying to tangle us in nets and drag us back. That doesn’t mean we have to go. Or if we do go, that doesn’t mean we have to stay."

I received a digital Arc from Netgalley and Tor in exchange for an honest review! The quotes are taken from the Arc and are subject to changes!

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is a direct sequel to Lost in the Moment and Found! It follows Antsy as she settles into Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children following the events of the previous book. Antsy's still struggling with the years that have been stolen from her, as she's not the age she looks like and is scared everyone else will notice. Luckily, she's got new friends on her side, including Cora, Christopher, Kaede and Sumi! I really liked seeing them again and loved how they were looking out for Antsy all this time. She might be able to find the doors - as she's got a knack for finding lost things - and in a school full of people desperate to go back to their worlds, this could cause a lot of problems.

The main theme of the book is breaking the cycle of abuse and hurt! I liked how the author picked Antsy's story back up and had her face the Shop of Lost Things again, including the shopkeeper who stole all these years from her. Anty's adamant that her successor should make an informed choice about whether to open the doors, as they cost time every time you open them. Vineta is still using young children and trying to justify it by saying that she didn't have it any better. There's a big emphasis on being hurt in the past not being an excuse to do the same to someone else. Having suffered doesn't mean you can inflict pain on others - Antsy knows this better than anyone.

"Those travellers learned not only what it meant to be mislaid, but what it meant to become so fundamentally and foundationally unanchored from who they had originally been that they could no longer find their way back to that person."

The novella sadly felt a bit unfocused and all over the place. I much preferred Lost in the Moment and Found and Where the Drowned Girls Go, as they had a clear goal. In the beginning, there was even another antagonist who wanted to use Antsy's powers but they quickly got dropped and their story got wrapped up so quickly in the end. There's also a time skip right in the beginning, as the events of Where the Drowned Girls Go take place, which felt a bit jarring. The actual dinosaur world that's depicted on the cover only gets a small amount of page time and I wish we'd seen a novella completely about it because Stephanie was a great character and her world so interesting. It feels a bit misleading to have the dinosaur on the cover since it's not what the story is about.

I'm also sad that we'll probably never get a novella about Kaede, as the biggest part about his character - facing Prism after it threw him out for being trans - is used here. I liked seeing this conflict about Kaede being forced back into the world that rejected him, but I'm so sad it was barely explored because the story had its focus elsewhere. I wish this had gotten some proper attention and not been thrown into this novella.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

This is the one with dinosaurs! It's excellent, and if you've been enjoying the series so far you'll love this too. Antsy is trying to make it so no other kids get tricked out of their childhoods by unknowingly paying for too many doors, but this time she has some help from Kade, Sumi, and the others.

For a school where “No Quests” adorns the door, the students at the school for Wayward Children sure do get up to a lot of quests. A core group with a slowly shifting cast has been established as traveling to try and fix things on a semi-regular basis. In MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN, some of the kids figure out that Antsy’s gift for finding lost things might let her find their doors... whereupon trouble ensues. Kade, Sumi, Cora, Emily, and Christopher travel with Antsy to try and set things right which were left broken when she fled the Store at the end of LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND. The worldbuilding has been getting more complicated as they learn more about what's happening. Eleanor's assumptions about the students have started having more to do with her desire for Nonsense than their actual experiences, and it's getting to a point where it's affecting the room assignments. This continues several storylines which were begun earlier, creating what feels like an entirely new storyline through recombination of older threads, even though as each piece was something introduced earlier. This far into the series, that’s an excellent feeling, making the adventure feel both fresh and familiar even on a first read-through. A particular problem in the Store is both introduced and resolved, and several more tangles either arise or are addressed. As a story about nexuses and connections, it’s especially nice to reach a point where everything feels so connected to everything else that it’s a complicated tangle to explain the setup, which for me is one of the joys of a long-running series.

MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN could partly make sense to someone who starts here, but if such a person wanted to jump in midway without starting at the beginning of the series, LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND (the previous book) would be a much better entry point. That reader would find themselves knowing as much as Antsy does about what’s happening, which is a comprehensible perspective even if it misses earlier portions of the ongoing story. I particularly enjoyed some moments with Kade and Sumi (both separately and together). This felt like an ensemble cast in a way that earlier books didn't, and it's wonderful to be at the point in the series where the focus can smoothly shift between characters as needed.

This entry is great, don't miss it! This series is consistently excellent and I'm eager to read what happens next.

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