4 stars. Thank you Netgalley for the audio arc. It was very hard for me to rate this book. This series is so beloved and this installation did not feel like the same author or in the same series. There was no whimsy past the first trip to market. I kept waiting for something to happen, something magical, something whimsical, and it didn't. If I rate it based on a stand alone novella it is 4 stars. If I compare it to the rest of the series it falls seriously flat at a 2 stars.

Great beginning & ending. Great themes. Great character. Really harrowing at times; this deals with themes of grooming and gaslighting and child abuse. However, the world Antsy enters is altogether less appealing to me than many of the others—despite finally a child realizing the sinister quality of the worlds. Great thematic work too, but some odd choices were made in the middle that both bored and confused me. Excessively readable though, like the last installment in Wayward Children, so much so that I read it in one day. I do have mixed feelings overall so I think it is a 3 star.

5 stars and a wish for this series to be infinite! TRIGGER WARNINGS: Grooming, Gaslighting. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

Antsy has the perfect life....a mommy who loves her and a daddy who makes her feel like she is special. When her world collapses alongside her father in Target nothing is the same. Mommy finds a new friend who takes the title Stepfather and a new sister is on the way. Antsy feels ants on her skin when her stepfather looks at her, it's predatory and dark....mommy believes him over Antsy, no matter if he's lying. She must get away, find a way to be free of him and his gaze...and worse. What awaits Antsy in a ship full of lost things? And who stands to gain something from her now?

Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series is one of my absolute joys of the new year. I salivate over titles, cover releases, and once I get it in my hands I devour it. There is always a message hidden inside these books, some of them an easier pill to swallow than others. Lundy learned about fair value and how it can take everything from you if you let it. Jacks learned that sometimes those we love are the ones who hurt us the most as well as when to say "enough is enough". For Antsy's story I took this: opportunity can corrupt faster than power. When given the chance to have someone else face the consequences of an action while you reap the benefits of the same action most will take it, often without disclosing the consequences to the scapegoat. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but Ansty learned the importance of Being Sure (a common theme for the door touched) at the worst possible time, and I hope we get more of her after story and how she copes.

I will happily continue to gobble up all these books until the end of time. 5 stars and an interesting philosophical look at opportunities that present themselves to me. Recommend for readers 14+ as this one has some more adult themes. Fear not reader, as stated in the author's note before the novel: before anything can happen, Antsy runs.

I received an arc of this audiobook from NetGalley. Minor spoilers below, mostly discussing themes and emotional arcs of the story.

I’ve read several books in this series, and I have to say that this is the most wrenching book in this series so far. I am aghast at this beautiful and devastating story. This book follows Antsy, or Antoinette, whose father dies in a Target one day, and her new stepfather is a monster. Readers going into this should be aware that there is emotional and psychological abuse, and a threat of sexual abuse in the start of the book. Antsy flees, and finds a door that takes her to a shop where lost things turn up.

At first glance, the shop is lovely. It’s a junk shop of worlds, with two welcoming mentors, who adopt and guide Antsy in the art of door hopping. The doors that appear in the shops take those who open them to different worlds, where they shop and collect things. But the shop has a sinister price for its care.

At the beginning of the book, I was mildly worried that the heavy-handed, weirdly emotionally mature tones of the other books would remain in this one. The beginning follows this trend that the other books have. It’s not necessarily bad, and admittedly it does save time in a short book, but it has a tendency to give the stories a forced or artificial quality to it.

This doesn’t continue after the beginning of the book. I was so excited and pleased that there was a far more organic quality to the emotional arc of the story. Additionally, the revelations feel poignant and utterly horrifying. McGuire has really captured feelings of betrayal and horror. The book concludes with a terrible peace that comes after devastation, and the promise of a new better story for Antsy.

If readers are going to pick up any book in this series, this would be the one I would recommend the most.

The wayward children series has become one of my favorite fantasy series and I'm so happy that I enjoyed this installment as well.

I've listed to most of these on audio and think the narrator does such a good job installing that fairytale like feel to the story. While it was a bit much to listen to Antsy's POV, it felt very authentic to the way a child would handle the situations she is forced into.

I love how these stories can invoke such emotion from me and while I didn't cry, I did feel so much for Antsy. I appreciate that the author gave us that warning at the beginning that really helped to keep this story safe even with that impending feel of worry.

I will always pick up these books - they are just so very good!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the audiobook arc!

I listened to the audio version and loved both the book and the narrator. Antsy (Antoinette) lives in a perfect world and has a happy home life until disaster strikes. She finds a unique way to escape her struggles.

This is a Fantasy Young Adult, and this is the 8th book in the Wayward Children series. I have read all the other books in this series before picking up this book. I loved this book, but this book could cause some triggers for some people. Please check trigger warnings before picking up this book. I think this is my favorite book in this series so far. I loved the characters in this book, and the story itself was just so great. I listened to this book's audiobook, and I loved the narrator. I was kindly provided an eaudio-copy of this book by the publisher (Tordotcom) or author (Seanan McGuire) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

I think this was one of my favorites so far in the series. I was invested in Antsy as a character and would love to see her in future stories.

CW: grooming, gaslighting

3.5 stars

This was a very different book to the rest of the Wayward Children series. It was a lot darker than the others, both in the story that leads up to Antsy going through her door, as well as her life once she went through the door. Still good, but very dark.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoy this series and ended up listening to this whole book in one afternoon. It's an interesting idea to have a store of lost things, would be interesting to work there. Even though I'm now in my forties, I still wish for my door.

