I've been a fan of this series from the start, and have always loved the dark analysis of brokenness and healing that underpins the inventive fantasy. This novella leans more heavily on the personal trauma of its characters than on any magic at all, set as it is entirely in the mundane world (though The Whitethorn Institute is plenty weird and creepy in itself). I'm not sure this one stands alone very well, so I do recommend going back to the start if you're new to the series (and have fun, they're great!).

This is the first of the Wayward Children novellas where I haven't been satisfied at the end, and I can't quite put my finger on why. The plot - Cora finding out the secrets of a different school for returned children - wraps up okay, but perhaps the moments before the climax were rushed? I think more than that, it's the detached tone and the absence of the warmer found family elements - the sense of isolation that Cora feels at Whitethorn extends to cutting the reader off from the magic too. Cleverly done, but not necessarily very satisfying. Hopefully this lays the foundations for one of the subsequent books, and I'll come back to it with new eyes and discover something I missed.

There is a school for children who have traveled to other worlds and come back, a school that helps them deal with being in this world and helping them to know that they're safe. There is another school that works to get them to forget the other worlds and settle into this one.
Cora had turned into a mermaid when she went to her other world. Then the Drowned Gods tried to claim her when she went on a rescue mission to save a friend. Now Cora can't get the Drowned Gods to leave her alone so she decides to transfer to the school that will help her forget. Cora soon learns that the school to help you forget isn't as ideal as she had hoped it would be. With brightly colored hair, rainbows on her skin, and the Drowned Gods still trying to claim her, Cora realizes that her new school is more a prison than a place to free her. Can Cora survive the school? Can Cora help her new friends at the school? Can Cora stay true to who she is? When you take a bunch of students who were heroes in the worlds they went to and bring them back to this world and tell them they're monsters, what will they do?
I've read all the Wayward Children's books and this one is one of my favorites. While it does not have adventures through obscure and unique worlds, it deals with overcoming not fitting in to this world. It deals with being unique in the world we are born into. Seanan McGuire once again writes an exceptional novella that is atmospheric and exciting but relatable even as it is fantastic.

If you’ve spent any time on this blog (and if you haven’t, go have a look around—I’ll be here when you get back) you know that Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors. She is amazingly prolific, with stand-alone novels and several on-going series, all of it of such high quality that it’s more than a little intimidating. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve read by her, but there’s a special place in my heart for her Wayward Children series, of which Where the Drowned Girls Go is the newest addition.

A novella like the others, Where the Drowned Girls Go is the seventh book in the series, and like the others, it is equal parts lyrical, whimsical, at times harrowing, emotionally devastating, and breathtakingly imaginative. The Wayward Children books are portal fantasies. They tell the collective stories of what happens to the children who find the doors they need—doors to other worlds where they have experiences that are fantastical or horrifying, where they become heroes or monsters—but then come back here, to their mundane lives and parents who don’t understand them.

The other books in the series take place either in other worlds or on the grounds of Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. This one is a little different, in that we are introduced to The Whitethorn Institute, a school whose mission to close all those doors, keep the children here and away from them, whether they want to be or not. Eleanor reluctantly agrees to allow Cora to transfer to the Whitethorn Institute because the Drowned Gods are calling to her from beyond their door, trying to drag her back. She thinks it’s her only option, but things go south quickly. Now she’s trapped.

McGuire has always written movingly about inclusivity, and that is certainly the case here, with a special emphasis on body positivity. Like all her characters, Cora is complex and fully realized, with a determination and bravery that is hard won and inspiring. Where the Drowned Girls Go, particular in the opening chapters, has an air of melancholy that makes it clear wayward children must make difficult decisions and live with the consequences. Whichever side of the door they may be one, whichever door they walk through, the lives of children are much more complicated, and sometimes heart-rending, than adults know.

Where the Drowned Girls Go released January 4, 2022, and is available for pre-order now.

✨ Where the Drowned Girls Go ✨
Publishing Jan 2022!

