This is the 4th book in the Wayward Children series. Last year, I read the first several books in the series. These are all so short, which is nice for the ones you don’t like as well but makes the ones you DO like a bit disappointing as it leaves you wanting more. I read these while on a trip, and intended to continue reading them once I was home but I never did. But, In an Absent Dream just stuck with me.
In an Absent Dream is a prequel about Katherine Lundy, who appeared in the first book as a teacher at the School for Wayward Children where several of the other books in the series are set. It’s about the door she found as a child, leading to a magical world called the Goblin Market, where the most important thing you can do is give fair value for whatever is given to you. Lundy (as she’s mostly called in this book) visits the Goblin Market several times throughout her childhood and adolescence, returning to the real world on occasion, where her prolonged absences have resulted in resentment from her mother and sister–as well as resentment from her father, but for a different reason. She knows that eventually she’ll have to choose between staying in the Goblin Market forever, or staying in the real world.
I reread this book this year because I was still thinking about it. Even though it’s a prequel and therefore I knew what was going to happen, the ending still shook me. I think there are 2 reasons I love this book so much. First, I was a lot like Lundy as a child, and so the idea of the Goblin Market really appealed to me. Secondly, I love books that are about your shadow life–the life you could have had if you’d made different choices. Those books always fascinate me, and this one was no different.
As for the rest of this series, I liked the first two quite a bit and mostly enjoyed most of the rest of them, so I think I might go ahead and read the ones I never got around to. There might be another gem there. At the very least, I could use the magical distraction.