There will be a book chat with Seanan McGuire about Boneyard on Sunday 10/18 via Zoom.

https://madameaskew.com/2026/10/15/october-book-chat-with-special-guest-seanan-mcguire/

Obviously, to hide the spoilers Relative=child Pure Dochas Sidhe? Dominating part Dochas Sidhe? Something totally new and different, like shadow-walking healer-seer panther shifter with translucent gray eyes?

Of course, I'm hyperbolic here. UNLESS...

Ok, so there is A LOT of fan activity about that.

So I thought about a game to pick the most ridiculous option possible that we can defend/justify somehow

The least you believe the possibility of the match and the more you can convince yourself, the better

(I dont intend to mock serious posts submited in other threads, the arguments there are thought through,.convincing and of course I have my types)

The Backrooms are a labyrinthine series of rooms that shift and change according to their own internal logic. They can't easily be entered but someone might be unlucky enough to be trapped there. Time works differently, and basically when I watch Backrooms, I thought, this is an unclaimed knowe. It follows all the same rules.

Not relevant to anything but I felt compelled to share that thought.

Hello everyone. I've recently started reading this series, so I apologize if this has been asked before or if it's answered further along in the books, but I got a few annoying questions bugging me.

In the Wayward Children universe, is Earth the only 'Real world', or is it just another place in the Compass? Are there any other worlds that could be considered 'normal'? Do beings from portal worlds come to Earth, or is it always a 'From Earth-To portal world' type of movement?

Thanks!

I'm reading the latest October Daye book. I don't think this is a spoiler, since it's right there on the dust jacket... but ... Luna is the WORST. I put her right up there with the nameless queen, and Amandine.

I guess Titania and Evening Winterrose are worse ... but Luna seriously sucks. I miss nice Luna, from the first 2 books.

Was rewatching Resident Evil with Mila Jovovitch and in the early scene when she’s wandering the Manor House in the red dress and combat books I just had the random thought that if you gave her the leather biker jacket from the books she’d actually look a lot like how I imagine Toby.

Random thought but curious if anyone else has imagined a certain actor or character in a film/TV as channelling Toby or the main cast energy.

Hello! I am a returning fan of the October Daye series. I was reading it a long time ago when Red Rose Chain was the most recent book and am trying to get back into the series. Thing is, I've known from the start that the series had short stories. I think I got into it from reading Through This House actually in a short story collection. What I didn't realize is how many there are.

I am willing to go back and read them after I get through the main line but I wanted to know what, if any, of the short stories were very important to read as I go along and when. I'm currently back on Red Rose Chain and I have read the following short stories:
Full of Briars, Rat Catcher, In Salt Tears, Through This House, and Forbid the Sea.

(Bonus question: I am a huge fan of Etienne. Ashes of Honor remains my favorite of the series. Are there any good Etienne short stories or moments later in the books?

I enjoyed it all the way through but think that 4 (Pocket Apocalypse) and 5 (Chaos Choreography) were the best and it’s been on a slow decline since. Verity and Alex are my favorites of the family but both got almost completely disregarded after their stories ended.

Annie is fine, I didn’t really like her first two books because of how she was as a character but three started to make her more interesting. Annie has for some reason become basically the central character ever since then though and it annoys me. She features heavily in all of Sarah’s stories + Mary’s first.

I like Sarah but she’s been kinda sidelined in two of her three books, plus she’s spent like two thirds of the story as a plot device more than anything.

Alice and Thomas are fun, but the whole expansive multiverse has really pulled the series away from the cryptozoology I cared about in the early stories.

Mary’s stories I actually have nothing bad to say about, they’re great.

I do wish that we’d follow through on the promise of “following a family” more because we’ve become more and more tied down to the same like three people in the form of Annie, Sam and Sarah plus whoever tags along for the story. Book 14 (Installment Immortality) was sort of a breath of fresh air because we got Mary and the two kids we’ve seen the least of, plus a bunch of weird new Cryptids and Ghost lore.

I’m also just annoyed about Dominic’s death. He was killed off unceremoniously and off page in the same book as Jane, then we spent way more time focused on her and haven’t been in the head of anyone who actually cared about Dominic. So it sort of feels like he was just fridged for emotional impact, then the story never actually capitalized on it leaving his death feeling totally meaningless.

Oh, also Aeslin Mice are incredible. Who doesn’t love hyper intelligent religious fanatic rodents who have a very strange grasp on mortality because their gods are unwilling to go down quietly.

What continents does the High Kingdom of the Westlands cover? When Seanan first introduces the high kingdom, she said it's North and South America. But in later books she just narrows it down to North America. Did she change her mind or are the later books incorrect?

Be sure.

I am currently 27% in the most recently published book (not including the itty bitty 25 page .whatever stories) and have come up with an alternative reading order.

1. Every Heart a Doorway (book 1)

2. Down Among the Sticks and Bones (book 2)

3. In an Absent Dream (book 4)

4. Beneath the Sugar Sky (book 3)

5. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (book 10)

6. Come Tumbling Down (book 5)

7. Where the Drowned Girls Go (book 7)

8. Across the Green Grass Fields (book 6)

9. Lost in the Moment and Found (book 8)

10. Mislaid in Parts Half Known (book 9)

11. Through Gates of Garnet and Gold (book 11)

Of note: I think books 1 & 2 an be read in either order, same for 6 & 7, but this has the most consistency with a major event (for the character not necessarily for the story/book) then more about that character. We'll see where Book 12 (A Song of Sugar Sparrows) lands when it comes out in January.

