Book Review: “Across the Green Grass Fields” (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire (four stars)
“You’re perfect. You’ve always been perfect, and you always will be.” Regan, whose ideas of perfection were closely linked to conformity, didn’t say anything.
What a relief. After trying and quitting two earlier offerings in this series, I shuddered before trying again. Third time’s a charm. Well set up and executed story of Regan’s problem and adventure.
Anyone who answered a friend’s honesty with horror and rejection had never been a friend in the first place.
The inciting incident is well arranged to both introduce the then-ten-year-old protagonist and draw the reader into the story on Regan’s side. Cliches mark the passing of time and by that kept the story tight and focused.
“Let them learn that destiny’s a lie, and let them find the way to govern themselves, as they should have done from the beginning. Let them learn humans are people, the way you never learned that they were.”
Doors play a major role: some clearly marked, some not. Is that not the way with life? We pass through portals to service or servitude; life choices which we fail to recognize or are unprepared for. Doors which in retrospect look a lot like destiny. Yet those diverging paths make all the difference.
She didn’t feel like a hero. She didn’t feel like much of anything beyond an exhausted teenager. She still felt like she was saving the world.
(2022 Hugo Awards novella finalist)
As a Matter of Fancy 