★★★☆☆ A Wayward Children School Day Outing

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Seanan McGuire

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is book 9 in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. It follows two seriously serious (I meant to do that) books Where the Drowned Girls Go, in which we saw the inside of the Whitethorn Institute, a a seriously depressing opposite to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, and Lost in the Moment and Found, in which Antoinette (Antsy) Ricci escaped a seriously awful home. Thus we are due for a lighter touch, and we get it.

Antsy and the Whitethorn escapees Cora and Emily are now at Eleanor's along with old friends Christopher, Sumi, and Kade. Antsy has the much-coveted gift of finding Doors. Escaping a couple of girls who want to make use of her, she finds herself trapped in Kade's attic with the students named above. She finds a Door in the back of the attic that allows them to escape. This is the beginning of what I'm calling their school outing, although in fact it is not the whole school along, just the six mentioned. They bop around between various worlds -- Antsy's Door-finding gift is put to use -- and they have adventures. Although some of these adventures appear to have high (e.g. life-or-death) stakes, it all feels like a good, fun adventure.

Now, I am always willing to score a book high for Pure Fun. This one falls a bit short, however, because the Fun is not quite Pure. There is a lot of discussion of the metaphysics of Doors -- what are they, where are they, where are they when they are not, do they have plans or intentions, or motives, are merely desires. This honestly gets a bit tedious and even has somewhat the feel of an Internet comment thread.

But, altogether, it's a fun little novella, and like all the Wayward Children books, a quick read. I enjoyed it.

I thank NetGalley and Tor for an advance reader copy of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known. This review expresses my honest opinions.

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