DESCRIPTION:

"This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well."

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REVIEW:

A lovely addition to the Wayward Children series.  The writing is beautiful, the world building fascinating, the story entertaining but sad.

In An Absent Dream is a prequel to a series of books I have not read so I’m walking in cold here.

The tale begins when a young girl spots a tree where previously there wasn’t one. The tree does some twists and contortions and a little door appears. On that door it says only, “Be Sure”. Katherine is pretty sure she wants to step through that door so she does. Who could resist?! As you can guess, there are wonders on the other side of that door. Centaurs, cow people and girls who look almost human and the tastiest of pies! It’s a wonderland of freedom and choices and glorious sights free from the prying eyes of pesky parents and their expectations to form you into a proper wife. But then there are the rules. And the rules cannot be ignored. To ignore a rule is to lose a wee bit of what you makes you human and that is all I’m going to say about that.

This tale begins a little like a skewed Alice in Wonderland and it is completely enchanting. I loved Lundy. Young Lundy learned at the tender age of six that books are often better company than people and she wasn’t wrong, haha. She lives in a world that doesn’t value smarts in a girl and there are a lot of things written here worth chewing on.

“He shouldn’t have treated her like she didn’t matter. He shouldn’t have treated her like his idea of a girl.”

I loved watching Lundy grow and mature into a thoughtful and caring young lady. She faces some very tough choices and this book has some dark edges when the incorrect choice is made. I was a bit worried, as I always am when dipping my toe into the fantasy/YA world, that a boy would arrive and become the focus of the plot but it doesn’t happen here. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike romance but I get testy when it is shoe horned into a story where it doesn’t belong. This story stays focused on friendship and family and obligation and there isn’t a wisp of forced romance no matter how hard you look.

I listened to this book as an audiobook narrated by Cynthia Hawkins. She does fine with all of the voices and changes her tone enough so you easily differentiate between the characters but her pace was just a wee bit slow for my liking and my player wouldn’t allow me to speed it up. Had I been able to pace it at 1.25 or maybe even 1.5 I think it would’ve been perfect.

If you enjoy a beautifully written modern day fairytale, this one is for you!

This book kept staring at me from the new release shelves, and I couldn't resist it. The 'Wayward Children' series has entranced me even since I discovered it almost two years ago. McGuire uses the short length of the stories and the subject matter of the series itself to delve deep into the many facets of troubled childhoods.

I've had moments of disappointment with the series in the past, that's true, but only because I will always want deeper and more explicit answers than McGuire wants to give. Most storytelling, especially when it deals with the deep wells of adolescence and responsibility, requires a veil or two to coax the reader towards insight. Clear prose is desirable, bald prose not so much.

Sorry to be hedging around the point. 'In An Absent Dream' is the best entry yet in the series. McGuire tells the story of Lundy, a minor character in 'Every Heart a Doorway', and crafted a powerful story in her origins in our world and in the Goblin Market. More so than any other characters in this series I felt a sense of kinship with Lundy and sympathized with the choices she felt compelled to make.

Each of these stories can stand alone and publication order is almost always the most correct way to go about these things, but I wouldn't hold it against a reader if they wanted to read this one second.

Wayward Children

Next: 'Come Tumbling Down'

Previous: 'Beneath the Sugar Sky'

Looking for fair value in an unfair world can lead even the most sensible child to look elsewhere for a place to call Home. What would you do or give up to be seen, truly seen, understood and surrounded by those who see things as you do?

This series just keeps getting better and better! I really thought I couldn't be any more impressed. That was until I devoured my preordered copy, the very day it was released, and suddenly I am blown away... again! How can a simple concept such as children who don't easily fit in finding a way to escape their mundane/ill fitting reality only to encounter and enter a fairytale like, alternate, more accepting world give us such a gamut of supremely worthy material? The world building and prose are vivid while the characters are diverse. Ultimately Mrs. McGuire has graciously thought into being new and fantastical worlds that surpass the proceeding ones with imagination too beautiful for words.

This one is centered around Katherine Lundy who prefers to be called by her last name only (it's a Goblin Market thing, you'll see). Lundy finds the world she was born to to be unjust, especially with how it treats its children. When she finds her way to the door in the tree that is boldly displaying the words "BE SURE", Lundy has never been so sure of anything in her whole life. This book, based on Rosetti's poem The Goblin Market, has an ethereal and melodic cadence. The writing is simply gorgeous without being too flowery or verbose. The characters are rich, multidimensional and at once relateable. I won't go into anymore detail than that because I went into this one blind, enjoyed every single second of it and believe wholeheartedly that you will too.

~Enjoy