★★★★☆ Through Gates of Garnet and Gold, by Seanan McGuire
A reunion of old friends and enemies
Through Gates of Garnet and Gold
Seanan McGuire
A reunion of old friends and enemies
The typical novel in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series is the story of one particular child, about the world that child's portal led them to, about the adventures they had there, and about how, in most cases, they were ejected. I say, "typical" because this structure is not universal. Also, the child in question may not be new to us. Wayward Children is unusual in that its stories often come to us pre-spoiled. That is, we often know, even before we get a novel devoted to a child, how the story of a particular child will turn out from their appearance in earlier novels.
Through Gates of Garnet and Gold is not one of those. In fact, it's not even the story of a particular child. We do meet a new child, Talia. She passed through a world called Yuemingyuan, where everything is about moths. She fell out or got kicked out -- I don't quite remember, even though I just finished the book yesterday. And this is the problem with Talia: Garnet and Gold is not her story, and she barely matters at all to the story that is told, so it's hard to care much about her.
I actually quite enjoyed the story that was told. The story begins with an old friend, Nancy, who is where she wants to be, in the Halls of the Dead. Bad things happen there and Nancy returns to Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. Nancy recruits a bunch of children to join her quest to figure out and fix the problem in the Halls of the Dead. Eleanor's school rules forbid quests, but readers know by now that is a rule that is honored more often in the breach than the observance.
We know most of the children of the quest from previous Wayward Children books. (Talia is the only exception.) We also meet some other characters from earlier books in the course of the quest. I won't spoil who they are, except to say that they are some of the most entertaining characters from the earlier books.
So that was all fun -- a mostly straightforward portal adventure novel with fun plot twists and enjoyable reunions with old friends and enemies.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for an Advance Reader Copy of Through Gates of Garnet and Gold. Release date 6-Jan-2026.