howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)

#1 Every Heart a Doorway ★★★★★
#2 Down Among the Sticks and Bones ★★★★★
#3 Beneath the Sugar Sky ★★★★★
#4 In An Absent Dream ★★★★★
#5 Come Tumbling Down ★★★★★
#6 Across the Green Grass Fields ★★★★★

I genuinely did not think that anything could top Every Heart a Doorway for me, and then this book came in and blew my expectations out of the water. Seanan’s writing is always masterful and poetic, but the underlying messages she wove into this novella made it even more meaningful to me.

This, you see, is the true danger of children: they are ambushes, each and every one of them.

If you’ve read the first book in this series, you’ll recall the disastrous, eventful time we spent with the twins, Jack and Jill. In this entry, we get to revisit what happened before Nancy met them, starting before their births and leading all the way up to their exit from the Moors. Jacqueline and Jillian are the uncherished children of two busy, haughty adults who wanted dolls, not human beings. Through their upbringings and the effects their parents’ choices have upon them as teens, it feels as though the entire story’s innermost purpose is to remind the reader that children are humans, deserving of respect and love, and that forcing any child into an unsuited mold is a recipe for bleakness and tragedy.

The thought that babies would become children, and children would become people, never occurred to them. The concept that perhaps biology was not destiny, and that not all little girls would be pretty princesses, and not all little boys would be brave soldiers, also never occurred to them.

My favorite aspect of Down Among the Sticks and Bones, besides the poetic scenery Seanan creates with apparent ease, is the level of importance it places upon doing away with gender roles and expectations. As twins who are pushed into the most opposite directions possible, we see how each girl is taken so far from who she wants to be, that she will give anything to become her own, autonomous person—even at great cost.

She had tried to make sure they knew that there were a hundred, a thousand, a million different ways to be a girl, and that all of them were valid, and that neither of them was doing anything wrong.

There are some real gems in the cast of this story, though, and I’m not ashamed to admit that the sweeter moments made me cry more than once. There’s the twins’ doting grandmother, who sees the error of their parents’ ways and does everything in her power to reverse the damage. There’s Alexis, a delightful love interest who is a perfect little queer, plus size cinnamon roll. And, of course, there’s Dr. Bleak, the eccentric scientist who raises little Jack into his assistant, and who is one of the only genuinely sensible, caring beings in her world (both on Earth, and in the Moors). These novellas are full of so many complex, intricate characters with their own backstories and motives, and I constantly find myself wanting to spend more time with them. (Like, can I please get a whole novella on the feud between the Master and Dr. Bleak?)

The Moors exist in eternal twilight, in the pause between the lightning strike and the resurrection.

Lastly (but certainly not least), we get the root of the story: we learn what has happened to create the monsters within Jack and Jill, and what their motives are for the actions that conspire at the end of Every Heart a Doorway. Learning about their upbringings and the things they had done and been put through made me so much more understanding, and put the most shocking and fascinating spin on everything I thought I knew about them from the first book.

The trouble with denying children the freedom to be themselves—with forcing them into an idea of what they should be, not allowing them to choose their own paths—is that all too often, the one drawing the design knows nothing of the desires of their model. Children are not formless clay, to be shaped according to the sculptor’s whim, nor are they blank but identical dolls, waiting to be slipping into the mode that suits them best.

I know I say this about all of Seanan’s stories, but I truly cannot recommend this series highly enough. It is such a beautiful, dark, haunting, whimsical world full of paradoxes, curses and blessings, and nothing is ever exactly as it seems. I’m already dying to move on to the third installment, and so utterly delighted that she’s been signed for more books in the series, because I truly wish it would never end.

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Buddy read with Julie! ❤

#1 Every Heart a Doorway ★★★★★
#2 Down Among the Sticks and Bones ★★★★★
#3 Beneath the Sugar Sky ★★★★★
#4 In An Absent Dream ★★★★★
#5 Come Tumbling Down ★★★★★
#6 Across the Green Grass Fields ★★★★★

Hope is a vicious beast. It sinks in its claws and it doesn't let go.

I've come to realize that I seem to start every Wayward Children review the same way: by gushing about how, no matter how much I think I already adore Seanan, this latest book has made me love her even more. Well, I'm sorry to be repetitive, but I'm really not sorry at all, because yet again, this series has wholly blown me away. In fact, I think Come Tumbling Down may just be my favorite yet.

The gates slammed shut behind them with remarkable speed, and everything was quiet, and Christopher knew, with absolute certainty, that not all of them were going to make it home.

Come Tumbling Down takes us back to the world of The Moors, which is probably my very favorite world in all of the doors; with its terrifying beasties and strange scales of balance between them, coupled with its oceanic dark gods and the idea of death as a temporary thing, nothing in this series has made my little horror-loving heart quite so proud. There's an eerie vibe to the atmosphere in this installment that is never scary but always borderline unsettling in the most delightful ways.

