01-10-2026, 02:09 PM
#5: Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire. This is book #13 in the “Wayward Children” series. There are an endless number of worlds, and the premise of these books is that when you don’t fit in yours, there’s a chance you might encounter a doorway to another. However, you’re warned to “be sure” before stepping through, and that if you go through and you’re not sure, there’s a chance you may be accepted only temporarily and then ejected back to where you were. In this episode, we re-meet a girl who was already quite sure and very happy to be in her new world but threatened in it, and needing the help of old friends waiting for their doors to re-open to help her make her new world safe. I liked that in this particular world, the “god” figures were vulnerable, flawed, and surprised at being openly flouted and disrespected, but nonetheless caring toward those they saw as the people who belonged to their realm.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.