Tag: seanan mcguire

In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4) by Seanan McGuire

In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4) by Seanan McGuire

In this enjoyable entry in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire, we learn the other-worldly wanderings of the person who calls herself Lundy and why she is the way she is.

Like the other children from this series, the world, in this case the Goblin Market, chose the child for specific reasons.

“Katherine’s remarkability took the form of a quiet self-assuredness, a conviction that as long as she followed the rules, she could find her way through any maze, pass cleanly through any storm.” pg 18

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The most enjoyable aspect of this story is Lundy’s unrepentant bibliophilia. I think anyone who loves to read can empathize with much of her character.

“Mysteries in books were the best kind. The real world was absolutely full of boring mysteries, questions that never got answered and lost things that never got found. That wasn’t allowed, in books. In books, mysteries were always interesting and exciting, packed with daring and danger, and in the end, the good guys found the clues and the bad guys got their comeuppance.”pgs 27-28

But it is Lundy’s penchant for always trying to find a loophole in reality, which serves her well in reading and the Goblin Market, that eventually creates a problem.

“If she thought of this as a fairy tale that she had somehow stumbled into, she could handle it. She knew the rules of fairy tales. Most importantly of all, she knew that fairy tales ended with “happily ever after” and everything being just fine.” pg 48

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Like McGuire’s other entries in this series, nothing is simple in this tale and there are decisions far more complex than a child can easily make. That’s part of the brilliance of it. These worlds that the children stumble into are dangerous and sometimes innocent people get hurt.

“What’s the Goblin Market?” “It is a place where dreamers go when they don’t fit in with the dreams their homes think worth dreaming.” pgs 56-57

Highly recommended for readers who like their fairy tales told with just enough reality to make it feel real. The Wayward Children series is a treat.

My other reviews in the series:

Every Heart a Doorway

Down Among the Sticks and Bones

Beneath the Sugar Sky

Thanks for reading!

Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children, #3) by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children, #3) by Seanan McGuire

Beneath the Sugar Sky takes readers back to the world of Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, but not to a moment in time before the events of the first book. It is a sequel rather than a prequel.

I found it strangely satisfying in a way that Down Among the Sticks and Bones was not.

“They can be hard for their families to understand, those returned, used-up miracle children. They sound like liars to people who never had a doorway of their own.” pg 7, ebook.

And instead of just one world other than our own, readers get to experience a couple in Beneath the Sugar Sky.

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The trouble begins when someone from a different world shows up in the everyday world and asks to see her mother. The thing is, her mother died in the real world some time ago.

The world that the girl comes from doesn’t pretend to follow time the normal way- it’s a nonsense world. Now, this visitor is disappearing and needs help from some of the residents of Eleanor West’s Home before she vanishes altogether.

“That makes no sense at all,” she said. “That means it may well work. Go, my darlings, and bring your lost and shattered sister home.” pg 29, ebook.

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A new character in this book is Cora, a girl who went to a water world. She has an insightful way of viewing reality and seems able to see to the heart of people with little trouble: “They always had their shoes, their scissors, whatever talisman they wanted to have to hand when their doorways reappeared and they had to make the choice to stay or go.” pg 19, ebook.

Kade, Christopher and Nancy are in this book as well. “So many different doors, and yet here you are, all of you together, trying to accomplish the impossible.” pg 40, ebook.

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I recommend reading Every Heart a Doorway before this book, to get the most enjoyment out of it. It’s perfect for young adults or readers who like fairy tales.

Thanks for reading!

Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children, #2) by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children, #2) by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the back story of the twins, Jack and Jill, and the dark world they wandered through.

It takes place before the events of the first book in the series, Every Heart A Doorway.

The reader learns why the twins are so different and how their strange and disturbing other world opened its door to them in the first place.

The majority of the problem was Jack and Jill’s parents. They had children for reasons other than love.

