Thank you to Tor Dot Com for the arc!

Where the Drowned Girls Go is my fifth foray into the world of the Wayward Children (I’ve not read books 5/6) and I have to say it’s near the bottom in terms of enjoyment. In this one we primarily follow Cora, the mermaid, as she tries to escape the Drowned Gods by transferring to the Whitethorn Institute for Wayward Children. The first half of this book was a bit slow and borderline tedious to get through, but improved quite a bit in the second half. The entire time I was reading I was very aware that I was reading words on a page and found myself unable to sink into the world as I typically do. I will continue to pick up books in this series, this one just wasn’t it.

TITLE: Where the Drowned Girls Go (Wayward Children Book 7)
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
160 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250213624 (hardcover, also in e-book and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from the Goodreads page): Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you've already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company.

There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again.
It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.
And it isn't as safe.

When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her Home for Wayward Children, she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn't save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitehorn, the Headmaster.

She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming...

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5.

MY THOUGHTS: Seanan McGuire’s “Wayward Children” series has settled into a comfortable rhythm: the odd numbered books are set in the present and usually involve several students going on a quest, while the even numbered books show us someone’s portal adventure – usually a character we’re already familiar with. In Book 6, Across the Green Grass Fields, McGuire veered from expectations by giving us the portal story of a brand-new character with no ties to the “present day” volumes. She continues to break expectations in Book 7, Where the Drowned Girls Go (releasing tomorrow, January 4, 2022), by having a student we’ve come to love decide that Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is no longer a place she wishes to be and requesting transfer to the other boarding school we’ve heard mention of. Cora’s had enough of quests, enough of trauma, enough of other beings trying to gain control over her life. It’s not a spoiler to say that despite Eleanor’s most persuasive arguments, the transfer goes through; the book isn’t focused on whether Cora will leave but rather what happens when she does.

I don’t think it’s out of line to call this Seanan’s “gothic romance without the romance” installment of the series, as opposed to the gothic horror of Down Among the Sticks and Bones and Come Tumbling Down. I love the Moors. I want an entire series set in the Moors. I don’t honestly think we’ve seen the last of the Moors. But this is not that kind of gothic story. No vampires, no revenants, no deep-dwelling elder gods (the last of which is exactly what Cora is trying to escape being controlled by). What this story has is a mansion walled off from all surrounding civilization, with dark drafty halls and stern unsmiling adult caretakers and rooms students aren’t allowed to visit and a headmaster with a secret; it has a scared and unhappy girl who thinks she has nowhere else to turn falling under the sway of someone who turns out to be at least as controlling as what she’s running away from and who must find her way out before things go from bad to worse. (And this is a Seanan McGuire book, so you know things are going to get worse before they get better.) I loved all the gothic tropes McGuire incorporates and occasionally upends. The Whitehorn Institute has an embedded, palpable sense of menace. I don’t know that I would describe Eleanor West’s Home as particularly joyous (the students are mostly happy, yes, many seem as content as kids waiting for a portal to reopen to the place the truly feel at home can be, but joyous? No.), but it looks like a constant carnival compared to the Whitehorn Institute. So dour and grey a place must haunt us going forward, and I have no doubt that we haven’t seen the last of the place or of its staff, remaining students, and headmaster.

The wonderful thing about the “Wayward Children” series is that the installments really can be read in any order. Each installment includes whatever information a reader might need to “catch up” on previous volumes without having everything about those previous volumes spoiled. In Drowned Girls, we are reminded of (or introduced to) the bits of Come Tumbling Down and Beneath the Sugar Sky that are pertinent to Cora’s present journey, and they are enough to refresh ongoing readers’ memories and hopefully intrigue new readers.

And this is Cora’s journey we’re on. Mood and classic tropes can only take us so far if we don’t care about the character we’re following into the place. And we do care about Cora. Even if you haven’t read any of the previous books she’s appeared in, you’ll care about her within the first few pages. You’ll recognize her fear that the home she loves is out of her reach, that she’s stuck in a world that doesn’t understand her, that she’s drawn the attention of otherworldly beings who might, through her, find a way to lay waste to the home she loves. (Okay, yeah, most of us don’t encounter that last one – but many of us do encounter thoughts in our own heads that feel otherworldly and controlling and that we’d do anything to escape from. Has McGuire given us ocean-dwelling elder gods as a metaphor for mental illness? I think maybe she has.) You will recognize her need to do something, anything, to change her situation because her situation has become unhealthy and untenable. And you will recognize all the doubts that come along with the thing she does, and the steps she takes to make things as right as she can.

