Maybe we’ve become too comfortable with the world of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. Now we learn there’s another school with a different approach, Whitethorn Institute. They work to make the children deny the unreality of the world that once pulled them from ours.

Cora’s history in our world involved bullying at least in part because she’s fat, but that wasn’t a problem in her world. She had a wonderful life as a mermaid in The Trenches, but the Drowned Gods of The Moors are now calling to her after her brush with them in an earlier adventure with other Wayward Children. She asks Eleanor to let her transfer to the Whitethorn Institute, in hopes their rigid structure will let her break the influence of the Drowned Gods.

McGuire has a talent for making her characters feel real, and there are a few moments where Cora’s experience packed a personal punch. Some of the characters from earlier books appear in this one, but the story is focused on Cora for the majority of the novella.

I don’t recommend starting here, as without the context from previous books (even ones Cora’s not in), some of it doesn’t quite make sense. I do think it stands on its own plot wise, with enough explanation to cover anything previously missed, but I much prefer reading the details first.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another book in the Wayward Children series.
We reunite with Cora, who is seriously struggling after the events of the previous book, while the kids were in the Moors. Cora decides the only way to save herself is to transfer to the other school for children who have gone through "doors."- the Whitethorn Institute.
There she discovers things are not what they seem, which is often the way with children returned from their doors.
"I know what I am and I'm happy this way, and saying something true shouldn't be an insult, ever, because that's not how words want to work."

Deepens and extends the Wayward Children universe in delightful directions (in a whole... fat camp metaphor? Was that just in my head?) This one is darker but so good!

I adore this series with everything in my contented little reader heart, and this newest installment — well, I always want to call each new installment my new favorite in the series, but at this point, I suppose they're all my favorites. That said, Where the Drowned Girls Go focuses on Cora, who we've spent time with before and who I was missing very much, but we also get to meet quite a few new characters and experience an entirely new setting — with a twist. Instead of visiting a new door, we finally get to meet the folks behind Eleanor West's Home's opposite: the Whitethorn Institute.

Where Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children is welcoming and supportive, Whitethorn is uptight, strict, and determined to rip the doors out of the children within its halls, by choice or otherwise. The book starts off with Cora, feeling ruined and broken by her experiences within the Moors, committing herself to Whitethorn in hopes that, if they can separate her from her door, they can separate her from what she found within the Moors, too. While many of the books in this series don't have to be read in a specific order, I will say that you'll definitely want to have already read Beneath the Sugar Sky and Come Tumbling Down before you pick up Where the Drowned Girls Go.

There is an incredibly small amount that I can say about the plot of this novella, because much of it hinges upon a surprise that I did not see coming and was entirely delighted by. That said, what I can tell you is that this book focuses strongly on bullying/harassment, and how society and the institutions children are placed in are entirely complicit in childhood cruelty. It also touches on strictness placed upon children and the ways that adults often mistake laws for love, much to the detriment of the spirits of those in their care. Time and time again, I'm enraptured by how clearly Seanan understands how common and easy it is for authority figures to hurt children while never even realizing it (as a parent who tries very hard to become more self-aware every single day with my child, this is a topic I'm very grateful for the exploration of in this series).

I love this series, this world, and these characters endlessly. I'm forever grateful for Seanan McGuire's writing and how lovely and eye-opening her social commentary is, just as I'm so thankful for the representation in this series (if you want literal pages of me crying over how wonderful the writing of Cora's fat rep is, see my review of Beneath the Sugar Sky). I already am counting down the days to the 8th piece in this series and can't wait to see what Seanan does next.

✨ Representation: Cora is fat; Sumi is Japanese-American; Kade is a trans boy; multiple other side characters are queer and/or BIPOC

✨ Content warnings for: mentions of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation; fatphobia; bullying; ableism

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
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I’ve come to the conclusion that @seananmcguire can do no wrong. This series has stolen my heart, the whimsical world of the kids falling, stumbling or running through their magical doors. These short, beautifully written installments just keeping better and better and I love learning more about the Wayward children. Any time I see that there is a new book in the series coming out I immediately try to get my hands on a copy and it’s ALWAYS worth it. If you haven’t read this series READ IT. You’ll fly through it and absolutely adore it. 💜

Seanan McGuire does it again! The Wayward Children series is absolutely amazing and one of my favorite series of all time. Each book follows a different child from the home! Such a unique series. Cora’s story is no different. She transfers to the Whitehorn Institute to try and overcome her trauma, but learns just how different the home is from any other. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for a review.

