One of my favorite authors is back with a book quite unlike anything I’ve read before! Middlegame by Seanan McGuire is an adult fantasy novel starring a pair of twins imbued by alchemists with special powers as part of a plot to take over the world. If you’re familiar with McGuire from her Wayward Children series, this book is very different. It is ambitious and broad in scope with an experimental style that hops around between different timelines. But it does still have the signature elements that I love about McGuire’s works: in-depth explorations of nuanced characters, clever plays on classic tropes, and a certain tendency toward the macabre. Middlegame comes out tomorrow, May 7. Continue reading Review of Middlegame–Brutal and Beautiful Alchemy
Tag: seanan mcguire
Beneath the Sugar Sky—A Colorful Tale of Resurrecting the Dead
A real-life Candy Land may seem like paradise, but all the sugar in the world can’t cover up the taste of corruption, war, and murder…. Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. Last year, I reviewed Every Heart a Doorway, in which McGuire introduces the boarding school full of misfit children who have returned from various fantasy lands. I also reviewed Down Among the Sticks and Bones, a prequel of sorts that depicts the adventures of twin sisters Jack and Jill in a land of vampires and mad scientists. With the third book in the series, which came out back at the beginning of 2018, McGuire shifts gears rather dramatically. Continue reading Beneath the Sugar Sky—A Colorful Tale of Resurrecting the Dead
Review of Into the Drowning Deep–Mermaid Horror
Killer mermaids. That’s all you really need to know. If you didn’t think mermaids could be scary, Mira Grant is here to prove you wrong with Into the Drowning Deep. A few months ago, I’d shared with you all a whole list of Tales of Monstrous Mermaids. This week I want to take the plunge and explore the scariest of those books in depth. Seanan McGuire (who uses the pseudonym Mira Grant for some of her novels) has been one of my favorite authors since I read her spectacular Wayward Children fantasy series and came across a few of her short stories in Ellen Datlow’s horror anthologies. But Into the Drowning Deep was the first time I read one of her full-length works or horror, and nothing could have prepared me. Continue reading Review of Into the Drowning Deep–Mermaid Horror
Down Among the Sticks and Bones–A Gothic Tale of Twins
If you discovered a door to another world, would you go through it? What if it gave you the opportunity to change who you are, to escape the pressures of who you’re expected to be? Twelve-year-old twins Jack and Jill face these questions in Seanan McGuire’s Down Among the Sticks and Bones. This book, which came out back in June, is the second book in McGuire’s Wayward Children series. (You can read my review of the first book here.) Rather than being a sequel to Every Heart a Doorway, however, Down Among the Sticks and Bones is more of a prequel that can also be read entirely as a stand-alone. Ostensibly a fantasy story about discovering a dark world full of monsters, the book is really a deep dive into questions of identity and family relationships. Continue reading Down Among the Sticks and Bones–A Gothic Tale of Twins
Every Heart a Doorway Review—Macabre Fantasy and Representation
There are many books out there about kids who discover magical worlds and the wonderful adventures they have there. But what happens afterward, when they come back through the rabbit hole and have to return to their normal lives? In Every Heart a Doorway, these children go to a special boarding school where they can share their experiences with those who will understand, readjust to the normal world, and come to terms with the fact that they may not ever return to the land they truly consider home. This novella is the first book in a new series called Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire. I had no idea what to expect going into this book, but it hit almost every sweet spot for me. Continue reading Every Heart a Doorway Review—Macabre Fantasy and Representation