Title: In An Absent Dream
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publication Date: January 8, 2019
Publisher: Tor
Format: Library Hardcover
Previous Books In Series:
Every Heart A Doorway
Down Among The Sticks and Bones
Beneath The Sugar Sky

I confess that I’ve had mixed reactions to this series, but this book promised to be about Lundy and the Goblin’s Market, and how can you go wrong with that?

I love the premise of The Wayward Children series, but I don’t always love the characters, and sometimes the books feel like they’re missing something. Which is probably due, in part, to their shortness. But then, on the other hand, they’re all super quick, enjoyable reads, and this one was no different.

In An Absent Dream takes the reader to the Goblin Market, where everything is based on fair value, and if this isn’t just the most perfect world McGuire has visited in her books so far, I don’t know what is.

If ever a door were to open for me, I’m pretty sure it would be to the Goblin Market. And I would go there and not come back. Sorry, guys. Not that I don’t love it here, but … I mean … come on. And I’d be sure.

❧ I’m a tad bit suspicious of Seanan McGuire now, because I’m 98% sure that Lundy is me as a kid. But how would she know?!

Okay, fine, maaaaaybe I’m jumping to conclusions. So why don’t we just look at the evidence?

✿ Disillusioned with the real world, despite being a child
✿ Books > people
✿ Really, people can be so inconvenient
✿ Likes following the rules
✿ But also likes finding loopholes
✿ Family is fine, but found family is even better
✿ Hard work is very rewarding
✿ She’s extraordinary in her ordinariness
✿ Feathers are fun

I thought Lundy was a charming protagonist, because there’s absolutely nothing extraordinary about her to start with. If you look up Plain Jane in the dictionary, there’d be a picture of Lundy there.

Yet, what she becomes is anything but ordinary. I mean, technically, it was in her all along. She just needed to go to another world in order to discover it. You know, like you do.

❧ McGuire’s writing, as always, is lyrical and quirky and a pleasure to read.

I’ve always loved the informal, almost fairy tale/storyteller tone she writes the Wayward Children books in, and that carries over into this one. If you’ve read any of the previous books, you’ll recognize it. The voice is super engaging and makes what is already a quick read feel all the more accessible and deep.

❧ The Goblin’s Market is magical and welcoming, yet with a darker side waiting underneath, which makes it all the more appealing.

At first, it sounds great, right? A world based on equality. Everything deals with fair value, which is judged by what that means for any particular person. As long as the parties involved agree that it’s fair value, then it is. No one wants for anything, and everyone can earn what they need with a little work.

But, then, what happens to those who don’t adhere to fair value? The Market punishes them, of course.

It was almost scary how easy it would be to lose one’s humanity, and once that was gone, it’s obviously pretty hard to get it back. The rules seem so simple, yet deceptively so, because nothing in the Goblin Market is really as easy as it seems.

❧ I’ve read the previous books, so I know sort of where Lundy ends up later in life, but man, I did not see that ending coming.

Which is pretty impressive considering, like I said, we know what becomes of Lundy. So I thought I knew where this story was heading, but I so did not. I was way off the mark, which is great. Nothing like a book that keeps you guessing, even when you’re sure you’ve got it figured.

❧ The Wayward Children series is really starting to grow out of its cute little novella binding … and it’s starting to show?

This has sort of been a point of contention for me since I started reading the books, but I think this book felt it more than all the others. Novellas are fine and great, but McGuire’s world-building is much larger than the format allows, which means there’s so much that feels missing. Major character growth arcs become mere infodump paragraphs mentioned in passing to move on to the next major plot point in an attempt to control the size of the story. In this case, I really felt the loss of all those plots that are glossed over.

❧ All the real juicy, meaty, interesting stuff happens off-screen and is summed up in random paragraphs.

There is a giant war in the Goblin Market and somebody dies. Which is supposed to have a huuuuuge impact on Lundy. But first, I don’t know the character that dies. She’s given, like, three sentences before her tragic end. Second, this all is summed up in a single paragraph.

There were way too many times where super interesting things happen that are supposed to affect Lundy in pretty massive ways, but they’re glossed over and summed up rather than us actually getting to see them. And what a shame that is.

Because these events sound fascinating. Those are the things I want to be reading about, not Lundy washing clothes or haggling for food. This book is bogged down a lot with the mundane, which is fine to establish the setting, and it’s not all bad, but I feel like it comes at a cost. And the cost is that the reader doesn’t actually get to see any of the action and adventure that takes place. We just get to hear about it briefly after the fact.

Have you read In An Absent Dream yet, or any other of the Wayward Children series? If a doorway opened for you, what would your ideal world look like?