A welcome addition to the Wayward Children series, this book brings us to see a different side of things at the Whitehorn Institute, the "other" school mentioned in previous books, where children wish to forget the worlds they traveled to instead of return to them. Ever since returning from the Moors, Cora is haunted by the voices of the Drowned Gods and decides to transfer to Whitehorn in order to free herself from their hold on her. With familiar faces and new faces, this book expands what we know of McGuire's Wayward universe and its characters. Fans of the series will find it one of the strongest of the books and will immediately want more (I know I do).

There’s a reason why this is one of my favorite series. You really get into the story and get to know the characters in this novella. I love that we get to see the other school and another side of coping with coming back. I love the writing and how hard it is to put down once you started it. This series just keeps getting better and better.

In the first Wayward Children book, Every Heart a Doorway, we were introduced to Miss West’s Home for Wayward Children, where children are given a safe place to recover from their otherworldly experiences. All of these children have somehow visited different lands – of all different varieties. The common denominator? They’ve all been forced to return “home.”

In the second book, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, we got to explore the origin story of Jack and Jill. In the third book, Beneath the Sugar Sky, we got to explore the world of Confection. And, the fourth, we went to The Goblin Market in In An Absent Dream. The fifth, Come Tumbling Down, took us back to the Moors with the twins and the sixth took us to a land full of unicorns and centaurs in Across the Green Grass Fields.

The seventh book is a great installment into this wonderfully beautiful series. We not only get to hear more about Cora’s story but also the existence of another school for wayward children. The book was highly relatable in regards to Cora’s weight and fatphobia.

Also whoever does the cover heart for this series deserves some kind of award. Beautiful and so effortlessly ties together.

Fans of the series won’t be disappointed by this installment in my opinion. It has the same magical writing and world-building, beloved characters, and introductions to new characters.

We were introduced to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in the first book in this series, Every Heart a Doorway. The children aren’t “wayward” in the way that the word is usually meant. Rather, the children who come to the school, like Eleanor West herself, once upon a time opened a door from our world to another – a place their hearts called home.

They come to Eleanor after they, like she, found their way, or were forced or pushed or stumbled, back to the world they were born in, will they or nil they. It’s usually nil. Whatever world they went to, they’ve been gone a long time from their young perspectives, have grown and changed and adapted to their new circumstances in ways that don’t fit in the old ones.

They’ve left our world as children and come back as teenagers. They left as dependent children and come back after having been forced to look after themselves. They left as innocents and come back with experience that no one believes.

Their parents desperately want them to be “normal” again, unable or unwilling to recognize that they ARE normal for the life they led on the other side of their door.

The lucky ones find themselves at Eleanor West’s, a place where their experience is accepted as having been real – even if their hope for return to it is seen as extremely unlikely at best. Eleanor West gives them the chance, not so much to accept that they’re stuck as to find a way to live with their situation rather than pretend that it never happened.

Not all of the children are lucky enough to end up at Eleanor West’s Home. Some of them end up in psychiatric institutions, and/or drunk or drugged into insensibility, whether by themselves or others.

And some of them end up someplace worse. They get sent to the Whitethorn Institute. If for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, then the Whitethorn Institute is that opposing reaction to Eleanor West’s. In every possible way.

Cora Miller, whom we met in Beneath a Sugar Sky and whose story continues in Come Tumbling Down (which I haven’t read and I seriously need to!) feels like the Drowned Gods she invoked in that second adventure have followed her back to Miss West’s. And that they’re coming for her.

In desperation, Cora turns to the one place where belief in the doors and the worlds on the other side of them is ruthlessly suppressed. She believes it’s done with the power of science and cold, hard logic. So she commits herself to the Whitethorn Institute in the hope that they will cure her of her longing for the worlds behind the doors – and of their hunger for her.

What she finds is something else altogether. And it’s just as hungry for her and her power as the Drowned Gods ever were.

Escape Rating A-: Where the Drowned Girls Go, at least so far, was the hardest read in this series. Not that any of them are easy, because much of the series is about accepting yourself for who and what you are, and finding a family that will accept you as the person you are and not the person they want you to be.

Overall, it’s a series about diversity and acceptance. That means two things. One, that it explores all types of diversity, not just race – actually not explicitly race at all – but rather the way that people don’t fit into stereotypical boxes at all and learning to celebrate those differences.

What makes this a particularly hard read is that the way the story showcases that acceptance is by first showing its lack – in intense and painful detail. Cora is already outside the box labeled “normal” because she came through a door. She’s asexual due to a birth anomaly. And she’s built tall and strong and plump, because she lived in water worlds where those were survival traits. And none of them are what girls in this world are supposed to be.

