Home always shrinks in times of absence, always bleeds away some of its majesty, because what is home, after all, apart from the place one returns to when the adventure is over? Home is an end to glory, a stopping point when the tale is done.

I initially skipped this book on my journey through the Wayward Children series, because I was more interested in knowing what was going to happen after Beneath the Sugar Sky and to meet Jack and Jill again in Come Tumbling Down. With the nature of this series—installments that form a continuous narrative alternating with "what happened before" books—it's easy to make skips like that. I'm glad that I went back to it and read it, because it's a great addition to the multiverse. I loved getting immersed in the Goblin market with all its rules. I wish I could hang out there for a little longer.

One thing that I found both interesting and somewhat frustrating about the book: how it for the most part skipped the big adventures in favor of showing their effect on Lundi, the metaphorical and literal scars they left, the changes they brought forth. It worked pretty well, but it also left me wishing that I could read a full novel with all of those events. Then again, absolutely every installment in this series has left me with the same feeling, except maybe for the very first book. Show me more! Let me explore all these fascinating worlds from every angle! Don't push me out of it so soon! And that works perfectly with the nature of the series, come to think about it.