I realized after reading this book that it is the 7th installment in a series of Wayward Children, that may have helped me understand the world better if I had read the others.

That being said, this book is incredibly deep…not just because we follow a suicide attempt that took a girl down to the deepest trenches of the ocean, only to come out a mermaid on land. Yes, a wayward child that comes out a mermaid on land (with feet and legs) but is expected to go to a normal school? Just doesn’t work. Cora Miller needs to go to a special school, for other children that have died before & come out to tell the tale. That’s what this book is about.

It was a good, quick read that harbored many mentions of suicide, death, different worlds for those who died. If suicide is a trigger for you, this is not the book. Otherwise, it was a good YA read.

Thank you @netgalley & @torbooks for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a Cora book but also NOT a Cora book, as it opens up more about the magical world of doors, what they mean and brings in some fairly standard mythology around the power of names interrwinining it with the theme of identity and acceptance. Finished it in a a few hours bc these books always move at a rapid pace and I do wish they were longer. I do hope for a Kade book soon; also after this last year and a half in quarantine Sumi has started to make the most sense to me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This new Wayward Children book opens up this series in some interesting ways, and I’m here for it, but it does leave us with some unresolved questions. I already can't wait for more stories to come!

I will always love any addition to the Wayward children set and this newest book, does not disappoint. If you like the series then I would highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

'Be Sure' says the door. And if you open it, you find yourself in a new world. For some children, it's where they have always dreamt of and they want to stay forever; for others, all they want is to forget...

This is the 7th book in the Wayward Children series, which follows the children who enter (and have to leave, for whatever reason) their alternate world. Previous books have followed students at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children - the ones who wish to return and find the door again. This installment looks at those who want to forget, and introduces the reader to the sister (and sinister) Whitethorn Institute which promises to help.

I'd recommend reading the other books ahead of this one as it does require background knowledge - many of the characters and plots from previous installments are referenced. The whimsical and fanciful nature of the books remain, as does the darker undertones and subplots. This book follows Cora who had entered a different alternate world to help a friend and is now being pursued by its Drowned Gods in place of her own. I really enjoyed learning more about her backstory and also seeing what happens when a child goes from being sure they want to return to being sure they want to forget. It ended on a slight cliffhanger as usual so I am hoping for another installment. I'd like to know who exactly the Head of the Institute is...

This is definitely one of my favorite books in the series so far. It makes a lot of great points about people in positions of power thinking things should be a certain way just because that's the way they think it should be, and it's a compelling story in that the conflict was already very different from the rest of the series while also introducing a conflicts that could span several books beyond just this one.

Despite warnings against it, Cora transfers to the other school for children who have travelled to other worlds, hoping to distance herself from the trauma (and voices in her head) she encountered in the Moors. Unsurprisingly, repression isn't how a person heals from trauma and Cora the hero ends up on yet another adventure. Not my favorite of the Wayward Children series, but it sets up potential future plotlines, and I'm interested in where the series is going.

Cora is trying to escape the influence of the Drowned Gods. Their whispers haunt her at night demanding that she return to them but Cora knows that her heart belongs to the Trenches. She can't sleep, she barely eats, and no longer gets the enjoyment that she once did from being in the water. Suffering, she decides the only way to move on is to forget. An impossible task when you live in a home that was built so kids could remember their adventures. So, Cora requests a transfer much to Elanor's dismay. The Whitethorn Institue is the sister school and complete opposite of the Home for Wayward Children. It was built for forgetting, snuffing out kids hopes, dreams, and individuality with relish proclaiming that they know best.

<b><i>"They said it didn't matter what we thought the truth was; when the truth isn't something you can see, it's malleable, and because we're still legally children, our parents get to decide what's true for us." </b></i>

I think I'm losing interest in the Wayward children. While none of the books in the series where terrible I haven't loved any since [book:In an Absent Dream|38244358]. I keep hoping the next book will capture my emotions and imagination like the Goblin Market did but they all seem to fall flat in comparison. Like all the books in the Wayward series Where the Drowned Girl's Go is character driven and covers important topics <spoiler>(fatphobia, suicide/ mental health) </spoiler>. And yet it felt like it suffered from second book syndrome, dropping a lot of information without resolving much, just to lead up to the next book. It wasn't bad but unmemorable. I'm not quite ready to give up this series entirely but my interest is definitely waning.

