Series: Wayward Children #4 (Review of book one is here!)
Release Date: January 8th 2019
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: 204
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: I listened to this book via Scribd.
Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis

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.

Review

Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series is one that I have grown to absolutely love. It was something I had had on my TBR for a while and I ended up reading the whole series in one month. Fast paced and magical, I never want this series to end. This fourth instalment follows Lundy, a character we met in book one as she travels through her door to the Goblin Market.

I must admit to being particularly intrigued about this instalment as Lundy was a character I found pretty interesting in Every Heart A Doorway. I was really excited going in, I knew her story would be a fascinating one. Like the previous instalments McGuire does a brilliant job explaining the world to us, giving the reader the chance to get to know the rules and magic of this new world.

The Goblin Market is such an interesting setting and McGuire’s writing really brings the world to life. The story very much has a dreamlike quality to it, something I think really shines through in McGuire’s writing style. Like the previous instalments it is quite a short book and so sets a pretty quick pace from the outset. This story felt much sadder than the others, and I must admit that Lundy’s tale is an emotional and heartbreaking one.

In an Absent Dream is an incredible instalment to what really is one of my favourite new fantasy series. If you’ve read the first few I would definitely recommend the fourth book, and if you haven’t had the chance this is absolutely the perfect series to binge.