MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN - Seanan McGuire

Antsy is struggling to be comfortable and accepted in the land behind the doors, where wayward children often find themselves.  She had gotten kicked out of The Shop Where the Lost Things Go in the previous book and now finds her way to Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. She'd like nothing more than to fit in but word gets around that she has the innate ability to find things and now some of the other wayward children want to know if she can find the Doors which remain hidden until needed.

Antsy is bullied into trying to find the doors and ultimately this bullying works as Antsy searches for a Door in order to escape the bullies. This leads her to strange new (and old) worlds (did you note the dinosaurs on the cover?) and she'll question her choices.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Seanan McGuire's work and that I absolutely love this series. One of the rules for world building is to have a set of rules by which the world operates, but McGuire has cleverly created a world where the rule is that you can access any or every rule. Our characters come from different realities - mermaids from a waterworld, children from nonsense worlds, Halloween worlds, Fairy worlds. They all come here - allowed here by a Door - which makes it seem as though there is a purpose, but here we finally see, with Antsy's struggles, that 'purpose' is perhaps not the case.  Are they here, then, for their own safety - coming from a dangerous place or dangerous people? If so, why does Antsy not feel safe here?

This land for wayward children is still dark and not as comforting as it might seem on first glance, but it's definitely interesting and worth reading about.

Looking for a good book? Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is another fantastic adventure in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

* * * * * * 

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

author: Seanan McGuire

series: Wayward Children #9

publisher: Tordotcom

ISBN: 9781250848505

hardcover, 160 pages

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