let's be heroes one more time.

she/her | i can draw | 🇮🇳 | aroace

[azalea-blooming]

azalea. hi. i finished wayward children. do you have Thoughts on 6-11 👀

i absolutely have thoughts on 6-11. under the cut because rambling

trying to go in chronological order here i love regan. intersex rep! also her 'friendship' with laurel is just so... it hurts to read in a good way. conversely her friendship with chicory is beautiful. i love that there is no hooflands-ruler of the hooflands, and maybe there's never been, just door children hiding behind a curtain for eons upon eons. i always love when they stay in their worlds for years before returning, it makes everything seem so much worse for everyone involved. (<- stares at katherine lundy. god i love katherine lundy.)

and in where the drowned girls go we see a regan that is just beaten down and defeated and its so,,, just really hammers home how evil the whitethorn institute is. also cora being haunted by the trench?? amazing. the moors haunt this series. engineering a breakout? i knew cora was a badass we love to see it. GREAT sumi content in this book also, i <3 sumi so much. her plot armor is so very,,,, its the charm of a character who is so completely confident and self assured. sumi's going to go home she can do whatever she wants in the meantime.

antsy's book was so creepy. seanan mcguire does really well with building up a tense and awful atmosphere /pos. love the reveal of the doors having a cost and the cycle of the store where lost things go. and then immediately following with mislaid in parts half-known where antsy chooses to go back with full knowledge of the consequence... also love seeing references to other worlds we're familiar with. steph and her dinosaurs and seeing prism for the first time (kade's goblins miss him!!! he could be a prince if he wanted!!!) and also antsy having seen jack & jill in the moors.... i love any mention of the moors.

NADYA'S BOOK!!!!! god her adoptive mother sucks. and its another one where she spent years growing up and having a life only to be a child again. she finally got to return to belyyreka but at what cost? she is not what her loved ones remember her to be. what if they've aged and died in the years since she fell back to earth? ALSO the worldbuilding of different weights of water and them all being beneath a lake... is it nadya who started the classification of water-worlds as lakes? she's been at the school for years and years and cora specifically mentions her trenches were falsely called a Lake.

eleven!!!!!!!!!!! nancy finally returns after fucking off for like nine books <3. i loveeeeee statue nancy's pov and honoring her friends with her poses??? ahsfjsdghj shes so caring! she loves life! lord of the dead is kind of an asshole tbh but the lady of the dead is awesome. loved sumi in this book also. then again sumi's generally awesome in every book. KATHERINE LUNDY STRIKES AGAIN! i love lundy. "tell the archivist and moon that i've paid fair value and i'm going to be born in the right world this time, i'm going to pay my debts" (paraphrased, badly) LUNDY! jill making a reappearance just to fuck shit up again its harder to like her every day <3 but also. Love her. at least jack didn't have to come deal with her fuckups this time (sisters of all time. btw.)

this could be me misunderstanding but does nancy return to earth at the end of eleven?? how many years has she spent with the dead at that point?

also! i never get tired of learning more and more of the worlds they go to. the moth world......... yuemingyuan.... <- also we love seeing worlds with non english names. yuemingyuan & belyyreka are cool as hell. also the constant integration of side characters into main charaacters as the world expands as a reminder that everyone at the school was the main character of an adventure and they're all just trying to go back. everyone's badass and cool even if some of them suck

i kind of really want to know seraphina's story... her world sounds like it sucked but she wants to go back? she's such a terrible mean person i want to know how her mind works. same goes for angela. like their friend got murdered and they couldn't go on a quest to resurrect her.

christopher being amazing as always. love the skeleton flute being somehow useful in every situation. There Are Always Dead Things. also also imagine being so in love that the girl whose power is literally Everyone Loves Me can't persuade you to do shit. skeleton girl has a great future husband. (might just be because he finds flesh a turn off, though).

kade basically running the school / dealing with making a place for himself? love it. cora getting to go home!!!!!!!! also sumi ageing herself to make up for the year she was dead. also also being dead for a YEAR? poor christopher and kade and company. loved eleanor wresting back some control in #11 and finally addressing they've been breaking the No Quests rule for like eight books (even if its just her saying Go Ahead Whatever).

have more thoughts but cannot articulate them atm. unreasonably excited for sumi's book.