Cora is not the only familiar character appearing in Where the Drowned Girls Go. But telling you who else shows up and what roles they end up playing is a level of spoiler to which I will not descend. Because of when I’m posting this, it’s likely the book is already available in e-format wherever you are, with the print edition easily orderable. So get to it. You won’t be disappointed if you like gothic tales, boarding school tales, tales with magic and danger and in which portals are not the only way to find adventure.

Another fantastic installment in the Wayward Children series!
Cora cannot seem to escape the grasp that the Drowned Gods have on her after returning from the Moors. In a desperate attempt to break their hold she requests to be sent to the Other school for children who have returned to this world from their doors. The Whitethorn Institute, a gloomy and structured place where students are sent to forget the door they travelled through. As soon as Cora arrives she begins to see that this school is not at all what it seems.
We see the return of Cora, Sumi and Regan in Where the Drowned Girls Go as well as being introduced to new characters in the Whitethorn Institute. This book demanded my full and constant attention as soon as I picked it up. I had so much fun seeing both familiar and new faces while we discover what exactly is going on at Whitethorn.

I got an ARC of this book.

I have had this book finished for a few weeks now. It is a book I pretty much started immediately after I was approved. I danced, I sent voice messages, I raised a ruckus. This is a book I never thought I would be approved for.

This is book 7 and it is my 7th favorite in the series. Polite way of saying this book was a bit rougher for me than the others. There were some issues that were triggering like the MC threatening suicide to pretty much get her way at one (maybe more than one) point. It felt very different than the other books in just how dark it went and the very manipulative nature of so many of the characters. Some of the manipulation was needed, but some just felt like a cheap plot for emotions.

I loved the look into the other school. I imagined it when it had been mentioned, but it was not this. This was so much more than I could have asked for. It was not therapy and healing. It was abuse. I was so excited. I needed that school to burn. I needed to know every detail of every story of every kid in that school (I know that is a lot of everys, but trust me).

It was one of the stories set in the present. It didn’t have most of the main cast for long. It did give more page time to two characters that I was curious about and tied in nicely to book 6. I will always want to see a nonsense world traveler in this world. The more I know and see of nonsense, the more I love it. Please continue to have nonsense make the most sense and I will be incredibly happy.

It really just was another fine addition to the series. It is one of the few books that I think requires reading other books in the series. So if you haven’t read any books yet, please don’t start here. There will be a few big chunks missing. If you have already read six of the books, then you really didn’t need this review.

Where the Drowned Girls Go was a bit of a mixed bag for me in regard to characters, but the world-building here and how it introduced an extremely important setting was so well done and such a delight to read about! Seanan McGuire’s writing was still engrossing as always and I loved the more eerie aspects of this story.

The story is told mainly from Cora’s POV. I still had the same issues as always with her and her character: how her fatness was emphasized during the first half to the point of feeling like that was the only important thing about her character. I also extremely disliked the instances of fat-shaming. Considering how none of the other characters were reduced to one single aspect of themselves and weren’t shamed for it, this felt, once again, like a huge disconnect from the rest of the series. This was why I was so happy when that didn’t factor into the second half of the story!

I really loved the plot here and its overall development. I was so curious about Whitethorn Institute and the way McGuire developed that was so intriguing and, at the same time, answered so many questions I had about this world and the doors. It was like a piece that was missing was introduced to me and I loved how that enriched the story and, because of it, my reading experience.

I also enjoyed that we had both familiar and new characters here. It didn’t feel like an abrupt addition to meet new faces with the way the plot was set up. It also meant we got to learn a little more about the different worlds that are out there! I also looooooved loved loved them working together to try and solve the big conflicted in the story.

Because of some of the revelations, I’m pretty curious to see how the rest of the series is going to be affected and if anything that happened here will have a big impact on what’s to come.

Seanan McGuire continues to be fantastic. Cora has long been one of my favorites of the Wayward Children, and it was fantastic to see her lead her own story. Cora ships herself off to the Whitethorn Institute, which is definitely not Eleanor's school. Cora tackles her own demons and finds her own strength. As a naturally overweight human, Cora learning to be comfortable in her own body and find her own strength, to unapologetically take up space, is wonderful to me.

The newest book in the Wayward Children's series encapsulates the JRR Tolkien quote, "A safe fairyland is untrue in all the worlds."

Cora used to be a mermaid before she was swept out of her childhood portal fantasy. Now, however, she fears the door back she used to long for. Something else is after her, something that seems to sneak past the stark lines of fairy tale and reality and Cora will do anything to make it release her. She transfers to the Whitethorn Institute, a school designed to severe children from their connections to their doors, but soon realizes this was a mistake. What's after her may lose power at Whitethorn, but there is something even more insidious in the school's depths.

