A review by librarymouse
Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

adventurous emotional funny reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

My first thought when I finished this book was " what a beautiful book about the things that you lose when you leave," and while the story is a lot more nuanced than that, I stand by the fact that I think it's beautiful. A large portion of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is about not only what you lose when you leave, but what you lose when you leave, come back, and leave again. It's about bonds and what it really means to be sure that you want to stay in a place that also requires sacrifice. As somebody who experiences a lot of decision paralysis around mak ng choices that hinge on the possibility of losing those I hold dear, Seanan McGuire's Portal fantasy holds a unique place in my heart. These characters have returned from or been returned by the worlds that called to them to offer them a possible alternative to a life that doesn't fit. They find a sense of home, if not quite the reality of home in Eleanor's school, and they find family with each other. To be sure is to have to sacrifice family they've found in the world of their birth. I really enjoyed this as a continuation of Antsy's story. It offers a sense of finality to the open-endedness of her storyline in the previous book in the series, and it gives a clearer sense of understanding of how the doors work. Earlier on in the series, the characters believe, and therefore readers are led to believe that the doors open to a world that is perfect for the children that open them. My perception is complicated by Kade's experience in Prism, but it still holds within the rhetoric of the students' group therapy and their desperation to get home.

I really loved getting to know Emily better in this book 

The major contribution that this book has given to the series, going forward, is the confidence the featured characters have that if they are sure enough that they want to go home and they are ready to leave behind the world of their birth, that their world will open back up to them. The other major thing added by Antsy's story is the toll the doors take. After the introduction of world hopping in Beneath the Sugared Sky, the heartbreak of Antsy's story, aging without the knowledge of the cost of opening the doors is necessary to show why they can't just hop in and out of their world and others as easily as Roni did with her candy jewelry. Its reiterates the gravity edition of the choice they must make. That being said, I'm glad Cora got to say goodbye. I hope we see her again soon.


One of the things that I find interesting and admira le about the way that Seanan McGuire writes, is how she is able to integrate very tender and often vulneravle moments like coming out narratives, bigotry, and discussions of the impact of bullying with direct vocabulary into these stories without making those moments and conversations seem out of place. Nancy's coming out was the first time I saw an asexual person in a piece of media, who was respected as is. She was the first time I saw myself and my identity that wasn't as the butt of a joke. Cora's portrayal on the page makes me remember how sensitive I was as a young child, hitting puberty before my peers, and being constantly aware and reminded of how the size and shape of my body differed from the norm - how even as I've trended towards average as my peers caught up, the anxiety of being ridiculed or perceived as taking up too much space still remains.
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