Across the Green Grass Fields

I'll be honest: I'm downright angry about this book. My anger started around page 38 and never abated. You see, Seanan McGuire values representation. She does not apparently value correctly representing people. When the protagonist complained that she had not developed breasts and was short, I assumed we were getting some Turner Syndrome representation -- you know, a syndrome, that results in delayed puberty and short stature. When instead, McGuire declared her protagonist to have CAIS (complete androgen insensitivity) I was confused. It had been a while since I'd taken my general genetics boards but it took me only 30 seconds on google to confirm: girls with CAIS have normal breast development and normal height velocity with a normal age of maximum height velocity (growth spurt). I kept reading -- maybe the protagonist had a secret gonadectomy to explain those features? Maybe the mother was confused? But no explanation was forthcoming and it dawned on me: I don't think McGuire actually ever spoke to anyone with CAIS. And the more I thought about that, the more it upset me: McGuire refers to Regan multiple times as being "intersex," a term that many women in the CAIS community don't use to refer to themselves. I had originally felt okay with Regan reclaiming the term, but the more I thought about McGuire using it with apparently no community input the less good I felt about it. And I thought about how McGuire portrays herself as a champion of diversity and the harm caused by tokenism rather than true representation. This is not doing it right. Do better. Talk to people with disorders of sexual development and ask how they'd like to be portrayed. At the very least, do a five minute google search. (Failing all of that, I once again offer my services as a professional geneticist who will fact-check speculative fiction for the low cost of a free book.)

(I have other feelings about the book, but this really is the most important one.)

ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS is the balm to my horse-kid soul, a caring story of wildness, hoofbeats, and the importance we place on something as fickle and illusory as destiny.

I love how the possible quest is secondary to the important task of helping the MC feel safe and watching her grow up. She's a human in the Hooflands and that means Important Things Must Someday Happen, but they don't have to happen today. In a series that has had many more straight-forward quests and presumably will have many more, this is a mostly calm break, a landing place after a lot of very intense events in the previous entry, COME TUMBLING DOWN. As one of the self-contained entries it doesn't try to comment on the universe which makes this story possible, but lets it exist unto itself while still being consistent with the broader narrative with which returning readers will be familiar. 

Now for my regular sequel check. This is part of the Wayward Children Series, but, just like its fellow even-numbered books, it can be read as a stand-alone. This one in particular has a MC who is either completely new or who I just don't remember from the previous books; I'm pretty sure she's a new character and this is her introduction. As a self-contained book with a completely new MC, it doesn't wrap up anything left hanging from previous books, its entire storyline begins in this book and wasn't present in the previous book. It definitely leaves things to be addressed, like, what will the MC do in any future installments in the series? This series has a strained relationship with linearity and a very specific premise tying everything together, so it doesn't actually spoil anything to say I hope I see her again. The MC is distinct from previous characters, but the omniscient narrator is a soothing, knowing voice I recognize from other books by this author, it's in keeping with the narrator's style in the previous installments in this particular series. That narrator remembers being a kid and conveys beautiful how the particular kids in the story think about the adults around them, all without ever diminishing their experiences as children. This would absolutely make sense if someone started with this book and didn't know about the series. They might wonder what's going on with the doors, but the MC doesn't know either and so someone could happily read this and then, energized and intrigued and even more in love with horse-creatures, go back for the previous entries (rest assured that they have just as much heart but sadly fewer horses). 

I was pulled in by the centaurs and the unicorns, but what absolutely made my day were the twin delights of the kelpie (my favorite murderous water horse in any fae-adjacent story) and the peryton (new to me and oh so welcome). I didn't know I needed a scavenging sky-deer in my life but now I don't know what ever I did without it. The social dynamics of centaurs was a treat I won't soon forget. Seanan is the author I read when I want to feel better without pretending not to be sad, and this was a great entry in a fantastic series.