This novella is book 7 in the Wayward Children series. This book focuses on recurring character Cora (as well as Sumi and Regan, with some mentions of Eleanor and Kade). I wanted to like this book more, especially with how absolutely creepy the competing Whitethorn school is and how much it feels to me like a conversion therapy metaphor.

But, there's just a lot of things that don't work for me. There's so much retelling of who all of these characters are (and even when I agree with the politics it's a lot of telling instead of showing). It's way too much retread ground if you've read them all but also likely not enough for somebody who hasn't. Cora is clearly going through some trauma, but I don't feel like there's any growth for her or anybody else; by the end of the story, there's not any shift in what's causing her trauma either even though the events of the book are largely caused by her trying to alleviate her feelings. The final reveals also don't really play into the climax of the story; the final moments could have easily happened without knowing any of those things and so that knowledge felt like setting up some plot for three books in the future rather than creating a satisfying ending for this one.

I love the concept of this series dealing with the fallout of portal fantasies so much, but the execution overall has been mixed for me. I think my favorite is still In An Absent Dream (book 4), largely because it's the most solid standalone story.