Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

I really love this series of novellas. They're relatively short, and they do a great job of weaving an interconnected story arc across the series with an independent mini story for each book. This is book nine in the series.

Aw! I am so excited to see how everyone is growing and dealing with their emotions and past and future. Of course there is a quest, but there is a lot of character growth as well. I am now caught up with the series and I have to wait for the next one.

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.  

one of the better cross-over stories in the series, I think.

I think this is the first book in the series where I was genuinely confused for a moment because you had to know quite a bit of what happened in earlier stories. I am really glad we finally got to see Kade's world, however briefly, although all the worlds in this were very brief, which I didn't like as much as having just a stand alone of a world. 

I really hope they come back to Kade again, although I do want him to stay and help the school, he is not as hated in his as he thinks, and I would love to see him explore that. I am also glad Cora got back to hers. I didn't love her as a character, so it's perfect for me. I enjoyed the novel but as always, and especially this time, it goes way too fast and is over way too quick. And now I have to wait a whole year. 

After losing years of her life in the Land Where the Lost Things Go, Antsy Ricci has found her way to Eleanor West’s Home for Warward Children. But a school filled with kids trying to find their Doors back to magical lands might not be the best place for a girl that can find anything,

This is the 9th book in the Wayward Children series and is best read in sequence. It takes place a bit before and directly after the events of Where the Drowned Girls Go and Lost in the Moment and Found. It’s worth rereading those if you don’t remember what happened.

Antsy’s an interesting character. She’s 9 years old in the body of a 16 year old, with no idea of how to act around kids her visible age. Seeing her face her past and giving real resolution to her story in Lost in the Moment and Found, was wonderful.

I loved Sumi in this story. She can be a bit much but acts like a real mother hen crossed with a real no nonsense attitude. She has some of the most insightful lines in the book.

Despite the rules of the school, a quest is at hand. As a novella it only takes a few hours to read, but has a very satisfying story arc.

If you’ve read the prior novellas in the series, this is a strong follow-up. If you haven’t, I can’t recommend the series enough.

(review copy provided by Netgalley)

I think this series is fun and light but I am perhaps over it by this point, which is unpopular. Or maybe I wasn't in the mood for it.

We follow a girl named Antsy this time, who can find things others have lost. Of course, people look to take advantage of that. And then there are dinosaurs! So that was neat.

There was nothing I didn't like about this, but I mostly just found it kinda fine. If you already like the series, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Antsy is one of the newer students at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children and possesses a unique talent: the ability to find almost anything that has been lost. Her fellow students, all longing for the doorways that led them to their true homes, soon find out about this ability, and some of them will stop at nothing before they make her open doors against her will. When Antsy and her friends must escape, they find themselves traversing through various worlds, all leading back to the people who stole Antsy's childhood.

This was a thoroughly engaging and whimsical entry into the franchise, with McGuire's usual knack for balancing humor and emotion. There was a clear theme of breaking cycles of abuse, which is, of course, powerful and necessary. Still, I did feel that the action would often stop for various characters to monologue about both that and the feeling of belonging they found in their portal worlds. At this point in the series, we understand that the characters went where they felt most at home. This one is too steeped in lore from the other books to act as an entry point, so I'm not sure it was necessary. Overall, though, I was happy to revisit Antsy, and honestly, I want Kade to have a Good Day sometime in the very near future. 3.5 talking magpies out of 5.

Rating: 4.63 leaves out of 5-Characters: 4/5 -Cover: 5/5-Story: 4/5-Writing: 5/5Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Urban Fantasy, YA-Fantasy: 5/5-Magical Realism: 5/5-Urban Fantasy: 4/5-YA: 5/5Type: EbookWorth?: YesHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.For only reading the 1st, 8th, and now 9th book in this series I really do love it. Seanan does a great job at woving dark ribbon into a white cloth. She takes you to these places and somehow you leave a bit of yourself there.This book is a continuation from book 8 and I was so happy that it was. Wouldn't like if it didn't have me feeling a little bit sad but it was nothing compared to how in awe I was while reading. I don't know if it was super quick or I just got lost in it.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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Continuity Counts

By and large, the Wayward Children books can be read in any order—sure, things will mean more if you read them in order of publication (so far, anyway). It’s easier that way to catch allusions, understand the depth of relationships, come close to tracking what Sumi is talking about, etc. But you can get away with skipping around.

But you really need to read this one after Lost in the Moment and Found. It’s the closest thing to a direct sequel that we’ve had in this series. It’s also kind of a follow-up to Where the Drowned Girls Go (and, as always, touches on several others).

This is largely Part II of Antsy’s story—the story is shared by a group of the students (my favorites in the series) on one of those quests they’re not supposed to undertake—and whoops, I’ve started writing the next section.

