Book Review – In an Absent Dream

Photo

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the review copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book:In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children 4) by Seanan McGuire
Release Date: January 8th 2019
Tags: Fantasy / Portal Fantasy / Young Adult / Family / Patriarchy / Social Norms / Economic Status
Trigger Warnings: Child Abondenment
Other books in this series I reviewed
Every Heart a Doorway

 

This is the story of 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.
.
For anyone . . .

 

Rule One – Ask for nothing
 Rule Two – Names have power
Rule Three – Always give fair value

Be Sure.

The beauty of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children books are that they are short and you can read them separate from each other. Doesn’t mean they don’t pack a punch. I have only read Every Heart a Doorway but it was easy to read this book without having read book 2 and 3.

The reason I was so drawn to this one was that it is about the Goblin Market. If you don’t know, The Goblin Market is a poem written by Christina Rossetti that I had the pleasure to read at the start of this year. Knowing this book uses that spark my interest right away. However I don’t think you need to have read The Goblin Market to be able to understand this book. Not at all. It stands on its own just fine. It is just a nice bonus to have read that as well.

This book focuses on Katherine Lundy a character we briefly met in Every Heart a Doorway. She finds a doorway at the age of 8 to the Goblin Market, to escape her life. A life that has been set out for her by society. As she grows up she repeatedly visits, something that shapes her life in a defining way. It talks about family, the norms that society has set for females (especially in the period that Lundy grew up in) and economic status.  Take only as much as you give.

I took more of a liking to Lundy in this story. A reader like us, who finds a way out in between the pages. She is so serious. In that way she kind of reminds me of myself. I loved how she took to Moon and Diana. But I think most of all I found her relationship with her so much younger sister so interesting. The one who had to pay the price for her leaving so many times.

All in all this is a powerful installment to the series and it makes me even more curious about book 2,3 and 5.