Wayward Children, #4.5: Juice Like Wounds
By: Seanan McGuire
Published: July 13, 2020
Genre: Fantasy, Short Story
***This short story can be read for free here on Tor.com.
They walked west, the three girls: Lundy with her knife, Mockery with her spear, and Moon with her sling. And when the trees loomed before them like the walls of heaven, they exchanged a look but not a word, ducked their heads, and stepped into the darkness.
This short story is NOT an interlude, but an expansion on Lundy’s first “trip” to the Goblin Market. So, you need to read In An Absent Dream before reading this story. Juice Like Wounds explains why Lundy decided to return to her parents after her first trip to the Goblin Market.
Lundy is 8-years-old and is learning how the world of the Goblin Market operates. She has made a deal to stay with the Archivist, whose library Lundy has access to. This means Lundy has been able to read upon the world’s history. And, Lundy is hanging out with her new friends: Moon and Mockery. This is the first time Lundy has had friends, and she is about to lose one of them. Just like Lundy, Moon and Mockery are from other worlds who ended up in the Goblin Market and find themselves happy to be there. This trio of travelers decide to slay a monster in order to retrieve back what was once stolen.
The plot is simple: children go on an adventure so they can become heroes. Unfortunately, they are too young to understand adventures don’t always have happy endings. There are 2 subplots in this story. The first one is a further explanation of the world of the Goblin Market. There is more there than the Market, and Lundy and her friends want to learn more about it. The second subplot revolves around Mockery. Readers learn who she was, what happened to her, and her relevance to Lundy’s story. Both subplots are necessary for the plot, and the development of the characters.
The narrative in this short story is a continuation of Lundy’s first visit to the Goblin Market, which ended with blood and death. The points-of-view are those of Lundy, Moon and Mockery, and the Archivist, which makes it 3rd person omniscient. The sequence is of the past, and told in the past tense. Readers follow the streams-of-consciousness of the protagonists, and given what happens to them, it is fair to say the narrators are reliable.
The style Seanan McGuire uses for Juice Like Wounds is a continuation of what she used in In An Absent Dream. The reference to Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti comes up again because the poem mentions a 3rd girl who died after buying and eating fruit from the goblins. Seanan McGuire goes further with her cautionary tale and mentions not only Mockery, but also Zorah—another young visitor to the Goblin Market who no longer lives there. This short story is the first of many cautionary tales about “fair value,” which goes over Lundy’s head. While the Wasp Queen could be a figure of foreshadowing, the story is about Lundy and the Archivist in equal measure.
Fans of Wayward Children will enjoy this short story. Juice Like Wounds lets readers know what Lundy was up to during her first visit to the Goblin Market and why she was so eager to return to her parents afterwards. It is unfortunate Lundy never understood the reason why Mockery died although hints were left throughout In An Absent Dream for her to pick up on—Lundy never forgot about Mockery; she just didn’t know what her death signified.
Juice Like Wounds is a short story which serves as a cautionary tale as readers travel back with Lundy to the Goblin Market. Seanan McGuire answers the question: who was Mockery? in this expansion of In An Absent Dream. I hope the author has similar stories for future releases because I have some questions about other characters I would enjoy reading in similar format. I know other fans of the Wayward Children series feel the same way.
My Rating: MUST READ IT NOW (5 out of 5)!!!
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