Another great entry in this series. I wish the ending didn't feel rushed and a little bit forced. It felt like the ending was given because Nadya is known from earlier books but it didn't seem to suit the story that was actually told here. But it's another great entry in this series.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is another in the wayward children’s series. I love this book as it has given us a glimpse into the world of Nadya, the drowned girl. I liked that we got to see her life essentially from birth all the way to the time she came back from the drowned world. I feel so bad for her and I was not ready for the book to end!! I liked that this book was broken into different parts to help with the transitions of her life.

This book had an interesting beginning that immediately hooked me, but as soon as the world of Belyyreka is shown, the story loses steam and somehow ends up being a hodge-podge of events with a mix of characters that did not really make sense to me. This novella seemed to have no real purpose in the series at this point but seems to be the long-due Nadya solo book. McGuire’s writing is amazing as always, however, and I cannot wait for the next one. One miss does not in any way hamper my excitement for the next book in this series.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I truly enjoyed Nadya's story; the narrator did a fantastic job of bringing her character to life. I felt such joy when she discovered her door, whether it was by chance or design. The ending left me feeling a bit sad, and I sincerely hope we get to see her again—I don't want her story to end here.

This was… fine. It felt weird to be stepping so far backwards when we’d already seen the end of Nadya’s story and there are other children (Kade) whose stories are arguably more relevant to the overarching plot and also more current (pun intended).

This one also felt rather surface level, like we didn’t get to break through the barriers in Nadya’s mind and most conflicts were solved very quickly and seemingly with no trouble at all.

I don't know what else I can say about this series I haven't already said. I love everything about these books. I have read every single one and given all of them a five stars. This one wasn't my absolute favorite but it's a very close second. I love the drowned worlds and this may he favorite character now. I will never not recommend this series to people. It's one of my absolute favorites!

Well I loved this story. It was beautiful and that ending… we all knew what would eventually happen and yet it was bittersweet still.

This series keeps giving wonderful stories! In this case, a young Russian orphan with part of her arm missing is adopted by Americans and finds herself becoming unhappy until she falls through a door in a turtle pond. Suddenly, she is in a world where water has different weights and turtles partner with people. I loved every moment of this read.

This tenth volume in the Wayward Children gives us Nadya's backstory. It's a good one, but I confess I had to look up Nadya since she last appeared in (I think) book 3, which I read six and a half years ago. Nadya is a one-armed Russian orphan adopted by an American Christian couple. This book deftly deals with adoption and ableism, and I enjoyed Nadya's Drowned World, but I look forward to the books with more than one wayward child in them. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tordotcom for a digital review copy.

another masterpiece in my favorite series. seanan mcguire is such a compelling author, everything just draws you in and makes you feel like you’ve entered the world. i loved the character development in this one. nadya was so lovable in her strengths and flaws. i loved the relationship between the people and turtles as well. it was such a cool detail that really made this world magical. an absolute delight, and i can’t wait for the next! thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an arc of this title.

This is the tenth book in McGuire's Wayward Children series. In the past, I've preferred the books that involve a group of children from the home together; I enjoy seeing how they manage to mingle amongst their different backgrounds. However, this story of Nadya was not lacking. I'm glad her story was unpacked; when she was introduced in a previous installment of the series, I didn't much care for her character. Now that I know her full backstory, I have so much more sympathy for her. Nadya is taken from a Russian orphanage by American parents who are adopting more for social cache than for a true want of a child. One day, while exploring, Nadya falls into a door in a pond near her house and enters a different world - a world where she is happy to be a Drowned Girl.
Nadya's story is frustrating and fun at turns. I love that the author illuminates those who use international adoption as a cultural advancement tool, not out of actual goodness. This was a great read, and I'm glad McGuire can keep the stories fresh this far into the series.

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning every single time I get to read a new book in the Wayward Children series because I know that whatever is inside is going to be both magical and also something entirely new.

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is Nadya's backstory. We were previously introduced to the character in Beneath the Sugar Sky and she was referred to as a "drowned girl" and was also a long-time resident of the school. Unlike some of the previous novels in the series, this stands alone and features no other characters other than Nadya, which put a nice focus on her story without the reader getting side quested.

