Mislaid in Parts Half-Unknown is the 9th book in the Wayward Children series and it was one my favorites. Antsy finally gets the ending that she deserves and we get to see more growth and understanding from other favorite characters. Seanan McGuire does a wonderful job of giving us life lessons wrapped in magic and wonder through these novellas. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

McGuire’s Wayward Children series is by far one of my favorites that I’ve read in recent years. I’m always impressed by the way she writes stories featuring young characters that explore themes of trauma, loss, acceptance, and the constant debate about right vs. wrong, good vs. evil.

This particular installment follows the most recently introduced character, Antsy, as she’s adjusting to life at Eleanor’s school and her new roommate. When some of her peers begin to suspect Antsy’s abilities to locate lost things, forces converge and she’s off on a quest with her newfound companions (some favorites from previous stories) to evade those who wish to use her powers for their own selfish gain.

Fairylands, lost things, and dinosaurs can all be found in this novella. As is custom with the Wayward Children, we see and interact with many of our past favorite characters, and, just as quickly, say goodbye to several of them. But it’s really all about the lessons learned and growth that happens throughout our brief adventure with children who fall through magical doors.

If you’re looking for a quick story that focuses heavily on breaking cycles of generational trauma and coming into one’s own self, this book is the one! And, as always, I cannot recommend McGuire’s backlog of Wayward Children novellas (this is book 9)!

This book gives a lovely sense of closure and purpose to Antsy's story. Once certain students at the school discovers Antsy's talent for finding lost things, she is forced to quickly flee through the nearest door with several of the students we've come to know in previous books. This book felt a little lighter than the last two installments and it was fun traveling to a few different worlds with the wayward children. I wish I remembered more of the earlier books so as to fully appreciate the characters and where they are now compared to where they were. Although some of the Wayward Children books work as standalones, this one definitely does not. Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Tordotcom for a digital review copy.

oh my GOD i absolutely adore this series and wish i had more to say that wasn't just "askdfjsklajsd" but that's all i got.

i'm consistently blown away by the way seanan packs SO MUCH into so little and while i wish they were longer (for my own personal enjoyment), i don't think they would have as much impact.

thank to netgalley and tor for the egalley!

I love this series. A few of the novellas are among the best thing I have ever read. Many of them function well as stand alone; this one does not, and I felt lost amid the broad cast for about the first half of the read. It has been years since I last read about some of these characters. However, the last half was engaging and enjoyable. I feel like I need to be vague on details because this is such a late entry in the series, but I will say this brings about a satisfying conclusion to Antsy’s story.

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known was almost like Lost in the Moment and Found part 2. We get a conclusion to Antoinette’s story and all the kids go on a quest together to achieve it.

This entry has LOTS of doors, dinosaurs and discoveries. It was nice to spend time with some of the other children from past books as well!

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is a great addition to the Wayward Children books but I’m so sad we’re already on book 9! I kind of never want it to end??

The more that this series goes on, the less engaged I'm starting to feel with each new story.

I appreciated Antsy's origin story, however, it just didn't connect with me in the way that some of the previous stories have. That said, I'm sure I'll still continue this series, because I've already invested in it this far!

The Wayward Children books continue to be a favorite on-going series of mine. Mislaid in Parts Half-Known furthers the narrative of Antsy, the girl from the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. With an affinity for finding things and her new friends from Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children by her side, Antsy leads a quest to find the door to the Shop once more. We follow the kids from the school to a fairy kingdom to a land where dinosaurs roam (an exciting addition to this cosmic map of worlds). Seanan McGuire excels at exploring the particulars of the portal fantasy and what it means to be a "lost child." A comfort series.

I loved this book as I do every book in the wayward children series. I also enjoyed how this one tied very directly into the one before it about The Ahop Where Lost Things Go. I hadn’t read that book in a year but I could still follow relatively easily. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite book in the series, but it was definitely a solid entry.

The next book in the Wayward Children series did NOT disappoint! This concludes Antsy's storyline in a way that felt satisfying while also having an exciting quest at the heart of the story. We get to see so much relationship building between characters as well as general character growth that I think readers who are already fans of the series will be happy to read this installment. Note that this will likely not be a good jumping in point for new readers.

The reason I did not give this a full five stars is that the quest at times felt meandering. While every place had the potential to be important, we did not spend enough time in any place to really feel that importance. I recognize that all entries in this series are novellas, but I think this story in particular could have benefitted from more pages to really build the tension and meaning in each scene.

I'm very glad to have read this and I already can't wait to see where the next installment takes us!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the digital advance reader's copy.