I enjoyed this installment to the Wayward Children. I liked Cora previously and it was nice to see her confident in herself for once, even if it meant making a choice that wasn't good for her. She was so desperate to try something different at the beginning of the story, that she ran from her friends and everything she knew. After their trip to the Moors, and swimming in its waters their Drowned Gods call to her and try to claim her. She has nightmares, cannot sleep and everything she knew or loves has becoming tainted in a way.

She transfers willingly to the Whitethorn Institue hoping to forget everything she knows and experienced about the Trenches because she can't take the nightmares anymore. It's apparent very quickly that this place is less about "helping" and more about "doing what you're told when you're told to do it" and noncompliance results in punishments. Some more severe than others. Cora tries her best to do what she's supposed to and to forget in order to get back to the life she thinks she wants.

In typical chaotic fashion Sumi shows up and throws a number of monkey wrenches into Cora's plan. The 2 then begin to unravel the secrets of the Whitethorn Institute, and how to help their dorm mates who actually want their help. The reveal was interesting, but hinted at a number of times so maybe not as surprising as it should be? But she doesn't really write for shock value, so it felt right.

I did really enjoy the way it all wrapped up and pulled in characters from previous books. Hi Regan you silly horse loving girl. As I said before I like Cora and liked that she gained some confidence in herself and stood up for herself and is starting to work through her issues and accept who she is again, scales or no.

I read the first six books in this series earlier this year, and was so excited when I received an advanced copy of Where the Drowned Girls Go. While I’d been somewhat disappointed by Across the Green Grass Fields, I loved the rest of the books in the series and this latest one absolutely did not disappoint.

Cora and Sumi are the main characters of Where the Drowned Girls go, navigating a school similar to Eleanor’s but so different, where the headmaster and the teachers are intent on drilling the Doors out of them no matter what it takes. Cora goes first, voluntarily to try and escape the calls of the Drowned Gods, and Sumi follows to bring her back.

Like the others in the series, Where the Drowned Girls Go is a short read - less than 200 pages - but it packs a lot into that space abs now I can’t wait for the next book in this series!

At this point I can pretty much guarantee that I am going to love a Seanan McGuire book. Or a Mira Grant. Or one from A. Deborah Baker. I may worry a little about how this multiple persona thing is working out for her mental health, and I may be a little frustrated by how far the M section is from the G’s in my personal library (and gosh darn it, I’m filing Woodward Wall and Saltwise Sea next to Middlegame because I am an agent of chaos mwahahaha).

Of course, most of the time I am well prepared by a thorough reread and not, oh for example FINDING AN ARC OF THE LATEST WAYWARD CHILDREN BOOK ON MY KINDLE AT TWO IN THE MORNING! But these things are sent to test us.

Yes, I stayed up till dawn devouring Where The Drowned Girls Go, and No, I’m not sorry.

This one is an interesting addition to the series. In what I would describe a post-portal fantasy, the wayward children are those who have found their Narnias, their Neverlands their rabbit holes and yellow brick roads and then come back. However the children who have come back are not the ones who left. They’ve been heroes, and they’ve been monsters, they’ve been queens, generals, beloved and most importantly they’ve been truly home. After finding themselves exiled and abandoned in a world that no longer fits, they find their way to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children:

No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests.

In this seventh book, we find the focus on Regan from Across the Grass Green Fields who lived amongst centaurs and pegasi, and Cora who first appeared in Beneath the Sugar Sky, the mermaid who can no longer bear the water since attracting the attention of ancient cthonic drowned gods. In an effort to silence their voices, Cora leaves Miss Eleanor and her friends and seeks out a place where she can hopefully forget, a place for those lost children who have given up finding their way home. Only something is wrong, very wrong, and Cora finds herself more lost than ever. Maybe just one more quest then….

