Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear

Seanan McGuire's tenth Wayward Children installment follows Nadya, a girl born missing one arm whose adoptive parents force a prosthetic on her against her wishes. Feeling misunderstood and incomplete in all the wrong ways, she wanders until she falls through a door into Belyyreka, the Land Beneath the Lake, a world of submerged wonders where giant turtles glide through dark water, impossible ships sail beneath the surface as easily as above it, and Nadya is finally recognized as what she has always been: a Drowned Girl, home at last. But belonging must be earned and defended, and the world she has found holds real dangers alongside its magic.

Barrie Kreinik brings a quiet, precise intensity to the narration that suits McGuire's lyrical prose beautifully. At just over four hours, the story moves with the unhurried pull of deep water, never rushing the emotional beats that give the series its resonance. Kreinik's voice captures Nadya's interiority with particular sensitivity, making the audio format feel like the ideal way to experience a story so centrally concerned with how we understand ourselves from the inside out.