Review: Through Gates of Garnet and Gold

This review contains spoilers. To read it with spoilers blanked out see my review on The StoryGraph or Goodreads

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire

The more entries I read in the Wayward Children series, the more intrigued I get. This book takes us back to Nancy - our original protagonist and our introduction to the world of the Wayward Children. Back when I read the first book, I thought each book would be a standalone book about a kid or kids who experienced a portal fantasy and ended up back in the real world. Instead McGuire gave us an intricate web of books. They go forward, backwards, and sideways in time. Sometimes they are prequels to the original book and other times they move the overall story along. Death is not a constant and, apparently with this book, neither is getting to stay in your door if/one you are re-admitted. The plots are getting very entwined and it’s getting more and more essential to have read (and remembered) the old ones to get the full understanding of what’s going on. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different from where the series seemed to start out.

As I said (and as the back blurb says), this book is about what life has been like for Nancy her world. It was nice to get more of her perspective on how the world suits her and what she gets out of it. The usual gang of students is here, including Sumi, my favorite. McGuire has already portrayed some of the worlds as cruel, or at least uncaring. This is one of the first times we get a different way in which the worlds can be less than ideal. Essentially, while the series has examined in the past how adults can be cruel, indifferent, uncaring, etc - this was the first one where the “god” of the world is should to be faulty. Or rather, like whichever Harry Potter book had him realizing his dad was a jerk at Hogwarts, it’s a realization for Nancy that her “god” is far from perfect. To the point where, if I understand the ending correctly, Nancy realized that the portal world is no longer for her. This is, I think, the first time we see that (maybe Antsy counts?). I wonder if it’s a new direction for the series - some of the protagonists realizing that the portal world is not perfect or not perfect for them forever. But this lets them leave on their own terms rather than being spit out as most of the kids at the school are.

The only thing that kept this book from being 5 stars for me is the antagonist. It’s Jill again?!? It works very well within the narrative and it makes sense given what we know of her personality and how she has clashed with everyone else involved at the school. But I’m ready for her never to be the antagonist again.

Overall, you should know by book 11 whether or not you like this series. If you’re the type who jumps willy-nilly into the middle of book series this one is DEFINITELY not a good one for that. (I can see some of you saying “challenge accepted!”) It depends so heavily on what came before that I would have a lot of trouble seeing anyone jump into the Wayward children here and enjoy this book. If you were on the fence with book 10, I give this one a strong recommendation.

PS - for once I had no idea the book was coming out. I got an email this morning from ebooks.com (where I buy all my DRM-free books to support a book seller that is neither kobo nor amazon) and was able to buy it. No building up expectations. It was awesome and I wish it happened more often.

• Seanan-McGuire