Lost in the Moment and Found, by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
When her father dies, Antsy—too young and playful for her
full name, Antoinette—faces a grim choice: to risk the increasingly creepy
attentions of her stepfather, or to run away. Chance and fear drive her through
a mysterious door—excuse me, Door—to a Shop of Lost Things. It’s a wondrous
place, the epitome of the magical antique store, filled with strange objects
from magical lands. Soon Antsy herself is visiting those places, beginning with
a market where blue-furred people trade in luscious pastries. Soon Antsy
suspects all is not benign in the Shop as she ages prematurely. There is a cost
to going through a magical Door, a cost in time she can never get back.
With masterful skill, Seanan McGuire takes us on a
point-of-view evolution from a bewildered young girl, struggling to come to
terms with the loss of the father she adored and the increasingly creepy
advances of her new stepfather; to the child adventurer, thrilled by the
adventures and mysteries unfolding before her; to the too-soon-grownup,
grappling with the loss of innocence and the impossibility of ever going home
again. The continuity of voice comes across in perfect balance to its maturation.
As usual, McGuire imbues her story with compassion, understanding, and rip-roaring
action. And the twist at the end had me both teary-eyed and cheering.
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