I have read and reviewed 3 other books in the Wayward Children series, and I have the same complaint about this one as I do the others — Seanan McGuire, you terrible tease, please make them longer!
“There is wanting and there is needing, and when you want, you can make good choices, but when you need, it’s important the people around you not be looking to take advantage.”
The original book, Every Heart a Doorway, introduces us to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children — a place where children who have disappeared into other worlds can live together and try to cope with being forced back on planet Earth. It’s a group home for the likes of the Pevensies and Dorothy and Alice. The other three novels deal with those stories, of children stepping through doors or wardrobes or trees, and the worlds they inhabit for a little while.
“She was Katherine, she was the teacher’s pet, and when she grew up, she was going to be a librarian, because she couldn’t imagine knowing there was a job that was all about books and not wanting to do it.”
In an Absent Dream is about a girl who walks through a doorway and discovers a world full of rules and logic and danger. At home, she’s just a little girl named Katherine, ignored by her family and eager to find her own way. When she’s in this other world, she’s Lundy. And once she gets a grip on things, she has power and responsibility. Everything has a price, and everything has consequences. It’s kind of a dark book, like the rest of the series — about children but not really FOR children. The writing is so good, and I wish I could have spent more time with Katherine.