Like all the Wayward Childrens novellas, this book is strikingly atmospheric. It starts with a beautiful dissection of fatphobia before moving to the Whitethorn Institute and describing how our institutions can strip us of our individuality--and why we might let them.

The book shines in it's discussion of what it means to be a hero, in your story, in other's stories, and in general, told with nuance through childlike voices.

This is another strong entry in the best portal fantasy series currently being written.

The nitty-gritty: With familiar characters and a new setting, the seventh book in McGuire's portal fantasy series shows us a different side of what happens to some children when they return.

Since the Moors, her dreams were still full of water and waves, but the sea she swam in while she slept was no longer remotely kind. It was filled with teeth, and colder than she would have believed the water could be.

For the first time in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, we discover that Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children isn’t the only “home” out there for those who have gone through a doorway into a different world and then returned. Where the Drowned Girls Go revolves primarily around Cora, who we met previously in several other books. I remember she was a side character in Under the Sugar Sky, and I was eager to learn more about her world and what she went through. Here I sort of got my wish, but instead of focusing on Cora’s time in the Trenches, the watery world where she lived as a mermaid, we focus on her return to our world and her attempts to cope with normalcy.

Cora is trying her best to adjust after leaving the Trenches, but she’s struggling. In her dreams, she hears the Drowned Gods calling to her, begging her to return. Determined to rid herself of them for good, she asks Eleanor if she can transfer to the Whitethorn Institute. Their methods are more harsh than Eleanor’s gentle guidance, but Cora knows that’s just what she needs to heal.

But the Whitethorn Institute is more like a prison than a school. Surrounded by tall walls and a dense forest, Cora is intimidated by the strict rules and heavy-handed teachings of the Matrons, not to mention the menacing Headmaster Whitethorn, whose face she can’t seem to remember. Before she can figure out whether their methods are working or not, Cora is surprised by the arrival of an old friend who is determined to help her escape.

This installment is different from the other books in the series, because readers don’t get to visit any of the portal worlds. Instead, McGuire takes us into the Whitethorn Institute, a truly terrifying place for kids to recover from their experiences in other worlds. Whitethorn’s methods of rehabilitating children reminded me of conversion therapy in some ways. Students are forced to do the opposite of what is natural to them. For example, in order for Cora to forget the Drowned Gods’ watery world, she’s forbidden to swim or take baths, both activities that bring her comfort. This radical type of therapy seems to be working, though, as students who prove they have reintegrated back into the real world can "graduate" and go home.  

Like the other books in the series, McGuire tackles some serious themes in Where the Drowned Girls Go. I especially loved the focus on Cora’s self image and how she deals with bullying. Cora has always been treated poorly by family and friends because her body size and shape don’t fit the “norm” of what girls are expected to look like. During her time in the Trenches, she took on the appearance of a mermaid, with beautiful blue-green hair and pearlescent skin. She became beautiful not only to herself, but to others. But that magic is fading now that she’s back in the real world, and Cora is once again struggling to be accepted for who she is. The series is known for the message “be yourself,” and Cora’s issues with body positivity illustrate this message perfectly.

I enjoyed seeing characters from some of the other books in the series as well. Sumi makes an appearance, as well as Regan from the last book (Across the Green Grass Fields). Other characters seemed familiar to me, but I've forgotten all the details and characters of the previous six books, so I can't be sure without going back and rereading the previous books. This is one reason you should probably read this series in order, because the characters grow and change over the course of the series.

But as much as I enjoyed this book, I can’t help but feel a sense of “same same” creeping into the overall series. The story itself was good, and I do love learning more about some of my favorite characters. But after reading seven books, I'm starting to see repetitive patterns in each one, and I feel like the magic of the series is waning. I was also disappointed that we didn't actually visit Cora's world, the Trenches. McGuire alludes to Cora’s dark times there, with menacing imagery and terrifying memories, but hearing about events second hand like that just doesn’t have the same impact.

Still, if you are a Wayward Children fan like I am, you’ll definitely find things to love about this book. We all have our favorite worlds, though, don’t we? For me, it’s the Moors, and if McGuire wants to return there for any reason at all, I’ll be the first in line.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

4.5/5 stars

Seanan McGuire never disappoints, in fact I think this may be my favourite of the series? The writing was as vivid and dynamic as ever, never losing its feeling of otherness and hope, even in the dullness of the Whitethorn Institute. The plot was one of the more interesting ones of the series.

Cora was a delight to follow and her issues with weight (or rather how it was perceived by others), was done incredibly well. You could tell it wasn’t done just for the diversity points through all the small details. It is very hard to find such good representation of overweight individuals so I applaud this book for doing it so well amongst all its other elements.

