![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This is the 2022 book in the Wayward Children series; Cora (who has appeared in a couple of previous books) decides to leave Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children in favour of a different school that promises to rid children of traces of the other worlds they've travelled to.
This series has always leaned into the Rules that govern fairy stories, and often the cruelty and collateral damage that results; similarly the way that adults and children can be cruel to other children. I think McGuire really leans into that in this book - both in how Cora is treated for being fat, and in how the various educational institutions deal with that. The Whitehorn Institute is likewise used as a critique of boarding schools and how they manage behaviour.
If you like this series, then this is a reasonable addition; if you've not enjoyed previous ones then this won't change your mind.
This series has always leaned into the Rules that govern fairy stories, and often the cruelty and collateral damage that results; similarly the way that adults and children can be cruel to other children. I think McGuire really leans into that in this book - both in how Cora is treated for being fat, and in how the various educational institutions deal with that. The Whitehorn Institute is likewise used as a critique of boarding schools and how they manage behaviour.
If you like this series, then this is a reasonable addition; if you've not enjoyed previous ones then this won't change your mind.