Yet another beautiful installment in a series that will have my heart for all of time. I loved the sense of duty and honor that Antsy reveals. Cora's bravery and leadership never fail to make me cheer, and the deftly woven insights on childhood and the responsibilities of those who care for children are never short of amazing. I cannot for the next insight into our wayward babes.

Usually the author does a better job and connecting the books, but this one I had a harder time keeping up with because I couldn't remember everyone's stories. I also feel like the shorter they are the less interesting they get.

Full of magic, whimsy and some light emotional punches, Mislaid in Parts Half-Known was a great ninth installment of the Wayward Children series. Long book series are a hit or miss for me but, the world building and character development in McGuire’s stories always leave me wanting more and still have yet to disappoint me.

This book once again follows Antsy as she navigates life after being forced out of the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. I enjoyed continuing her storyline and seeing her continue to grow as she made hard decisions and learned to accept the help of friends. As always with this series, this book had the feeling of fairytale with drops of humor and a loose poetic writing style.

I can’t wait for the next book and recommend this series to anyone who needs a little magic or has ever dreamed of escaping to a new world.

It's amazing to me how 9 books into the Wayward Children series Seanan McGuire can still make these books and ideas feel fresh! I am so glad we got more of Antsy and many of my other favourite characters in this universe. As other classmates realize how good Antsy is at finding things the pressure is on to find their doors. Escaping a tricky situation leads them on a quest through multiple worlds leaving behind some of our characters as we go. Also DINOSAURS!

Another amazing heartwrenching addition in this series and I cannot wait to read more!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

First of all, THAT COVER! Another fantastic instalment in one of my favorite series, I was happy to get a follow up / some questions answered from Lost in the Moment and Found.

<i>ARC Provided by NetGalley<i>

McGuire's writing remains as intoxicating as ever, though I find myself enjoying this series a little less as it goes on. I think it's a personal thing though, as the books are still well written and characterised, and it's impossible to fault the way that she writes.

For one reason, this one felt a little disjointed. The beginning didn't seem to match the end. I did truly adore this book though. I just love the way that Seanan is able to pull the reader in. I really enjoyed this entire book and I loved the familiar characters.

Seanan McGuire continues the Wayward Children series with Mislaid in Parts Half Known novella in which Antsie opens doors to very strange locations to guide her fellow students to their proper doors. Antsie also has to get herself to her correct home which is not the school for Wayward Children. Charming fantasy and unusual characters.

Wonderful story, great character development, great writing! Highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it

This was my first completed read of 2024, and as with the rest of the series, I flew through it. This novella was released into the world on January 9th, although I read it on the 1st. Honestly, I probably could have read it sooner, because it was sitting on my e-reader for a little while, but I wanted to wait until closer to release day, especially knowing that it doesn’t take long to read a novella.

Anyway, this is the 9th installment in the Wayward Children series, and while most of them can basically be read in any order, I recommend reading them in publication order. That being said, this one makes the most sense if you’ve at least read the previous novella, Lost in the Moment and Found. I read and reviewed that one last year, so you can check out my thoughts for it as well.

I’m glad we got Antsy as our main character for two stories in a row. I love how connected she is to all of the Doors and the journey of finding things that she goes on through both of them.

Honestly I’ve really enjoyed the way McGuire sets up this series in a non-linear way. Some of the novellas are set in the past and introduce us to characters and show how they get to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, while other novellas are set in the “present” and we get to see several of these characters interacting with each other at the school.

With any of the “present” novellas, we could get little hints into other characters’ adventures or pasts…which could indicate another story already released or one that might be written and released in the future. That’s honestly why there’s a certain freedom in reading order…although again, even saying that, I still think reading them in publication order is the way to go.

Anyway, this one definitely lives up to the portal fantasy name, because thanks to Antsy’s ability to locate Doors, we get to visit a few different places, and once again there is a journey of learning, growth, discovery, and adventure. We get to see the dynamics between many of the wayward children, because some have had happier adventures than others, and what they’ve experienced has affected them in different ways. Some we met in story one and their adventure isn’t complete yet.

It’s cool that we get to see them pop up in so many different books and see different snippets on their journeys, although that does sometimes make it difficult to follow because there are just so many characters we’ve met over the course of nine novellas. I’m honestly to the point where I’m going to need to start going back and re-reading over all of these. Which isn’t something I’m upset about. I love McGuire’s ability to weave such an emotional, sometimes harrowing, sometimes whimsical, always fantastical story in such a short number of pages.