The father wanted to children to move up in his career. The mother wanted to improve her status with her group of female friends: “A person may look at someone else’s child and see only the surface, the shiny shoes or the perfect curls. They do not see the tears and the tantrums, the late nights, the sleepless hours, the worry. They do not even see the love, not really.” pg 13.

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So, instead of loving Jack and Jill for themselves, their parents instead seek to mold them into a perfect of ideal of what they thought their children should be.

The one bright spot in the twin’s childhood is their grandmother, Louise Wolcott. Chester and Serena, Jack and Jill’s parents, call her in desperation after the birth of the children because they have no idea what they’re doing or how to balance their careers while raising children.

Louise steps in without complaint. She is quite easily my favorite character in the book: “There’s nothing tiring about caring for children you love like your own,” said Louise… pg 34.

Despite Grandmother Louise’s best efforts, Jack and Jill end up fairly emotionally stunted from their parents’ dysfunction. The twin’s discovery of another world leads to some hard lessons about love, belonging and consequences.

“The Moors were beautiful in their own way, and if their beauty was the quiet sort that required time and introspection to be seen, well, there was nothing wrong with that. The best beauty was the sort that took some seeking.” pg 171.

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I enjoyed this story. But, I think it should have been combined with Every Heart A Doorway.

I felt like so much of the plot of this book was given away in the first, by what happens. It would have been more enjoyable to learn about Jack and Jill’s Moors in flashbacks rather than a separate story.

That being said, it is a good enough young adult tale for what it is. The fairy tale quality to it is undeniable.

Recommended for readers who like a dark undercurrent of emotion, coming-of-age and self knowledge in their fairy tales. If you liked this book, you may also enjoy A Monster Calls.

One may be better served reading this book before Every Heart A Doorway. I think, if I had read this first, I may have enjoyed it more.

Thanks for reading!

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuire

everyheartWhat if children actually fell into other worlds, like Alice in Wonderland or the Pevensies into Narnia, far more often than anyone realized? What if those worlds were superior in every way to the normal, mundane world- not in that they were in heaven, but the child felt finally at home?

And what if those worlds cast the children out, to live in the “real world” again? It might not be a pretty picture.

That is why Eleanor West started a home for children who went away, came back and didn’t belong anymore. All of those reasons, but also, because she went away once too.

“Eleanor West spent her days giving them what she had never had, and hoped that someday, it would be enough to pay her passage back to the place where she belonged.” pg 13.

I loved the basic premise of this story. All of the worlds the children went to were so different, but the fact that the worlds were “other,” tied them altogether.

“‘Real’ is a four-letter world, and I’ll thank you to use it as little as possible while you live under my roof.” pg 20

This story has the drama of a bunch of misfit children all trying to get along, but also the mystery of these other worlds. There’s also a deeper mystery that develops when one of the children seems determined to find a way home- at any cost.

“You will not all find your doors again. Some doors really do appear only once, the consequence of some strange convergence that we can’t predict or re-create. They’re drawn by need and by sympathy. Not the emotion- the resonance of one thing to another. There’s a reason you were all pulled into the worlds that suited you so well.” pg 97

I was concerned when I started this book that it would be too much like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. That was a needless concern.

They are similar in that both contain orphanages for extraordinary children and fantasy has a large part in the story. But that was where I felt the similarities ended.

I also found myself wishing that Every Heart a Doorway was written for adults rather than young adults. This was a fairytale that could have used some darker twists to it.

Seanan McGuire didn’t make this story all rainbows and gumdrops, but I would have liked it to be edgier.

I loved the “longing to belong” feeling McGuire wove into the book. It seems to me to be a quintessential teenage feeling, but I suppose everyone wants to feel completely at home- whatever that might mean.

For some people, that longing is attached to a place, another person, or to the drug addict, it’s the next hit. Other people crave a moment in time, or a particular period in their life.

I would say, on second consideration, “longing to belong” is perhaps the human condition itself.

Recommended for fans of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. If you’re looking for a darker, more adult fairytale, I’d recommend The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

Thanks for reading!