In an Absent Dream
core novella 2019 Wayward Children
Record
| First published | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novella |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.15 (38,012 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 187 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780765399298 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
In an Absent Dream follows Katherine Lundy, a quiet, rule-following girl who discovers a door into the Goblin Market, a world governed by the strict principle that everything, favors, objects, even words, must be traded for Fair Value or the consequences turn severe. Lundy is drawn back to the Market again and again over the following years, finding in its rigid but comprehensible rules a sense of belonging she struggles to feel in her ordinary life at home. As she grows older and the pull between the Market and the human world intensifies, Lundy must weigh what she is willing to trade, and what the world's strict rules about fairness will ultimately cost her, for the chance to stay somewhere she truly feels she belongs.
Where it sits
- Universe: Wayward Children
- Series: Wayward Children core; position 4 of 11 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Seanan McGuire
Notes
- From the series record (Wayward Children): Core Canon = all 11 published novellas (Tor.com/Tordotcom, 2016-2026), per the collection/short-form-as-Core precedent (this series' primary reading unit has always been the novella, not the novel). Book 12, "A Song of Sugar Sparrows" (planned January 2027), is announced but unpublished as of 2026-08-11 -- isn't counted here yet; watch for its publication.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Wayward Children: position 4 of 11: previous Beneath the Sugar Sky (2018) · next Come Tumbling Down (2020)
Sources
← Wayward Children dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.