I can’t believe we’re already on book 8 of the Wayward Children series! This adventure started in 2016 (and for me it started in 2018) and it looks like it will keep going for at least 2 more years. I got an eARC of this January release and I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you. So let’s take a look!
A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in this standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire, Lost in the Moment and Found.
Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go.
If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….
Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.
And stepping through those doors exacts a price.
Lost in the Moment and Found tells us that childhood and innocence, once lost, can never be found.
Lost in the Moment and Found (Wayward Children, #8) by Seanan McGuire
Published by Tordotcom on 10/01/2023
Pages: 208
Goodreads
We get a look at a new world is this eighth instalment. After learning more about the other school in book 7, we now go back for someone’s origin story. And while everyone was hoping for one of the fan favourites we got someone else. This story is about Antsy.
And like most of these books there are some powerful but heartbreaking messages in the story. Children don’t find their doors when they live a great life, so it makes sense the stories start off pretty sad. But that doesn’t make it any easier. Antsy’s life is turned upside down and once it turns dangerous she walks away and finds her door.
All of the worlds we’ve seen so far have been interesting. Seanan has such an incredible imagination and comes up with a wide array of worlds with different rules. These worlds are well-developed if you take into account these books are novellas. Lost in the Moment and Found is 208 pages long, and I think most of the books are around that length. To have such developed worlds in so little pages is amazing. And I think a lot of authors could learn something from it. Antsy travels to a very different world from all of the previous ones. We actually get to see more than one in this novella and I really enjoyed that.
As with all the books and worlds we’ve seen in this series there are consequences to your choices. And while they seem negligible in the end they aren’t. I love how these books make you think about what happens, what would your choice be? Would you be able to resist what is offered to you if you know the consequences?
I liked Antsy as a main character but I didn’t feel like I really got to know her. Of course with only 208 pages there isn’t time to develop everything so something might have to give. I think part of that was Antsy’s character and a bigger part was lack of development of the side characters. At least for me, the other characters felt very flat. I couldn’t tell you anything about them after finishing the book and I just didn’t really care about them (apart from maybe one character we meet towards the end).
Overall I did enjoy this story. It wasn’t my favorite instalment in the series but I did like it better than some of the previous ones. I can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks! Are you planning on reading this one? And what is your favorite book in the series? Let me know in the comments!
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