Eleanor West’s “No Quests” rule is about to be broken. Again.

When Jack left Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister–whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice–back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn’t always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Note: While the Wayward Children books do take place in a non-linear order, its at the recommendation of the author that you read them in publication order to feel the full force of the world.

Review –

Sometimes, in an effort to do the conventionally right thing, we end up doing the universally wrong thing and try to tell ourselves pretty lies to feel better.

Once upon a time a practical monster killed her pretty monster sister to save everyone.

At the end of EVERY HEART A DOORWAY Jack stabbed her sister Jill, before fleeing through the Door to the place she gratefully called home. Unlike every other student at the school, Jack had not been exiled from her Door because whatever powers govern these things thought she was not CERTAIN enough (Jack is never not certain of her actions). Jack was exiled in a bid of familial love for her monstrous, murderous twin to keep her safe.

Three times Jack protected and saved her sister, and three times that LOVE proved fatal for others.

Along for this Quest that is not a Quest (just as before with Rini in BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY) are Christopher, Cora, Sumi and Kade.

However our intrepid Wayward Children have all, in some way or another, found themselves at crossroads they didn’t wish to be at. Christopher who misses Mariposa more and more with every breath he takes, finds Jack’s return disquieting for the new array of traits she kept buried before. Kade is afraid of the future, as his Aunt fades a little more each day and the responsibilities of helping other children with misplaced Doors falls on his uncertain shoulders. Cora finds everyone’s easy acceptance of the horrors Jack brings to them unfathomable and longs for the Trenches she understands.

And Sumi is…Sumi. Practical in her own way and just as much a Monster as Jack, just in a cotton candy package wrapping.

We meet Alexis once more and she’s as perfectly matched for Jack as she was before her second death in DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES. She’s exactly what Jack needs, and shows her own fierceness when Kade asks one too many pointed questions he had no business asking.

Gideon is a new child who found his Door before Jack found her way to the Moors and who finds himself the object of Sumi’s interest.

This is filled with romance and adventure and heart break and happy ends. Everyone finds themselves changed when they go to the Moors and only the Monsters are really able to survive.

Want to Know More?

Published by: Tor.com Publishing
Release: January 7, 2020
Series: The Wayward Children Book 5
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