Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go.
If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….
Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.
And stepping through those doors exacts a price.

Thank you so much to TorDotComPub for sending me an ARC for review. This does not affect my thoughts, all thoughts are my own honest opinions.

Before I start this review, I just want to make sure that if you are thinking of reading this you check out the trigger warnings. This book deals with some heavier subject matter than the others in the series. Some triggers include: gaslighting from a parent, grooming, death of a parent (specifically witnessing the death of a parent). Please do look up other ones if you are concerned. But as Seanan says in the forward, “Antsy runs” before anything can happen with her stepfather.

Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you've already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company.
There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again. It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. And it isn't as safe.
When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her Home for Wayward Children, she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn't save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster.
She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming...

Thank you so much to TorDotCom Publishing for sending me an ARC to review! This does not affect my review in any way.

It’s no secret that I love Seanan McGuire. I mean, she and Tamora Pierce are my top two favorite authors, easily. I saw Heron (a friend from Bookstagram) mention in their review that for them it’s now more of a question of how much they’ll like these books, rather than a question of if they’ll like them. That is definitely how it is for me. I have loved the previous six books of this series, to varying degrees, so I went into this one pretty confident I would like it. Little did I know it would actually become on of my favs of the series!!

New York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in the standalone fantasy, Middlegame.

Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.

Okay just to start this off, let me show you what I wrote on Goodreads for my review right after I finished this book:

“i don’t have words. oh my god. oh my GOD. help. i haven’t read a book this good in….i don’t know how long. I DON’T HAVE WORDS I JUST WANT TO SCREAM”

Welcome to our first Monday Minis! We’ve decided to create this little blog meme to create space for mini reviews — the reviews that don’t quite warrant a full post but are just as important. 💛 You’re welcome to join us! All you have to do is post your mini reviews on Mondays and that’s it!

So without further ado, here are the first Minis!

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 . . .