Across the Green Grass Fields

- Seanan McGuire

GOODREADS BOOK BLURB:

“Welcome to the Hooflands. We’re happy to have you, even if you being here means something’s coming.”

Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late.

When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to “Be Sure” before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines―a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes.

But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem…

SERIES / GENRES:

FIRST WORDS:

At seven, Regan Lewis was perfectly normal according to every measurement she knew, which meant she was normal in every way that counted.

MY REVIEW:

solid, good read:
4/5
As wonderful as everything is that McGuire writes, Across the Green Grass Fields has a sad undertone that’s difficult to shake. I’m used to the macabre, the slightly horrific, the strange and wonderful coming from her; this is the first which was more melancholic than anything else.

Regan is lovely and interesting and so deathly afraid of being ‘different’ that she makes questionable, sometimes cruel, choices to ensure she avoids being bothered. However, when she discovers a scary truth about herself, she forgets everything her short life has taught her. This miscalculation forces her into a world seemingly made for her, away from everything she knows.

We should take a moment here, to talk about the wood. It was a small, tamed thing by the standards humans set for forests, long since boxed in on all sides by residential construction, homes and shopping malls and highways. But it remembered what it was to have been wild. It contained the seeds of its own restoration, birds and beasts and stinging insects, fish and frogs and small, burrowing things. If the boundaries were ever removed, the wood would be ready to spring back into its old wildness, for it had never been domesticated, merely winnowed down and contained.

Because it was tame, Regan could walk safely, without fear of meeting anything larger than a raccoon or a deer. Because it had been wild, she still caught her breath when she heard something passing in the brush, when a branch snapped for no apparent reason. Such is the dichotomy of forests. Even the smallest remembers what it was to cover nations, and the shadows they contain will whisper that knowledge to anyone who listens.

As much as I loved this world made for Regan, there seems to be a lot less going on than in any of the previous instalments in this series. This outdoor life surrounded by everything she loves is beautiful and terrifying but survivable, and she becomes a better version of herself over time. Learning true friendship and the value of herself as a person, regardless of any truths she has learned, it seems unlikely she would ever want to leave.

McGuire never disappoints, and while I may have loved other books in the Wayward Children series more, Across the Green Grass Fields is most definitely worth a read.

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