This was the first book in a while that got me genuinely excited about this series again! I thought it expanded the worldbuilding in interesting ways by having Cora experience the Whitethorn school and all the potential plot avenues that open from there but I wished the final section of action had started a little sooner so that things didn't feel quite so abrupt at the very end.

The Wayward Children series has quickly become one of my most read series, and I’m committed to stick with it until the end (though, secretly, I hope there never is an end).

Where the Drowned Girls Go focuses mainly on Cora who we meet in a couple of the earlier books (please don’t ask me which ones lol) and her journey to re-adapt to our world after her experience with three different doors.

I will say this – while the previous book Across the Green Grass Fields can absolutely be read as a standalone without any previous knowledge of the series, the same can’t be said for this one. I think if you started with Where the Drowned Girls Go or Across the Green Grass Fields you would be a bit confused by references in this book – especially as this isn’t the first we hear about Cora’s journey. But it is a series of novellas after all so wouldn’t take long to catch up on all the adventures!

I really like Cora as a character and think she’s a fab addition to the series – I just find her very believable as a human being and think it’s easy to empathise with her. I find she has a really nice grounding presence, particularly amongst some of the more other zany characters we meet.

As is the case with novellas, the story moves quite quickly but I did find that it sped up towards the end and found myself wishing that the ‘action’ had started a bit earlier or there had been 20-30 more pages just because towards the end it felt a bit rushed.

The premise of Whitethorn Academy and the Headmaster are so interesting, I really hope this isn’t the last we see of them because I was so intrigued I need to know more. While I appreciate a lot of the revelations and action being left until the end, I do wish we’d gotten a bit more of the creepy atmosphere as I think there was so much more that could have been explored around the other students, and the history of the academy.

This instalment has me really looking forward to the future books – especially if we continue to learn about Whitethorn Academy and their approach in comparison with Eleanor West’s School, as it opens up the world so much more. Also if we don’t revisit it, it will make this instalment seem a little bit like unnecessary filler which will bum me out a bit, as I really like Cora as a character and want to know more about her journey.

I received a free digital ARC from Macmillan/Tor via NetGalley. In this 7th installment in the Wayward Children’s series, Cora asks to leave Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children for the Whitehorn Institute because they have been touted as able to help her forget all the memories that are keeping her unhappy in this world. Cora meets some new children struggling in this world and together they must decide what is best for each of them.

Each installment in this series is an emotional roller coaster of personal pain and realization that draws the reader in. I was happy to see some reoccurring characters from previous books make satisfying appearances. Overall, a good read, but another volume where I’m anxiously awaiting more stories that are only slowly rolling out and developing.

Where the Drowned Girls Go is the seventh installment in Senan McGuire’s Wayward Children series of portal fantasy novellas. In this story we are reacquainted with Cora, a mermaid from a world known as The Trenches introduced in one of the previous stories. She finds herself at The Whitethorn Institute – a school that is the complete opposite of Elenaore West’s – one where there are strict rules and is run more like a prison than an educational establishment. I really enjoyed this one! It was so refreshing to be introduced to a new setting, new characters and more world-building. I’m excited to see where the next installment takes us – especially as this one offered a bit of a cliff-hanger! Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for letting me read this amazing ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The seventh entry in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children’s series is one I’ve been waiting for with great anticipation. In fact, one of my favorite things about the new year is knowing these novella sized adventures are on their way soon.
While not a perfect entry into the series (I recommend any of the even numbered titles if you don’t start with Every Heart a Doorway), I was pleasantly surprised how well this followed the events of Come Tumbling Down. For those not familiar with the series, the Wayward Children titles are stories about what happens to the children who find doors that lead them to other worlds (think Lucy Pevensie) after they return to ours.
Our favorite mermaid, Cora, is the protagonist this time around, and is suffering from one of the events of book 6. No longer content waiting for the Trenches, and trying desperately to escape the voices that are haunting her, she makes the choice to transfer to The Whitehorn Institute, a place she believes will finally bring her peace. What she finds, however, isn’t what she expects. The Whitehorn Institute is cold, devoid of feeling and hellbent on breaking the spirits of the young travelers who enter its halls. Here, you are expected to leave your past behind and let go of your adventures… or face consequences.
I loved Cora’s progression through this title, and how she works her way from fear to strength- the arc feels natural and the world building for the “real” world is vastly expanded here. This is the first of the Wayward Children books to take place entirely in our world, but I don’t feel like it suffers for it. Not only that, but we’re left on a bit of a cliff-hanger- I’m excited to see how the story will progress from this point forward. I won’t say much for fear of spoiling it, but there is a great enemy who is introduced who I think will pay a huge role in the coming titles.
4/5 ⭐️’s for this title. Where the Drowned Girls Go will be available on January 4th, 2022. Thank you @macmillanusa , @tordotcompub , and @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The latest in this line of novellas is better if you have read the previous two. It isn’t necessary to have read all of them but the previous two have people that are featured in this one. Cora isn’t dealing well with coming back from the Moors. She wants to go back to the Trenches but the Drowned Gods in the deep waters of the Moors want her more. Cora can’t take the calls in her dreams leaving her with sleepless nights she begs to go to the other school for Wayward Children. The one for kids that don’t want to travel back to their worlds but the slam the door shut and live here forever. But once she is there it is not what she thought, and she is desperate to escape. And one day she gets a new roommate, someone she knows very well and then the reader finds out just what the Whitethorn Institute is doing.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire, is the latest outstanding volume in the Wayward Children series (a series I can’t praise enough). Each entry in the series features one or more teens who found a door where there wasn’t supposed to be one. These doors whisked them away to a strange world where oceans can be made of strawberry soda or the horses talk or the dead waltz. Cora’s world transformed her into a mermaid. Now that’s she back in the “real” world, Cora is having a hard time adjusting. Things get worse after another trip through the doors.

