I say this every time I read a new installment in the Wayward Children books but seriously, McGuire out does herself every time! This may actually be my new favorite book in the series. I loved getting to see Nadya’s world and am just continually astounded by the worlds McGuire dreams up. I absolutely love these novellas.

When one-armed Nadezhda is adopted from a Russian orphanage by an American couple, she quickly learns that they are more interested in the appearance of a perfect family than in understanding what she wants. One fateful day, she falls into a turtle pond near her home and ends up in an entirely different world, Belyyreka, where humans live with giant turtles, animals talk, and some of the water is breathable.

This is another fascinating novella in the Wayward Children series, that focuses on the character Nadya from "Beneath the Sugar Sky". Nadya is a misunderstood and ignored child, and I found her very relatable. I also very much enjoyed the worldbuilding of Belyyreka and am only disappointed that so much of its history remains as yet unknown.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an Advance Readers Copy.

Another installment in the Wayward Children series, Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is the story of Nadya, a Russian orphan who found herself living in Colorado. One day, while watching the turtles in a pond near her house, Nadya found a Door asking her to "Be Sure." Not quite realizing what she was getting herself into, she went through the door, finding herself in a world filled with water.

This is not my favorite of the Wayward Children series, but it is a respectable entry.

In this book, we’re following Nadya, orphaned as a child by her mother and then again by her country. Her adoptive mother fits her with a prosthetic arm that she’s not comfortable with. Frustrated, she finds herself in an underwater world among the turtles and people she identifies with.

I love anytime I get a new book in my favorite series! And I really really enjoyed this book. I loved nadya and her search to find her people. It was heartbreaking along the way but I loved the journey. Anytime we are with the children in their worlds it’s a little sad bc you know what the outcome is gonna be! 😢 I loved watching her find her place in the world. And then broke my heart knowing it’s falling apart. I really hope we get more from nadya in future books

I continued my tradition of reading the newest in the Wayward Children series books on New Year's Day. These books have continued to get darker each time and the conversation of not only disability, but how the church tries "to save" the orphans in the name of Christianity. I loved the world and there was more than once where I chuckled as I was reading it. My favorite stories are always the origin stories and this was no exception.

I think we can all benefit from being reminded that lack does not always exist where others tell us it does. Sometimes, people say "I could never be happy if..." and then go on to list things that are true about your life. But they will never live your life, so they don't actually know how it would feel. Your happiness is more important than other people's perceptions about what your happiness should be. That message was a hit with me.

The turtles? Also a hit for me. I, too, would like to travel into a world where I can be best friends with the turtles. I feel like I'm already in that world every time I visit the pond at my school.

The story, however, was not my favorite of the Wayward Children books. I can't decide if it was something inherent in the book itself or something about the fact that I have had the hardest time focusing on reading the past few days, but the middle to end felt weirdly disjointed and rushed at times. A fun book, but not in the top tier for me.

Like all of the Wayward Children books, Adrift in Currents is art. Seanan McGuire's writing is so flawless that the reader can feel every nuance of the world she has created, and feels a deep yearning for more when the book is over.

🐢ADRIFT IN CURRENTS CLEAN AND CLEAR🐢 by @seananmcguire is book 10 of this wildly inclusive YA novella series. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers, @tordotcompub and @macmillan.audio for the e and audio-ARCs.

Happy Pub Day to this beautiful book! The Wayward Children series is one of my all time faves and each character study and world is unique.

In this chapter, we follow Nadya Sokolov, a young Russian American woman who was adopted after she was given up at birth and born without one arm. She does not feel at home in America until the day she finds her door...

🌿🌿🌿

While I can't say this is my favorite Wayward story, I still very much enjoyed Nadya's adventures with turtles! The story discusses being born without a limb and how the world will continually try to "fix" you even if you aren't asking to be fixed. Obviously the topic of adoption is a big one in this too!

I can't wait to read book 11

I love all of the Wayward Children books, but my favorites are the ones where we see the world beyond the doors. The world of Belyyreka is super interesting, and it was great to see where Nadia was, and what her life was like there. The descriptions are so vivid and the story is so atmospheric it felt like you were there. I can't wait to see whose story is going to be next!

This is an installment in the Wayward Children series I have been waiting for--the Drowned Girl. And it is so good, and so bittersweet. The world our main character finds herself in is just so fascinating and different from anything I could've come up with. McGuire does a solid job of addressing the thorny issues that swirl around well-meaning adoption that is a form of white-knighting, as well as how society tries to tell stories about people that they don't even recognize themselves in.

Really loved this, though it will also break your heart multiple times over.

Since this is the tenth book in the Wayward Children novella series, perhaps a quick recap of what the series is about is in order. Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is for children who (like Dorothy, Alice, and the Pevensie clan) have journeyed through a Door to another world and returned to a home they no longer fit into. Disbelieving parents send these “troubled” kids off to boarding school – and if the kids are lucky, that school is Eleanor West’s, where they will find refuge, respite, and adults who understand them while they await the day their Door will find them once again. The odd numbered books in the series take place in the characters’ present day and usually involve a core group of students going on a quest to save a classmate (even though Eleanor has a “No Quests” rule they find ways to work around). The even numbered books, like this one, focus on one student’s backstory – their portal adventure.