[literalliterature]

A few doors encountered by Wayward Children. Might make this into a bookmark for myself idk

[ID copied from alt: A narrow, vertically oriented canvas showing 3 different doors rendered in black lineart, meant to look like ink sketches on parchment. The first door at the top resembles ancient Greek architecture, with a pomegranate and branches decorating the top, Ionic columns on the sides, and a narrow entryway leading into blackness. The second door below that is round and nestled into the base of a tree, and the third, slightly ajar, is heavy and damaged wood with lightning emerging from it. At the bottom is cursive text that reads, "be sure." End ID.]

[eidetictelekinetic]

OH MY GOD THE NEXT WAYWARD CHILDREN IS SUMI'S BACKSTORY

[piromina]

wgat time is it

[piromina]

it’s about the whitethorn institute????????? oh my gosh?????

[piromina]

hi. i love you regan lewis. regan is so fucking cool. regan Destiny Isn’t Real lewis. regan I’m Not The Chosen One lewis. and, most recently, regan I Won’t Lie To Everyone I Care About Just Because You Want My Story To Have A Different Shape lewis. i assumed she’d be in this book after i finished #6 but not here of all places. i’m totally here for this though.

[piromina]

just reached part three. sumi is brilliant regan is awesome cora is badass. everything is as it should be. this is how you know you’re in the right timeline

[piromina]

fucking love that they keep utilising sumi’s plot armour by the way. that’s great. keep it up

[piromina]

it’s about the whitethorn institute????????? oh my gosh?????

[piromina]

hi. i love you regan lewis. regan is so fucking cool. regan Destiny Isn’t Real lewis. regan I’m Not The Chosen One lewis. and, most recently, regan I Won’t Lie To Everyone I Care About Just Because You Want My Story To Have A Different Shape lewis. i assumed she’d be in this book after i finished #6 but not here of all places. i’m totally here for this though.

[piromina]

just reached part three. sumi is brilliant regan is awesome cora is badass. everything is as it should be. this is how you know you’re in the right timeline

[piromina]

it’s about the whitethorn institute????????? oh my gosh?????

[piromina]

hi. i love you regan lewis. regan is so fucking cool. regan Destiny Isn’t Real lewis. regan I’m Not The Chosen One lewis. and, most recently, regan I Won’t Lie To Everyone I Care About Just Because You Want My Story To Have A Different Shape lewis. i assumed she’d be in this book after i finished #6 but not here of all places. i’m totally here for this though.

[piromina]

it’s about the whitethorn institute????????? oh my gosh?????

[cleverreports]

We report: something has gotten in the air - smoke, sand, humidity, the whole lot - and it has captured the sun some hours before dusk. A veil is drawn across the sky. There is a bit of a chill there, or at least, what counts as one these days, a little shiver in the half-light.

[piromina]

lounging in my father’s office, sitting at his desk with my feet resting on the bare table, listening to the classical music playing from his desktop computer as i read wayward children #6. my father isn’t home yet, but when he gets here i guess i’ll just fuck off to my room and pretend i wasn’t here. pulling up an ellipsus document and working on an unrelated project to discover that seanan mcguire has done irreversible things to my writing style. thinking to myself that if i channel the piro of june 2025, i could probably finish the rest of this series tonight—just like how, a year ago, i finished the entire animorphs series in two weeks. admiring the view of the mountains just outside the window. regan has just reached her “be sure.” yeah this is cool

[piromina]

okay. wayward children #12 comes out on january 12. my birthday is at the tail end of december. could i potentially be able to get my hands on it by asking for it as a birthday gift.

