Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire!
Genres: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Published on: 9th January 2024
Goodreads
Dinosaurs and portals, and a girl who can find both in the latest book in the Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning series.
Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children.
When her fellow students realize that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, she's forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise.
Along the way, temptations are dangled, decisions are reinforced, and a departure to a world populated by dinosaurs brings untold dangers and one or two other surprises!
A story that reminds us that finding what you want doesn't always mean finding what you need.
Just in case time’s gotten away from you, or you managed to miss hearing about it amidst, you know, Life, the Universe, and Everything – I’m here to remind you that we’re getting a new Wayward Children book next week!
It sounds like Mislaid follows on pretty directly from the events in the previous instalment, Lost In the Moment and Found – which isn’t always the case in this series; the publication order and internal chronological order are pretty different! But I’m not at all displeased to being seeing more of Antsy; I thought Lost was one of the best books in the series so far, I really like Antsy as a character, and like her, I’m anxious to make sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise!
RE the cover, McGuire did mention on social media that dinosaurs aren’t actually a big part of the story, so try to manage your expectations on that front – it sounds more like the characters will glimpse dinosaurs on the way to some other world, rather than their being featured. (So perhaps we’ll see Stephanie, however briefly? Since she was the one with the dinosaur Door, which took her back in Drowned Girls.)
But that is very okay with me – yes, I won’t deny it, dinos are cool, but I’m MUCH more interested in how Antsy’s ability to (maybe) find Doors is going to affect…well, everything. Could she potentially get everyone in the school back to the worlds they call home? Even if she can’t, if people think she can, things are going to get vicious – there are a lot of kids desperate to find their Doors again, who would definitely be willing to cross a lot of lines to force Antsy to help them.
What if she can send them home, but the Doors spit them back out again because it wasn’t time for them to return? What if those worlds don’t want them back? I’m willing to bet the blame for that would fall on Antsy, again putting her in a pretty dangerous position.
And that’s all supposing she has any control over which Doors she finds – the fact that it sounds (from what McGuire’s said elsewhere, less from the blurb) like the cast will be passing through a few different worlds could mean that she’s dropping off friends where they want to go…or it could mean that she finds Doors at random, with no idea or control over where they lead; hence the need to go through many to try and reach her destination.
CAN YOU TELL I’VE BEEN SPENDING A LOT OF TIME THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK?
Who do you think will be joining her on her adventure/quest? Kade, Christopher, Sumi and Cora are some of my favourite characters and they usually feature, so I’m hoping to see them all again, but I’d love it if we got to spend more time with Regan and Marian too! And I feel like the odds are good for that, with the way Drowned Girls ended. (If you don’t remember who Marian is, View Spoiler »)
Whoever it is, we’ll find out next week!!!
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