Cora is one of several students at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, there to find a way to make peace with leaving a place that felt more like home than their actual homes. Before Cora was a mermaid, she was bullied for being overweight. Nothing she would do would get rid of fat that genetics wants to hold onto. But as a mermaid, Cora was perfect and beautiful. She had been making progress at Eleanor’s school, but she takes another trip through the doors to help her friends, an encounter with the Drowned Gods of the Moors makes it impossible for Cora to relax. Her only option, she feels, is to turn to Eleanor’s competitor at the Whitethorn Institute. Unlike Eleanor, who works with her students to help them adjust while keeping alive the hope that their doors will return for them, Whitethorn pushes its students to forget that there are other worlds and doors.

As soon as Cora arrives at Whitethorn, she knows she’s made a mistake. Whitethorn is about conformity. It’s about misery. It’s about erasing everything that’s unique about the students who come there. What I love about this series is that it celebrates quirks and heroism and individuality—not forcing square pegs into round holes—but in a way that’s honest about the costs that have to be paid. I wish these books had been around when I was younger because I think they’re among the best coming-of-age stories I’ve ever read.

Another fun story! We get Cora and Sumi and they meet Regan--but in an awful place. Enjoyed this like I have all of this series.
Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy!

I will admit, before starting this book, I had no idea it was part of a series. With that being said, I wish I would have read the other books first to understand everything more, and to have more of a connection to the characters as a whole.
I can say that I love the authors writing style. I loved Cora as the protagonist. I appreciate that fat phobia was addressed in the book and loved the plot. I look forward to going back to read the previous books in the series.

Reading McGuire’s newest Wayward Children novella has become something of a Christmas tradition for me over the past few years. While my reading experience has varied book to book, it’s always cozy and enjoyable and transportive. I request very few ARCs, but this series is top among them and I’m always elated to receive the next installment. I was cautiously excited about Where the Drowned Girls Go, as it’s a pretty direct followup to my least favorite novella in the series, Beneath the Sugar Sky. However, this newest novella was absolutely fantastic; so much so, in fact, that it made me want to go back and reread Beneath the Sugar Sky to see if my opinion of it had changed. Where the Drowned Girls Go was a thoughtful, different addition to the series, and builds on and links every single one of its predecessors.

Cora Miller, a girl who found her true identity as a mermaid of the Trenches, as been claimed by the Drowned Gods of the Moors, a different world than the one to which she yearns to return. Back at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, Cora is so scared of the Drowned Gods that she is determined to escape and forget any and all doors to other realms, even the one that her heart calls home. And she’ll do it at any cost. This determination leads her to switch her enrollment to West’s sister school, the Whitethorn Institute, despite Eleanor’s desperate pleading for her to reconsider. Because Whitethorn isn’t welcoming, friendly, or safe. It’s a prison, and Cora has just voluntarily incarcerated herself. Will the Drowned Gods find her anyway? Will Cora let herself fade, as Whitethorn demands of her? Or will she finally find the courage to face her fears and search for home?

Besides Cora, we have a fairly extensive cast of returning character at West’s, as well as new characters we meet at Whitethorn. I found most all of these new characters interesting, and the returning characters who received much time on the page had all developed in lovely ways. This is especially true of Cora herself. I didn’t love her in her first story, Beneath the Sugar Sky, for a host of reasons. But I found many of those reasons not only addressed but rectified in this new chapter of her story. She grew tremendously as a character, and I’ve come to love her as much as I do Jack and Kade and Christopher. I’m now incredibly interested in getting more of her story.

