You will find sixteen short stories of time-crossed romance in Someone in Time. Editor Jonathan Strahan collected 14 original stories from notable authors to be featured alongside two existing tales that he favors. The anthology has a little bit of everything, and the collection’s diversity of storytelling, characters, and depiction of love is exquisite. Roadside…
Another year, another Wayward Children installment. Seanan McGuire’s series continues, and apparently, so do I. Close followers of The Quill To Live may see this review and wonder why I’m here. Last year, I wrote a melodramatic Dear John letter to the Wayward Children series and embarked on a search for fantasy that better fits…
Continue reading ➞ Where The Drowned Girls Go – Time To Say Goodbye
Yet another wayward child discovers a world beyond her wildest dreams in Across the Green Grass Fields. Seanan McGuire’s sixth novella installment in the Wayward Children series hobbled across the finish line, leaving me to draw a personal conclusion: it’s time for me to part with this series. It may not be that time for…
Continue reading ➞ Across the Green Grass Fields – Series Meets Banality
Seanan McGuire’s fifth Wayward Children novella brings us once again to Eleanor West’s home for the titular youth. It also returns to the story of Jack (Jacqueline) and Jill, sisters whose collective tale of sibling love and loss rises to a volcanic climax in Come Tumbling Down. Beware--spoilers from previous Wayward Children installments ahead! Jack…
Continue reading ➞ Come Tumbling Down – Sisterhood Meets Finality
In an Absent Dream marks a return to form for Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, which faltered in book three after its impressive first and second installments. Here, we learn the backstory of Lundy, a character left tragically underexplored in Every Heart A Doorway. Lundy’s arc in Every Heart was short but sweet, and her…
Continue reading ➞ In an Absent Dream – Indecision Meets Duality
Beneath the Sugar Sky returns, if only for a moment, to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. The third novella in the aptly named Wayward Children series brings us back to present-day following Jack and Jill’s prequel adventure in Down Among the Sticks and Bones. This pattern of alternating past-present stories will continue, according to…
Continue reading ➞ Beneath the Sugar Sky – Nonsense Meets Mortality
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire’s first prequel to Every Heart a Doorway, offers brutal ruminations on the nature of childhood and the implications of growing up. This story, starring twin sisters Jacqueline (Jack) and Jill (before you ask--yes, there are plenty of references to the nursery rhyme. No, they’re not overdone), paints…
Continue reading ➞ Down Among the Sticks and Bones – Childhood Meets Brutality
Seanan McGuire weaves a poignant tale in Every Heart A Doorway, the first novella in her award-winning Wayward Children series. Through expert world-building and a sharp writing style, Every Heart A Doorway provides a heart-wrenching look at belonging, acceptance, and what it means to be stripped of them. When protagonist Nancy finds herself ejected from…
Continue reading ➞ Every Heart A Doorway – Magic Meets Reality
I wanted to start this review with a reference to Changes by David Bowie, but maybe that’s a little too on the nose? What about The Future’s So Bright by Timbuk 3? Probably still not quite right, and due to my lack of pop culture references to alchemy I may have to change my angle…
Continue reading ➞ Middlegame – I Didn’t Quite Go Cuckoo For It, But Still Great
