Into the Windwracked Wilds
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
Adventurous readers of Kelly Barnhill and Cat Valente's Fairyland books will be sure to soar among the dark marvels that can be found in Into the Windwracked Wilds, by Seanan McGuire's open pseudonym, A. Deborah Baker. When the improbable road leaves Avery and Zib in the land of Air and at the mercy of the Queen of Swords, escape without becoming monsters may be impossible. But with the aid of the Queen's son, the unpredictable Jack Daw, they may emerge with enough of their humanity to someday make it home. Their journey is not yet over; the dangers are no less great. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Featured Series
4 primary booksThe Up-and-Under is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by A. Deborah Baker.
Reviews with the most likes.
Not an end to the adventure, but a much better finishing point for this instalment of the series.
I continue to marvel at McGuire's unending creativity in the worlds she creates and further develops. This is both in designing the manner of the world's functioning and the spare yet exquisitely fitting descriptions of the way things/characters look, even as the fantasy is often tinged with horror.
The other continuous stand out in her writing, clearer the younger the audience she is writing for, is moments where she pauses to explain to the reader a truth they have likely experienced, often one that was not easy to learn, but in such graceful and compassionate yet uncompromising terms that you feel better having heard it, like a friend has commiserated or a parent has admonished with kindness.
I will say it remains a strange experience for the cruel whims of a fairy tale to make every day linear life feel a lot better and safer. I suppose it's all the lessons of adulthood wrapped up into one: be careful what you wish for, all things come at a cost, etc. Real life shares the occurence of the arbitrary and unfair with this fantasy world.
The trouble is reading the various absurdities flavouring the story, then reading the characters rehash how that is unfair, this doesn't make sense, over and over, can occasionally makes the nonsense tiresome.
Still, I will definitely be continuing in the series.