[piromina]

i know you're only five books in but i do have to ask: what are your thoughts on wayward children?

okay okay okay. so. this is going to be quite long probably but just stay with me here.

i heard about this series because i was looking for spins on portal fantasies and the chosen one trope. subversion and the like. i fucking got it by the way. i am suuchhhhh a fan of trope subversion

SUMI!!!! i loved sumi from the MOMENT she entered the room in book 1. "hope is a knife that can cut through the foundations of the world" yessss. sumi you get it. you fucking get it

and her heroism quote from book ... five? was it? yeah five. because i used it in the webweave i made & then made the last line the title of my blog. i fucking love you sumi

after loriel's death (aghhh!!!! the door was waiting for her!!!! the webworld was there and loved her and then she died) i pulled up a separate document & began listing all the characters and potential body parts that the killer could come after them for

(i DID suspect that the killer was jill by the way. i guessed it was her not long after sumi's death and was incredibly happy when proven to be right. lmao.)

speaking of sumi's death!!! i somewhat saw it coming but was still really sad when it happened. no more sumi :((((

(and then book three came along and i was super fucking happy. but i'm trying to keep this in chronological order for the most part lmao!!)

the ending of book 1 is so incredibly important to me. jack and jill returning to the moors!!! nancy going back to the halls of the dead!!! jack stabbing jill is everything ever.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS!!!! THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE SO SO SO PRETTYYYYYY. i really really really love the illustrations.

literally everything about datsab. jack and jill. i have a lot to say about those two aughauhgaughjfghfghjfhggjghhhhhhghjghjj. down among the sticks and bones!!!!!!!!! aghghhhhh!!!!

book 3 !! book 3 was also very very good. i love literally anything that has to do with timeline fuckery and spins on the idea of destiny in general.

i think this was the book that christopher really started to grow on me. i think before, i was just a casual christopher enjoyer but now i do really like him. same with kade !!!! i love kade. ahghhhhhhh

before i read book 4 i was ... somewhat neutral on lundy? i think? intrigued by her but not enough to have Thoughts because her appearance in book 1 was very brief. died when she was 8 & entered the market when she was 8. anyway. i love herrrrrrr. and moon!!!! moon and the archivist!!! ack!!!!

i don't think i could pick a favourite book, but recency bias is telling me to go with come tumbling down. jack killing jill is just sooooooooo important to me. as are all the events of that book. a jack and jill plot + christopher and cora and kade and sumi. what is not to love there.

jack "the better monster" wolcott!!!!!!! jack The Better Monster wolcott. she is so . so . so. AUGHAHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE HER SO FUCKING MUCH !!!!!!!!!

in conclusion !!! i need to read books 6-11 this instant . wayward children is going to have a lasting impact on me. i already titled my blog & renamed my little ask button thing after it. lmao.

[azalea-blooming]

OH MY GOSH YOU'RE READING WAYWARD???? or like. you already read it? WOAHHHHHHH THAT'S SO COOL YOU HAVE TO TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS !!!! (/np lmao) i just finished book 5 :D

so i ended up Not Sleeping and just. reading All of Them. literally a few hours ago i finished bingeing the series because i am insane and if i get hooked on a series i Do Not Stop until i've read it all. like, i finished everything (except 4.5) and now i'm reading other seanan mcguire series in an attempt to replicate the feeling.

my thoughts: mostly incoherent screaming of joy which are going beneath the cut because they're mostly me listing off characters and what i love about them with excessive amounts of exclamation points and capital letters

jack and jill The Sisters Ever. i <3 fucked up sisters. they could have loved each other but they didn't!!! arahvjafkadgshsdihskjbhfgsk... look i just think sacrificing your happy ever after and your home and everything you love for someone you might not even really like outside of the bond of simply being sisters, and then not telling her you had the ability to go back the entire time you were exiled out of care for her is really fucking. Something. stabbing and reviving her.... they were both willing to kill to get home except that all they really needed was to kill each other. save me fucked up sisters. save me.

