A review by archaicgambit
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

I loved this book. I think it's so wild that Seanan Mcguire went and wrote the up-and-under books and I can't wait to read them. As a fan of the Wayward Children series, it was fascinating to see different themes and motifs that McGuire loves pop up in different ways-- frankensteins, portal fantasies, mad scientists and vicious girls. 

I love a character-centric fantasy with heavy slice of life elements and Roger and Dodger's relationship as siblings was handled beautifully. I also liked their growth of their respective halves of the doctrine-- I saw people critiquing that handling way too harshly as I was wrapping up the book.

I was surprised by the amount of Oz references growing and honestly loved the subtly twisted elements of that. Oz hangs high in american portal fantasy and it was such a great way to pay a tribute and critique and address the elephant in the room. 

The one thing I will say is this book is surprisingly less diverse than her other works. I guess we can presume some of the mad scientists were racist, but I was surprised all the doctrine children were white.
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