Where the Drowned Girls Go
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4.6 • 46 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Winner: 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novella
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series
In Where the Drowned Girls Go, the next addition to Seanan McGuire's beloved Wayward Children series, students at an anti-magical school rebel against the oppressive faculty
"Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you’ve already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company."
There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again.
It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.
And it isn't as safe.
When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her "Home for Wayward Children," she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn’t save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster.
She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming...
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McGuire's outstanding seventh Wayward Children fantasy (following Across the Green Grass Fields) comes in darker than the previous novellas, tackling identity, body image, and trauma. Cora Miller has walked through magical doors, turned from modern girl to mermaid, been possessed by eldritch gods, and been spat out of her newfound home back to Earth all before the story begins. Exhausted and wanting nothing more than to forget her adventures, she eschews the comfort of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, which caters to children who've gone on magical quests, for its rival, the Whitethorn Institute, which houses similar students, but encourages them to "believe that everything that happened on the other side of the door was just a dream, or a delusion." As Cora's sense of self crumbles under Whitethorn's rules, the institute turns from school to prison, and Cora and her peers risk losing their identities—and their doorways home—forever. Throughout Cora's harrowing adventures, McGuire's sense of whimsy never falters. She delivers a plot dense enough for a full-length novel in her signature lyrical prose, exploring the effect of cruel, oppressive systems on children's psyches, while keeping the series' fairy tale tone intact. The result will captivate both longtime Wayward Children fans and new readers.
Customer Reviews
Harrowing Tale at the Whitethorn Institute
“Where the Drowned Girls Go” is the seventh novella in Seanan McQuire’s Wayward Children Series. These have clearly become the ultimate portal fantasy series for modern readers. In these novellas, certain children and or young adults find impossible doorways to places they need, or that need them. Sometimes they return to our world, sometimes they go back. Some of those that come back end up at the Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, where they find a beneficial and nurturing environment.
This novella starts with Eleanor’s and with Cora, who is a mermaid beyond her door. She has been in a terrible incident with the Drowned Gods of another world known as The Moors. She can hear these malevolent beings whispering to her in her dreams, and wants more than anything to forget what happened to her. So, when she hears of another school called the Whitethorn Institute that she thinks can help her, she insists on being sent there.
The majority of this story is set at the Whitethorn Institute, which is a strict and regimented place. They seek to make the children deny their experiences beyond the doors, and to fully accept life in this world. Their methods are harsh, and many who go there regret their decision. Cora soon finds out that there is something darker behind their methods…
These stories are modern and inclusive fairy tales, with which readers from the 21st century can relate. I’m now looking forward to the next installment in the series, which looks like it could go on for quite some time. The title of the next volume is “Lost in the Moment and Found” and it is expected in 2023. Two more volumes are planned after that one, but no titles have been announced.