As such, Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is a great jumping on point for readers new to the series who may not realize it’s part of a series. We have one focal character – Nadya, who in the odd numbered present-day sequence last appeared in book 3, Beneath the Sugar Sky – and one new world to explore, Belyyreka also known as the Land Beneath the Lake.

We got little of Nadya’s backstory when she appeared in Sugar Sky. Basically we were told that she had spent a “lifetime” in Belyyreka and then fell in a river and found herself back on Earth. So this volume gives us her complete story. Again, I won’t spoil the plot of the current book, but McGuire has a lot to say about both living with a physical difference you don’t consider a disability but others do (Nadya is born in Russia missing one arm, but doesn’t consider herself to be at a disadvantage because of it – but she also recognizes that the kids who are not missing limbs are the ones who are more likely to get adopted and she does what she can to help them make the good impressions they need to make) and how not every adoption experience is the beautiful, loved filled, all-for-the-right-reasons 1980s television movies of the week (and Lifetime or Great American Family Channel movies in the current day) would have us believe (Nadya does eventually get adopted, but for what is obviously all the wrong reasons). Going through the Door that manifests in a turtle pond brings Nadya eventually to a different sort of adoption experience, and we as readers get to see the effect going from a situation in which a child is not understood into one in which the child is accepted as is can have on a child’s mental health and self-image.

Belyyreka is another fascinating McGuire creation, a world where everyone breathes water (including, automatically, anyone who stumbles through a magic Door from an air-breathing world). McGuire’s worldbuilding is always rich and detailed and Belyyreka is no exception. I’m sure there are folkloric antecedents McGuire built this world off of, but I am unfamiliar with them and haven’t had a chance to research before posting this review. The society Nadya finds herself a part of involves humans who fish and farm with the aid of giant turtles. Yes, you read that correctly: giant turtles. Prior to this book, my favorite giant turtle was Gamera. I think now (without spoilers of any kind) it's Burian.

To be clear: reading Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is a complete experience – one could read this and not read any of the other books in the Wayward Children series, and not feel cheated (just as one can read the first Oz or Wonderland or Narnia books and feel like a complete story has been told). But I hope that readers coming to the series through this book will want to seek out Beneath the Sugar Sky to see where Nadya’s story goes next, and then be intrigued enough to read the rest of the series. It definitely made me want to re-read Sugar Sky.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I love this series! Whether it's introducing a new character or filing in someone's backstory, I'm always happy to see a new book come out. I love seeing what's on the other side of the new doorway and revisiting these characters.

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is the tenth installment of the Wayward Children. I can't quite believe that we are already at a tenth installment. That we have journeyed so far with these characters and world.

This time we follow Nadya into her journey into our world and into her drowned world. We met her in Beneath the Sugar Sky. I have to be honest that I couldn't remember a whole lot from her since it was quite a few books ago. But I enjoyed getting to know her again.

Nadya hasn't had an easy life (and to be fair, none of the kids have). When she goes through the portal it is the first time she gets the chance to make decisions for herself. Where she is accepted for who she is, stump and all.

The world that she goes to, the drowned world, is mostly under water. They can breathe underwater and when she comes there, so can she. But there is also a portion above water, where rivers and wood connect. Where there are talking animals.

Giant turtles help the drowned in what they need to survive. Nadya starts a companionship with one of the young turtles. Honestly, it is mostly a gentle story that Nadya has when in this new world. She makes a life for herself, a future. She seemed so sure.

But my complaint with this book is the ending for Nadya. It came very sudden. For her and for us as readers, and I'm not quite sure I'm satisfied with it. There wasn't enough explanation in this part of the story and we are too far into everything for there to not be more explanations.

It’s January, and that means that it’s time for a new Wayward Children novella! In Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear, we are reintroduced to Nadya, a turtle-loving Drowned Girl that we first met in Beneath the Sugar Sky. In that book, Nadya was one of the students of Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children who accompanied Sumi’s daughter, Rini, on her quest to bring her mother back to life. Before she traded places with Sumi’s soul in the Halls of the Dead, long before she first made her way to the waters of Belyyreka, Nadya was an orphan. Abandoned by her birth mother, she was raised in an orphanage where most of the visiting families would pass her by because of her missing right forearm. Eventually, though, an American couple arrives and whisks her away from her home in Russia to the mysterious, distant city of Denver, Colorado. Not going to lie, folks. Of all the places Seanan McGuire has taken readers of these books over the last decade, the one I least expected was right here in Colorado.

Nadya’s new parents want to help her fit in, so she takes English classes and is eventually taken to a doctor to be fitted for a prosthesis, something that she had never considered, because she is whole as she is. A prosthetic arm makes the forearm she never had suddenly visible to her classmates at school. Since neither of them consulted with her on the idea before deciding she’d get it, Nadya’s less than thrilled with the whole thing. Feeling unloved, she goes for a short walk to visit a nearby turtle pond that had always cheered her up, a place she frequently would visit with her adoptive father. That’s when she sees it. Carved into a turtle’s shell are the words “Be Sure.” Reaching for the turtle to try to help it, since someone was clearly cruel to it, Nadya falls into the pond and through the doorway that had formed there.