This is the first one of the series that I truly believe can’t be read without having a thorough knowledge of the preceding books. There are so many beautiful moments that call back to the previous volumes, a description of a girl with lightening where her heart should be for example. In having this story that is so much made up of other stories, I find myself struck my McGuire’s commentary on teenage girls bodies. All of these girls, and they are mostly girls who find themselves called, are at the age of puberty, when they become alien to themselves. There are characters who are trans, or intersex, or characters who are asexual. There are ones whose beauty can stun people into silence, or whose fatness is seen as an affront. Powerful and vulnerable and lost, and wow is this something important for young women feeling like they don’t belong in their bodies to read. And for those who are masculine, fluid, or agender. It way be a little social justice warrior of me, but I salute a woman who can write a beautiful, poignant, bittersweet fairytale, and still make this kind of point. I actually hope that a lot of students will find these books and be able to utilise them in their education.

Of course, I also hope that those who love a good story find them too. For all the Wayward children, no matter how old.

I was surprised that this book was somewhat depressing. I liked the appearance of Regan. It largely takes place in the real world. The book seemed to jump around a bit, which was somewhat confusing and made me think I'd forgotten something. Just "meh" overall.

I'm a big fan of McGuire's Wayward Children series of novellas and how different each of the books are. Each focuses on a child who walks through a hidden door into a magical world perfectly suited to them. Where the Drowned Girls Go switches it up, taking Cora and Sumi to a sinister school that helps children forget magic.

It took me a little while to get into this one but the second half of the book was so much fun. From the title, I was hoping this would take us to one of the water worlds: I'd love to see the Trenches or the sea creature gods in the Moors, referenced in past books. I found Cora as a heroine a bit boring at first but once the book spread out to focus on a few different girls, it captured my attention.

What I love about this series is the combination of beautiful and creepy: each of the worlds has dangers in its own way and McGuire leans into depicting them. There's a lot packed into this novella and I was intrigued by the central mystery of what was going on at the school. Still, I hope I get to see one of the Drowned Worlds soon.

Hands down my favourite book in the Wayward Children series so far which, honestly came as a massive surprise because I really thought nothing would top the books set in The Moors!

In this book we get to see the other school that children go to after they return and it is really interesting to see a completely different approach as well as to learn a little bit about the children whose experience through the doors may not have been the best.

At the heart of this book we are following characters that we have met in other books and there is something just so comforting about that. These are characters that at this point you kinda know so well they are like friends so it is great to see them again and catch up.

An interesting aspect of my reading experience is that there are a few Halloween /autumnal moments which made it a great read for October.

I am so excited to see where the story goes next as there are definitely some really interesting things being set up in this story.

I was approved for an early copy of this book, so huge thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for that. Here’s my honest review. This book follows Cora, who we know from Come Tumbling Down, has come back from her adventure with her friends and her time in The Moors with more issues than when she’d left school. Her experience with the Drowned Gods was not a good one and she’s haunted by them, so much so that she’s even struggling to spend time in the water. Which for a mermaid, is problematic? So, Cora takes extreme measures and requests to be transferred from Eleanor’s school to Whitethorn. But Whitethorn is a very different school and she still hasn’t managed to escape the whispers of the Drowned Gods.
I thought it was really interesting to see a different school from Eleanor’s. Whitethorn was a very different school, one that’s there to make the kids forget that they ever went through a door. They have many rules and Cora doesn’t always do well with them. I liked that we got to see Sumi again and the role that she played in the story. I also was really pleasantly surprised to see Regan from Across the Green Grass Fields. I liked that this is its own story, but also that we still get to see familiar characters and other elements from the rest of the series. I think Cora really struggled with the whispers of the Drowned Gods, but she was also treated incredibly poorly because she’s plus sized (part of the reason she found her door in the first place was because of being bullied about her weight her whole life). I liked Cora. She was abrasive and imperfect, but she knew her worth. It was sad to see her go to such extreme lengths as leaving Eleanor’s, but it was nice to see her do what she thought would help her. I also loved that she  had blue hair. I continue to be a huge fan of this series.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the eARC via Netgalley! Opinions are of course entirely my own.

