Reviewed by sa090 on
───────────────────
Do you know that wonderful feeling when you pick up a book and you KNOW that it’s going to be amazing? This is how I approach any book in this series after reading Every Heart A Doorway and the best part? I haven’t been disappointed yet! Unlike the previous installments, this book has completely new characters for us to learn about which is something I always appreciate in standalone sharing a universe. It’s not that the previous characters were bad, not at all, they’re all wonderful in their own way, but it’s always interesting to see more of her creations.
In all of the installments, Seanan McGuire had lessons to teach either about tolerance or a certain point of view. This book took that to another level in my opinion, the entire thing felt like I’m following a character trying to find their place in their world, but a new more suitable one comes along and now they’re stuck with a very difficult choice; leave or stay. For an oppressed individual, or rather someone who’s not able to live their lives as they wish, the choice to leave to a more suitable place is a no brainer, but this book shows that even its not that easy of a choice to make. This back and forth between the choices and in turn what it made Lundy feel and experience was a very interesting journey of self growth, understanding oneself, greed and prioritizing. The more impressive thing when taking this into perspective comes from the page count of this book, it’s astonishing that she can do all this in less than 200 pages.
The Goblin Market is a place we’ve never seen before yet in the series, which can honestly fit without issues thanks to the impossibility huge world she created. In Every Heart A Doorway, we learn about the world compass, which is basically a compass that tells you how logical or how crazy the hidden worlds are. We’ve already seen beyond crazy, so it’s very interesting that this book took us to the opposite of that in bigger details. I really enjoyed seeing this new world and it’s rules, more importantly, how the concept of being fair is applied. It might not seem all that to an outsider’s perspective, but when you really read this book and see Lundy’s journey in the Goblin Market, her trials and what she had to go through, it makes me think a little more about my real world and this fictional world.
The characters she wrote are also interesting to follow, Lundy comes from a background where there is only one way for girls to exist and she doesn’t fit that mold. It’s not in the same way as most YA trope of “not like other girls”, but a lot more subtler than that without shaming the other characters fitting said mold. The others she meets in the Goblin Market have their own fair share of characteristics and more importantly, lessons to learn. There has been instances where some adventures were relayed to us as results only, but with the direction the story took, coupled with the topic views she wanted to discuss, Seanan McGuire easily compensates one thing for another.
The utter lack of enforced romance or similar tropes in this book is another thing I really appreciated as well. This is further proof that you can write a wonderfully engaging book without the need to needlessly add those in when they’re clearly not needed. There are way more important things to care about, focus on and discuss than who likes who and as always I believe this quote of hers sums up the book quite nicely:
”The Market doesn’t punish us for having limitations. It only reminds us that fair value applies to everyone.”
The real best part??? Seanan McGuire is going to hopefully grace us with many many stories in this beautifully written verse.
https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1082362464036040706?s=20
Final rating: 5/5
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 8 January, 2019: Finished reading
- 8 January, 2019: Reviewed