I liked this entry to the Wayward Children's series very much. Much more than I've enjoyed the past few. Nadya is a great character and I very much enjoyed her story.

10 books into the series and I have opinions.
- I tend to like the books set in a world through the door and only following one Character much more than the books set at the school.
- Cora is the worst Character ever written and ruins a book for me. I put off reading this book for over 8 months because I didn't want to read about Cora and she's not even in this book.
- Seanan McGuire has a thing with water.

I was really excited for this one, Nadya is one of my favourite characters from the Wayward Children Series, and I wasn't disappointed. Seanan McGuire balances tragedy, humour, and resilience in this wonderful novella about a girl who loves turtles. Adrift is a story of growing up and learning to find joy in an unexpected life. The ending broke my heart in the best way.

How is the book 10? I adore this series so much and really liked to see Nadya's story. We have seen her in earlier books but this book can totally be read as a stand alone! If you want a happy book stop reading at like 95% but Seanan McGuire knows how to make a girl cry, which is pathetic because I already knew what was going to happen.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

I’ve read the first 4 titles in this series. Never got around to reading this title. Maybe I will in the future. What drew me to this book was the hype for the author on YouTube. Thank you so much for the opportunity to preview and review this title.

I've loved most of the books in this series (and the ones I didn't, I still enjoyed), and this one, Nadya's backstory, is no different. It's gorgeously tender and bittersweet, but also funny and whimsical. Having already known Nadya in previous installments, we know that she does eventually find her way back to Belyyreka (a very atmospheric place), so the ending to this story doesn't hurt as much, even though it is wrenching to read about. I'll read any number of new installments in these worlds, Seanan Mcguire I am a fan!

4.5 stars

First read of 2025 and it was a pretty quick read, finished in the first two hours of the new year. I love this series, and actually need to go back and just reread all of them because there are so many characters and worlds and connections between everything now, and I want to see what I notice now that I didn’t realize the first time around. The only real thing I’ll say about this one is that I’m actually sad it was only 160 pages long; I would have liked a little more time with Nadya and her found family.

That is what I wrote as my Goodreads review on January 1st, and that still stands as pretty accurate. I do really need to go back and do a re-read of this whole series because this is the 10th novella, but then there’s also a few short stories as well. What I have absolutely loved about them all is all the little details that connect them together, even if they take place at different times and we aren’t necessarily getting everything told to us in a linear fashion.

Also, this series has been fantastically diverse in so many ways. There has been so much representation of mental health, physical differences, various belief systems, different romantic and sexual preferences, and it all feels so earnest and honest and grounded. I have been a massive fan of Seanan McGuire for years (although I keep not picking up the October Daye or Incryptid series, despite owning many of them).

Oooh….I also once again am reminded that I do not have all the books in this series reviewed. Hmm…that might be another reason for a re-read.

Okay, wow this review has not really dived into any specifics about this particular installment in the series. Sorry, I am massively out of practice with writing these. I did like learning about the watery world of Belyrreka. Each of these worlds in these stories has been unique and fleshed out enough to seem like some place the characters have lived in and explored and loved.

This is definitely a portal fantasy series to check out if you haven’t yet already.

This is one of my favourite books in the series! I just love how Nadya was able to fit in this world, and I know! (in my heart) that she was able to come back.

hey, seanan, stop hurting me pls i love it

Another prequel! I love these but sometimes I want to pick out what the next books is about because I am dying to continue with the main storyline and what's going to come of it!!! This one was about Nadya and her story prior to ending up at the school. She was an orphan born in Russia and she was born without one of her hands and part of that arm. She is eventually adopted by a couple that takes her back to Colorado where she is forced to speak English and wear a prosthetic and forced to LIKE it by her adopted mother. And then she falls through a door...

This was a great sequel story with an almost punishing ending that makes me WANT TO GET BACK TO THE MAIN STORYLINE!!!!! I appreciated the disability rep and the storyline of being very comfortable with who you are and what you want for yourself. McGuire has some characters that are coming into their own, but the author also has a bunch that are so settled in who they are which I love since they're teenagers and I'm 28 and don't even know anything about myself personally.

This is my favorite start to every year, and I hop McGuire writes these little novellas full of big feelings forever (which seems very possible at this point when my fear was, they were going to stop at 10). Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!!

I would recommend these to anyone that loves some cozy but also emotionally deep fantasy kind of in the vein of T. Kingfisher.

4.5 stars

First read of 2025 and it was a pretty quick read, finished in the first two hours of the new year. I love this series, and actually need to go back and just reread all of them because there are so many characters and worlds and connections between everything now, and I want to see what I notice now that I didn’t realize the first time around. The only real thing I’ll say about this one is that I’m actually sad it was only 160 pages long; I would have liked a little more time with Nadya and her found family.

That is what I wrote as my Goodreads review on January 1st, and that still stands as pretty accurate. I do really need to go back and do a re-read of this whole series because this is the 10th novella, but then there’s also a few short stories as well. What I have absolutely loved about them all is all the little details that connect them together, even if they take place at different times and we aren’t necessarily getting everything told to us in a linear fashion.

Also, this series has been fantastically diverse in so many ways. There has been so much representation of mental health, physical differences, various belief systems, different romantic and sexual preferences, and it all feels so earnest and honest and grounded. I have been a massive fan of Seanan McGuire for years (although I keep not picking up the October Daye or Incryptid series, despite owning many of them).