I mentioned that this book builds on all of the preceding novellas. Some of the others could be read independently of the rest of the series, but that is definitely not the case here. The plots and settings and characters of the six books before this one are essential to understanding and appreciating Where the Drowned Girls Go. I feel like this installment bound the others into one entity, a solid foundation upon which McGuire could take the series in any direction for any duration. It made me incredibly excited to see what comes next.

Something I have loved about every single Wayward Children novella is the philosophical depth McGuire so beautifully imbues into the prose of each story. The writing is exquisite; I always find myself recording pages of quotes that moved me both with what they communicate and the lovely ways in which the do so. Even though all of these books are under 200 pages long, they always make me think and feel deeply. McGuire truly has a gift, and it’s always beautifully wielded on the page. I’m in awe. If each of these novellas has a philosophical theme, this one is courage and self-acceptance and being willing to stand up for both yourself and others, even when those in authority truly believe the ways in which they hurt you are “for your own good.” The dichotomy between the two school hammered these points home, and gave me an even deeper appreciation for the haven Eleanor West offers.

Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series is this wonderful, rare balancing act between comforting and thought-provoking. Each installment is unique and offers something different in both story and topics to contemplate. But the central thread, the desire to find a place of our own and the need to Be Sure before we take the risky step out of our comfort zone and into a reality that fits us better, binds all of these stories into something even stronger together than they are individually. Where the Drowned Girls Go acts to solidify that tie while also telling a very compelling story in its own right. There’s something truly magical about McGuire’s writing and world building, and I’m already eagerly awaiting the eighth installment in the series.

McGuire always brings something special to the table when she writes a Wayward Children entry, and in this latest entry we reunite with some unexpected old faces and take a look at what adventures can be found in this world without going through a door. Surprisingly, there is quite an adventure to be had!

A sinister school that attempts to straighten out children who have passed through doors to other worlds and returned is the main setting for this book, and when Cora enrolls herself in a desperate attempt to be free of what she feels is the corrupting influence of otherworldly powers, she finds herself struggling to both believe in herself and get back to where she belongs.

One of the most interesting novels in the entire series and well worth a read, though newcomers are going to be entirely confused if they start here, so try getting on board from an earlier entry.

I love returning to this world every year. Where the Drowned Girls Go is one of the strongest in the series in my opinion. Cora has grown on me as a character and the creepy atmosphere of Whitethorn was perfect.

As a lover of all things mermaid, I’m delighted that Cora has gotten her own book after being a secondary player in others. WHERE DROWNED GIRLS GO is the seventh book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. These gorgeous portal fantasies are all fast reads - novella length and they’re incredibly representative - sexuality, body type, gender, ethnicity. All sensitively written. And these books will absolutely wreck you. Expect book hangovers upon finishing them.

Where Drowned Girls Go is about Cora, who once visited a world of mermaids, and then one with gods of the deep. Despite returning to this world and the School for Wayward Children, Cora keeps hearing the gods and fears they’ll call her back to their dark and cold world.

So Cora discovers that there’s another school for the children who come back through the doors. And yet, of course, it’s not quite as it seems.

This is the perfect blend of dark academia and mystery. Cora discovers that she’s stronger than she thought - able to handle bullies and the casual cruelties dealt out by the staff at the Whitethorn Institute. She’s also able to inspire and help those around her.

Body positive, we get more of Cora’s backstory about how she’s always been fat and how everyone - her parents, teachers, coaches has tried to “fix” her. As someone with a lifelong struggle with weight and the endless discussion abouTHEt what healthy looks like vs was popular culture tells it looks like, I appreciated every moment of this book even when my feels were getting punched hard.

Not the best entry point into the series but as the books are novellas, easy to binge and be up to speed quickly.

Pub date: Jan 2022
I loved it! This might be my favorite in this fairie tale fantasy series! Was this the first one not set mostly in a fantastical realm, but our world entirely? In any case, it's always monsters vs heroes, and our hero Cora is amazing! She has to save herself amid the brutality of bullies and her own desperate moves to evade the Drowned Gods, and eventually comes to a breakthrough revelation. The new setting of an alternate school for children who went through doors was sufficiently creepy, and the reveal of the monster was really well done. Ms McGuire's beautiful writing shines and makes it a pleasure to read!

<i>Most people can’t be entirely sure they’d be happier in one place over another, so they don’t find their doors again. But lots of people go back. They have the right combination of selfish and lonely and hopeful and stupid and earnest and selfless, and they find their doors, and they go back.

