Adrift In Currents Clean And Clear (Wayward Children series book 10 of 11) by Seanan McGuire (book review).
‘The Wayward Children’ books are written with the teenage reader in mind but can be enjoyed by all ages. The tales revolve around students at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children. These are young people who have passed through a door to strange worlds that suit their personality and needs. When they are thrown back into the real world, they are misfits, and no one believes where they went when they were missing, except Eleanor West, who once went through a Door herself. In previous books, the story is either about how the person fell into their world and later ended up in the school or involves students passing through to other worlds. One of the students who has made appearances in previous tales on Nadya is included in this story.
Adrift In Currents: Clean And Clear is Nadya’s story. She was born in Russia to an unmarried teenage girl who abandoned her. She was born without a right hand. In her nine years at a state orphanage, she learns to cope one-handed. The only really significant event in that time is her finding a sick tortoise and nursing it back to health. Her life changed dramatically when American missionaries arrived looking to adopt an imperfect child. Nadya was taken to America. There she has to learn a new language and new customs. The thing that gave her comfort was watching the turtles in a nearby pond.
Her new parents think they are doing her a favour when they have Nadya fitted with a prosthetic arm. Never having had two hands, she finds it uncomfortable and hates it but accepts it meekly to please her new parents. She goes to visit the turtles and sees someone has scratched the words ‘Be Sure’ in Russian on the shell of one of them. Angry, she goes to help it but falls into the water and through a door into a water world. The rest of this novella follows Nadya’s adventures in this new world.
This instalment of ‘The Wayward Children’ series is different from others in that the school does not appear. Only by reading earlier volumes will the reader recognise their importance in Nadya’s life after this book ends. Although the novel can be read as a standalone story, touching on the series beforehand will give a greater understanding of the idea of worlds behind the doors. This novel is well up to the standard of previous volumes.
Pauline Morgan
September 2025
(pub: Tordotcom, 2025. 160 page enlarged paperback. Price: $22.99 (US), $30.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-25084-833-8).
check out website: www.tor.com