Whatever they might have become when they'd been cast out of their chosen homes, they'd been heroes once, each in their own ways. And they did not forget.

Of course, if all we talked about was my love for The Moors, it would do a tremendous disservice to the pure reverence I feel for Seanan's masterful character-building. The poor lost souls in this series are, as far as I'm concerned, an absolute gift to the world, in this installment most of all. The cast is as effortlessly and wondrously diverse as usual, between Jack's OCD (own-voices rep, at that), the precious sapphic representation, not one but two gorgeous and brilliant fat girls, and more. As usual, it's all approached with such genuine care and thought that it's impossible to miss how much Seanan wants readers to see themselves in her story, and as a reader who saw myself in many of these characters, I'm endlessly grateful for it.

Jack laughed. It wasn't a happy sound, not exactly; it was the sound of someone clinging to the last vestiges of sanity and stability with all their might. It was the sound of slipping.

Beyond waxing on for ages about how much I needed and loved and cherished and adored every moment of this adventure, this time with these characters in this fantastic and twisted world, and telling you that Seanan's narrative voice is my absolute favorite in the world... I'm not sure there's much more I can say here without branching out into murky, spoiler-filled territories. Instead, I'll tell you that I think this series holds everything magical about the world of SFF stories, and that time you spend in Seanan's worlds is never time poorly spent, and that if there were any single series I could convince any of my friends and followers to pick up, it would be this one. I'm so ecstatic that there are at least 3 more novellas on the way, and I truly hope they sell well enough that Tor.com will allow this series to go on much longer, because I can't imagine ever getting tired of the Wayward Children.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Tor.com for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

#1 Every Heart a Doorway ★★★★★
#2 Down Among the Sticks and Bones ★★★★★
#3 Beneath the Sugar Sky ★★★★★
#4 In An Absent Dream ★★★★★
#5 Come Tumbling Down ★★★★★
#6 Across the Green Grass Fields ★★★★★

When a very serious little girl finds a magical door in the woods, she decides to leave behind a life of loneliness to go off in search of adventure, never expecting to find a mystical Market on the other side—where anything can happen, as long as you pay your debts.

If you know me, you already know that Seanan McGuire is one of my all-time favorite authors in the world, and I adore this series, so I was beyond excited to read In An Absent Dream. It was one of those books that I received and then proceeded to spend a couple of months swooning over it on my shelf without reading it just because I wanted to savor the anticipation (which might sound silly, but isn’t uncommon for me), and wow, did it deliver!

→ L I K E S :

Of such commonplace contradictions are weapons made. Katherine Lundy walked in the world. That was quite enough to set everything else into motion.

As always, the writing is positively stunning. Seanan excels at crafting these incredible, atmospheric worlds and building up characters I can fall in love with effortlessly. Despite having already known Lundy from previous titles in the series, she becomes an entirely different character—in a good way—thanks to how fleshed-out and complex she feels throughout this novella.

“Your name is your heart, and you don’t give your heart away.”

While our environments were different, I related easily to so much of Lundy’s childhood—particularly her quiet loneliness that she didn’t even full recognize as such, and her all-consuming need to lose herself in the world of stories—so, I’ll be the first to admit that my adoration of her character comes from a personal level. Then again, it seems like every book in this series has held at least one character who could hit me in my bones like Lundy did, so maybe Seanan is just that magical.

She had been able to find a doorway and disappear into an adventure, instead of living in a world that told her, day after day after grinding, demoralizing day, that adventures were only for boys; that girls had better things to worry about, like making sure those same boys had a safe harbor to come home to.

The world of the Market is, in my opinion, the mosh fleshed-out portal world we’ve met thus far in the Wayward Children series; it follows very clear and defined sets of logic, and is easy to fall into in a way that made me never want to leave. I know we typically don’t revisit Doors in this series, but I wouldn’t mind another entire novella based in Lundy’s world; despite it not being a clear favorite of mine in atmosphere and setting, it was easily the most three-dimensional and “real”-feeling one to me.

→ F I N A L THOUGHTS :

“No one serves their friends by grinding themselves into dust on the altar of compassion.”

As usual, In An Absent Dream is yet another Seanan McGuire title I simply cannot complain about. I have nothing negative to say, and the only thing I would change is that I wish I had the 5th book in the series in my hands already, because I am always ready to return to this beautiful universe of doors and worlds.

→ RECOMMENDING TO… :

“You could be happy here, if you wanted to be. But you don’t have forever to decide, and you must follow the rules, or you’ll surely pay the price.”

