Where The Drowned Girls Go

 Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire, 150 pages. 

It's January, which means it's time for another Wayward Children book! Because Seanan McGuire is an angel who publishes like clockwork. (This is the seventh book in the series, and there have been many posts on this blog about others, but here's Kara's post about the first).

Ever since she came back from The Moors the Drowned Gods have been haunting Cora's dreams, leaving her unable to sleep or find peace in the water where she has always felt at home. In her desperation Cora asks Eleanor West to transfer her to the other school they are told about, the school for people who want to forget everything that happened to them.

The Whitethorn Institute isn't as kind as Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. Here everything is about order and control. Children are taught that the doors are poisonous delusions and that they must learn to deny the things they know to be true. Soon Cora is forced to question how a school full of heroes allows this place full of monsters to continue.

This book is stunning, which is hardly surprising given that this may well be my favorite series ever. That being said, this book is a little harder to read than many of the others in this series, because it's pretty heartbreaking throughout. These children are put in an environment designed to destroy them, and next to the kindness and camaraderie that suffuses so much of this series it's especially painful to read. But this book is also powerful and defiant. It is about Cora (and many besides her) refusing to be destroyed or made small. I loved if, and if you haven't read these book you should start immediately.