While I had read a couple McGuire books before this series, it was Wayward Children that moved her to the level of auto-buy author. Well…Wayward Children and then the Alchemical Journeys books.

Thank you to the publish and NetGalley for the review copy.

I love this series, some entries more than others; however, I'm really glad that we got more of Antsy's story with this one. I also loved the inclusion of more of the other children. I cannot wait for the next one.

Rating 4.5/5

<strong>Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is a direct sequel to Lost in the Moment and Found!</strong> It follows <em>Antsy as she settles into Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children</em> following the events of the previous book. Antsy's still struggling with the years that have been stolen from her, as she's not the age she looks like and is<strong> </strong>scared everyone else will notice. Luckily, she's <strong>got new friends on her side, including Cora, Christopher, Kaede and Sumi</strong>! I really liked seeing them again and loved how they were looking out for Antsy all this time. <em>She might be able to find the doors</em> - as she's got a knack for finding lost things - and in a school full of people desperate to go back to their worlds, this could cause a lot of problems.

<strong>The main theme of the book is breaking the cycle of abuse and hurt</strong>! I liked how the author picked Antsy's story back up and had her face the Shop of Lost Things again, including the shopkeeper who stole all these years from her. Anty's adamant that her successor should make an <em>informed</em> choice about whether to open the doors, as they cost time every time you open them. Vineta is still using young children and trying to justify it by saying that she didn't have it any better. <strong>There's a big emphasis on being hurt in the past not being an excuse to do the same to someone else</strong>. Having suffered doesn't mean you can inflict pain on others - Antsy knows this better than anyone.

<strong>The novella sadly felt a bit unfocused and all over the place</strong>. I much preferred<em> Lost in the Moment and Found</em> and <em>Where the Drowned Girls Go</em>, as they had a clear goal. In the beginning, <em>there was even another antagonist who wanted to use Antsy's powers but they quickly got dropped</em> and their story got wrapped up so quickly in the end. There's also a <strong>time skip right in the beginning</strong>, as the events of <em>Where the Drowned Girls Go</em> take place, which felt a bit jarring. The<strong> actual dinosaur world that's depicted on the cover only gets a small amount of page time</strong> and I wish we'd seen a novella completely about it because Stephanie was a great character and her world so interesting. It feels a <em>bit misleading to have the dinosaur on the cover</em> since it's not what the story is about.

I always enjoy being back in the world(s) with these characters. My problem with this entry in the series is the amount of recap taking place. I understand the desire to remind readers about things that happened before, but it takes up way too much space in such a short book. The new adventure teased on the cover seems negligible in comparison.

Well, this is basically Part Two of Vineta doesn't care about anything or anyone but herself. But we don't start there.

Actually, we start just before book #7 Where the Drowned Girls Go, because that's chronologically when Antsy arrives at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children (and saves some of the others from the Whitethorn Institute. And why she ends up being closest friends with outspoken Sumi, and traumatised Cora. And sort of why she ends up becoming more or less cousin to Kade.

The issue is, after the girls come back to Eleanor's school, one of them lets slip that Antsy's being able to find anything that's lost could actually mean... being able to find Doors for those of them who want to go back to the worlds that spat them out. And that's a problem, because some of those girls have powers that make them less ethically inclined to persuade Antsy into doing exactly that.

Antsy, Kade, Sumi and Cora all end up spending time running through Doors in an attempt to evade her, which is what leads Antsy back to her original Door and brings us to first Vineta and then a satisfying conclusion of the book that came before this one. Honestly, I almost feel as though this and the last would have been one novel all together if not for the dedication to this being a series of novellas.

I was so excited to have the chance to read this novella! I've said it before, but I'll say it again; there is NOTHING I will not stop reading in order to start one of the Wayward Children books. They are hopeful and inclusive and sometimes biterly sad, and are the perfect reads to get out of literally any book slump. I'm happy to report that the feeling of this novella is much the same!

As with the other Wayward Children titles, themes include found family, trauma, self-relience, and hope. Every child who returns to our world is marked in some way from where they went, most of them wanting to find their door again so they can return.

