Illustrations – Rovina Cai
Nancy, who had rediscovered her Door and whose certainty was secure for years, has returned to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. She needs help from her fellow Waywards and you know what that means … It’s quest time!
It’s not January if we don’t go on a quest together. This time, we’re revisiting the Halls of the Dead!
“I guess when your whole world is dead people, you start importing live ones to supplement the décor.”
Although this series has inevitably lost some of the unpredictability present in the beginning, when we couldn’t really appreciate the diversity of realities that waited for us behind Doors, I remain sure about this series.
I will never tire of following Waywards through Doors and surreptitiously seeking my own. I will keep marvelling at the kinship of seemingly disparate characters who belong in worlds that operate in ways other characters could not abide but who connect because they understand what it’s like to be forced to live in a world that doesn’t make sense of or appreciate them.
I loved that this instalment brought so many of my favourites along for the ride and that I got a better understanding of Nancy’s world.
There are some Wayward Children books where you can jump in without having already been through other Doors. This isn’t one of them. You need to know your Nonsense from your Logic and your Wicked from your Virtue to truly appreciate this return to Nancy’s world. If you haven’t already fallen in love with Sumi, Christopher and Kade, please do that first.
“This is where I was meant to be from the beginning. I just started out in the wrong place.”
Once Upon a Blurb
After Nancy was cast out of the Halls of the Dead and forced to enroll at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, she never believed she’d find her door again, and when she did, she didn’t look back. She disappeared from the school to resume her place in the Halls, never intending to return.
Years have passed. A darkness has descended on the Halls, and the living statues who populate them are dying at the hands of the already dead. The Lord and Lady who rule the land are helpless to stop the slaughter, forcing Nancy to leave the Halls again, this time on purpose, as she attempts to seek much-needed help from her former schoolmates.
But who would volunteer to quest in a world where the dead roam freely?
And why are the dead so intent on adding to their number?
Schizanthus Nerd 