Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her.

Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she’d been missing from birth.

It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong.

It wasn’t her.

Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyrreka, the Land Beneath the Lake–and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyyreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people.

But even in Belyyreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure.

In the latest book in the Wayward Children series book 10, Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear, Seanan McGuire has created a narrative that is both poignant and immersive. But I’ve yet to read one in the series that doesn’t break my heart just a bit, mostly for the children who find homes and then are set adrift in a world that fails to understand them. What Seanan does so beautifully is capture how misunderstood children are and how little adults listen to the children in their care. This book tells a new story with these same themes, a story that demonstrates how powerful a child can truly be if we only allow them to be so.

In the story Nadya’s beginning is beautiful as she finds ways to be strong, to survive easily and even after she is adopted, she is majestic in her abilities and her intelligence. I love Nadya’s resistance to being changed by her adopted parents, her resilience and her strength. I love how she grows and finds a home full of love and warmth but the ending was absolutely heartbreaking to me. 

If you like Seanan McGuire’s other stories of the Wayward Children, then you will love Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear. It is poignant and immersive, beautiful and heartbreaking but it is a story about strength, resilience and building a home. And it completely steals your heart as does the character of Nadya. And while it helps to have read the other books in the series, this is one that can be read as a stand alone. It will make more sense in the context of the series but much of it is not reliant on that fact. It is an absolutely breathtaking read.

Rating: 5 out of 5 turtles