Things I loved:
- This was such a great conclusion to Antsy's story! I wanted so badly for her to have a happy ending, and thought we would have to wait much, much longer
-We finally made it to one of the worlds I was most curious about!
-The school crew is back together and questing. While I love all of the characters, I have a soft spot for both Cora and Christoper. I was really glad they got some time here

Things I didn't care for as much:
-This one felt a bit less complete than the other volumes, thought it was clearly part 2 to the last novella
-The pacing felt a little off, and the stakes didn't feel as high.

I really did enjoy this title!

This continues to be one of my favorite fantasy series, and this one again delivers a fun adventure. A nice conclusion to Antsy's story from book 8, however this one had way more plot carryover than previous installments had and it took me a minute to remember what happened in the previous book. If you have the time, re-read that one before diving into this one!

In a school full of children who crossed through doorways into fantastic worlds, worlds ready to be everything they could need, and found themselves spit back out, new student Antsy’s ability to find anything could threaten the school more than any quest ever has. If she can find anything, why not doors? On the run to avoid once again being forced to open doors for other people, Antsy and a party of friends will find themselves crossing through worlds both beautiful and terrible, including the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. The students will risk their lives, face unimaginable danger and memories that cut like a knife, and Antsy will be faced will having to try and keep Vineta and Hudson to their promise.

Every year I look forward to Seanan McGuire’s next Wayward Children novella. Mislaid in Parts Half Known is no exception to this and, given its focus on Lost in the Moment and Found’s protagonist, Antsy, I found myself wondering how her quest would affect the other students who accompanied her as she went on the run. How does one react to the idea of being able to go back to the home that cast them out without having to be sure?

Antsy is definitely the protagonist of this book but it feels, in part, like an exploration of what it means to be sure. Sumi knows that she will return to Confection someday, so she is entirely untempted by Antsy’s ability to find her door. But then mean girl Seraphina is so desperate to return that she kicks off the plot trying to force Antsy to do her bidding. Can one be sure if they just have someone else find and open their door? What does it mean for Antsy to come back to the Shop when she is not sure of her place in it or in the world she originated from? Of course, most of the questing books are an exploration of what it means to be sure. Cora has had an entire arc covering that and it has been handled fantastically.

As ever, the characters are deftly handled. Antsy walks the line of trying to act as old as she looks while also needing to catch up and being adrift at the school. Sumi is a delightful blend of offbeat and terrifying and so, so sure of her future. We see more of Elenore West without the grounding that Lundy provided, categorizing every student as having gone to a Nonsense world and feeling less connected to the school and more ready to go back to her door. More even than that, we see Kade get to question his role as the sort of leader of this group of chaotic heroes.

I want to chew on Mislaid in Parts Half Known, it is a fairly straight forward story but one that does fascinating things with the characters it features, things that I am sure will pay off in their own time but that I also want to see how much more will layer overtop of them. It makes me want to see so much more of this setting, to see more of the characters settling into themselves and finding out what being sure means for them. But it also leaves me a little melancholy, there is an odd feeling of permanence to one of the character bits that is both amazingly written and a bit of a tear jerker for me. Mislaid in Parts Half Known more than earns a five out of five. If you get the chance to read the Wayward Children series, be sure to take it.

This is Seanan McGuire's 9th installment in the Wayward Children series. This continues the trend of alternating between a book with a character in a new world and one starting at The School for Wayward Children.
Antsy is the newest arrival to the school and her gift of being able to find anything has immediately put a target on her back. Everyone wants her to help them find their doors so they can return to their previous rules. So despite the school's rules, a group leaves the school and embarks on yet another quest.
I loved that we got to see the whole group back together and also go back to the world Antsy came from to tie up everything from her book. As long as Seanan McGuire keeps writing these books, I will keep reading them!

Yet another absolutely amazing Wayward Children book! I know that they'll end at some point, but I'm immensely grateful that point has not arrived.

Another great instalment in the Wayward children’s series.
I love the continuation on from the last book which was my favourite so far of the whole series. However I also enjoyed how this included some more lighthearted moments and more interactions between the characters we know and love.
Still hitting with the emotional moments and I have become so attached to these characters that I just love seeing their journeys.
Also love dinosaurs so that was an excellent inclusion for me and I really liked how they were incorporated.