What happens to the kids who come back through a doorway and don't end up at Eleanor Wests's school? It was interesting to have a different sort of setting for this story, and to see some previous characters brought together in a different sort of quest and trial than readers are used to seeing. I think this one brings something fresh to the series. This should not be read as a standalone.

This review was originally published on my blog: Tea Rex Reads.

Where the Drowned Girls Go is the seventh installment in Seanan McGuire’s the Wayward Children series of fantasy novellas due to release January 4, 2022. I was lucky enough to be approved for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book by McMillan/Tor-Forge and Tordotcom via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Tor-Forge!

I first discovered the Wayward Children series in January of this year. I was browsing Goodreads, and I saw the first book, Every Heart a Doorway, in my suggestions list. Both the title and cover of the book intrigued me, so I checked the first one out from my local library. This quickly led to me binging my way through the entire series over the course of a week. Needless to say, when I was approved for an ARC of Where the Drowned Girls Go I couldn’t have been more excited!

The world of the Wayward Children is largely based on the idea that what if children like Alice in Wonderland were real? What if they found a doorway into another world, but that world turned out to be the one meant for them; the one that’s absolutely perfect for them? What happens to these children when they accidentally tumble back into this world and are left forever seeking their one true home again?

That’s where Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children comes in. The school is run by it’s namesake Eleanor West, and she too has been through her own doorway. She understands what each of these children is going through, and she seeks to help them “Be Sure” as each doorway instructs. Once the children are sure they want to return to their world, their doorways should reappear. This doesn’t always happen.

It’s with these ideas in mind that each novella in the series dives into the stories of different children attending Eleanor West’s school. Sometimes they find a doorway that leads to breaking one of the biggest rules of the school: No quests. These quests don’t always go well for everyone involved. The worlds may be exactly what each child needs, but that doesn’t mean they are safe.

Where the Drowned Girls Go picks up several months after one such quest with a teenaged girl named Cora. Cora is a mermaid of a world known as The Trenches. At least, she thinks she is. Unfortunately, after the quest to a world known as The Moors – a treacherous world filled with endless grasslands, vampires, and a blood-red Moon that looms over it all – Cora isn’t so sure where she belongs anymore. The Drowned Gods of the Moors tried to claim her while she was there, and her skin still shimmers with their touch. She still hears their whispers in the dark.

Fortunately, Cora remembers there is another school for people like her. The Whitethorn Institute is the counterpart for Eleanor West’s school. It teaches the children to forget their doors and move on with their lives in this world. Cora thinks if she can forget some of the magic that’s attached to her, the Drowned Gods will lose their hold on her. Then, she can focus on finding The Trenches and becoming the hero she was there once again.

However, things are not what they seem at the Whitethorn Institute. It’s a harsh and unforgiving place, and the rest of the novella explores whether Cora hasn’t made a terrible mistake. She may not be able to escape it if she has.

One of the things that I enjoy most about the Wayward Children series is how real and relatable all of the children are. It’s so easy for the reader to see bits of themselves in each character, and some characters spoke so completely to me that I was totally invested in their journeys.

For example, Cora grew up the fat kid. It wasn’t through any fault of her own. It was just her genetics forcing her body to hold onto the weight. She ate well, exercised, and doctors said she was perfectly healthy, but as we all know, our peers can be extremely unkind to differences in others. This unkindness led Cora on a self-defeating journey of attempted weight loss that eventually harmed her mental health. She had no self-confidence until she went to the Trenches and became a hero, in part because of the very things she was made fun of for in this world.

I think we’ve all been through situations like that growing up. So, when Cora finally makes friends it really means something to her. She went through what some of us would describe as a hell-world, and now she has these Lovecraftian Drowned Gods trying to pull her back. She obviously suffers some PTSD from the events of the previous novella, and I think any of us would do anything to escape that experience.

Cora’s desire to join the Whitethorn Institute was an attempt to forget the bad things that had happened to her. Unfortunately, that’s not all the leader of the Institute wanted her to forget. She had to learn to embrace what was different about herself and find her self-confidence and courage again to combat her demons herself. She didn’t do it alone, but that was all part of the journey. Even when she eventually gets what she wants, she has learned to accept that it will still be there when she needs it. When she’s ready.

Ultimately, I think the message of this novella was it takes time to learn from the past and to learn to accept ourselves for who we are. That’s what the doorways mean when they ask the children to “Be Sure.” Be sure this is who you are because only surety in oneself can lead one to the life one is meant to live.

