Title: Across the Green Grass Fields
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: Wayward Children
Publish Date: January 12, 2021
Publisher: Tor.com
Format: eBook (Kindle)
Goodread Summary:
"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....
Review: The Wayward Children novella series is one that I held off reading for years, until June of last year when I blasted through their first five books in rapid succession. Besides the fourth book (In an Absent Dream), I’ve enjoyed the series very much, and they’re easy reads, usually under 200 pages. Across the Green Grass Fields is a great starting point if you have never picked up this series before. It takes place in the same universe at the first five novellas, but it entirely separate, so you don’t have to read the others first.
With Across the Green Grass Fields, we are introduced to Regan, a young girl with possibly the most toxic “best friend” in history, Laurel. When Regan is finally told that she is intersex, after questioning why she wasn’t going through puberty, she confides in Laurel, who rejects her in a rather horrific manner. Regan runs from school and ends up finding a doorway into the Hooflands.
Regan comes off as a very quiet and insecure young girl at the start, but by the end, she has a maturity in her that shows her growth. She isn’t a typical teenager by the end of the story, but she does have heart. She is able to assimilate into the herd pretty quickly. I do like that for much of the story, she doesn’t forget where she comes from. She references back to her parents, to Laurel, and to her former friend Heather, and starts relating more to Heather than before. I love the fact that she heals from Laurel’s bullying.
Some of the detractors is that, to me, the intersex plotline just seemed to… vanish once Regan was in the Hooflands. Unless I missed it (which is possible, because I finished the book at like two in the morning), she never really thinks about it. The other big thing was the ending. Without spoilers, it just seemed that the stakes ramped up in the final section, and just kinda dropped. It was a bit of a disappointment on how the “Queen” plotline ended. Again, not going into detail, but it felt rushed.
I’m curious if we will see the Hoofland again in any of the newly-announced sequels. We did end up revisiting the Moors in a sequel, and I really enjoyed that. We shall just have to wait and see.
Rating: 4/5
Goodreads Goal 1/52