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire is the latest installment (book 8) in the Wayward Children's Series. I really enjoyed this book. It dealt with difficult topics with care. Filled with beautiful prose and stories that need to be told and heard, Lost in the Moment and Found is my favorite book in the series. The audio was great and very crisp. The narrator was fantastic. My favorite quote was “being bruised doesn’t make you bad unless you’re a peach, and even a bruised peach is good for making jam.”

Thank you MacmillanAudio and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of the audiobook for my honest opinion.

Lost in the Moment and Found is an incredibly complex and well-balanced standalone fantasy in the Wayward Children series. This book will have you completely engrossed from the very beginning to the very end. I've not read the rest of the series, but Lost in the Moment and Found makes me want to go back and read them all.

While not my favorite book in the series, this is objectively a five star book in how it handles the discussions it's bringing up. All of these books are heartbreaking, but this one especially so. McGuire does a great job at handling the topics with care and sensitivity.

That being said, I really want to see more of the worlds that were introduced in this book. Please give me one in the cat-people and goat-people lands! I neeeeed it!

The narrator was fantastic.

I adore this series and this book is no different. This whole series is amazing and each book has so much packed into such a small book but I love that about them. This series never waste a single word and this book is no different. While this is technically a stand alone book it still adds to the work building of the main series. Truly this is one of the most unique and beautiful book series out there.

5 stars.

This short book or novella packs a mighty punch!

First, I am incredibly glad that there was a trigger warning and a promise given just before the story began. Though I have never faced that particular flavour of pain, I have faced pain too close in flavour to have gotten through the first section without it. Also, having never read anything else either in this series or by this author, I had no expectations or other assessments to rely on. Without the promise given at the very outset, I’m not sure that I would have made it through to the more magical bits.

Now that I have begun, there WILL absolutely be more time spent in this universe and enjoying Seanan McGuire’s work.

That said, it was with immense relief when Hudson, the magpie, began talking to the young protagonist, Antsy. I am pretty sure that I held my breath the entire way through that first section, just waiting for the second shoe to drop. It was heart-wrenching and entirely too convincingly written.

Certainly, the adventures and growth and eerie travels that followed weren’t necessarily safe, nor without pangs of deep concern or emotion, but there was less violent dread. There were even moments of delight and joy. Only for the end to come barreling completely out of nowhere.

The writing is both phenomenal and weighty. If the other books are anywhere as good, I understand completely why the series won Hugo and Nebula awards. It’s almost as if the sentences are magically alive, dancing and intertwining in order to build a whole new world, that fits into the square footage of one single shop.

The audiobook is Incredibly well read by Jesse Vilinsky.

So much gratitude to the publisher, MacMillan Audio, and NewGalley for this advanced audio copy of the book, in exchange for my honest review.

This was so much fun! Sad but fun!
I loved every word.
The narrator nailed it.
The characters were amazing.
The setting could not be topped!

I finished this in one sitting. Just like every other Wayward Children book!

Now, the book begins with a trigger warning for child sexual abuse, and DAMN, take that SERIOUSLY. As the warning says, Antoinette escapes before anything "happens," but as an observer, even one who has had this assurance, every movement by her abuser makes your stomach twist. I've got no particular triggers, but the first half of the book had me on high alert.

But then, Antoinette escapes, and we're treated to yet another wonderful (and terrible) world beyond a door. This time, we're in a shop which specializes in lost things. But this shop also has access to many other doors, allowing us glimpses into many more worlds, as Antoinette goes on bartering adventures...until the inevitable "price" of her adventures is explained.

I would never call these books "fast." McGuire certainly takes time to focus on scenery--such as Antoinette's first trip to a market--but I think the genius here is that only scenes which are plot-relevant appear. This book, in particular, covers at least 2 years of adventures in the Shop, but I can only think of three or four actual scenes that get any focus. The rest of the time is covered in broad sweeps of narrative, in a manner that is rather dream-like. If Antoinette had woken up and realized the whole adventure had happened in just a night, it would feel perfectly logical.

I wait an entire year for each new Wayward Children book, and my only regret on getting an advanced copy this year was that I now have to wait a few extra days more! Agh! This series! <3

It just blows my mind how Seanan can pack such a punch in such a short book. This standalone in the Wayward Children series may be my favourite.. It makes me want to go back and revisit the rest of the series. The audiobook narrator just brings this story to life. I loved her voice for this book. (Seanan also has a content warning at the beginning of the book, so you can decide for yourself if you want to read it as the beginning is a bit heavy)

This might be one of my all-time most favorite series to read. The Wayward children series is so creative, so original and each of the books is so unique. This one might be one of my favorites in a long time, which is a little odd to say because the subject matter is so tough and so heart wrenching. I really really appreciated the author's note in the beginning, it allowed me to enjoy the story and be present instead of triggering the whole time.

I felt so much compassion and love towards Antoinette, who loses her father and her life from thereon is never the same. One day, she walks through a door and finds herself in the place where the lost things go. But like all the places in these books, things aren't what they first seem.

This book is so sad and yet so very beautiful. I really loved the themes around innocence, loss and time.

with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

When I began listening to this book, I did not realize it was part of a series. I quickly found out it could easily be a standalone. The development of the characters and plot line was fabulous. Since I did not know anything about the series, I was a bit surprised by the fantasy aspect of the book. I could easily picture the characters and locations in my head. I was not expecting the ending (I will not include a spoiler here), but now I look forward to future books in the series.