I look forward to a new release in this series every year.

This entry in the series brings together many, many characters who have appeared previously, so it is best to have read the rest of the series before picking this one up.

Quick background: Doors to other worlds appear for children who need them. These worlds are heart and home for many of these children, although the worlds are wild and strange and rarely safe.

Antsy has recently arrived at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward children. However, while she is safe, she is unhappy because the others don't know that she is a nine year-old inside a sixteen year-old's body.

When the others begin to realize that Antsy can find lost things, including the doors to their worlds, things become chaotic when one of them wants to force her to open their door.

In the escape effort, they travel through several doors, and Antsy ends up back in her world, where the lost things go, and where she must face those who betrayed her and lied to her.

I will always enjoy a trip with these characters, and this time we spend time with lots of them: Cora, Sumi, Kade, Christopher, and more.

Plus, dinosaurs.

This entry didn't pack the same emotional punch for me as previous entries, perhaps because the story was spread out among many characters, which I also love, so I'll take it and look forward to next year's story, too.

*some language

As someone who hasn't read the whole series, the beginning sets the reader up pretty well to pick up mid-series. This installment focuses on Antsy, who has come to Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children. Antsy and a few other children go on a quest of sorts and what follows is a beautiful exploration of Antsy's power - both magically and intrinsically. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

The ninth in the Wayward Children series, this one does follow on pretty directly from Lost in the Moment and Found, so not a great starting point to this series and at the least should probably have read book 8. This picks up and continues Antsy's story, and gives us a wonderful conclusion. I love how this continues to dig into the mythology of the doors and the classification of the worlds. We see some fun new worlds in this installment, including one with dinosaurs (wish we had more of the dinosaurs!). This had a very fun adventure vibe, at times it did seem a bit rushed as the group move place to place pretty quickly. Overall not my favorite installment but definitely a solid entry and I am looking forward to seeing what come next.

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is the ninth book in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. This portal fantasy series is made up of novellas that follow children that have gone through doors to other worlds. In some installments, we follow them while they are in their world and in other installments, we follow them when they return from their world and end up in Eleanor West’s school.

Some of the books in this series can be read out of order but I think in order to really understand this one, you need to have read the majority of the other books in this series. This book follows Antsy again and picks up pretty much exactly where the previous installment ended. I won’t go too much into the story so I won’t spoil anything but this book was beautifully written and insightful but also a little repetitive feeling and much slower moving.

What has proven true with this entire series is I prefer the even numbered installments because they are the ones that explore the fantastical worlds and the installment right before this one was one of my favorites in the entire series so I knew this one wouldn’t live up to that. This was still a good time. I love seeing the larger cast that we have met come together because it is always so interesting. I feel like this one had a good mix of fantasy elements in it as well.

I would highly recommend this series to anyone who loves books that feel like fairytales and portal fantasy. A lot of these books will really make you think about things in a new light and I love that feeling.

This novel picks up where the last left off, with Antsy coming to Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children. I liked Antsy, so I was happy to see her back so soon! In this installment, the resident mean girl of Eleanor West’s tries to exploit Antsy’s newfound superpower of being able to find anything and force her to find her door. But instead, she uses that superpower to escape with her new friends, and they go on a journey that takes them through various doors and worlds – including the shop that stole Antsy’s youth away.

I enjoyed this one, back at Eleanor’s with the whole gang but also gallivanting through the various worlds. We get a little bit of Kade backstory (though it hurt my heart a little) and Antsy gets some much-needed closure. It didn’t feel as cohesive as some of the previous novels in the series – but it did have dinosaurs! Four stars.

Beautiful, quotable writing as always

It felt a little repetitive in the beginning because it was explaining how the school works all over again.

This one felt a little off. It was more an adventure created to wrap up a few characters stories rather than its own independent story and that made it feel kind of wooden in places.

It was nice to see the characters again though and I would continue reading whatever else comes out of this series.

This series has been pretty up and down - it started off strong, then went downhill for a few books, and then started coming back up again. This book is one of the better ones in the series, though still not as good as the first few. I'm hoping the author can keep up this momentum though and finish off the series on a good note, whenever that may be.

This entry focuses on Antsy, who can find lost things. More specifically, she can find the thing every child in this series longs to find - the door back to their world. When a couple of students hope to exploit this by controlling Antsy, she flees along with a few other students who made appearance throughout the series. Along the way, she finds the door back to her world, and decides she needs to set things right once and for all.

