Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Seanan McGuire
Tor.com
June 13th, 2017
Jack and Jill descended the staircase…and didn’t come back.
Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a part of the Wayward Children series, and is a sequel to Every Heart a Doorway. It tells the story of Jacqueline and Jillian, the two sisters who went through a portal in a costume truck into a world called The Moors, where a ruthless vampire rules and a mad scientist brings people back to life with electricity.
The novella tells the background story of the girls, and we see how they got to where they were at Elanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. The two sisters are raised in very rigid roles by their parents, so when given the chance to go their own ways in a world free of their parents and teachers, they head in very opposite directions. One sister learns what it is to be ruthless and cruel, and the other learns how to work hard and feed her curiosity.
This is definitely one of my favorite series from McGuire so far. This particular installment has the quality of a gothic fairy tale, spinning the story with a turn of phrase familiar to any who have read fairy tales, but strange and dark enough to satisfy the ghoulish among us. Loved it. It’s a must buy for your list.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.