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”Stories are weapons, you see. All stories. Some are swords and some are cudgels, but all of them can hurt you, if you allow it…All stories are weapons, and children’s stories are doubly so, for children have not yet learned how to be careful.��

Seanan McGuire writes fictions dark and dangerous. That she writes them for children doubles the danger and deepens the darkness. She writes in the tradition of those original fairy tales �� the ones where kids fully encounter wonders both deadly and delightful, not the safe, Disenyfied amusements for cherished innocents. McGuire’s Wayward Children series is filled with multiple wondrous worlds waiting for children who need to find them, but she constantly reminds us that not all wonders are safe.

Juice Like Wounds is a Lundy story, within the Goblin Market world where her door led her in In an Absent Dream. Lundy with her friends Moon and Mockery set off into the forest on a quest. Three go in, but only two return to the Market. That you know from the start. The magic and the horror unfolds from there.

This short story isn’t the door you should use to enter McGuire’s Wayward Children series. For that, read Every Heart a Doorway, then read the prequel In an Absent Dream to discover the Goblin Market. And then, if you dare, you can follow these remarkable children’s ill-advised quest after pomegranates and monsters.