Oooh….I also once again am reminded that I do not have all the books in this series reviewed. Hmm…that might be another reason for a re-read.

Okay, wow this review has not really dived into any specifics about this particular installment in the series. Sorry, I am massively out of practice with writing these. I did like learning about the watery world of Belyrreka. Each of these worlds in these stories has been unique and fleshed out enough to seem like some place the characters have lived in and explored and loved.

This is definitely a portal fantasy series to check out if you haven’t yet already.

I loved this so much. Getting to see more of Nadya. She probably had one of the best families that we've seen so far. Unfortunately, her family still wasn't the greatest. Her family wanted to "make her better" when she didn't think there was anything wrong with her.
I loved her time in Belyyreka. The world was so interesting. It was so intriguing with the different levels of water. I really loved the turtles growing so big and talking. I really want to learn more about this world.
I really wanted more of this story but at the same time, this felt complete.

This is my favorite book series and I was SO excited to learn that it'd be about one of my favorite characters -- I feel like I've been waiting for this one since the first couple books!! I love the different worlds described in these books, and the water worlds specifically are SO cool and interesting. Loved this, it made me cry & I can't wait to add a hardcover copy to my shelves!!

This was an installment I was really looking forward to, I'm afraid of bodies of water but in a way that makes me love a fictional exploration of them! This was more of a love letter to turtles than I was expecting or desiring, and the absolutely nonsensical way that water functions in this world was not satisfying to me at all. I think I actually loved the ending just because something finally happened!!! I will keep reading this series for sure, this one was not the best but definitely not the worst. Please can we get another book for the bird girls?? are there really enough turtle girls out there to justify this book I just don't know. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Tor Publishing Group, for sending me this book!

Seanan McGuire always manages to pack some really impactful conversations and themes into such short books. I can always appreciate what she is setting out to do. She sets such a scene of like adoption and the adopted mother that made me want to shake her even though she wasn't really doing anything wrong. I love the writing and it's so easy to be sucked in. However, as a fantasy reader and less of a literary reader, I always want more from these books. I want more time in the world, more world building, more magic etc. I think this one was actually better for me than some of the Wayward Children books, but I always find it so interesting! And I just want a longer novel to dig deeper. Overall, I would highly recommend this if you are a fan of the series. It was one of the stronger books for me.

Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series continues to be one of my absolute favorites. The balance of magical realism and incredible world building creates the perfect background for the characters. McGuire never disappoints!

Thank you Tor for the finished copy of this book!

This was my first book by Seanan McGuire and I really enjoyed it. The story was unique and beautiful and the world-building was really well developed for such a short book. I also loved the main character and her strength. I can't wait to read more from this author!

The Wayward Children maintains its status as one of my favorite series of all time. This was a heavy, emotional read. McGuire handles themes of disability and otherness beautifully and her contribution to the our world and culture is unmatched. I hope this series continues for a long time.

I absolutely love this series so, so much and am convinced that there isn't an installment I won't absolutely love. Bravo, Seanan McGuire!

I loved the beginning of this story, because it pulled me in right away. Seanan McGuire has a gift for writing the quiet, emotional moments that stick with you. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear explores the struggles of adoption in such a raw, honest way, and even though it’s a short piece, it packs a serious emotional punch. It’s a little haunting, very bittersweet, and beautifully written. Definitely one I’ll be thinking about for a long time, and now I really want to check out the other Wayward Children books!

Grateful for the opportunity to read and share my thoughts! Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for this chance, this book deserves a lot of attention!

Though Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is one of the shorter books in the Wayward Children series, with the depth of the storytelling and the time traversed on the page, it felt much longer. It's easily one of my favorites in the series. As the story progresses and Nadya grows older and gets married, I began to question my understanding of her in Beneath the Sugar Sky. I wondered how I hadn't realized she was as old as she becomes in Belyyreka. Nadya has family in Belyyreka. She is loved and accepted as she is in Belyyreka - curious, loving, and wild. Her curiosity as a scout leading to her drowning once again and her being returned to Earth in the nearly eleven year old body she'd first drowned in are a tragedy lived in an instant and a lifetime. This explains a lot about her temperament earlier in the series and her willingness to stay behind in the halls of the dead.

I really appreciated how McGuire handled Nadya's limb difference as a part of her and her storytelling. To be born without something is to not know what it is to live with it, and therefore not to know what it is to miss it. Nadya's characterization, as both strong willed and obedient made for an intriguing character study in the face of her adoptive parents trying to force their idea of what it means to be whole and normal onto her, as she already believed herself to be such. The immediate acceptance and love she find in Belyyreka in opposition to the pressures to conform she faces in America, in particular, makes it feel like home in a way that is tangible and enviable for the reader.

It wasn't until after I finished the book and thought about it for a hot minute, that it clicked that Burian is also disabled. The two choose each other with the understanding that they can and will adapt and grow without the expectation of adherence to any sort of physical standard tied to morality. They grow together with the knowledge that they are just as whole and valuable as the rest of their community. The family Nadya finds in Belyyreka and the standard in that world for the drowned to be enveloped into a chosen family by choice is something beautiful. It's not perfect, as we're shown when Nadya meets Alexi, but it is a world where family is not defined by blood and love is freely given.

I loved reading Nadya's story. I knew what was coming in the end, and it still made me so sad. I keep wondering when Seanan McGuire will run out of ideas, but she hits it out of the park every time.