She’s already internalized the messages for girls to be “girly”, flirty and tiny and weak and thin, and has a lot of self-hatred because she’s none of the above. The Whitethorn Institute encourages the children in its dubious “care” to show the worst of themselves, so Cora is bullied and teased for being different – in addition to everything else that’s wrong at Whitethorn.

It starts out being a school where the mean girls seem to be pampered princesses and everyone else is either under their thumbs or outcast. It’s an environment that was hard to take before Cora starts digging deeper into just how wrong things really are.

The Institute’s methods are cruel and repressive, forcing the children to lie to themselves and each other about their experiences, punishing transgression and nonconformity through bullying, and as Cora discovers, using the magic of the doorways to suppress individuality and identity. Cora has a choice to make, to let herself be lost or to be a hero one more time.

And that’s the point where things finally start looking up. Because that’s where the adventure aspect of the series kicks in, when Cora accepts that she can’t do it all alone and that she needs her friends from Miss West’s to help her get to the bottom of a situation that is way too big for one girl to solve alone.

Which is part of the message of the whole series. None of the stories so far have been just one person’s story. These are stories about accepting people for who they are, and learning to accept oneself the same. They’re adventures that require friends and found family to come out the other side, whole as part of a greater whole.

While this particular entry in the series turned out to be an unexpected readalike for A Spindle Splintered, the whole series interweaves back and forth in ways that make a bit of mockery of any concept of reading order and downright encourage readers to rove from book to book, from door to door, and back again.

I read Where the Drowned Girls Go in the middle of my exploration of Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. I started with the first book first, Every Heart a Doorway, Then book 6, Across the Green Grass Fields (Cora finds the heroine of that story at Whitethorn’s), then this book, and finally books 2 and 3, Down Among the Sticks and Bones and Beneath the Sugar Sky.

The next book in this series, Lost in the Moment and Found, won’t be found on bookshelves and ereaders until a whole, entire year from now, so I’m lucky I still have In an Absent Dream and Come Tumbling Down to look forward to!

In the seventh book of the Wayward Children series, an anti-magic school is the primary location. Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children is a school for children that fell through portals then back again. Not every child wants to be there, and Cora is one of them. She requests a transfer to Whitethorn Institute, and it's run very differently from the Home for Wayward Children.

If you've never read any of the Wayward Children series, don't worry. Yes, those who read prior books will recognize characters, but it's not necessary to dive into this one. All you really know is that there are portals to different realities that children sometimes fall into, and Cora had gone to the Trenches and was a mermaid there. She was more than happy to go; as a fat girl, she had been relentlessly bullied and saw no reason to stay in her world when a new one beckoned. But she has nightmares from some of the traumatic aspects of fighting in a war, and the Drowned Gods still call to her. She thinks that the Whitethorn Institute will be her way to escape the nightmares and the calling, enabling her to be normal again and return home to her parents. But the means of becoming "normal" are almost cruel in their severity, and the headmaster isn't what any of the children thought he was.

There are elements of mystery in this story, as well as a lot of growth for Cora. She's tired of teasing for her weight or her blue hair or shimmery complexion that is reminiscent of scales. She's tired of nightmares and fear. The thing about going through portals is that it's running away from reality and diving headfirst into a new one, and in essence Cora wanted to run away from being back in our reality after being a hero with the mermaids. Running from the awkward and painful doesn't help her, much as it hasn't helped any of the other children, and when she realizes that, she's able to take steps to lead others.

Even with the fantastical parts of the series, there are still very real problems for the teens to contend with. Bullying, weight issues, discussion of suicide and eating disorders, the pressure to conform, the need for individuality... It's a complicated matter for kids to figure out. Magic doesn't stop these problems or solve them immediately, and it's up to individuals to determine what's right for them and how to go about getting it. I enjoyed Cora's story and seeing her gain confidence. She'll still struggle, but she knows where she belongs and what makes her feel whole again. In the long run, that's the best kind of growth that teens can have.

An excellent installment, fans of the series will love the worldbuilding this novella brings to the story.

this one definitely continues the streak of the odd numbers being an on going tale, so don’t read it on its own. I highly recommend all the books in this series.

~ maybe 3.5 ~

After the past couple of books in this series I went into this installment with VeRy low expectations. I think that’s what actually helped me enjoy it more.

I liked exploring the new school and I liked, as always, the writing and the worldbuilding. I enjoyed Cora as well. I think this series could definitely do more with character development but I think the ones in here were pretty solid.