If you haven't read the other books in this series, this one isn't going to make much sense. While a couple of them you could read without having read the others and still mostly understand what's going on, this one specifically focuses on events and characters from previous books, and you will be lost without having read them first. For a short while I considered giving up on this series. There were a couple of entries that were pretty terrible and made me feel like it wasn't going to get better. However, the last two entries have helped make up for it and I do plan on continuing for now. If you enjoy ya books with fantasy and a diverse set of characters, it is worth picking up. Just be aware that you may struggle with a few books along the way.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.
This has quickly become my favorite series and I’m beyond grateful to have gotten to read this book early! So glad we were given the next part of Antsy’s story in this book. We got a glimpse into 2 worlds, one with DINOSAURS and the other I’m sure fans of this series will be super excited to see. Also love how this book really touches on childhood trauma and how it effects people. There are some amazingly powerful quotes throughout this book on the topic that made me cry. I highly recommend this book, although I would recommend at least reading book 8 before this one!

Have we ever gotten two books, in a row, that follow the same protagonist? Lost in the Moment and Found, and Mislaid in Parts Half-Known really read like 2 halves of one story and I love it.

We are once again following Antsy as she learns how to survive at Eleanor Wests school, trying to make friends while being all too aware that she is a 9 year old in a teenagers body (thank you magical doors and your secret Cost).

But what happens when the kids at school find out that Antsy is able to find missing things.... and those things include their missing Doors?

We end up on a race through a few different Doors, all the while learning more about the Doors themselves while we follow Antsy on her quest back to the Store.

We get to visit 2 new worlds, and we have a lot of amazing quotes, which for me was I surprised how many came from Sumi (until Antsy points out that Sumi is a lot smarter than she pretends to be so i suppose I fell for the rouse too).

And yes, this book shows a glimpse into the world of Dinosaurs. I of course was beyond hyped for this - i am a Dinosaur girllll. While the Dinosaur World was not .... exactly what i would have wanted from a portal world (particularly based on the cover) I do think Seanan included in the right amount and right way. The way of these Worlds you can really only go 2 ways with Dinos-- make them sentient talking creatures which risks being Cheesy or them being the natural predators that they are and therefore unsafe for (most) humans to be living there - and thus we can't necessarily spend the whole book in there. She made the right decision and I think it works with this story incredibly well.

I really like the lore that was fleshed out further here, and the things that are slowly being set-up for what is probably an ending in the next few books (I don't want it to ever end but I can see the dominos falling in a way that makes sense)

(Review scheduled to post on my blog on 12/24/23)

This is the one with dinosaurs! It's excellent, and if you've been enjoying the series so far you'll love this too. Antsy is trying to make it so no other kids get tricked out of their childhoods by unknowingly paying for too many doors, but this time she has some help from Kade, Sumi, and the others.

For a school where “No Quests” adorns the door, the students at the school for Wayward Children sure do get up to a lot of quests. A core group with a slowly shifting cast has been established as traveling to try and fix things on a semi-regular basis. In MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN, some of the kids figure out that Antsy’s gift for finding lost things might let her find their doors... whereupon trouble ensues. Kade, Sumi, Cora, Emily, and Christopher travel with Antsy to try and set things right which were left broken when she fled the Store at the end of LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND. The worldbuilding has been getting more complicated as they learn more about what's happening. Eleanor's assumptions about the students have started having more to do with her desire for Nonsense than their actual experiences, and it's getting to a point where it's affecting the room assignments. This continues several storylines which were begun earlier, creating what feels like an entirely new storyline through recombination of older threads, even though as each piece was something introduced earlier. This far into the series, that’s an excellent feeling, making the adventure feel both fresh and familiar even on a first read-through. A particular problem in the Store is both introduced and resolved, and several more tangles either arise or are addressed. As a story about nexuses and connections, it’s especially nice to reach a point where everything feels so connected to everything else that it’s a complicated tangle to explain the setup, which for me is one of the joys of a long-running series.

MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN could partly make sense to someone who starts here, but if such a person wanted to jump in midway without starting at the beginning of the series, LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND (the previous book) would be a much better entry point. That reader would find themselves knowing as much as Antsy does about what’s happening, which is a comprehensible perspective even if it misses earlier portions of the ongoing story. I particularly enjoyed some moments with Kade and Sumi (both separately and together). This felt like an ensemble cast in a way that earlier books didn't, and it's wonderful to be at the point in the series where the focus can smoothly shift between characters as needed.

This entry is great, don't miss it! This series is consistently excellent and I'm eager to read what happens next.