Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around a YA magical realism sequel that ended up being one of my favorites of the series and a sci-fi slash locked room thriller that also ended up being a great read.

Title: Lost In The Moment And Found
(Wayward Children #8)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Magical Realism
First published: January 10th 2023
Publisher: Tor
Finished reading: March 26th 2024 
Pages: 161

“Being bruised doesn’t make you bad, unless you’re a peach, and even a bruised peach is good for making jam.”

REVIEW

I’ve been following the Wayward Children books for years now, but somehow I fell behind with the most recent installments. I recently read book seven, and I decided to make Lost In The Moment And Found a priority after rediscovering my love for this series. And I’m glad I did! This is without doubt one of my favorite novellas of the bunch even though there are parts that are hard to read. Lost In The Moment And Found is quite dark as it focuses on child abuse, grooming, gaslighting and death of a parent among other things. I could really appreciate the author’s note, which made it easier to read some of the more triggering scenes… This novella is not all sad though, as it has the same whimsical dose of magical realism with the strange thrift shop and the main character traveling to unknown worlds. Still, even at the shop there is a lesson to be learned, and again Lost In The Moment And Found is a lot darker than expected throughout. I could appreciate how everything was wrapped up in the end though, and I will be looking forward to the next one.

Title: Black Lake Manor
Author: Guy Morpuss
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Science Fiction
First published: September 8th 2022
Publisher: Viper
Finished reading: March 31st 2024
Pages: 396

“And the wolf ate time.”

REVIEW

I was blown away by this author’s debut Five Minds when I read it back in 2022, and I’ve been meaning to read this second book ever since it was published that same year. I’m not sure why it took me this long, especially since I have a weak spot for locked room thrillers… But better late than never right? I’m glad I finally did read Black Lake Manor though! While it didn’t quite hit the spot as his debut, there was still a lot to love in this story. There are three main timelines in Black Lake Manor: 1804, 2023-2025 and 2045-2046. The main focus seem to be on the last two though, as the majority of the story switches between those timelines. In fact, I kind of wish the 1804 timeline would have been developed more, because as it is it mostly felt like an afterthought… That said, I absolutely loved the time travel angle with everything it entails including its history. The fact that the characters only go six hours back in time makes the time travel subtle, but it was interesting to see the little changes. Certain parts of the story were a lot slower than expected though, and as a result it took me longer to actually finish this story. The building up of suspects in this locked room thriller is well handled, and it was interesting how Ella reacted to the shifting situation. Could I have done without the love triangle vibe? Most definitely. Were there cliches involved that distracted at times? Again yes. But as a whole Black Lake Manor is a cleverly constructed sci-fi thriller that takes you on a journey that will become more apparent (and more powerful!) over time. I also loved Ella’s connection with the octopus Scarlett! All in all a solid second book, and I will be looking forward to read whatever this author will come up with next.

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