Despite the rules against it, Antsy and her friends at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children find themselves on a quest when Antsy opens a door to escape from a bullying classmate. The path home is never straightforward.  

As in previous books, McGuire handles her character's trauma with care and thoughfulness. We get a resolution to the stories of several characters and learn more about others. I can't wait to read the next one!

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

I didn't love this as much as previous books in this series.  this is the first of them I've read on audio; I didn't love the narrator, so maybe that all played a part in it  there was just a lot of conversation and a lot of grief and rage.  which were valid,  but not fun to read. 

This book continues the delightful pattern of the series of showing us how these characters interact, where their biases and abilities and losses conflict and complement. Each character has their own shifting motivations, always similar enough to keep them moving forward together on their quest... until one or more does not go forward anymore. Since the doors themselves respond to the children's certainty, the plot is driven by an intersection of the characters and the universe. 

Let's talk about the dinosaurs. Delightful, no notes. Feathered, brightly-colored, and fluffy, plus viciously terrifying. 

I would say that a main theme of the book is finding closure, something that has always been at the core of the series. This is not the end of the series, but it is an ending for some of the characters and those endings are beautifully written, with the time and care they need to get to where they need to be.

I had a hard time with Antsy's story in Lost in the Moment and Found due to the specific themes of the story, but my main takeaway was "I like this character and I want to see where she goes from here." This book did not disappoint- I loved her too-young-too-old grown-up-too-fast childish righteousness, and I appreciated the way

she was able to confront her past and find certainty in her home. While I'll miss her in future stories, I think her story was very strong as is and I'm glad she ended up where she belongs.

Some thoughts on the other characters:

Seraphina:

Based on the book description I first saw I was honestly expecting her to be a more major part of the plot, not just the driving force. I'm not disappointed though, although I am a bit curious as to what (if any) role she'll take on in the future.

Kade:

I think it's very cool that we got to see Prism, however briefly. Kade's story is one I know is coming at the end, and I like how it's told in bits and pieces (and usually the same bits and pieces, just told in slightly different ways). I look forward to seeing how he reacts to Sumi's revelation that the goblins reportedly want him back as their prince.

Sumi:

She brings such a unique and special energy to these books and I love her for it. She's someone I would hate to know in real life, but she works so well within the story. I think her Nonsense provides a much-needed balance- she's both chaos incarnate, yet sometimes arguably the most rational in the moment.

Cora:

my beloved Cora! The epilogue hit me hard when I realized what it meant. I love the juxtaposition between her and Antsy, who both enter the narrative partway through and leave in the same story, but while Cora's journey is long and spans several books, Antsy's is much shorter. These two work so well as not a pair so much as briefly intersecting lines. Cora has had such a beautiful, wonderful journey over the course of this series, and I'm so happy for her that she's finally going home, even as I'm so sad to see her go. The timing was perfect for her.

The Whitethorn cast:

My absolute favorite character in the entire series is Marian, but I am neither surprised nor bothered that she doesn't make much of an appearance. Regan as well, I feel like the two of them have had their time and it makes sense for both of them to have the chance to step back from the narrative.

I am very glad we got to see more of both Emily and Stephanie- they didn't have the same sense of closure at the end of Where the Drowned Girls Go as Marian, and I am happy to see Emily's story continue as she joins the questers and to get a stronger sense of Stephanie's conclusion and what that means for her. Stephanie and her dinosaurs were only briefly in the story, but it felt true to her character. Meanwhile Emily is a wonderful addition to the core group of the series- I loved her interactions with Yulia and Antsy (being the only one to recognize her younger age, and relating it back to Rowena!!) She is gentle and passionate and fierce in her own way and I'm excited to see where her story leads.

Christopher:

I don't have much to say here, but that isn't really a bad thing. He takes a little bit of a back seat in this book, just because he's offscreen for a bit more of it than in the past, though it feels right for him. He has been a central enough part of the story so far that I'm sure he'll have a satisfying narrative in the end, and I'm willing to wait for it.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I do need to reread some of the earlier ones since I'm sure part of this is recency bias speaking, but I think this one is among my favorites so far. 

Another book, another forbidden quest. 

The first Wayward Children book I read was actually Lost in the Moment and Found where Antsy is introduced, so it was cool to have completed reading the series and then be able to read the next book to be published in the series. This book specifically focuses on generational trauma and breaking the cycle. Antsy is the main focus of this, but I see it with Kade and Eleanor too. 

These books never fail to make me feel so hopeful and so sad and so nostalgic all in one go. I think as I continue the series, each book will be followed by the end of Lundy's story. Far more characters have been able to return through their Doors than not, but the fear that the kids who want to go back won't be able to lingers. 

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

This is the one with dinosaurs! It's excellent, and if you've been enjoying the series so far you'll love this too. Antsy is trying to make it so no other kids get tricked out of their childhoods by unknowingly paying for too many doors, but this time she has some help from Kade, Sumi, and the others.

For a school where “No Quests” adorns the door, the students at the school for Wayward Children sure do get up to a lot of quests. A core group with a slowly shifting cast has been established as traveling to try and fix things on a semi-regular basis. In MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN, some of the kids figure out that Antsy’s gift for finding lost things might let her find their doors... whereupon trouble ensues. Kade, Sumi, Cora, Emily, and Christopher travel with Antsy to try and set things right which were left broken when she fled the Store at the end of LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND. The worldbuilding has been getting more complicated as they learn more about what's happening. Eleanor's assumptions about the students have started having more to do with her desire for Nonsense than their actual experiences, and it's getting to a point where it's affecting the room assignments. This continues several storylines which were begun earlier, creating what feels like an entirely new storyline through recombination of older threads, even though as each piece was something introduced earlier. This far into the series, that’s an excellent feeling, making the adventure feel both fresh and familiar even on a first read-through. A particular problem in the Store is both introduced and resolved, and several more tangles either arise or are addressed. As a story about nexuses and connections, it’s especially nice to reach a point where everything feels so connected to everything else that it’s a complicated tangle to explain the setup, which for me is one of the joys of a long-running series. 

MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN could partly make sense to someone who starts here, but if such a person wanted to jump in midway without starting at the beginning of the series, LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND (the previous book) would be a much better entry point. That reader would find themselves knowing as much as Antsy does about what’s happening, which is a comprehensible perspective even if it misses earlier portions of the ongoing story. I particularly enjoyed some moments with Kade and Sumi (both separately and together). This felt like an ensemble cast in a way that earlier books didn't, and it's wonderful to be at the point in the series where the focus can smoothly shift between characters as needed. 

This entry is great, don't miss it! This series is consistently excellent and I'm eager to read what happens next.