What’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known About?

Antsy is having a hard time adjusting to life at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, almost as much trouble as she’d be having adjusting to anywhere else on Earth. Part of that comes from not being as honest about her circumstances as she could’ve been—understandably so, I think—which just made everything worse.

Still, there are signs that things may get better, helped a little by Antsy being able to find anything for people. Then Seraphina (who can get anyone—with one or two exceptions—to do what she wants) decides to use her abilities on Antsy to get her to find her Door.

Ansty, Sumi, and some others (I’m not going to name them to keep your interest piqued) manage to slip away using Antsy’s ability to find things and her knowledge of how Doors work, eventually getting back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. Which wasn’t exactly where Antsy wanted to be—and she learns that things there hadn’t gone as expected when she left and a whole new quest develops.

Not About Jim Morrison’s Band

When I wrote about Lost in the Moment and Found earlier this year, I said:

This entry would be a worthwhile read for fans if only for this one thing—we learn more about the Doors and how they work. I’m not going to go into it, obviously, nor am I going to promise that every question you had about the Doors will be answered—actually you’ll likely end up with new questions, but they’ll be informed questions.

That’s true here, too. In fact, we learn so much about them that I almost don’t want to learn anything more about Doors for another 8+ books so they don’t get too demystified. McGuire being McGuire, I know that if she reveals a whole lot more in the next book, I’ll end up repeating everything I said prior to this sentence—and I’ll be happy and equipped with more questions.

Regardless—what we do learn here is fantastic. It both makes utter sense—in the way that maybe we all should’ve guessed it already (maybe some did)—in terms of storytelling, worldbuilding, and more. I wonder what (some of) the students understanding this is going to do to things going forward. If anything.

Future Continuity

Speaking of things going forward, something major is on the way for Eleanor West. It’s been hinted at before, but so many things in this book point to it happening soon (but in Wayward Children-time, it could take 3-4 novellas for us to get to “soon”). I’m eager to see it, as much as I’m dreading what it might mean.

One Quick Character Note

Every protagonist of these novellas—and a significant chunk of the supporting characters—has been wonderful. With the exception of Seraphina and her crew*, I like all the students we’ve met at the School and want to know more about them all.

* I’m waiting for McGuire to decide it’s time to humanize them so we readers will root for even them, and we’ll feel bad for not doing so earlier.

But…from the moment we met her, Sumi’s been a favorite of mine. I should probably use the definite article there, actually. So I’m not unbiased when I say that in Mislaid in Parts Half-Known she is glorious, but she really is. She’s funny, she’s loopy, she’s brave, and she’s wise. Hard as that last one might be to believe. She’s also rather clever and displays that at the end.

The main parts of the story belong to Antsy and a couple of other characters—but Sumi stole every scene she was in and I really just want a few in a row featuring her.

So, what did I think about Mislaid in Parts Half-Known?

This is not my favorite Wayward Children book, but it’s close. There aren’t one or two big emotional moments like there typically are in these (at least not that hit me…your results may vary). But there were a handful of small emotional moments that worked so well—in terms of what happened to someone, how it impacted the other characters, and the way that McGuire wrote them—that I don’t care. It might even be better this way.

The worlds we saw were wonderful—really, you could set an entire fantasy trilogy in them without reference to any other. The world hinted at on the cover, for example, could easily sustain a 1,500-page trilogy full of whimsy and danger.

There’s probably more humor and smile-inducing moments here than several of these books combined sport. Which was a nice bit of fresh air (in a series that really doesn’t need it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not welcome).

Naturally, there are characters we’re not likely to see again due to the nature of these books, and I’m going to miss them. Although the endings they got were well deserved and well executed.

I almost always walk away from a Wayward Children book feeling satisfied and a little in awe of McGuire—I think that feeling is larger this time just because of the number of emotional and story notes she managed to hit, the storylines she was able to incorporate and resolve, the ones she just moved forward, and…everything else in 160 pages. It shouldn’t be possible. This book (like most in the series) is bigger on the inside.

A few paragraphs back, I said that this wasn’t my favorite in the series—but at the moment, I’m having trouble understanding why (but I’m going to trust my earlier impulse). But it is so, so, so good. I’m having trouble coming up with adequate adjectives at this point.

Go get this in January. Order it now (and/or request it from your library). If you haven’t read these books yet, go. At a bare minimum, get the first, Every Heart a Doorway, and then Lost in the Moment and Found, so you can be ready for this one when it’s released. You can catch up on the others later.

I still love this series and the concept for it, and I was relieved to get a followup on Antsy's life, but I wished I had brushed up a little bit on all the previous books before reading this one since it involves a lot of Lore from previous books. Still: a good read and a thoughtful depiction of breaking the cycle of generational violence (with bonus talking animals).