Juice Like Wounds
Ratings29
Average rating4
I read Every Heart a Doorway for the first time last year and I wrote a review for it which you can read here. I did a reread of it this year and read the rest of the books that are currently out including the short stories. I read them back to back so they kind of all got scrambled in my brain so I thought I would just write a review on the series as a whole. These books are weird but in the best way. You definitely have to suspend disbelief but if you can do that I guarantee you will have fun with this series. I love how many worlds we get to learn about in this series. Some sound delightful and some no so much. I loved the characters some more than others of course. These are all novella length. For the most part I felt like we got a full story and I wasn't left feeling like I was missing something but at the same time I wanted more from each of the stories. Not because I felt like I was missing something I just wanted to know more about the characters and what happened after the ending of the book. We do get that answer for some of the characters in proceeding books so that was good. I've enjoyed each of the stories equally. I don't think I could pick a favorite but I do have favorite characters some of which I am still waiting on stories for so I hope those are coming. Overall I had fun reading these with Destiny and I can't wait for the next release.
I feel like this would be better right after reading In an Absent Dream, because I forgot many details about the characters and world. I do think even independently its a nice little story. Because of this though I felt the characters were not as fleshed out. I really need to reread some of these.
I can't say I wasn't warned, and I knew how it had to end, but none of that softened the blow. Well done.
Another beautiful, poetic, meaningful story from [a:Seanan McGuire 2860219 Seanan McGuire https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1245623198p2/2860219.jpg]. This is a short story and, while I think you could read it on it's own, I think that it's best if you have read another of the books in the beautiful Wayward Children series in which children find their way through the cracks in the world to other lands elsewhere. Each story is written like a fairy tale and, while they are fiction - they tell truth. You could start with [b:In an Absent Dream 38244358 In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4) Seanan McGuire https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525436165l/38244358.SY75.jpg 59926216], in which we meet Lundy, the girl in this short story, or with [b:Every Heart a Doorway 25526296 Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) Seanan McGuire https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431438555l/25526296.SX50.jpg 45313140], the first book published. My personal recommendation is to start with [b:Down Among the Sticks and Bones 31450908 Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children, #2) Seanan McGuire https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1473685781l/31450908.SX50.jpg 47411892], which is near perfect in my opinion.
A snippet of a story, McGuire gives us back an adventure from book 4, and actually introduces the pivotal character in shaping Lundy. In doing so, she tells us more about the rules of monsters in the world and while the scene is short (and sad) it feels like a fundamental part of the story. I wish she hadn't cut this and the other such scenes from the novella