My main problem with this series is this: the books are already so sort yet Seanan McGuire makes no effort for the books to actually be fast paced. The chapters in the middle of these books are always pretty dull for me until we reach the last three chapters when things are moving at break-neck speed. I also feel like this installment in particular could have been longer as it felt like one of the shorter ones in the series. It also felt almost like it just ended in the middle of the story which was a bit odd for me. However, that might be because book 9 will possibly pick up where this one left off.

Overall, though, I am glad I’m continuing with this series as this definitely was a pretty solid installment. I’m definitely excited for the next one because I am excited to explore some of the other words in this universe.

So far, this is my ranking for the series:

1. In an Absent Dream
2. Beneath the Sugar Sky
3. Down Among the Sticks and Bones
4. Every Heart a Doorway
5. Where the Drowned Girls Go
6. Come Tumbling
7. Across the Green Grass Fields

The Wayward Children books rarely disappoint and this one is definitely one of the strongest by far. It’s also one of the few ‘direct sequel’ books in the series, following Cora directly from the events of COME TUMBLING DOWN (#5) and bring in a character from the standalone ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS (#6).

I’m always so impressed by how these books — which are relatively short (WHERE THE DROWNED GIRLS GO is about 150 pages) and have constantly changing casts of characters and settings — manage to make me connect so completely with each new protagonist and place.

WHERE THE DROWNED GIRLS GO is Cora’s book. Rather than exploring the world she visited (The Trenches, an underwater world where she became a heroic mermaid) or spending time at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, this book takes us somewhere completely new: The Whitethorn Institute. Whitethorn is sort of the mirror of Eleanor’s school, teaching the children to forget their doors and squash their differences, so they can re-enter the ‘normal’ world.

I loved getting to know Cora as a character. She’s one I’ve given a little less thought to in previous books, so I really enjoyed digging into her way of thinking. I missed seeing some of the regulars but enjoyed meeting some new and interesting students.

WHERE THE DROWNED GIRLS GO is fast-paced, with a claustrophobic, thrilling atmosphere that presses is as Cora, Sumi and their new friends survive the Whitethorn Institute.

An absolute must-read.

4.5 stars!

A beautiful story of found family and making the best of your situation. Plus size MC mermaid. What more can I ask for?! I love the new direction that these plots are going towards and reading this book 100% made me want to reread the whole series!

CW: attempted suicide, fatphobia, eating disorders (none mentioned in this review)

In this installment we follow Cora as she's recently returned through her door and is at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She learns about another school and elects to transfer, despite Eleanor's reluctance. It was really cool to see a new school and the students we're introduced to there. And it is a <i>very</i> different place than Eleanor's. The way I pictured it in my head was Eleanor West's school is in full, radiant color and Whitethorn is shades of grey.

I think this might be my favorite of the Wayward Children books so far. I really loved Cora as a character and her bone-deep longing to forget really resonated with me. It was another instance of McGuire writing about tough topics with a delicate nuance that just breaks your freaking heart. The way she is able to articulate these quintessential human feelings in such an easily digestible way never ceases to astound me.

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire is the seventh novella in the beloved Wayward Children series. At this point, I know I’m going to at least enjoy the stories in this series, so it’s less of a question of whether I’m going to like it and rather how much I’m going to like it. Even though this novella feels like the start of a new arc in the universe and leaves us with some unanswered questions, after some reflection, I think it’s one of my favourites next to the Down Among the Sticks and Bones and In an Absent Dream.

This novella follows mermaid Cora as she tries to deal with her severe trauma from her recent adventure in the Moors. In addition to debilitating nightmares, the events in the Moors have stolen what comfort she used to take from the water and sea—from the place was her home both before her door and after. Eventually, Cora makes the choice to transfer from the Home for Wayward Children to the Whitethorn Institute, a school with a reputation spoken of only in hushed whispers and muted fear.

In addition to my personal love of merfolk/sea creatures/the ocean, which certainly influenced my enjoyment, Cora is such an outstanding character and has become one of my favourites through this novella. From unflinching and at times raw navigation of fatphobia, to the unpacking of how deeply it hurts us when our safest place and identity no longer is safe at all, to taking agency of both the great and terrible parts of our stories, this novella (like many of the others) has an emotional depth that packs a punch of vulnerability. We also see some familiar faces along with the new characters, some of whom I dearly hope to see again in future books.