I loved another Wayward Children book and honestly no one is surprised. Around the middle part the story dipped a bit and I was left confused by some of the characters and interactions, but this was quickly resolved and other than that, this book did so much right for me.

I connected to Cora's experiences with her fatness and both internalised and external fatphobia, and although it was incredibly tough to read, in my eyes it was handled with care and accuracy. The fatphobia was not excused and it was countered in the narrative, which I appreciated.

I loved seeing some characters from previous books again (NOT ENOUGH KADE THO), and I still think it's definitely worth it to read the series in order. The writing in this installment was especially incredible, and my absolute favourite part was the ending. The way it opened a way for the next books to really explore the Institute and this massive world that Seanan McGuire has created is so exciting to me, but I guess I'll patiently wait until 2023 now, cry

TW: fatphobia, eating disorders, suicide and suicidal ideation, abuse (emotional and mental mostly, mention of physical)

(Instagram review to be posted later)

At this point I can pretty much guarantee that I am going to love a Seanan McGuire book. Or a Mira Grant. Or one from A. Deborah Baker. I may worry a little about how this multiple persona thing is working out for her mental health, and I may be a little frustrated by how far the M section is from the G’s in my personal library (and gosh darn it, I’m filing Woodward Wall and Saltwise Sea next to Middlegame because I am an agent of chaos mwahahaha).

Of course, most of the time I am well prepared by a thorough reread and not, oh for example FINDING AN ARC OF THE LATEST WAYWARD CHILDREN BOOK ON MY KINDLE AT TWO IN THE MORNING! But these things are sent to test us.

Yes, I stayed up till dawn devouring Where The Drowned Girls Go, and No, I’m not sorry.

This one is an interesting addition to the series. In what I would describe a post-portal fantasy, the wayward children are those who have found their Narnias, their Neverlands their rabbit holes and yellow brick roads and then come back. However the children who have come back are not the ones who left. They’ve been heroes, and they’ve been monsters, they’ve been queens, generals, beloved and most importantly they’ve been truly home. After finding themselves exiled and abandoned in a world that no longer fits, they find their way to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children:

No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests.

In this seventh book, we find the focus on Regan from Across the Grass Green Fields who lived amongst centaurs and pegasi, and Cora who first appeared in Beneath the Sugar Sky, the mermaid who can no longer bear the water since attracting the attention of ancient cthonic drowned gods. In an effort to silence their voices, Cora leaves Miss Eleanor and her friends and seeks out a place where she can hopefully forget, a place for those lost children who have given up finding their way home. Only something is wrong, very wrong, and Cora finds herself more lost than ever. Maybe just one more quest then….

This is the first one of the series that I truly believe can’t be read without having a thorough knowledge of the preceding books. There are so many beautiful moments that call back to the previous volumes, a description of a girl with lightening where her heart should be for example. In having this story that is so much made up of other stories, I find myself struck my McGuire’s commentary on teenage girls bodies. All of these girls, and they are mostly girls who find themselves called, are at the age of puberty, when they become alien to themselves. There are characters who are trans, or intersex, or characters who are asexual. There are ones whose beauty can stun people into silence, or whose fatness is seen as an affront. Powerful and vulnerable and lost, and wow is this something important for young women feeling like they don’t belong in their bodies to read. And for those who are masculine, fluid, or agender. It way be a little social justice warrior of me, but I salute a woman who can write a beautiful, poignant, bittersweet fairytale, and still make this kind of point. I actually hope that a lot of students will find these books and be able to utilise them in their education.

Of course, I also hope that those who love a good story find them too. For all the Wayward children, no matter how old.