Given how scarily prolific Seanan McGuire is, it seems rather unfair to wish she wrote far more, but her 'Wayward Children' series contains so many possibilities that I want to dive into the next ten or fifteen books right now to see how various threads tie together. This seventh book in the series has forward motion for a few threads but it doesn't end any and, in fact, introduces something new to expand the scope of the series yet again.

At heart, the 'Wayward Children' are kids who don't belong. They were born in our world, just like us, but they're different in some way and they're drawn to some other place, their own place - that they can honestly call home. And they go there, through the doors that open up at the exact right moment to let them through, pausing only to ask these kids if they're sure. And then, for whatever reason, they find themselves back in our world again where everything is wrong and they struggle to be who they are when everyone around them wants them to be who they thought they were.

Fortunately, there's a place in our world where these children can go to find, if not home, at least a sense of community, because everyone else there has gone through the same thing. It's Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, which gives its name to the series. While not all the novellas have spent time there, it was where we began and it's been a constant for us, even if it's hidden in the background waiting to be found when a particular character needs it. And we begin there here too, which focuses on Cora Miller, the mermaid who's made appearances in a few books thus far.

Because of logic we don't yet fully understand, because McGuire has been reticent about telling us too much about it, Cora is one of a few characters who has travelled through multiple doors. Ahead of joining the series, she attempted suicide by drowning but ended up in the Trenches, somewhere we may or may not learn about in a future novella. That's her home, which she visited through her own door, but she's been part of groups in other books that have travelled through other doors on particular quests. In 'Beneath the Sugar Sky', she went to the Halls of the Dead and Confection. In 'Come Tumbling Down', she went to the Moors, where she's taken by the Drowned Gods.

And here, back at Eleanor West's, she struggles because the Drowned Gods are still calling to her. She feels affinity to them, but the Moors are not her home and she doesn't belong there. While a door to the Trenches is what she aches for, it's not forthcoming, as such doors tend not to be, thus providing her with the heartbreak that almost everyone else at the Home for Wayward Children shares. However, she wants the calls to stop and there seems to be a way to make that happen, so she leaps at it, even though Eleanor cautions her against it because it may not be what she wants and she may not have the opportunity to back away from it.

All of which is a long way to get round to explaining that there's another Home, this one called the Whitethorn Institute, and the headmaster there takes a very different approach to treating those children who have come back. Miss Eleanor uses compassion, openness and community to help her charges deal with life in a world that isn't home. Headmaster Whitethorn does not. He decrees an education of routine, compliance and discipline to drum it into everyone's heads that they need to grow up. They're not children any more. They should be in this world where they started and where they belong. Forget the doors. Forget the places they've been and the things they've done. Forget the people they've known. Be here and be only here.

And, while that isn't quite what Cora wants, it could be a way to stop the calls of the Drowned Gods and provide her a little peace. In fact, it actually starts to work and she's able to sleep for a while, but, just in case there weren't enough red flags in my previous paragraph, she learns that Eleanor was right and that this isn't what she truly wants. However, there's no leaving Whitethorn, maybe ever, so she's kind of stuck. Fortunately, even though she left without saying goodbye to anyone, it can't be said that the students at Eleanor West's don't look out for each other and help does come for her.

This would be a very easy novella to spoil, not just because it's short, as novellas must be, but due to key information showing up relatively early. I'll just say that help arrives sixty pages in, not far past a third of the way through, and it's very welcome. I liked Cora in previous books, her struggle in our world having to do with her size. She's always been naturally larger than her peers, though she doesn't eat much, and it's lent her an athleticism in the water that led to her being quite the powerful swimmer. I liked this additional focus on her and felt for her situation. Not only was she out of place to begin with, as the other kids were, but she's now having to deal with an additional layer of struggle all because she did what she could to help others.

That said, the help that arrives does so in the form of one of my favourite characters in the series, so this book grows for me when she shows up, partly because of her presence but partly because it changes the dynamic from sad acceptance to knowing rebellion. And that's when we start to learn about what Whitethorn truly is and how his Institute truly functions. While it's absolutely here in our world, it feels different, as if it could only be visited through a door and so works on its own set of rules. This is a fantasy novella in a fantasy series, but there's horror here too, not so overtly as in 'Down Among the Sticks and Bones' or 'Come Tumbling Down', but in a more subtle way.

All this leaves 'Where the Drowned Girls Go' in a unique spot within the series, at least thus far. I'd call it a good book with real purpose, a worthy entry in the series and a welcome expansion to the scope. However, even with a few regular characters, it feels a little apart, not just in setting but in tone. It means that it's not likely to become one of my favourites, even though I enjoyed it, but it's arguably better than some that are. What I'm thinking is that it may become an important novella within the ever-growing series, even if 'Lost in the Moment and Found' looks to be different again, with the forthcoming 'Mislaid in Parts Half-Known' apparently continuing it. I'm eager to find out. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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