Book Review
Title: In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: YA/Portal Fantasy/LGBT
Rating: ****
Review: So in the Wayward Children’s series we have followed Nancy, Jack & Jill, Rini & Sumi and we follow Lundy’s journey to the Goblin Market years before the years of Every Heart a Doorway. I have been lucky to get ARC’s of both Beneath the Sugar Sky and In an Absent Dream from NetGalley and I couldn’t wait to get into the latest installment from Seanan McGuire.
Like Down Among the Sticks and Bones, In an Absent Dream is a prequel story so we already know a little bit about Lundy. We know that she made a deal in the Goblin Market to age backward as her world threw out anyone over 18 but this had its own repercussions. We also know about Lundy’s subsequent death in Every Heart a Doorway so Seanan McGuire can only tell us Lundy’s past. We are introduced to Katherine Victoria Lundy when she is 6 years old, she is a reserved and shy child who doesn’t have any friends, but she still solace in books and rules and she is happy. However, we can see that Lundy isn’t a normal child and this is enough to set the doors into motion.
By the time Lundy’s door appears she has already become the person we knew in Every Heart a Doorway and she disappears from her birth world into her own world. Since we already know Lundy world is a world based on logic, and it is a Goblin market I was eager to see what this world was like. I think Lundy’s world will be different to the moors, the Halls of the Dead and it will be drastically different from Confection. As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Lundy has arrived in the new world despite the warning to be sure she wasn’t. However, she learns this world has 4 keys rules, two of which are ask for nothing and names have weight. She meets a girl who calls herself Moon who takes Lundy to the Archivist who can teach her about the rules and fair trade. While confusing Lundy doesn’t seem to be frightened of this world but rather, she is curious.
So far, I wasn’t loving In an Absent Dream which is a shame as I loved book 1 – 3. As Lundy learns the basic rules of Market, she doesn’t really understand but there are people like Moon and the Archivist that will help her understand. The way Lundy’s door works also reminded me of Eleanor’s door as she is allowed to leave and return to the Market as she likes until she turns 18, after that she will either stay in the Market or return home although we already know the outcome of this. I think the major problem for me was there wasn’t really much excitement as we already know the ending, for example in Every Heart a Doorway we had a murder mystery and the question of whether Nancy’s door would reappear, in Down Among the Sticks and Bones we had already meet Jack and Jill but we didn’t know their history and how they came to leave the moors and in Beneath the Sugar Sky we follow Rini and whether or not they can get Sumi back after her death.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Lundy has learned about fair value and debt and she is trying everything she can to help Moon stay out of debt even if it means taking some of the debt as her own. Lundy works hard to pay off the debts and all is right for a time, but the concept of time always plays on her mind because when she is home with her family, she doesn’t want to return to the Market, but the door always appears bringing her back and when she is at the Market she frequently thinks of her family, a real catch 22. Moon becomes like a sibling to Lundy, but their relationship seems unfair as Lundy is always helping Moon get into trouble as when she returns to her birth world, we see that the promises Moon made haven’t been fulfilled yet despite all Lundy has done for her. As time passes Lundy is more and more wary of making deals and promises because of the rules but she is also ever conscious that her time in the Market is running out.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we see the conclusion to Lundy’s story, in the end, it was her own indecision that got her banished from the Goblin Market. She is torn between the family she has in the Market and the family she was born into, so she can’t too sure without more time. She finds a way that means she will never reach 18 but in doing so she breaks one of the key rules of the Market and is banished. Many years later she meets Eleanor West and thus begins Lundy’s new journey we see in Every Heart a Doorway.
Overall, I really liked Lundy’s cautionary tale about making sure. Lundy isn’t the first character we meet that was given this working as Nancy, Jack and Jill also have this warning but unlike Lundy they are sure and all three find their way back home in the end while Lundy is trapped in a world that will never be hers as long as she knows the Market exists somewhere out there beyond her reach. While this wasn’t my favourite installment in the Wayward Children series, that will always be Down Among the Sticks and Bones, it is a heart-breaking beautiful story.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
I received this review copy from NetGalley
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