This novella focuses on Cora, a fat student originally introduced in Beneath the Sugar Sky. Cora has had experiences with several doors and traumas to match them. She asks Eleanor for a transfer to another school, Whitethorn Institute, an anti-magic school that focuses on making children conform and forget their experiences in other worlds.

Characters: Cora is beautifully developed. The author accurately depicts the impact of fatphobia on Cora. As a fat person, a lot of this rang true and broke my heart a bit. I would have liked a bit more character development of the characters introduced later in the novella - but I am sure we will see more of them in future books.

Plot & Pacing: This is a novella, so the book moves along quickly. I did find that the pacing in the latter half of the book went a bit too fast and I would have preferred a bit more development. I am excited for the additional worlds that have been opened with the new school and new characters.
Overall, I enjoyed this book - but I think I would have enjoyed it better if I had read all the installments, (I thought this was a stand-alone) particularly Come Tumbling Down. Next on my list!

Where the Drowned Girls Go releases tomorrow, Tuesday, January 4, 2022. It is a great time to jump into this series!

ARC was provided to me by Tor/Macmillan, in exchange for an honest review.

I love this series. I love the worlds. I love this book.

I reread the previous 6 books to prepare for the 7th and I do not want to leave this series! Where the Drowned Girls Go is definitely in my top three of the series as a whole. It was so good!

We mostly follow Cora, who is having nightmares <spoiler> of her time with the Drowned Gods from the Moors seen in a previous book </spoiler>. The only way she can think to shake them, is to transfer to "the other school" where the children who want to forget their adventures go.

There is more to this other school, Whitethorn Academy, than seems upon entering. It is sterile, it is strict, it prepares you for the "real" world. It is dangerous. It is suffocating.

I loved the setting of the Whitethorn Academy and all the students. I liked getting a small glimpse of the other worlds these children went to. I loved running in to a familiar character from a previous book and seeing what had become of them. Things like that just add to the book and make me (as a reader) so happy!

I can't wait to physically own this book and add it to my collection!

Thank you to Seanan McGuire, Tor, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is another excellent entry in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. This time we join Cora after he return from the Moors as she transfers to Whitethorn Institute, the sister school to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.

Where The Drowned Girls Go is another excellent addition to the beloved Wayward Children series, and it may just be my favorite to be published thus far. I highly recommend you pick up this book or start the series if you have not already. It’s full of adventure, intrigue, love and friendship.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me access to an eARC of Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book from the beginning to the end. I’m so enthralled by this series. I love getting to explore these new worlds (only this time the main setting was a school in our own world which I found fascinating).
The characters McGuire has created are so interesting. I loved getting to know Cora. We got a little of her in Come Tumbling Down and I loved getting to learn more about her. It was amazing reading about the Trenches and so devastating to learn how she got there.

So, in this book, Cora decides to leave Eleanor's school and go to a different school in order to recover from the events of Come Tumbling Down because she is being haunted by sea gods that are ruining all connections to water for her. Cora wants to be able to go back home to the Trenches, so she's willing to do whatever it takes to get away from the sea gods. Her attempts of escape start with attending an anti-magic school that shames its students for their time in their home worlds.

There are so many things to love about this book. I loved getting glimpses of other characters from previous books like Sumi, Kade, and Eleanor. It was fun getting to know McGuire’s new characters too. This book feels very character-driven in part because of the switching of points of view, but also because so much of the story hinges on the development of various characters and how they feel about the world around them rather than outside plot-points. Additionally, I love getting to read about the way that McGuire pairs different teens with different worlds. These worlds always help them discover parts of themselves that were already there that they never had the chance to explore in their original world. It seems like the characters come to love themselves more after their experiences in these worlds because they got to be heroes in a world that felt more like home than this one.

It was really interesting learning about this other school and finding out how other adults and other teens cope with what they found behind their doors. This book was different than the others because it mostly takes place in our world in a school with the goal of making its students forget what they found behind their doors. It’s so different than Eleanor’s school where students are encouraged to embrace their pasts and use skills they learned from their worlds into our own now that they’re here. As the story goes on, the new school feels more and more sinister. There are plot-twists galore, humor, and readers will have trouble putting this book down.
Some trigger warnings for this book include fatphobia, mentions of a suicide attempt and suicidal feelings, food shaming, and more.