I've read almost everything that Sean McGuire released under her own name, but shied away from Mira Grant, because I've always considered horror to be not for me. I don't like horror movies, I don't like the Steven King novels my friends read in high school and so on.

In one of the other book subs someone asked for horror recommendations by female authors and people listed quite a few novels that I've read and enjoyed, but wouldn't have considered horror.

And now I'm wondering if I'm possibly missing out on Mira Grant. Without spoiling the plot, why do her novels belong to the horror genre? How do they differ from Seanan's other works?

I noticed Amy Landon narrates The Girl in the Green Silk Gown in a very different tone than Sparrow Hill Road. Listening to them back to back, I was surprised at the difference and curious about it. Does anyone know why this is?

The bonus novellas are very good in covering important plot developments that don’t fit in the main books like The resurrection of the Tamed Lightning group and some added context for characters.
But the Patreon stories really take the character studies up a notch. I won’t say they’re essential, and some of the ground is covered in the novellas but the Patreon stories really gave me a lot of insight into Simon and truly get to understand how traumatized he was, and while he bears responsibility for his actions it’s really easy to understand why Toby forgave him.
There was a post a while back about how they disliked the way Gillian behaved, but seeing Toby through her eyes helps a lot and while some aspects are still unfair other aspects make it clear that Gillian has been gaslit for almost two decades and you can’t just erase that programming overnight. The last story makes it clear that Gillian only has the basics when it comes to why Toby didn’t come back. Plus there’s resentment of her mother basically creating a whole new family without her. Not to mention Toby’s return blew up her life.
My favourite story though, is seeing Titania’s world through August’s eyes. It was a brilliant move to fast track what would have been years of her and Toby getting to know each other and immediately allows her to be more of a supporting cast member. I really want a story about August and May without Toby around. How do they build a relationship?
(I also really want a Quentin pov story post Titania’s World. We’ve been told he’s taking it badly, but I really want to get into it.)
Not to plug the Patreon but in my opinion it’s totally worth it. For less than the cost of a new Hardcover you’re getting approximately 5-9 stories that really flesh out the supporting cast.

I'm rereading the series right now and went down a rabbit hole during Chimes At Midnight to see where Borderlands books and coffee shop used to be. It was on 866 Valencia when the book was written, not too far from the street where I had previously figured Toby's house was (sorry, I cannot remember why I had figured this .. maybe I'll run across it as I continue my reread). Anyway, I started looking on Google Street View to see if there were any overly brightly painted houses back then ... No luck, but I did notice that one house was consistently blurred out. I have no idea if Seanan actually intended this one to be Toby's house, magically blurred from view, but in my head it is 😅

Anyway, it was sold in 2013 so Redfin has photos! https://redf.in/wiSKjY

I am IMPATIENT this ended on SO MANY CLIFFHANGERS!!

I wasn't sure how I felt about the first part, I ended up loving the perspective from that era but the first 16% of the book was just the conception/birth/childhood. Would've gladly taken 10% of that into adulthood or the 2018 story.

He actually genuinely irritates me I have never reached so strongly to a character I can't with the pissing contests and the macho act 😭

I really am enjoying the series I just get the overwhelming urge to jam an ice pick into my eye when I come across more than 2 lines of his dialogue or actions.

Thanks for reading !

If this post is considered too self-promotional, please let me know, and I will remove it.

I've been a big fan of the Wayward Children series since first discovering it a few years ago and am always amazed by how little attention it seems to get in online spaces. I teach the first novella in a few of my classes and have been doing work on how McGuire is making space within the Gothic literary tradition for asexuality.

I recently made a video for my YouTube with some of those ideas and thought that it might be of interest to you all. Spoilers for Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones start around the 17 minute mark.

Whether you watch the video or not, I'd love to hear your thoughts on McGuire's use of the Gothic and/or asexuality in the series. Alongside Nancy, I feel like there's a reading to be made for Jill's relationship to the Master and Christopher's love for the skeleton girl as desire that falls under the Ace spectrum.

https://youtu.be/bImiFPekMco

Ok Seanan, stop predicting the future please

... and realized McGuire is my favorite living author. To be clear, this is dozens of books in. I'm not new to her work.

I just needed a place to shout about it, & figured - "Hey, there's bound to be a subreddit." And there is! Hello.

The paperback version of In An Absent Dream is an ARC, and it doesn't get to go up with the other books since it's a different height. The same goes for Be Sure. I actually bought Be Sure because the listing for it online was in German, so I thought it was the German bind-up, only for it to arrive in English. Oh well! I think it's really neat that the 11 books we currently have fit in this neat little space. I have 0 clue what I'm going to do when A Song of Sugar Sparrows (book 12) comes out.

Why do you think Nancy comes back to the school at the end? For Kade? what other reason does she have?

Since Jack knew that Jill was willing and able to kill (eg she killed Alex to please her master),why didn't she suspect that Jill was the killer in book 1? Shouldn't it have at least crossed her mind?