By now I’d thought I had the hang of McGuire’s Wayward Children series: child escapes untenable home situation via magic door, steps into an environment uniquely suited to test their mettle and build vital aspects of their character, and returns (or not) as their situation warrants. In this one, heroine Antsy escapes a truly scary scenario that could well have led to abuse (sketched with terrible, aching realism by McGuire), but finds herself in a different type of world: an in-between place of endless variety, which she only slowly begins to realize comes at a very dear cost.