All of that being said. I feel like this novella introduced a new “Big Villain,” and I can’t wait to see where Seanan McGuire goes with it. Sure there are magical entities from other worlds that can creep through their doorways to snatch you, but what about the evil magic in this world? With at least three more novellas planned in the series plus the exciting news that the series is in development for a potential franchise at Paramount, I don’t think we’ve seen anywhere near the last of the Wayward Children.

I gave Where the Drowned Girls Go four out of five stars. It is a beautifully crafted story of a girl longing to belong and begging to forget while learning to believe in herself. Seanan McGuire is able to capture in words things I’ve only ever felt but that are articulated perfectly on the page. However, some readers may find the mentions of eating disorders, suicide attempts, descriptions of post traumatic stress, and child abuse and neglect difficult to absorb. The descriptions aren’t graphic, and they are important to plot and character development. If you can look past the triggers, I definitely recommend this entire series!

This is a really interesting installment in the series. The introduction of a second "bad" school adds a lot to the world and Cora is a great protagonist. I have seen several people say this is a good starting point for people new to the series and I can sort of see that, but I imagine that the emotional investment wouldn't be as strong.

Where the Drowned Girls Go is the latest in McGuire's Wayward Children series and is definitely one of my favorite entries. For the first time in the series, we step away from Eleanor West's school and into another, but at the Whitethorn Institute, things are run much differently than we're used to. I loved seeing Cora's struggle with where she belonged take us into unfamiliar territory and seeing how this book put Eleanor West's school into a greater context and changed our view of what we thought we knew. As expected, Where the Drowned Girls Go carries all of McGuire's signature wit, heart, and adventure and brings back some familiar faces, as well as some new ones. I can't recommend this series enough and if this installment is anything to go by, McGuire is going to continue taking this series to unexpected places that you won't want to miss.

Many thanks to Macmillan-Tor and NetGalley for the ARC! This book will be released next week on Tuesday January 4 2022!

We are back with Cora for this installment of the Wayward Children series, and she is having a difficult time recovering from her encounter with the Drowned Gods of the Moors. Due to this, she decides to transfer from Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children to the sister school for children who want to forget their experiences: the Whitethorn Institute. This second school has been lurking in the background since book one, and I was excited to finally get a peek at it. It is the absolute antithesis of Eleanor’s school with constant supervision, strict rules, and abusive discipline measures. McGuire does a great job crafting this sinister and claustrophobic setting and depicting how it affects the students.

The Whitethorn students we are introduced to were easily my favorite part of the book. Regan, main character of Across the Green Grass Plains, plays a major role, and I was happy to see her again. She’s very different; the school has broken her, and it’s heartbreaking. But the contrast between her character here and her character in the previous book highlights the school’s horrors. I also found the new characters intriguing. Some struggle against the school’s oppressive rules while others adapt and become just as cruel. The two characters that interested me the most, the nameless girl and Rowena, are actually in the latter category. The nameless girl in particular has a great story, and I would love to read a full account of it. I hope we’ll see more of them both in later books.

Cora herself also has a wonderful arc. McGuire handles her trauma well, showing just how debilitating it is and how it sucks the joy out of things Cora loves. Due to all this, her request to switch schools and try to forget feels understandable and realistic even though we, as the readers, know it’s a horrible idea. I enjoyed the transformation Cora goes through during her time at the Whitethorn Institute. I also appreciated learning more of her backstory, particularly her struggle with an eating disorder. We know from the previous books that Cora is fat, and here McGuire gives us a window into what led her to attempt suicide and end up in the Trenches. This is the first time I’ve seen a character with a restrictive eating disorder portrayed as anything other than extremely skinny. It’s unfortunately common that people struggling with anorexia get ignored if their weight isn’t considered “low enough.” I am just so thankful for McGuire touched on this topic and provided representation that has long been missing in our media.

I did notice that this book is not as self-contained as some of the others. I knew that the odd numbered books build on each other and require knowledge of the previous books (as opposed to the even numbered ones, which work as standalones), but the main plot has always been resolved by the end. That’s not the case here. McGuire leaves us with a large threat looming, and I assume this plot will continue into book nine and maybe even beyond. (Based on the title of book eight, it seems we may get the story of Cora’s roommate, Antoinette, in the meantime.) This isn’t a bad thing, and I’m actually quite looking forward to this overarching plot. But it was a noticeable shift in the series for me.

Overall, Where the Drowned Girls Go is an excellent addition to an equally excellent series. I highly recommend it, and I can’t wait for the next book.

4.5 stars

This was a wonderful addition to the series and honestly one I didn’t know I needed. It answers the question “Well what happens if someone doesn’t like the world they go to?”. The addition to the world felt like unlocking an area on a video game map and I loved it despite how dark it was. Fans of this series will absolutely love this novella and I highly recommend picking it up.