If you’ve enjoyed the prior books in the series, I heartily recommend picking this one up; however, even if you haven’t read any of the Wayward Children books, you can read this at any time as it’s a prequel that takes place totally separately from the events of the first 3 novellas. Even if you aren’t a major fan of the series, if you enjoyed Lundy as a character, or if you are looking for a delightfully fresh take on the Goblin Market, this one’s for you.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to TorDotCom for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This wasn't my first of the Llewellyn's Little Book installments, but it is probably one of my favorites so far. As someone who focuses fairly heavily on lunar magic in my own personal workings, I went into this hoping to learn something new and obtain insightful resources, and this book provided that for the most part. I will offer a caveat that I think a lot of the information given here is pretty surface-level and, if you're already familiar with lunar magic, you may not be able to expect anything mind-blowing. That said, it would function as a good reference book, especially if you're still finding your footing.

The only major complaint I have, besides the lack of depth in many of the sections, is that the author goes into detail in a few places of ways you could use lunar magic to emphasize spirit/death work, but is very overly casual in the instructions. There's one ritual in which the reader is told, if you want a spirit to lend you strength but don't have a specific spirit in mind, that you can just waltz into any cemetery and ask any random spirit to come assist you. As someone who's been working and interacting with spirits for a long time, this can seriously backfire on you! I would just recommend the utmost caution to anyone trying out spirit work for the first time with this book as your guide.

While it may sound like I had a few major complaints, overall, I honestly thought this was an excellent little book that I could easily see adding to my shelves permanently as a quick reference guide. I especially liked that an entire section of rituals were sorted alphabetically, while another section was sorted by month (though it's very Northern Hemisphere-specific, to be fair). Altogether, a solid guide to lunar magic that I'd feel comfortable recommending to most practitioners.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

Arin Murphy-Hiscock is one of my favorite authors on witchcraft, so I naturally had to snap this up when I saw it available on NetGalley, despite not necessarily considering myself a green witch. Luckily, it was exactly as I expected: though I don't feel particularly drawn to herbalism, plants, and many other common facets of green witchcraft, The Green Witch's Grimoire still had a wealth of helpful information and inspiration to offer me!

In fact, I think it's worth noting — for those of you who, like me, are wondering if this book will be too specific for your needs — that the majority of this book would make a very helpful guide to grimoires for any witch (though obviously more so if you practice green witchcraft or even hearth and/or kitchen craft). This book also discusses divination, spellcraft, and so much more.

I would say that one of the most "green" aspects of this book is its stance on a witch's responsibility to take care of the earth in any ways we personally can. Arin offers suggestions for how to perform healing rituals after natural disasters, source ethical supplies, and even includes a guide for making your own paper! (Which I would probably never have the ambition for, but I thought was so awesome.) There's also a section on the validity of digital grimoires for people who are trying to use as little paper as possible in their lives, with tips for keeping your digital grimoire safe from others.

(As a side note related to the responsibility and ethics discussions in this book, I also appreciated Arin taking a moment to discuss the difference between smudging and smoke cleansing, the correlation between smudging and white sage to sacred Indigenous rituals, and plenty of alternatives you can use instead of white sage if you aren't Indigenous.)

In case you couldn't tell by my review so far, I absolutely loved The Green Witch's Grimoire and thought it would make an incredible asset to any green witch's library, as well as the shelves of many who don't practice green craft at all! On top of all of the valuable information, Arin Murphy-Hiscock has such a readable writing style and never comes across as condescending, judgmental, or pushy with her stances on things. I highly recommend picking up a copy!

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

I used to love MDH's books as a kid, so I was eager to pick up this collection of short stories, but sadly, her storytelling was much better in my memory. I always hesitate to give MG books a low rating because clearly I'm not the intended audience, but on the other hand, I have spent my entire life loving MG horror and I feel like I know where the standard should be set — and this isn't it.

The writing is meh, the storylines are boring, and the characters are terribly unbelievable. No child talks like the children in these stories do. The details in the plots are consistently overly convenient (such as how many of the kids have cell phones, only to realize the battery died, etc.) and the scare factor is incredibly low. I don't recommend this collection for most children today. There are just way too many better MG horror options you could spend your money on.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was absolutely phenomenal. So many important story threads that all fit together perfectly, combined with a one-day romance I could actually believe in and root for. Full review coming soon!

This was absolutely INCREDIBLE!

RTC

This is a really sweet little story with some fantastic elements that I so desperately wish we saw more of in middle grade, like childhood mental illness (anxiety), living through your parents divorcing, and learning how to face the homophobia in society as the child of a recently-come-out queer parent. I feel like it's all handled in such a good way and I also really loved the audiobook narrator!

All of that aside, I'm not rating this because, to be honest, I didn't enjoy the actual reading experience of this book — and that's okay, because this book isn't for me! I'm 100% not the intended target audience for this book, so it doesn't really matter what I think! I just wanted to be upfront about why I didn't give this a star rating.

Thank you so much to the publisher and LibroFM ALC Program for providing me with this finished audio copy in exchange for an honest review!