i understand jill farrrrrrrrr too much for comfort and also there's an alternate universe where fucking off to the moors made jack&jill unnervingly codependent and unhealthy in a different but also fucked way. they could've done it. she just wanted to love her sister! they just wanted to love each other!

also SUMI LIVES!!!!!!!!!! my girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! jack is my favorite but sumi is The Best. she has a daughter with a candy corn farmer in confection and she comes back from the dead because she's made of Nonsense. sumi is the wisest one i think and also she's a sugar queen who is endlessly violent and also also i <3 the Baker she just wants to be left alone to make cookies. queen.

i think its really funny that kade and nancy is basically a canon relationship but they never once acknowledge it ever. like its established they mutually like each other and theyre pining and everything and then nancy fucks off to the halls of the dead for several books and the entire time kade is just thinking.... wow... i miss my ghost wife.... and also they've never once explicitly said out loud on page that they're into each other. funny to me.

oh! i also love nancy. my girl just wants to be a statue let her be a statue in peace damn it. the fic engine in my brain wants to write something from her parents POV, from her return to her disappearance, but also I Have So Many Other Projects. but also also nancy's parents pov of her leaving and coming back and leaving them again,,,,,,,,,

also funny to me is so much of the conflict of these books come from hair not being dyed. nancy 🤝 cora "i don't dye my hair It's Just Like This, fuck all of you".

the Drowned Girls!! nadya!! i can't spoil it but her book is So Good. i <3 nadya. i'm saying this for all the characters but it's true soooooo

i feel really bad for loriel though like that did get me her spider queen was waiting for her all along and then she FUCKING DIED and now she never gets to return to her spider kingdom... loriel you kinda fucking sucked but i do feel bad for you... her queen of dust was Waiting For Her!!!!!

oh also christopher! christopher is so fun. in love with a skeleton. routinely discusses things like Flesh and Muscle and Organs as gross and a turn-off. plays songs for skeletons on a flute made out of his own bones. plans to return to mariposa so he can get stabbed and skinned until he's just a skeleton. also his parents thinking the skeleton girl is a girl with anorexia who died... to be fair it makes more sense than Our Son Is In Love With A Literal Skeleton. but like. lmaooo

LUNDYYY!!! gah i love her katherine lundy has done no wrong in my eyes. that section of in an absent dream where she's increasingly switching between the goblin market and earth.... she ALSO has a sister she's fucked up about. diana lundy!!!!!!!! poor girl just wanted a sister and was also immediately deprived of having one because despite staying on earth lundy was basically doomed to never be able to live with her earthen family. I! Miss! Moon! i know the sadness is The Point but i'm just saying i think she should have been able to stay in the market with her best friend until the end of time. no spoilers but she just gets Better in #11. absolutely unparalleled. also she got murdered i kinda forgot but like.... lundy can do it all.

In Conclusion: Very Good Books that are Awesome and going to give me Brain Worms for the rest of my life.

[azalea-blooming]

okay so all the seanan mcguire books are like this. okay. its not just wayward children its all of them. okay.

[vampire-loving-vampire]

hey white people . if u dont know how to pronounce an ethnic persons name *google it* or if its someone ur talking directly to *ask them*. dont fucking do that "erm i dont know how to pronounce but __" or "im gonna butcher this haha" or "im not even gonna bother trying" . ur not funny. do u know what poc think when they hear u saying that ? u sound like a loser asshole and we dont want to spend time with u . im so fucking tired of watching youtube videos about media from my country and hearing those phrases. im tired of people saying that to my face . i respect someone who clearly looked it up and is tryong but says my name wrong over someone who just goes with whatever bad first guess they had without trying. u have too many resources at ur disposal to keep doing this. for the love of god just Fucking Try. if ur confused Just Try.

[faithschaffer]

[faithschaffer]

A witch strolls through her garden~