Book Review: Across the Green Grass Fields

Across the Green Grass Fields
by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It pains me to give an instalment of this series, and a Seanan McGuire book, such a low rating. Unfortunately I cannot (or will not) lie to myself. Across the Green Grass Grows is by far the weakest of the novellas to date. It feels like McGuire was asked to write another entry point into the series (I get that for marketing purposes) and then not given enough time, or page count, or something to actually flesh the story out. Especially given the ending is abrupt, inconclusive both in the Hooflands and on Earth; and feels like it has achieved nothing.

The best part is that our leading girl was born with XY chromosome and her parents don’t tell her until puberty (thus the catalyst in finding her door). However that is about where that point ends as she has no one to truly compare herself to inside the Hooflands (her door world). One could argue that is good or bad; but either way it’s just (again) very inconclusive in terms of how our leading girl feels about herself, her gender assignment, and/or sexuality. We get a brief paragraph about how she is happy and content with herself at one point but it’s so downplayed it felt like an afterthought adding in because someone realized they should refer back to it.

Overall I am left feeling very meh about this one. I loved the beginning, and the concept of unicorns as dumb and just like cows was sooo cute, but the overall delivery, plot, and character development were very weak. Even the socio-political commentary on the hierarchy of the Hooflands feels diminished compared to what I know McGuire is capable of. I really hope this is a rare, one-off instance and that TOR isn’t messing too much in McGuire’s creative process by giving too much direction or short timelines for publication. I’ve seen it kill other series and writers which is always sad; but I love McGuire (writing in all her aliases) and this series (in particular) so much that I’d be devastated to learn that anyone was mucking around in it besides McGuire herself.

If you are looking for a jumping in point to Wayward Children series you could start here; but I think you’d br much better served to start at book one. Depending on if this world of girl comes back in future books will determine if this is even an instalment that could be skipped over if desired. I won’t be sad if that turns out to be the case. It would be good to just move on and branch out away from Across the Green Grass Grows.

Follow me on Goodreads