TITLE: Across the Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children, Book Six)
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
176 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250213594 (hardcover), also available in e-book and audiobook.
DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): “Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”
Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.
When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.
But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…
MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
MY THOUGHTS: For those unfamiliar with Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, a little background: the students at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children have all been through their own portals to strange fantasy realms and have returned to the world of their birth changed and unable to fit back into “normal” society. The books in the series alternate between “present day” adventures set at (or at least, starting at) the school and stand-alone portal fantasies. This latest volume is a portal fantasy installment (as are all the even numbered titles) and as such can be read independently of the rest of the series. Across the Green Grass Fields has been described as an excellent “jumping on” place for new readers, because unlike the previous portal fantasy installments (Down Among the Sticks and Bones and In an Absent Dream) this book introduces a whole new character not yet seen in the “present day” installments (Every Heart a Doorway; Beneath the Sugar Sky; Come Tumbling Down). Across the Green Grass Fields gives readers new to the series a chance to get a feel for what McGuire is doing without having to worry about how the events connect to characters and settings we’ve already met.
The setting for this installment is the Hooflands, a fantasy world full of every equine and part-equine creature from legend and mythology, whether terrestrial, arboreal, or aquatic: centaurs, unicorns, satyrs, minotaurs, perytons, kelpies, and more. If it has hooves, it exists in the Hooflands – except for the mundane horses, donkeys, cows, and goats we know. Long time fans of Seanan McGuire were not surprised that she created a fantasy world based around magical horses, given her life-long love of My Little Pony, but the Hooflands are no simple MLP pastiche. McGuire has filled this world with all the hierarchies, prejudices, misunderstandings and unfairnesses that exist in our non-magical, non-fantasy human world. These issues are not evident when Regan first arrives in the Hooflands but reveal themselves slowly first through conversations and asides and then through Regan’s encounters with the species she’s been told are dangerous. I loved the way this portal world mirrors our own in a more direct way than the other worlds we’ve encountered so far. Those other portal worlds have been populated with creatures more human in appearance, but the denizens of the Hooflands are more like us in emotion and action. In some ways, the society of the Hooflands might the most fully explained of the portal worlds we’ve visited. (This in no way means I don’t want Seanan to revisit the Hooflands in future volumes – there’s still plenty of world to explore, especially regarding what may have happened after the end of this book.)
The cast of the Wayward Children books is one of the most diverse you’re likely to find anywhere, because McGuire knows how much representation matters. For LGBTQ kids and non-white kids, seeing themselves having the types of adventures usually populated with straight white kids (looking at you, Pevensies, Gales, Darlings, and you lot) is empowering. Our new addition to the cast, Regan, gives another marginalized population a chance at the spotlight: intersex kids. Regan’s journey to the Hooflands starts when she begins questioning her parents about why she’s not growing and hitting puberty at the same rate as her female classmates. Being a girl, being the “right kind” of girl to stay in her best friend’s good graces, has been important to Regan for as long as she can remember. Finding out she is intersex is hard, even with parents who have been prepared to have this conversation for a long time and know exactly what they think they should say. But the reaction of the best friend sets her directly on the path through the door to the Hooflands, and thus puts Regan’s sense of self at the center of the story. That scene is not easy for anyone with a shred of compassion to read; it had me in angry/upset tears that made me put the book down to regain composure. But it’s also a necessary scene. Because kids can be cruel to anyone who is even slightly different, and because it sets Regan not only on the physical path to the Hooflands but also on the emotional path to being more empathic when she encounters others who are mistreated because they are perceived to be different. And that makes all the difference in the way the story plays out.
Some portal stories are simple adventures, and some come with the burden of Destiny (or, at least, Perceived Destiny). The Hooflands has traditions about what it means for a Human to arrive and what is expected of them. McGuire dissects and re-stitches the “destined one” trope beautifully, looking at it not just from Regan’s point-of-view but also from her adopted centaur family and some of the other species as well. I really, really don’t want to spoil the best part of this subversion, but I have to say that it was both unexpected and inevitable and I may have gasped out loud when the big reveal happened.
I am looking forward to learning how Regan arrives at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, and what effect she will have on the kids we’ve come to know and care about from previous installments. And like all the kids at the school, I find myself hoping that somehow, Regan’s door to the Hooflands will open for her again someday. Because we all deserve to live where we’re happiest and where we can be our authentic selves.