cynthia hopkins | Lost in a Good Book

In an Absent Dream (#4) by Seanan McGuire

Published: 8 January 2019 (print)/8 January 2019 (audio)
Publisher: Tordotcom/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 204/4 hrs and 57 mins
Narrator: Cynthia Hopkins
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

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.

I love the pattern of a group book, a solo origin story, another group book, and then another solo origin. It breaks up the main story, and gives the characters a chance at their own history without needing it threaded into the main plot, either successfully or unsuccessfully. Giving them space to have a book to themselves is amazing and I love McGuire’s respect to these characters. That isn’t to say some characters have their history interwoven, but these feel like extra special origins we need to give special attention to.

Lundy is a character we have of course met before, but now we get to see her story. How she found her door, how she ended up at the Wayward School with Eleanor West.

From the dark world of Jaq, to Nancy’s world, and the sugary nonsense of Confection, Lundy comes from a world of logic and reason, but also debts and bargains. I loved the Goblin Market and I loved the variation on everything having a price in the form of fair value. While Lundy gets it to work for her, there is also a reason she is no longer in her perfect world and seeing her adventure was fascinating. It is mystical but somehow also more suited into the real world in a way, especially compared to the other worlds we’ve seen.

There is a tragic past in Lundy’s story and I loved how intricate McGuire’s imagination is to create something so logical to the point of absurdity. It’s fascinating and I loved Lundy’s navigation of this world.

Like the other origin stories you can read it as a standalone, and could also skip it, but it is a great insight into a character we’ve met and tells their story and role in the Wayward world.

You can purchase In an Absent Dream via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Every Heart A Doorway (#1) by Seanan McGuire

Published: 5 April 2016 (print)/5 April 2016 (audio)
Publisher: Tor.com/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 169/4 hrs and 45 mins
Narrator: Cynthia Hopkins
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

In a premise that reminded me of Miss Peregrine initially, the story is about a girl who arrives at a boarding school for people who have travelled through portals into different worlds – lands of Nonsense, Logic, Fairy – and returned home changed and unsatisfied. Not that that’s what their families are being told.

The story captivates you from the beginning and I was drawn into this world of pretences and misleadings about Eleanor and this boarding school and what it actually did. As the story goes on you learn more about the worlds and the school, about children who have returned from their travels through doorways and how they are coping with being thrust back into their old lives whether by accident or through no choice of their own.

I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and the tone McGuire has used – it’s fun and talks to the reader in conversational tones, not nonsensical or anything but matter of fact and with a mix of logic and nonsense while maintaining the seriousness. It’s hard to describe exactly but I loved it immensely.

The mystery was clever and I loved how there was surprises and shocks that come almost immediately changing any theory you may have even started to develop. Each character’s personality brings something to the story and it was hard not to marvel at McGuire’s imagination at these unique characters and their own histories and experiences.

I loved each of the characters we’re introduced to. I don’t want to spoil each of their journeys because I think discovering them is half the fun but I will say there is great representation, there is celebration of the quirky, the unusual, and while kids will always be kids, seeing a place that tries to promote and encourage unusual hobbies, to keep safe those who were cast out, and to embrace the different, was delightful.

I listened to the audiobook which was an excellent decision because it really heightened that unique writing style, and by the end of the book I was enraptured and was surprised how despite being only a short novella it was the perfect length. McGuire told a wonderfully interesting story and gave us detailed and fleshed out characters, a complicated mystery as well as introducing us to this entire new fantasy reality all while keeping it at 175 pages. It’s hard not to marvel at such a feat and I am definitely excited to explore this series and see what else McGuire has in store.

You can purchase Every Heart A Doorway via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible