174 pages
Published 2020
Read from September 6 to September 12
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Another standalone entry in the Wayward Girls series, this one introduces us to Regan, a young girl who is desperate to conform and to correctly perform femininity, and the Doorway to the Hooflands, an equine realm of centaurs, kelpies, and unicorns.
I had wondered why this entry’s Goodreads rating was noticeably lower than the other books in the series. Spoilers: The answer arrives when Regan learns from her parents that she’s intersex, with XY chromosomes and androgen insensitivity. Representing any of humanity’s vast biological diversity in your book will inevitably result in review bombing. Some people have nothing better to do.
I doubt the folks wetting their pants about epigenetic representation even got far enough in the book to pick up on its themes of racism, conformity, and how putting ourselves into neat little boxes merely perpetuates a cycle of generational trauma. Spoilers again: At one point a group of shopkeepers kidnap Regan from her loving, accepting adopted family. One of the kidnappers tells Regan, “Surely a little slice of your freedom is a fair price to pay for knowing our families will never go hungry.” I’m sure the Goodreads crowd would be furious about that, if they got that far (and understood the rather blunt metaphor).
Do I think Fields is as good as the high point of the series, In an Absent Dream? Of course not; that’s the high point for a reason. But Fields is every bit as insightful and meaningful as the rest of the Wayward Girls, and rating it noticeably lower than the others says a lot about people who probably don’t even get the books in the first place.
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