In an Absent Dream - (Wayward Children) by Seanan McGuire (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A standalone fantasy tale in ... [the] Wayward children series"--Jacket flap.

Book Synopsis

Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series

A stand-alone fantasy tale from Seanan McGuire's Alex award-winning Wayward Children series, which began in the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List Every Heart a Doorway

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.

The Wayward Children Series
Book 1: Every Heart a Doorway
Book 2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Book 3: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Book 4: In an Absent Dream

Review Quotes

"The author beautifully portrays the overwhelming experience of being on the threshold of maturity... Choose wisely, and choose this book." --Kirkus Reviews

"This is a lovely installment of the series, with pitch-perfect fairy-tale logic...The series as a whole has wonderfully internally consistent world building--and characters, no matter how far in the background, with complexity and depth." --Booklist

Praise for Every Heart a Doorway

"With Every Heart a Doorway, McGuire has created her own mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy -- a jewel of a book that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll's and C. S. Lewis' classics, even as it carves its own precocious space between them." -- NPR

"Seanan McGuire has long been one of the smartest writers around, and with this novella we can easily see that her heart is as big as her brain." --Charlaine Harris

"One of the most extraordinary stories I've ever read." --V. E. Schwab

"This is a gorgeous story: sometimes mean, sometimes angry, and always exciting." --Cory Doctorow for BoingBoing

"So mindblowingly good, it hurts." --io9

"McGuire's lyrical prose makes this novella a rich experience." --Library Journal starred review

"This gothic charmer is a love letter to anyone who's ever felt out of place." -- Publishers Weekly

"Seanan McGuire once again demonstrates her intimate knowledge of the human heart in a powerful fable of loss, yearning and damaged children." -- Paul Cornell, author of London Falling and Witches of Lychford

About the Author

SEANAN McGUIRE is the author of the Wayward Children series, beginning with the Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning Every Heart a Doorway, the October Daye urban fantasy series, the InCryptid series, and other works. She also writes darker fiction as Mira Grant. Seanan lives in Seattle with her cats, a vast collection of creepy dolls, horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard. She was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2013 she became the first person ever to appear five times on the same Hugo ballot.