Hey Bookworm friends! I don’t often write reviews for lone books deep into series and yet my first two reviews of the year are for sequels! I’ll take it as a positive sign for my ‘reading series’ goal and in the meantime here’s my review for Adrift In Currents Clean and Clear.
⚠ Due to the fact it’s book 10 in the series, I’ll give a spoiler warning for my review. It’s a bit hard to discuss the book without spoiling things a bit so read on at your own risk ⚠
Thanks to Netgalley and Tordotcom for the ARC; All opinions are my own.
About Adrift In Currents Clean and Clear
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: Portal Fantasy
Series: Wayward Children, #10
Publisher: Tordotcom
Format Read: E-Book, ARC
Pub Date: Jan 7, 2025
Cover Artist: Robert Hunt
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Abandonment
Moderate: Medical Trauma, Emotional Abuse, Bullying
Minor (Mention): Animal Death, Pregnancy
Diversity
Representation for limb difference.
Pace: Medium Pace, Character-Lead Plot
Tone: Adventurous, Emotional
Reading Challenge Prompts Fits
“Portal” prompt for SFF101 Challenge
Review
The 10th Installment of the Wayward Children, starring all the turtle friends you could ever want!
Last year I devoured the entirety of this series, short stories included, so when I saw it on Netgalley, I knew I had to request it. It was a bit strange to not be reading this on audio like I did for the rest of the novellas but McGuire’s prose is so delightful that it was a treat to read it physically! I read it slowly to soak up every line.
Adrift In Currents Clean and Clear focuses on the life of Nadya who we first meet in Beneath the Sugar Sky. This is the story of how she is born with one arm, grows up in an orphanage in Russia, and eventually gets adopted by an American family who fits her with a prosthetic arm despite her wishes. But mostly it’s the story of all the ways she belongs in Belyyreka (the Land Beyond the Lake) who one day calls her home.
The first part is hardest to read because it takes place in the world of the main character’s birth. Which means that it’s the place of the source of their trauma, neglect, and mistreatment. The author excels at making the reader feel incandescent rage at the parents and systems that fail these children and this case was no different. We follow Nadya as she’s forcibly removed from her culture and expected to conform to her adoptive parents’ ableist ideas of a picture-perfect daughter. I don’t think many readers of this series will disagree that one of its strengths is diversity of all kinds. The commentary on ableism was easily my favourite aspect of this short novella.
No single person could do absolutely everything without aid, and so her own limitations weren’t limitations at all, merely different standards.
The various portal worlds we get to visit in the pair-numbered books are always so creative! Belyyreka is a world of rivers under a lake, of different types of water (some water is heavier than other water and they each have their own physics). It was so much fun to watch Nadya learn the rules of this new world and make friends both with people and turtles! After reading this book I’d be shocked if you don’t want a turtle companion for yourself, I mean how adorable!!
I do have a small issue with a time-jump that felt a bit too stark, I would have preferred to spend more time in Belyyreka. The world was fascinating and there was space in there for more adventure, in fact, the story stopped in an inopportune place, narratively speaking. Since we had already met Nadya at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the ending was not exactly a surprise. Yet, McGuire still finds a way to create tension and deliver an emotional blow all at once. This was a very strong entry in the series, the only reason It falls under 5 stars is that darn time jump! When something’s good I can’t be blamed for wanting more of it 😜!
Let’s chat in the comments!
Have you read this one? Or, if you had a turtle companion, what would be their name?
I really enjoyed this too. Belyyreka is one of my favorite worlds in the series, and I really connected with Nadya. I did think that ending was way too abrupt, but I get why she did it.
Yeah I get why the ending was abrupt too and it’s clever but my heart!! lol And Belyyreka is so interesting, the different waters were so fun to explore!
I found it interesting to see a portal world in this series where the traveler wasn’t kicked out to return home because of being unsure, but because something happened on the other side (the Earth side) of the Door. There’s usually something, no matter how small, on the portal world side. This was a really interesting tweak to that.
Yes that’s such a good point, I didn’t even know it was possible for that to happen. Which begs the question of how long was she just floating face down in there? Like, now I’m unclear on the rules of traveling through the doors because how can she be in two places at once?