Review | Wild Spaces by S.L. Coney

Source: review copy provided by publisher. This is a review of my reading experience.

Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life meets H. P. Lovecraft in Wild Spaces, a foreboding, sensual coming-of-age debut in which the corrosive nature of family secrets and toxic relatives assume eldritch proportions.

An eleven-year-old boy lives an idyllic childhood exploring the remote coastal plains and wetlands of South Carolina alongside his parents and his dog Teach. But when the boy’s eerie and estranged grandfather shows up one day with no warning, cracks begin to form as hidden secrets resurface that his parents refuse to explain.

The longer his grandfather outstays his welcome and the greater the tension between the adults grows, the more the boy feels something within him changing —physically—into something his grandfather welcomes and his mother fears. Something abyssal. Something monstrous.

Why did I read Wild Spaces?

The first thing that drew me to Wild Spaces was the cover. Tentacles and a dog? I had to know more! Then the comparisons to Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (and obviously Lovecraft) sealed the deal. Boy's Life is my favorite book of all time. That's a lot of hype to live up to for me, but if a book captures even a sliver of what McCammon captures, I'm a happy reader.

The Strengths

I loved Wild Spaces. It's growing on me even more the longer it sits in my mind. In Wild Spaces, the main character is an 11 year old boy who I don't believe is ever named. His grandfather who has never been around shows up and things aren't right with the grandfather or at home.

The sea is one of my favorite elements in every single genre that I read. Wild Spaces incorporates the sea and it is disturbing! This novella hits hard at times.

The Weaknesses

I told you there was a dog and Wild Spaces is being compared to McCammon. I loved Wild Spaces, and I loved Teach (the dog). I usually blatantly spoil the fate of the dog, but this one is nuanced. The scenes with Teach won't be a hit with everyone that reads this, but the story in its entirety worked for me.

Would I recommend Wild Spaces to others?

Yes, absolutely. If you love horror and novella length works for you, I absolutely recommend Wild Spaces. I think I'd compare it to Chad Lutzke more than I'd compare it to McCammon so hold on to your heart and get ready to be disturbed by family and the sea.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★
4/5 stars

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Review | Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Come Tumbling Down is the fifth book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister—whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice—back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.

Again.

Oof. I'm trying to get back into the habit of reviewing everything I read - including rereads. When I started rereading Come Tumbling Down, I couldn't remember what it was about, but I knew I've liked every book I've read of the series.

Come Tumbling Down was a very mid read. I refrained from reading my original review until after I finished my reread, and I'm just going to post it here:

It's not that I didn't like Come Tumbling Down, I just didn't particularly care for it, either.

Come Tumbling Down can't stand on its own the way the other books in the series can, yet half of the book is spent explaining the characters and the worlds.

I still wholeheartedly recommend this series and I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment... I just don't feel like Come Tumbling Down really added anything new.

Honestly, that still sums it up for me. It's quite forgettable.  

3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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Review | In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

In An Absent Dream is the fourth book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should. 

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

Oh, my heart. Seanan McGuire continues to break my heart into pieces with each book in the Wayward children series.

In An Absent Dream is another prequel installment to the series. In An Absent Dream follows Lundy who we know works at the school for wayward children. In An Absent Dream is her back story. We get to follow Lundy through her doorway into the world of the Goblin Market where everything has a price.

I don't want to spoil anything because I feel like Lundy's story is everything. I just love this book so much.

Are you reading this series yet? These books are portal fantasies into other worlds. A doorway finds these kids when they need it the most, and it leads them to a world they would consider to be "home". I can't help but fall in love with every character and just ache for them.

In An Absent Dream deals with family and friendship and choices that are never easy. I'm pretty sure I'll reread this series again and again.

 

5/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review | Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.

Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts.

"There is kindness in the world, if we know how to look for it. If we never start denying it the door."

I enjoyed Beneath the Sugar Sky much more on my second read. Beneath the Sugar Sky is set in a nonsense world, and I think I struggled a bit the first time to really connect to the characters and the plot in a world filled with sugar and nonsense.. This time around, however, I was really invested in the characters and their mission to save Sumi.

Going back and rereading this series from the beginning, I'm struck by how connected the first three installments of the Wayward Children series is. I'm so glad to be making my way through these books again.

Beneath the Sugar Sky is the first sequel installment where we meet a brand-new character and head into a brand-new world, but we start our adventure at the school for Wayward Children with characters we already know and a problem we are sort of already familiar with. This is such a brilliant springboard for the rest of the series since the next few books throw us into new worlds with new characters and it will feel so familiar.

While there is still darkness in this volume, Beneath the Sugar Sky shows us how different these worlds can be. There are candy corn fields and grounds of graham crackers and oceans of soda, but the world is still dangerous and the stakes are still high. This story is about Rini who is in danger of disappearing and ceasing to exist, but I'm struck most by the story of Cora who used to be a mermaid in a world of reason. I feel like most readers can relate and see themselves in the characters of the Wayward Children books, and for me, I feel like I would belong to a world of reason and I would absolutely be at home as a mermaid. I just love Cora and I love the ending to Beneath the Sugar Sky.  

4/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐★

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Review | Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway is the first book in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

This reread is so heartbreaking. Having now read 6 more books in this series and coming back to the beginning - I think it hits even harder reading about these wayward children who have been forced to return "home". I get it now that no matter where they went through their portal doorway - a nice place, a dark place, a nonsense place, that was home.

I went back and read my original review for this and for some reason I focused on how weird this series would get according to reviews. It definitely does get strange, but it's wonderful and quite often heartbreaking.

I don't know if it's the end of the year or my lack of focus, but I've been in full reread mode. This is the perfect time for me to make my way back through this series. I think I will enjoy book 7 and the new book coming out in January much more revisiting the previous books in this series. I want to reacquaint myself with all of the characters we've met along the way.

Every Heart a Doorway is a perfect introduction to this universe and what it's like to be a wayward kid who has gone through a portal to another world and forced to come back to the life they left behind. These children struggle to cope and often wind up at the school for wayward children which is where Every Heart a Doorway is set.

In each book after Every Heart a Doorway, we get to follow someone through a doorway to another world (with the occasional return to school). This is one of my favorite series, and I look forward to a new release every year. You could probably jump into most books of series without starting at the beginning, but I love the magnitude of what Every Heart a Doorway spells out for these characters and the expectations that are set for these children ever finding their doorway again.

I'm awful at classifying genres so I've always thought of these books strictly as fantasy, but I can see why these also make it onto horror lists. Every Heart a Doorway is certainly horror adjacent and should appeal to a wide range of genre readers.

I feel like you will know if this is a series that sounds right for you. As for me, I love it and I hope it lasts forever.

 

4/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐★

 

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Book Review | Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Source: Preordered purchase. This is a review of my personal reading experience.

Comfort Me With Apples is a new horror novella by Catherynne M. Valente.

Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.

It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

I anticipate this review being a struggle to write. I loved this book but was also underwhelmed by this book. I highly recommend it - and - I don't.

I love Catherynne M. Valente. Her writing is so wonderful and her imagination is perfection. I love entering her worlds and reading her words. Comfort Me with Apples was no exception to this. The reading experience - consuming Valente's words - was a wonderful way to spend my afternoon. 

However - this type of allegorical whimsy is hard for me to fully embrace in an adult book. Overall, I enjoyed the writing very much, but I just never connected to the story.

3/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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