Where the Drowned Girls Go reminded me of why I love this series as a whole so much even if individual entries in it fluctuate; it’s a masterclass in depicting young girls and women in such a multifaceted, complex way, from sharp teeth to aching tenderness and everything in between. In a genre—and world—that belittles and dismisses the feminine, McGuire handily offers a refreshing, fantastical-yet-oh-so-human alternative in the stories of Cora and all the other protagonists. This series will continue to be a favourite and a go-to recommendation for me for years to come.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Seanan McGuire returns to her beloved Wayward Children series with WHERE THE DROWNED GIRLS GO, the seventh installment in this world-jumping, reality-bending fantasy collection.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children has long been a sanctuary for magical children. Rather than a Hogwarts-like training school, however, it is meant for those who have found holes in our world leading into others, doorways in the shadows under their beds, the knotholes of trees, the bottoms of wells and even the backs of wardrobes. Although these children have discovered their own worlds --- some logical, some nonsensical, some virtuous, some wicked --- they all have one thing in common: they have returned home, either intentionally or against their will, to find that the place they once called home no longer makes sense and that their journeys have changed them forever.

The first six books guided readers through the Halls of the Dead, the Moors, a land ruled by a blood-red moon and a wicked vampire, and Confection, a nonsense world where nothing makes sense. In this latest entry, we reunite with Cora, part of the motley crew that accompanied Jack on her return trip to the Moors, along with Kade, Christopher and Sumi.

Cora is a mermaid, a one-time visitor of the Trenches, an underwater world full of mermaids, mysteries and maritime monsters. Like many children, her door opened for her when she had no other options and was at her lowest point. Teased mercilessly for her weight, Cora took to the ocean, the only place she ever felt light and free, and attempted to drown herself. She spent a year and a half in the Trenches, bonding with mermaids, flirting with sirens and fighting against the Serpent of Frozen Tears for the queen’s honor. Then one day, with no warning whatsoever, she was swept into a whirlpool and cast out of the only place that ever felt like home. Although Cora has made friends at Eleanor’s school, she longs to return to the Trenches and become a hero again. But another world has its eye on her.

When Cora journeyed to the world of the Moors in COME TUMBLING DOWN, she caught the eye of the Drowned Gods, evil beings who still whisper to her and have tainted her love of the water with their malicious hauntings. Like all Wayward Children, Cora knows that some magic continues to seep through every doorway, even after its visitor has been unceremoniously kicked out. Her hair now grows blue as a result of her time in the Trenches, so she knows that the Drowned Gods can reach her at any time. Desperate to forget them and force them to forget her as well, Cora begs Eleanor to send her to Whitethorn Institute, a sister school for children who want to be saved from their magical pasts.

Constructed from thick gray stone and hidden behind an imposing wall, Whitethorn Institute is a far cry from Eleanor’s magical school. The Headmaster, Whitethorn, has built his curriculum on the notion that children crave structure as much as they crave freedom. After living out their most ridiculous, decadent dreams on the other sides of their doorways, they need rigid structure to reconnect to this world. Children who visited Nonsense worlds are put on a tight schedule, diet and routine; those who visited Logical worlds are forced to accept the spontaneity and uncontrollability of life. But although Cora finds the Drowned Gods’ grip on her growing loose as she conforms to Whitethorn’s lessons, so too does her grip on herself, on her heroism, on all the things that make her Cora. In order to rediscover the heroic mermaid who once fought in the Trenches, she will have to violate one of Eleanor’s only rules: no quests.

WHERE THE DROWNED GIRLS GO is yet another delightful, empowering installment in Seanan McGuire’s incredible series. Although I was initially disappointed that we would not be visiting another doorway in this book, I loved reuniting with Cora and learning more about her backstory. But seeing how Whitethorn fleshed out and opened up the world where Eleanor West made her temporary home and sanctuary for children added a whole new layer to the book. A far cry from the comfort children find in her school, Whitethorn’s rigidity functions as a sort of conversion-therapy-themed boarding school, a dark, controlling place where kids are forced to subdue or give up the qualities that make them unique, magical and heroic.

McGuire plays with the theme of monsters vs. heroes in many forms here, most notably unpacking the ways that the people in charge always think (or at least claim) that they are doing the right thing, even when it is clearly harmful. There are obvious parallels to our own world here, more than in any other installment. As Sumi happily points out, the world to which she and her fellow Wayward Children have returned is, in many respects, the most nonsensical of them all.

A hard-fought, emotionally resonant and inspiring celebration of the heroes in us all, WHERE THE DROWNED GIRLS GO is another terrific addition to one of the most magical, eye-opening series in the fantasy world today. I cannot wait to see where McGuire takes us next.

I loved it! I am in love with this series and Seanan McGuire's writing. I love the complexity of this universe and once again the characters are incredible. Probably one of my favorite in the series!