Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire Series: Wayward Children #6
Published by Tordotcom on January 12, 2021
Genres: Urban fantasy
Pages: 176
Format: ARC
Goodreads
Also by this author: Imaginary Numbers, Over the Woodward Wall, Calculated Risks, Backpacking Through Bedlam
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”
About Across the Green Grass Fields
Across the Green Grass Fields is a standalone entry and an unabashed love letter to the horse mad.
Regan is dealing with the awkwardness of schoolgirl friendships and casual cruelties. Horses are a beloved and happy place for her. She shares an intensely personal secret with her BFF who turns it into an emotional weapon to hurt Regan.
Regan falls through a door into the Hooflands, a world peopled by equine creatures – unicorns, kelpies, and hippogriffs. She’s adopted by a tribe of nomadic centaurs, even though a human appearing means some sort of disruption or big change coming to the Hooflands.
My thoughts about Across the Green Grass Fields
Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series is composed of beautiful vignettes of portal fantasies. Written in gorgeous, lyrical yet spare prose. Featuring characters who don’t belong, seekers for something else, something more.
This translates into the series showing serious LGBTQ+ rep, even fat positive rep – which I’d like to fall through the portal to a world of mermaids – chonky girls who swim in deep, cold oceans, yes, please. She writes about these characters sensitively and deftly. The love she feels for her characters shows through clearly. Even when the storyline guts you, the reader, how she writes the characters feels absolutely authentic.
Across the Green Grass Fields is a standalone entry in the series, which if you haven’t read any of the earlier books, this is a perfect point of entry. It doesn’t feature any recurring characters from the first five books but you’ll definitely get a sense of the storytelling and writing.
Since the books are novellas, you could be totally caught up with the series, if you decide to read the first five books, in the time it takes you to read a full-length novel.
Across the Green Grass Fields is an unabashed love letter to the horse mad. If you follow Seanan on social media, you’ve seen part of her My Little Pony collection or read about her love for them. That love shines through in this novella in a delightful way.
Your thoughts
Were you a horse fan when you were younger? I certainly had a period of loving horses, learning all I could about them and constantly playing with my horse figurines. The horse love morphed into unicorn love. My preteen bedroom was a lavender shrine to All Things Unicorn. Share your thoughts with me below in the comments.
Other books
by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Over the Woodward Wall is a portal fantasy also written by Seanan McGuire. This isn’t part of The Wayward Children series but a standalone middle-grade book. It’s a bit Wizard of Oz, a bit alchemical text and totally wonderful. Read my full review.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is a gorgeously written novella that’s a love letter exchange between agents on opposite sides of a time war. Read my full review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor.com for the DRC.
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