5 out of 5 stars

These books are always a delight and this installment is no exception. Dealing with some difficult topics, our characters are really well drawn and authentic and as usual, the whimsical quality of the prose is very evident. I really enjoyed exploring a different school and the darkness that has been a constant throughout the series is here in spades again. Another wonderful book!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Seanan Mcguire comes back with yet another whimsical tale from her Wayward Children series. Cora's characher has always been an interesting one, and I love that the author chose to center this book around her. What strikes me the most about Cora is that her character arc is not about gaining confidence, because she already has it. Obviously there's a bigger discussion here about fatphobia and acceptance, but it is clearly stated that Cora feels good in her body, she is confident about it and I love that. She came beautifully into the leader role in this book, which I think suits her very well. In the previous books, she was always a side character and though we were briefly shown her inner struggles, it was shrouded in mystery for the most part. I'm really satisfied with her story, though I would've liked a little more info on her door and the drowned gods that keep haunting her. That part remains a bit undefined to me, but other thant that, Where the Drowned Girls Go is a well crafted story.

The best part of the ongoing storyline (aka "the odd-numbered books in the series") since book 1...everything felt like it was moving in a very setting-things-up direction. I've always been a bigger fan of the even books, which are more character-driven, but this one had a great balance. The introduction of another school with a very different way of dealing with children's return from magical worlds is inspired, and I'm excited to see how it all plays out in the future.

Another fantastic entry into The Wayward Children series,

This one is about an anti- Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. With the introduction to Whitethorn Institute, there is a deepening to understanding this universe. In the end, I felt this book was written to introduce more characters and a new adversary. And I don't have a single problem with any of that.

I do recommend reading the books in order. Start with Every House a Doorway if you want to read this series.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

The 7th in the Wayward Children series, and just as magical as the others! This one was fun because it introduces another school that has a different approach to students who have returned from their doors. It brings back Regan from book 6, and introduces several new characters that we haven't seen previously. I also enjoyed how it sets up the premise that the 18 is no longer the "cut-off" date for someone's door, that age is a state of mind - that allows for so much more to come in future books.

If you've been following this series this far, then you definitely have to read this one. It is just as creative (although there's less time spent in other worlds) as the others, and brings up some new ways to think about the situations the people face who have returned from alternate worlds. I'd rate this 3.5 (rounded up to 4), and while it's not my favorite in the series, I'm excited to see how the new characters are incorporated into future books!

Where the Drowned Girls Go is the seventh novella in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. This series is one of my all-time favorites, so obviously, I'm going to be a little biased here. However, I would strongly recommend all fantasy readers to consider giving this series a try.

Also! Did you hear that the rights have been bought for Wayward Children? So we might just be seeing a television series someday soon. I would love that more than anything.

We all love to think about Eleanor West and her Home for Wayward Children. However, did you know that this is not the only school specializing in children who have found their doors? There's another, and their idea of help is very...different.

Yet this is the school that Cora desperately feels the need to head to. You see, Whitethorn runs a very different school – they want to help children forget. And Cora very much needs to forget all about the drowned gods and the connection they hold upon her.

“We can't make things that happened not have happened by wishing that they hadn't.”

Wow. Just wow. Once again, I find myself utterly enchanted with a world that Seanan McGuire has created. Where the Drowned Girls Go was another fantastic addition to this series and arguably one of my favorite to date (I think I say that every time?).

Where the Drowned Girls Go continues the pattern of the series, with one novel set on the other side of a doorway and the next set in this world. Here readers finally get to see a bit of how Whitethorn, the other school, is run. It is very much the exact opposite of Eleanor's school, but that isn't all too surprising.

What is surprising is every detail that McGuire manages to weave into this tale. There's a lot to unpack, including a surprise appearance from another beloved character, the introduction of several others (will we ever see them again?), and of course, the conflict that rages within Cora.

“She climbed into the water, heart pounding from the conflict between “the water is safe, the water is home and harbor, the water will not hurt you” and “the water is filled with monsters who are only waiting for their opportunity to drag you down.”

I honestly think that Cora's plot may be one of the best yet. It is so profoundly personal and yet has such an inhuman element in it (thanks to the drowned gods and all). It's heartbreaking yet powerful. It is so many conflicting notions, which makes it the perfect addition to this series when you stop and think about it.

In hindsight, it makes complete sense that not all of the children who found and then lost their doors would hope to cope in the same way. Some would want to find their way back, yes. But many others would not. Where the Drowned Girls Go did an excellent job of portraying children who found doors that were not worth crossing again. It is a harrowing thought, but also something that would have to happen, given the number of doors and worlds.

Next up in the series is Lost in the Moment and Found. So far, there is no description of the novella, though I could hazard a guess or two. I would assume that this novella will continue to fit the pattern, meaning we're about to walk through another door. I also have an idea of which character we might be following, as that title carries a pretty good hint (I think).