Waking up in the drowned world of Belyyreka, Nadya is quickly befriended by the humans who live there. Many of them are like her, swept-away people chosen by the Doors from their own worlds. She finds a home among them, learning to work with turtle partners to fish and explore. She even finds a turtle partner of her own, named Burian, who will eventually grow large enough for Nadya to ride on their adventures. But all good things must come to an end eventually, and we readers already know that Nadya will make her way to Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children in due time.

Seanan McGuire has once again crafted a phenomenal addition to the Wayward Children series. As with all of the even numbered books, this one deals with the backstory of a character rather than a present-day adventure. Nadya’s story is a great guide to acceptance of one’s self, and finding ways to be true to that even when others try to change who you are. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is available today. I know I needed it more than I realized. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2025/01/07/adrift-in-currents-clean-and-clear-a-review/

I don’t know if turtle girls are a thing like horse girls, but if they are then wow do I have a book for you 😆

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is the tenth and latest installment in the Wayward Children series, and I loved it. The whole series has my heart, as we explore the stories of these children who get sucked into all these different portal worlds. I thought the world McGuire created here in Belyrekka was so beautiful and lush, definitely befitting the fairytale atmosphere. This is one of the standalone portal stories, so we follow Nadya who we met in the main storyline but this is just her story from before she came to Eleanor’s school. While I can’t completely speak to the disability or adoption rep, it seemed carefully and well done.

I absolutely loved this small story and I already can’t wait for the next one.

Nadya was missing an arm since birth, and her adoptive parents forced her to wear a prosthetic. She finds her way to Belyrreka, the Land Beneath the Lake. This world of water contains child-eating amphibians, giant turtles, and all kinds of impossible things. Nadya is considered a Drowned Girl, accepted by the river and its people. There are dangers in Belyrreka, and Nadya must fight for everything she holds dear.

This is the tenth book of the Wayward Children series, but each book can be read independently. I felt bad for Nadya, who was either abandoned or simply not seen on her own merits since she was born. Her adoptive parents are well-meaning but want to have the appearance of a perfect child. Of course, she would fall through a door into another world, one where her missing arm isn't the first thing about her that people see. She adapts well to her new world and finds a place for herself among the people there. Dangers exist that are different from the ones she knew in Colorado or Russia, but she adapts even to those.

This story is novella length, so it wraps up quickly. The ending felt almost abrupt and was certainly sad. Nadya had been happy in Belyrreka, and I liked that place and that version of her.

5/5

*Read thanks to NetGalley

Gah, why not just pull my heart out, that ending. You know it's going to happen if you know Nadya's story (so you if you're me get immersed and forget.) So yes it's a standalone book but it's even more powerful if you read the 3rd book and know what happens to her.

I love the WAYWARD CHILDREN series because the author says so much and makes you feel so much in well under 200 pages.

This quote gives a good feel for the story: "A future is a monster of its own breed, different for everyone, and ever inescapable."

The story has a dreamy feel to it. The door found this time leads to a really intriguing watery world. Feels a lot like an old school fable or myth.

That ending will get ya but at its core I think it shows that there's always hope.

I highly recommend this series and hope that there are more.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I gotta admit I didn't read the other books in the series. Obviously, this could have changed my opinion, but as a true outsider I think the author is a pretty strong writer, but I am perplexed on how the "real world" scenes are more intriguing than the "fantasy portal world."

Regardless, she ended the book very well. Well enough that it made me want to go back and read the first book of the series to give more background and fill in the info I might be missing.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy!

I'm starting to think none of these books are going to live up to In An Absent Dream for me, and it's about time that I accepted it. And, at least, this book has giant turtles, sentient foxes, and an underwater world for this book's wayward child- Nadya - to explore.

I really enjoyed the world building in this one, and I liked Nadya has a main character. The ending- even though I knew it was coming, because how else would she end up at the school for Wayward Children?- felt like a kick in the gut. I really, really hope Nadya gets to return to the home she loves at some point in this series. I had trouble remembering her from previous installments- and I think it's just because there are so many books at this point that I'm struggling to keep track of the main plot lines when the kids are together. I also definitely missed a book somehow, so maybe I need to go back and read #9 in order to fill in any holes. I'd love to see Nadya in the next installment- and I'm assuming there is one. I'm not sure how long Seanan McGuire will keep writing these, but I'm along for the ride!

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear gives us the story of Nadya, buffeted through her childhood by people who thought they were doing the right thing, or what they thought others would think or approve as the right thing, and never considering how Nadya felt. Nadya, visiting her beloved turtles to deal with the latest “right thing” dealt to her, a prosthetic arm, falls through the door and finds herself in a drowned world as a “Drowned Girl”.

In the world of Belyyreka, Nadya is treasured for what she is, and not as a project or as an imperfect girl who needed fixing. Nadya thrives in. Belyyreka, as it becomes her real home, as her former life fades from her memory.

This made the denouement that much more painful.

Four and one-half stars, enthusiastically recommended: