In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4)

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

In this 4th book of the Wayward Children series, we focus on Lundy, who we know from the other books as the girl who will never grow up. We see her enter a door to the high-stakes, logical world of the Goblin Market and begin to navigate it. We see her build relationships, we see her care about her biological family and her found family, torn between finding meaning in her two very different worlds. We see the consequences of 'fair trade.'

While my favorite Wayward Children installment thus far is Down Among the Sticks and Bones, there were a couple things that made this book very compelling. One, [little spoiler warning] we see an example of a child who finds the same door her parent did. This informs part of their relationship. It also informs a little of Lundy's existence in the Goblin Market, because the market has known another Lundy (and lost him when he chose to remain in the 'real' world). The second compelling thing was the Goblin Market itself. Almost immediately before reading this book I finished an advanced copy of The Sisters of the Winter Wood, which relied heavily on Rosetti's "Goblin Market" poem, and then I picked up In an Absent Dream only to discover Seanan also uses the poem for inspiration (the title of the book is a direct quote), and I love how she zeroes in on this idea of 'fair trade' that the market runs on. Those familiar with the poem will know that the goblins are not able to take anything from Lizzie when they cannot get her to eat their fruit, and they cannot not sell it to her unless she eats it with them. There is a fair trade, but it is motivated by something unknown, somewhat arbitrary, and perhaps not entirely benevolent. This is how I feel McGuire's goblin market works, everything is a transaction for which fair trade must be given, making even small decisions on the part of a child just entering the world feel fraught and momentous.

All in all, it is a great read, and there are some terrific characters that I didn't even get into with this review, because it's more fun to meet them when you read it yourself than to hear someone's opinion about them. So go read it. But if you haven't read the other WC books, do that first because they're great. Go on. Shoo.


Favorite Quotes:

“She was ordinary. She was remarkable. Of such commonplace contradictions are weapons made.” 

“No one serves their friends by grinding themselves into dust on the altar of compassion.” 

“Children are capable of grasping complex ideas long before most people give them credit for, wrapping them in a soothing layer of nonsense and illogical logic. To be a child is to be a visitor from another world muddling your way through the strange rules of this one, where up is always up, even when it would make more sense for it to be down, or backward, or sideways.”

“In the way of bookish children, she carried her books into trees and along the banks of chuckling creeks, weaving her way along their slippery shores with the sort of grace that belongs only to bibliophiles protecting their treasures.”