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bluejayreads's review
adventurous
emotional
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 want to know what witch, demon, deity, or other supernatural being Seanan McGuire sold her soul to in order to make her writing this relatable, but I swear each Wayward Children book is more relatable than the last. This one is a standalone, with the same concept of children falling through doors to other worlds but none of the reoccurring characters from the previous books, but I enjoyed it just as it was.
If you're familiar with the idea behind Wayward Children, every kid has some reason that they "need" to go through a door. Regan is having trouble with feeling like she doesn't fit in and a friend group that's not exactly healthy. When she reveals to the girl she thought was her best friend that the reason she hasn't been going through puberty is that she's intersex, the resulting fallout brings her to a door in the woods. She ends up in the Hooflands, magical world of centaurs and unicorns and kelpies and fauns and all manner of hooved fantasy creatures, a wonderful place for a horse-obsessed ten-year-old girl to be. There, she finds what she needs - people who love her not in spite of her differences, but because of them, a place where she doesn't have to worry about being a certain way in order to fit in and be loved.
I say this about every Wayward Children protagonist, but Regan was incredibly relatable. I didn't go to a school, but I went to homeschool group where I had a friend who, like Regan's "best friend," I let isolate me from other people I could have been friends with so I could stay friends with her. I always felt like I wasn't normal, like I didn't fit, like people needed me to be something else or someone else in order to like me. I completely related to Regan's feeling of being alone and lonely despite having peple around her who ostensibly loved her. And I loved horses as a kid, too - perhaps if I'd gone through a magical door, I would also have ended up in the Hooflands.
Also, this book has some great insights. It wrestles with the question of "how do we determine who are people and who aren't?" throughout the story, and the representation of the way adults and children relate to each other was spot-on and incredibly insightful. Seanan McGuire captures the child's perspective on things so well, it's stunning.
One thing that you have to remember about Wayward Children books is that, fundamentally, these are not happy stories. These magic worlds give the children what they need, but then they spit the children back out into our world and expect them live in normalcy after experiencing magic. These are books about what happens after you have your adventure and return home to find you no longer fit into the place you left and there's not a spot for you now. This book ripped my heart out. It was so, so good. I adore this series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying and Kidnapping
Minor: Animal death and Gore
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