In An Absent Dream

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
Series: Wayward Children #4
Published by Tor.com on January 8, 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 208
Format: ARC, Paperback
ISBN: 0765399296
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

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 . . .

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t think another book in this series could top my favourite Down Among the Sticks and Bones, but In An Absent Dream proved me wrong.

This is a story about Katherine Lundy who finds solace in books to escape the loneliness and neglect of her reality. Being similar in nature, I immediately had a connection with Katherine. She is curious and loves adventures, but she is also a follower of rules and does her best to respect them. But, like many girls, she grew up being shaped into what a girl ‘should be’ with a future husband, stable job, and children of her own.

She had been able to find a doorway and disappear into an adventure, instead of living in a world that told her, day after day after grinding, demoralizing day, that adventures were only for boys; that girls had better things to worry about, like making sure those same boys had a safe harbor to come home to.

One day, Lundy stumbles on a door carved in a tree with a hallway boasting of three rules:

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

Be Sure.

This is how she finds the Goblin Market.

Oh, this place. Second to the Nonsense World of Confection from Beneath the Sugar Sky, this is one of my favourites. What is the Goblin Market, you ask?

…a place where dreamers go when they don’t fit in with the dreams their homes think worth dreaming.

Oof! If that didn’t hit you in the feels, I don’t know what will. You see, the Market is a mystical place that can provide you with anything you desire, as long as you’re willing to give fair value.

What IS fair value, Shari?

Fair value is the currency of the Goblin Market. If I buy food at the Market, I have to negotiate with the stall owner on what they find fair in exchange for a pie. This could be a button, a ribbon, or anything the other person desires. Fair value is going to be different for someone with 100 buttons to someone who only has 1, and the Market, which acts as its own entity, keeps track of all transactions. When fair value is not given, people go in debts that manifest in transformations on their body (e.g. growing feathers/a beak, etc). It gets a little dark, but I appreciated this blunt reality and how it reminded Lundy to give fair value in all things.

You could be happy here, if you wanted to be. But you don’t have forever to decide, and you must follow the rules, or you’ll surely pay the price.

In An Absent Dream is a tale of choices, friendship, loyalty, family, and consequences. It’s deliciously dark, whimsical, and emotional in all the right places. Seanan McGuire continues to enchant me with her writing and I can’t wait to go back for more.