Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Where the Drowned Girls Go

What I liked most about this book was that it explores and goes into the dark side of having a door and the consequences. Not all doors leave you wanting to go back. Some leave you in horror or even with PTSD symptoms, bitter, and angry. Some doors take more from you than you’d expect. I wonder if this was a lead up to the next installments. There’s no way you can introduce the new school, Whitethorne, and a new character/ role and not expand more! This installment focuses on Cora and discussed topics such as; fat phobia, suicidal ideation and attempts. This is not one of the feel good magical Wayward Children stories we’ve had in the past.

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constellation_library's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It follows Cora, who we've seen in a previous book, and she is dealing with hearing voices of gods from one of the worlds she has visited, calling her to come back, but it isn't her world, so she doesn't want to go. She ends up transferring out of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children to a place called Whitethorne Institute that is essentially the opposite of West's home, and instead of validating the experiences of those children who went to other worlds and holding space for them to maybe return, Whitethorne Institute is all about reintegration into "normal society" through denial that the doors and worlds the children visited were real. Cora chooses to enroll in this school because she wants to block out and forget about the gods that speak to her, but she discovers that Whitethorne is not what it seems.

This was a good read, but not my favorite of the series by far. I think it probably ranks just above Across the Green Grass Fields, which is my least favorite of the bunch. The story was definitely different from what we usually read, which I do think was a nice change up, but some of the characters were really annoying to me, which made it hard for me to care about them, and the logic the MC was using was so flawed from the start, that I just could not buy into it. There was also flippant discussion of suicide, which while I feel that it was necessary and drove a point home that needed driven there, it still made me super uncomfy. There was also a lot of fatphobia from characters adjacent to the MC, and even though it was addressed and addressed well, it was incessant and was just difficult to read over and over again.

The atmosphere was well done, the story's pace moved right along, and the plot was enough to maintain my interest. I listened to it on audiobook and the four hour length was nice and snappy. I was also pleased to see some familiar faces apart from the MC in the story, and I am excited to see what the next adventure is for the Wayward children.

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adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Cora can't stop hearing the Drowned Gods and wants to escape their oil-slick rainbows on her skin. She transfers to Whitethorn Academy in the hopes that it'll be better to forget, but it turns out conversion therapy for kids returned from portals doesn't work any better than the other kind.

Cora is a mermaid even if her scales aren't on the outside right now, but because of some previous events she's currently a mermaid who is having trouble being in the water. The stress of this drives her to think that being severed from both the Drowned Gods and from her Trenches-derived mermaid nature altogether might be better than having both and being haunted by nightmares. She's fat and comfortable in her own skin, the descriptions of fatphobia in the narrative are about how other people are seeing her and assuming things, and she's rejecting those assertions. Fatphobia is just one facet of the food control at Whitethorn, but it's the one she feels most keenly.

Cora doesn’t get to know the other girls very well and that feels purposeful in the narrative. No one at the school is there to bond, they’re there to forget and break in a way that fits the Academy’s version of the world. This gradually changes, especially once a new student appears and they both run into Regan (the protagonist of ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS).

The world of Whitethorn Academy is at least partly modeled after “conversion therapy”, which is a euphemist term for the practice of emotionally and physically torturing people (usually children) until they stop exhibiting some “undesirable” behavior (specifically that of being queer). At Whitethorn, the undesirable behavior is anything having to do with the doors. There are a lot of little subtle things that I appreciate about this manner of worldbuilding, but due to what it’s copying a detailed description would likely be very triggering. The big one I will comment on is that Cora notices that almost all the faculty were former Whitethorn students, because the way in which the school breaks them makes them detached from their doors but also ill-suited for the normal world outside. There’s a lot of little things like that which make for a chilling read, forming a complete vision of a place which takes pleasure in breaking children, but told in a way that makes it clear at every moment that this is a horrible thing.

This continues Cora’s story from her appearances in previous books, as well as showing Regan who was introduced in ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS. There's a new storyline which revolves around the continuing effects on Cora from her time spent with the Drowned Gods, and her attempt to break their hold by going to Whitethorn. A big thing is introduced and resolved, but this was just the introduction for Whitethorn Academy and I’m sure we’ll get more in the future. It set up a lot of fascinating things about that school and the contrast between their mission and Eleanor’s. Cora is a new narrator in the series and her voice is distinct from the previous ones. This book is a turning point in the series and might be a bit much for someone to try and start here. It relies in a basic understanding of the doors and why someone might want to either return or forget, so it’s definitely better to start with the first book instead. The ending is well done, with a bittersweet mix of triumph and terror. I'm very excited for whatever's next, this introduced several new characters and I'd love to see their doors.

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