Review: Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6)

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful novella that couldn't be timelier. It has much to say about the heroism of being who you are, and of gaining wisdom as to what justice and friendship look like.

Regan is a child who has a tenuous relationship with an abusive best friend, Laurel. When her parents reveal something to her after she feels concerned when her friends are entering puberty, she makes the serious and unguarded mistake of trusting Laurel with the information. Of course, this terrible, bullying, and judgmental child betrays her. After leaving school early and sort of running away, Regan encounters a "Be Sure" door that leads her to the Hooflands, a place of centaurs, unicorns, kelpies, and silenes, and basically, the place of her heart.

This novel, sixth in the Wayward Children series that began with the multi-award winning and highly lauded Every Heart a Doorway, is a sort of standalone, since none of the residents of Eleanor West's school for Wayward Children are present in the story. That makes it a good entry point for the series for those who have contemplated reading Wayward Children.

I loved this novella. Let me explain why. My perspective: I have had two friends in my lifetime who are intersex. I am both weary of, and angry about, arguments they have endured about bathrooms and birth certificate designations. I believe that not letting people tell us who they are is simply wrong. This novella could not be timelier and Seanan McGuire's voice is a powerful one for telling young people the story of an intersex person in a way that may make them think twice about judgment, bullying, and failure to simply listen. Frankly, I think anyone from ten to ninety-nine could benefit from reading this book. Imagine if we just let people be? Imagine if when people tell us who they are, we just let them be who they are? Imagine. Seanan McGuire has done just that.

The audiobook, narrated by Annamarie Carlson, was lovely.


I received a digital review copy of this novella in exchange for an honest review.

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