What I absolutely love about this series is that each and every book tackles a different issue and does so with such loving care that I think this series is one of the best for differently abled representation. Everything from neurodivergence, transgenderism, intersex, victims of assault, and this time someone born with a limb difference is covered. Then, on top of covering such a multitude of differences in children, McGuire manages to create entirely new worlds in less than 200 pages. To say she is gifted as an author is a complete understatement.

What I loved most about this latest installment is that it is wholly Nadya's story. I know a lot of readers were probably hoping for a continuation of the characters we have already met and their frequent adventures, but I always enjoy the breaks with back stories, and I feel like Nadya is going to have an important role in the future if she was worthy of having an entire book dedicated solely to her and her life before the school.

Needless to say, I adored this book and cannot wait for the next one in the series as I never ever want it to end. Of that I can be sure.

Thank you to NetGalley, Seanan McGuire, and Tordotcom for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear follows Nadya, a girl in search of a family. When she’s adopted from Russia by an American couple, they attempt to conform her into American society starting with language and ending with forcing a prosthetic arm against her desire. As Nadya attempts to come to terms with the new arm she doesn’t feel she needs, she falls into a Door and finds herself in a world of water, giant turtles, and incredible ships with kind people. But danger lurks and Nadya has to fight to keep hold of all the amazing things in Belyrreka.

As with every book in this very lovely series, it features such incredible themes and weaves a tale of understanding and kindness. This book was no different and I really enjoyed the world, although this one was a little slower and I found the plot a little less engaging. It’s still a great installment in the series, just not my favourite. The was truly fascinating and I really loved the woods and how terrifying they were. The turtle companions were so sweet. It was nice to finally see Nadya’s story and reading through it to the ending really cements how absolutely tragic her story is.

Nadya is a really great main character. She’s so strong and resilient and cares for others so deeply. Her ending is really tragic, but I like that we got to see her story play out in full. There’s a lot of great characters in this one. I especially liked the talking turtles and foxes and her relationship with Inna and Alexi—very heart-warming.

Overall, if you love this series, I’d definitely recommend pick it up, and if you’re new to the series, go binge read all of them—you won’t regret it!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, Seanan McGuire proves why she is an absolute master at the novella format. Every book in the Wayward Children series clocks in at under 250 pages and yet holds so very much inside. I will never stop shouting about this series from the rooftops. If you were ever a child and need healing, these books are absolutely for you. If you are nostalgic for childhood, these books are for you. If you missed out on childhood and had to grow up too fast, these books are for you. If you ever wished to find a magical door with a world where you finally belong, well, you know the rest.

This book is a masterclass on character. Nadya is born without an arm, but never considers herself lacking anything, having never had it to begin with. It is the adoptive parents who take her from the orphanage in Russia to America that make her wear a prosthetic arm. She wears it because she feels she must, because she is not given any other option or choice. Her feelings on the matter are not questioned—instead, those around her have decided for her that this is right, the correct course of action to solve a problem that was never a problem to begin with.

When she falls into the hint of a doorway in the water, she is sure, and she finds a world is magical with waters of different weights, waters that are able to be breathed and she becomes a Drowned Girl. Here, she finds a home with people who truly love her for who she is, who consider her whole. She makes friends with a giant turtle and they pick one another. She finds love. Everything seems perfect, until it is not.

Nadya is a fantastically drawn character. McGuire has such a handle on childhood and how it feels growing up in different situations. The innocence comes through in such a strong way that you can’t help but feel for Nadya, to criticize her parents, who likely only think they’re doing the right thing. If only they had asked the person it regarded what she thought. So often we brush past children, thinking they’re not old enough to have an opinion, to have thoughts on a certain matter, especially those that regard them. We make choices for them, about their life and their body, and we implement them thinking they’re right.

This novella is filled with heart and whimsy and danger. It is about fighting for what is yours, for doing the right thing. How far would you go to protect what you think is right? And what happens if all of that can be taken away from you at any given moment? How would you live your life in the present?

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Seanan McGuire's writing is lovely as always, and this series is charming as always. Entries like this that focus entirely on one character's time in their other world reminds me that while this is all an interconnected story, they're still fairytales. Not every book has to perfectly fit into the series and move the entire series plot forward, nor has this series ever tried to do that with every book.

