Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire [Book #8]

Content Tags: Pedophilia, Manipulation, Abuse, Gaslighting, Grooming, Fantasy

Description from Storygraph:

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. 

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I was emotional just from reading the Dedication and Author's Note for this book. The reason that Antsy is lost is heavy and a terrible reality for far too many children. The beginning of this book is emotionally difficult. Below are the Dedication and Author's Note, in that order:

"For the child I was. I will spend my entire life trying to make up for the fact that when I was you, I didn't run soon enough. I'm sorry."

"While all the Wayward Children books have dealt with heavy themes and childhood traumas, this one addresses an all-too-familiar monster: the one that lives in your own home. Themes of grooming and adult gaslighting are present in the early text. As a survivor of something very similar, I would not want to be surprised by these elements where I didn't expect them. I just want to offer you this reassurance: Antsy runs. Before anything can actually happen, Antsy runs."

After Antsy runs, she finds a new world where lost things go and begins a new, safer journey. And along the way, everything is not always what it seems. This is true for the Doors and the worlds they lead to... and also what they ultimately cost her.

This is the most recent installment of the Wayward Children series, so I'm finally all caught up! It was another skillfully crafted story that merges fantasy and real world horrors. Throughout the story, Antsy went through many Doors to many new worlds and there were some cameos from other characters (if you've read the other books). I really enjoyed that detail. And I don't want to spoil anything, but I appreciated the way that Antsy was returned from her Door and made her way to Eleanor's home. 

Book Reflection Wrap-up:

What was your least favorite part of the book?

Least favorite in the sense of "the author expertly captured these terrible emotions" rather than it was written poorly: Antsy's mom. There are a couple of scenes that are describing Antsy's step-father gaslighting her to manipulate her mom into believing she's a liar who can't be trusted and this sentence killed me: "Somewhere in the time between her father's collapse and now, she realized, she had lost the belief that her mother would always protect her, and somehow that burned the worst of all." Her mother was so quick to side with this man she'd dated barely a few months before marrying him and to distrust the daughter she had raised simply because she was a child. I hate that. So fucking much, I hate that. It was my least favorite part because of how furious and devastated I was that her mother wasn't there for her when she needed her the absolute most.

Did reading the book impact your mood? If yes, how so?

Yes. As I said above, the beginning of the book is heavy. I felt those emotions very strongly and was so relieved when Antsy ran away and found safety while still being so fucking furious that she had to.