My Wayward Children Reread

lapetitepritt

Aug 23

Hello, bookworms!

Happy Tuesday, today is my second to last off work day. I am actually writing this and all the remaining August scheduled posts on Monday, but whatever, you get the point.

Anyways, today we are talking about The Wayward Children Saga by Seanan McGuire, one of my all times favourite series. Since I got an e-ARC of the eight instalment in the series, I decided to do a big reread of the first seven books and make a small recap before posting my review for Lost in the Moment and Find on Thursday.

Tier Ranking the Books
Since I've already talked at length about the books, both here and on Instagram/Goodreads, I am not going to format this article as a review of the series, but I am going to do a ranking of the books, from best to "worst". I gave all of them 5 stars, honestly, so this is just a way to have a bit of fun and compare favourites with y'all, if you've read the series.

My absolute favourite must be Down Among the Sticks and Bones (#2), very closely followed by Every Heart a Doorway (#1) and Where the Drowned Girls Go (#7). After that, I think I am going to say Beneath the Sugar Sky (#3) and In an Absent Dream (#4). Then, I'll put Come Tumbling Down (#5) and finally Across the Green Grass Fields (#6). To know where I am going to put Lost in the Moment and Found, keep an eye out for my review.

Favourite Characters Battle
If you'd asked me who my favourite characters were before this reread, I would have probably told you Christopher got the gold and Nancy got the silver, with Kade as a close bronze medal. However, after having read all the books back to back, I am now facing a crisis, because I am not sure who my top3 characters are.

I didn't really love Sumi when I first read the books she is in, but I really do love her now and since we know her better than, say, Nancy, I could switch them. At the same time, Nancy is one of the very first ace characters I've ever read, so she has a special place in my heart. I also wasn't a fan of Jill, the first time around, and I much preferred Jack, but I now understand her better and I like her as well, even if she's done a lot of questionable things. I also like Cora a lot more now, so you see how it's almost impossible for me to choose favourites. They are all my (wayward) children.

Things I Didn't Really Notice the First Time Around
Having read this series from very early on (I started it when book three came out), a lot of time passed between the books for me and this is the first time I actually reread any of the books. Which is why I was vaguely aware that the world building was expanding, but I didn't fully realize how much and in what ways. So, it was really nice to find things out.

While rereading the series, I decided to tab all the pages where a world behind a Door was mentioned for the first time or expanded and all the pages that explained a bit about how these Doors are supposed to work in the general scheme of things. I've learned some interesting things that had gotten lost in the time between one book and the next. From now on, even if I will keep requesting e-ARCs for the future instalments, I will be tabbing them all as soon as I get a physical copy. Around February 2023, which is my birthday month, I'll probably buy myself Lost in the Moment and Found (which comes out in January) and you can be sure I'll be rereading it, so that I can put tabs in it, because this is one of the books that expanded the world building the most, I think. More on this later this week.

What's Next?
Tordotcom and Seanan McGuire already announced that there will be at least two more books in the series, which still don't have either title or synopsis. Since it's always one book set in the "real" world, at least for some of it, and one book, we already know the next book will be set at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children.

I think it's safe to assume that we will be seeing the aftermath of what happened in Where the Drowned Girls Go, and I believe the children will begin to understand how the Doors work a bit more. I also believe that, since Antsy had her solo book, she is going to play a bigger role in book 9 as well and she will be key to understaning some mechanisms of the world. I also have a theory that sooner or later, Kade is going to have to go back to Prism — one way or the other — and I think the ninth book might be when this happens, but maybe it's still too early. I don't believe we are going to get a book about the first time he went through his door (at least, I hope we don't, because I am a bit scared of how it might come across), but we might get something similar to Beneath the Sugar Sky.

As for book 10, I am not sure. It will depend on how many more books are going to be announced, if any. If book 10 is the last one, I think it could be about Eleanor and it will end with her going back to her Nonsense world, leaving Kade in charge and us in tears. If book 10 is not the last one, I am thinking either the nameless girl (I don't want to spoil anything) or Christopher's worlds are going to be it. However, if they announce more than two books, I think Seanan will wait to give us Christopher's book, because she knows how much we want it and she'll leave us wanting for more and for a bit longer.

As far as titles are concerned, I have literally no clue, but I really do hope they keep chaning the first letter of the title, since so far we have A, B, C, D, E, I, L and W. My dream is to have 26 books in total, one for each letter of the alphabet, but I am not even sure they noticed they are doing this, to be honest. It might just be my brain being weird, as usual.

What the World Behind My Door Would Be
I have been wondering this for years, now, and I am still not sure. The only thing I can say for sure is that it would be a very Logic world, probably on the Wicked side of the Compass. I would go as far as saying that it might be some kind of library world, with a lot of rules (and libraries do have a lot of them, so it would fit), probably some dogs scattered around and harsh punishments for those who either don't follow the rules or disrespect the dogs, books and stories. Which is an ideal world for me, so yeah.