As a story that explores another land and lets McGuire play with the fairytale storytelling format, it works as all the Wayward Children books work. I did really like the disability rep here, and I liked Nadya a lot as a character. The world of Belyrreka was really neat as well.

I also have to remember that these stories of the characters that explore their time in the other worlds are inherently SAD AS HELL, because it means they get spit back out to the real world at the end. It happens every time, and it's no less tragic every time.

A good entry in this series, though one I dare say could be skipped if all you really want at this point is the main story.

Another delightful entry in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. I will never cease to be amazed... and delighted, have I mentioned it's delightful? By the weird and fascinating details that McGuire includes in her novellas.

This tenth novella focuses on Nadya, who we met in prior novellas as "the turtle girl," who goes to a Drowned World. Nadya is Russian and everything in her new world is as well? I'm not very familiar with Russian culture so I'm unsure of the authenticity but the little details were... um, delightful.

As usual, McGuire's worldbuilding is thorough, and she manages to show instead of explain how the world is constructed, though being able to learn along with Nadya was helpful. The way she leaned on science - for example, relative density - to explain some elements of the world that wouldn't otherwise make sense was especially deli... um, intriguing.

I would read another book about Nadya to learn more about her life at the school. Let's be real, though, I'd honestly read anything Seanan McGuire writes.

In a word, delightful (sorry, couldn't help myself).

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the digital advance reader's copy.

I look forward to a new release in this series every year.

Quick background: Doors to other worlds appear for children who need them. These worlds are heart and home for many of these children, although the worlds are wild and strange and rarely safe.

This entry in the series brings us the story of Nadya, a Drowned girl, who we last saw in Beneath the Sugar Sky staying behind at the River of Souls with the agreement that if her home land, Belyyreka, calls to her, she'll be allowed to return.

While I think everyone should read every book in this series, it's not entirely necessary for this particular entry, as it could stand alone. However, I think it will resonate more if you've already been immersed in the worlds of the Wayward Children.

Now, we have the opportunity to learn more about Nadya, a Russian orphan born with one arm, who is adopted by U. S. parents and treated more as an object who should be abjectly thankful for being adopted than as a child with ideas and opinions and dreams.

Nadya never feels truly loved or seen and things grow worse when her parents have her fitted with a prosthetic arm without her input.

When she finds her doorway to Belyyreka, she is home in this underwater world of giant turtles, frogs, bartering, and small community. She grows in a place where she is loved as she is and where she can be exactly who she wants to be.

I love how in so few pages, McGuire makes me care so deeply about these characters that I feel their hopes and devastation.

One of my absolute favorite young adult fantasy series.

Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is Nadya's story. Born in Russia with one arm, abandoned by her mother and raised in an orphanage, she doesn't find her door until she's adopted by a couple and brought to the United States. Her door leads to an underwater city where she finds her true family.
I think readers will be heartbroken by the ending, but if you've followed the series so far, you will know what happens next in her story.

As with any book in this series, the themes, in this case adoption and disability, are handled with nuance and care. Now the year long wait for the next book in the series.

This series is just so good. I always look forward to when a new one comes out and ruins me for a bit. This is no exception to that.

I loved this book and Nadya's character and world. I thought the author showed such a nuanced look at adoption and some people's holier-than-thou mindset of "saving" people underprivileged. This book shows how ableism can come in many forms and thinking you know best can lead to resentment. I also loved how unique the doorway and world that Nadya went into. I had to look up (since it's been a while since I read the first book) what happened to her after that harsh sudden ending. I am relieved of what I read. Seanan has such a way of making you so attached to each character in such a short amount of time. You want only good things to happen to them even knowing that it probably won't happen. Overall, another great book in the series and I will anticipating the next one.

Yet another example of why Seanan McGuire is just so good at writing novellas like this! Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is another installment in the beloved Wayward Children series involving portals to other worlds. This one the backstory of Nadya, and wow did it it for me. It deals with adoption and disability in really nuanced ways that feel important.

Nadya was born in Russia with one arm, abandoned by her teenage mother and left in an orphanage before being adopted through a Christian missionary program. Which goes about as well as you might expect with new, ableist parents who expect her to be very grateful. The world she falls into is one of water and sentient creatures including turtles. But the ending is a bit of a gut punch. I loved it and if you're a fan of the series you probably will too. But then I pretty much always rave about these books! I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.